Ruling in the University’s favor last week, a Connecticut federal judge ended a four-year battle against Yale by a university in Seoul over a forged degree that sparked a national scandal in South Korea.

While the University eventually acknowledged it had made an “administrative error” in confirming the forged doctorate, Dongguk refused to accept University President Richard Levin’s apologies and filed suit. The University made two unsuccessful motions to dismiss the case in August 2011 and February 2012, but Connecticut federal judge Tucker Melançon withdrew his ruling on the February 2012 motion Friday, claiming his original ruling “overlooked” arguments about the burden of proof for defamation and negligence in the case.

“The Court erred as a matter of law in the [February 2012 ruling] by applying the lesser standard of proof, preponderance of the evidence, rather than the proper standard of proof, clear and convincing evidence,” Melançon said in a decision filed Friday.

Dongguk’s lawyers alleged in 2009 that the school lost $18 million on a cancelled law school, $8 million in government grants, and $15 million in promised donations because of Yale’s negligence.

But Melançon ruled that a defendant’s refusal to admit that an allegedly defamatory statement was inaccurate “does not establish that he realized the inaccuracy at the time of publication,” so Yale’s actions did not satisfy the legal definition of malice.

Melançon then dismissed the case, arguing that "there could be but one verdict that a jury of reasonable persons could reach: a verdict in favor of Yale and against Dongguk on all of Dongguk's remaining claims."