HARTFORD, Connecticut (AP) -- A U.S. judge has rejected a second bid by Yale University to throw out all the allegations in a lawsuit filed by a South Korean university that claims it lost tens of millions of dollars after Yale damaged its reputation.

Dongguk University claims in the 2008 lawsuit that it hired an art history professor after Yale wrongly confirmed the professor earned a doctorate at the New Haven school. Court papers say the professor, Shin Jeong-ah, later had a scandalous love affair with an aide to South Korea's president.

Dongguk, a Buddhist-affiliated university in Seoul, is suing Yale for more than $50 million, saying it lost that amount in government grants, alumni donations and costs of building a law school the government later refused to approve because of the scandal.

U.S. District Judge Tucker Melancon on Friday rejected most of Yale's motion for summary judgment. While the judge granted Yale's request to dismiss a civil charge of reckless and wanton conduct, he let stand allegations of defamation and negligence.

A trial is set for June. Yale previously lost a bid to get the lawsuit dismissed.

``We were very pleased with the decision,'' said Robert Weiner, a New York City lawyer for Dongguk. ``We believe we have lots of damages we can establish at trial.''

Weiner said Dongguk is the most prestigious Buddhist university in the world and it suffered a huge blow to its reputation with the Shin scandal.

Lawyers for Yale didn't return messages Monday. University officials have said the lawsuit is without merit and they would defend against it.

Shin was sentenced to 18 months in a South Korean jail in March 2008 for using fake Yale credentials to get the professor's job at Dongguk and for embezzling museum funds. Officials said she also faked two degrees from the University of Kansas in getting the job in 2005.

The former presidential aide, Byeon Yang-kyoon, was accused of using his influence to get Shin hired by Dongguk. He was forced to step down as an aide to then-President Roh Moo-hyun because of the scandal.

Byeon was sentenced to a suspended one-year jail term and 160 hours of community service in 2008 for exercising his influence to provide state tax benefits to a Buddhist temple founded by a former Dongguk official who helped hire Shin as a professor, South Korean officials said.

Yale told Dongguk in June 2007 that Shin didn't receive a doctorate there, saying a letter confirming the degree that Shin presented to Dongguk was bogus and forged. Yale also told Korean media that it never received a registered letter in 2005 from Dongguk asking whether Shin had received a doctorate, even though it did receive the letter, the lawsuit said.

Yale later apologized to Dongguk in late 2007 for what it called an administrative error. But Dongguk officials said by that time the damage to its reputation had been done. South Korean media reported in the summer and fall of 2007 that Shin's academic degrees were a fraud, that Dongguk failed to verify Shin's degrees, that Shin had an affair with Byeon and that Byeon had recommended to Dongguk officials that they hire Shin, court records say.

<한글 기사>

美법원 "'신정아 학위' 확인과실은 소송감"

예일대의 손배소 기각 요청 대부분 거부돼
동국대 측 "결과 만족…본안소송서 피해입증 확신"

'신정아 가짜 학위'와 관련해 동국대의 손해배상소송을 회피하려던 예일대가 미 법원의 퇴짜를 맞았다. 

13일(현지시간) 동국대 측의 미국 법률 대리인에 따르면 코네티컷 지방법원은 지난 10일 신정아의 학위 확인 과실에 대한 손배소를 각하해 달라는 원고 예일대의 요구를 기각했다.

터커 멜란컨 코네티컷 지방법원 판사는 판결에서 예일대의 소송기각 주장을 대부분 수용하지 않았다.

앞서 지난 2008년 동국대는 예일대가 신씨의 박사학위 취득사실을 확인해 준 뒤 신씨를 교수로 임용했다 막대한 피해를 봤다며 미국 법원에 예일대를 상대로 손해배상소송을 냈다.

학교는 소장에서 예일대의 학위 확인 과실로 인해 정부지원, 동창 후원 등에서 손해를 봤다며 예일대가 5천만달러를 보상해야 한다고 주장했다.

이에 대해 예일대는 학위 확인 잘못은 단순 실수여서 재판할 가치가 없다며 소송 기각신청으로 응수했지만 법원이 이를 받아들이지 않은 것이다.

예일대는 앞서 한 차례 손배소 기각신청이 받아들여지지 않자 또다시 소송 회피를 시도했지만 법원은 이번에도 동국대의 손을 들어줬다.

그러나 법원은 명예훼손과 부주의 혐의에 대한 기각 요청을 거부한 반면 무모하 고(reckless)고 악의적인 행위를 했다는 동국대의 주장에 대해서는 예일대의 요구를 받아들여 기각 결정했다.

본격적인 손해배상소송은 오는 6월로 잡혀 있다.

로버트 와이어 동국대 측 변호인은 법원 판결에 대해 "매우 만족스럽다"며  "우 리는 재판에서 피해 사실을 다수 입증할 수 있을 것으로 본다"고 말했다.