Attorneys Peter M. Lindberg and Rachel Beauchamp were pleased to obtain summary judgment on behalf of their client, a national-level sports sanctioning body. The case turned around whether the sanctioning body had a duty to protect Plaintiff from abuse perpetrated by a coach who was not its employee or agent; and, in circumstances in which the sanctioning body had no prior notice of any malfeasance by the coach.  Plaintiff argued that an expansive definition of “special relationships” from California should apply to impose a duty on the national sanctioning body to protect Plaintiff from the abuse perpetrated by the coach.  However, the court correctly explained that California’s law and jurisprudence differs significantly from Minnesota’s and found that under the facts of this case the sanctioning body owed no duty to protect Plaintiff from the abuse perpetrated by a coach that was selected, directed, and paid, solely by Plaintiff’s parents.