Low, Ball & Lynch’s

WEEKLY LAW RESUME

December 22, 2005 Issue   By: Ray Coates

Public Entities - Duty of Care for Off-Campus Student Injuries

Mosley v. San Bernardino City Unified School District

 (December 15, 2005)

Court of Appeal, Fourth District

A school district owes a duty of care to its students, because a special relationship exists between the students and the district.  This duty, however, is limited when students are not on school grounds. In this case, Plaintiffs Faith Mosley and Donnie Wortham were the parents of Dashanay Smith-Wortham.  Dashanay was a student at Arroyo Valley High School, a school operated by Defendant San Bernardino City Unified School District (“District”).

On January 4, 2003, at approximately 2 am, Dashanay was killed when she fell off the rear portion of a van being driven by Ja’Niece Allen, the school’s women’s basketball team coach.  The accident occurred away from school at an intersection in the City of San Bernardino.  Dashanay’s parents filed a wrongful death action against the District.  In their initial complaint, Plaintiffs alleged that Allen undertook to provide transportation for Dashanay and other girls that evening.  Plaintiffs further claimed that the District sponsored the activity which  Dashanay participated in on the night of her accident. 

The District demurred to the original complaint and the trial court sustained the demurrer with leave to amend.  Plaintiffs filed a first, and eventually, a second amended complaint.  In the second amended complaint, Plaintiffs removed all allegations that Dashanay was injured during a school-sponsored activity.  They further removed the allegation that Allen was employed by the District on the night of the accident and was acting within the scope of her employment.  Instead, Plaintiffs claimed that the District was responsible for hiring and supervising Allen, and knew or should have known that Allen did not have the skill, training, maturity, mental stability, and/or experience to supervise minor students and should not have been permitted to operate a motor vehicle (with minors).

The District demurred to the second amended complaint on the grounds that it was immune from liability pursuant to Cal. Education Code section 44808 and Cal. Government Code section 815.  The trial court sustained the demurrer without leave to amend.  Plaintiffs appealed.  The Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed.

On Appeal, Plaintiffs contended that the District was liable for a student’s injuries which are proximately caused when District employees, who are responsible for hiring and supervising an employee,  fail to use reasonable care in the hiring and supervision of that employee.  In support of their position, Plaintiffs cited cases involving students who were sexually assaulted by teachers.

The Court of Appeal distinguished those cases from the case at issue.  In the sexual assault cases, the claims regarding negligent hiring and supervision arose from incidents that occurred either at school or off campus during an officially sanctioned school program. Pursuant to Education Code section 44808, a school district is not responsible for a student off school property, unless the district has undertaken a school sponsored activity off campus; has undertaken to provide transportation for the pupil to and from school;  or has otherwise assumed specific responsibility to take reasonable care under the circumstances.  

In this case, the Court of Appeal found no such circumstances.  Dashanay’s accident did not occur on school grounds, and Plaintiffs removed the allegation that the accident occurred during a school sanctioned activity.   Further, Allen was the coach of the school’s women’s basketball team: not a bus driver hired to drive by the school.  For the Fourth District, it was not foreseeable that such an accident would occur.   Therefore, judgment in favor of the District was affirmed.

COMMENT

California Education Code section 44808 provides immunity to a school district for injuries occurring off campus, unless it can be shown that the student was or should have been directly supervised during some specific undertaking.

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