Anderson Ex Rel. Anderson v. Shaughnessy

519 N.W.2d 229, 1994 WL 372802
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedSeptember 16, 1994
DocketC5-94-182, C9-93-2426
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 519 N.W.2d 229 (Anderson Ex Rel. Anderson v. Shaughnessy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anderson Ex Rel. Anderson v. Shaughnessy, 519 N.W.2d 229, 1994 WL 372802 (Mich. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinions

OPINION

SCHUMACHER, Judge.

Appellants Katherine Anderson, a minor, by Ronald C. Anderson and Melinda Pattee, her parents and natural guardians, and Stephen Shaughnessy, Jr. argue that the district court erred by granting summary judgment in favor of respondent Independent School District No. 273 (District). Shaughnessy also challenges the district court’s grant of summary judgment to respondent Pursuit Marketing (Pursuit). By notice of review, respondent Benjamin Sheridan Corporation (Benjamin Sheridan) claims that the district court erred by denying its motion for summary judgment. We affirm in part, reverse in part and remand.

FACTS

On April 22, 1992, Shaughnessy purchased a paintball pistol and a number of paintballs from a fellow student.1 The sale occurred at Shaughnessy’s school, Valley View Junior High, which is operated by the District.

That afternoon, Shaughnessy rode a school bus home with Anderson. Before the bus left the school grounds, Shaughnessy took the pistol from his backpack, aimed it out of a bus window, and fired it at a fire hydrant. Another bus driver saw Shaughnessy do this and radioed Manford Jacobson, the driver of Shaughnessy’s bus. Jacobson stopped the bus, turned around, and asked if anyone had a weapon. Shaughnessy held the pistol over his head and told Jacobson that it was a water pistol. Jacobson told Shaughnessy to put it away. Shaughnessy returned the pistol to his backpack and the bus continued on its rounds.

A short time later, Shaughnessy and Anderson got off the bus at the same stop. Shaughnessy claims that the pistol discharged while he was shifting his backpack. Anderson claims that the pistol went off while Shaughnessy was pointing it at various objects. In any event, Anderson was hit by a paintball and blinded in her right eye.

The pistol used by Shaughnessy was manufactured in 1990 by Benjamin Air Rifle Company, the entity that survived the 1978 merger of Benjamin Air Riñe and Sheridan Products. The pistol is imprinted with the words “MFG. FOR Pursuit Marketing, Inc., Northbrook, IL 60062” and “Sheridan Products, Racine, WI 53403.” Prior to July 1991, Benjamin Air Rifle had a contract with Pursuit to provide paintball pistols to Pursuit for retail sale. In January 1992, Benjamin Sheridan purchased certain assets of Benjamin Air Rifle’s air gun business.

ISSUES

1. Did the district court err by concluding that the District did not owe a duty to Anderson?

2. Did the district court err by granting summary judgment to Pursuit on Shaughnes-sy’s failure to inspect claim?

3. Did the district court err by granting summary judgment to Pursuit on Shaughnes-sy’s failure to warn claim?

4. Did the district court err by granting summary judgment to Benjamin Sheridan on Shaughnessy’s failure to warn claim?

ANALYSIS

On an appeal from summary judgment, we determine whether there are genuine issues of material fact and whether the district court erred in applying the law. Offerdahl v. University of Minn. Hosps. & Clinics, 426 N.W.2d 425, 427 (Minn.1988). The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party against whom summary.judgment was granted. Abdallah, Inc. v. Martin, 242 Minn. 416, 424, 65 N.W.2d 641, 646 (1954).

1. The rules governing common carriers have previously been applied to the operation of a vehicle defined by statute as a [232]*232school bus. Jam v. Independent Sch. Dist No. 709, 413 N.W.2d 165 (Minn.App.1987), pet. for rev. denied (Minn. Nov. 24, 1987). The use of common carrier principles was appropriate in that instance because the vehicle was owned and operated by the Duluth Transit Authority and the student was a fare-paying passenger. Id. at 170. In a case such as this one, where the school bus is operated by a school district and the student pays no fare, a school bus driver’s duties are defined by the duties imposed upon school districts, not by the duties imposed upon common carriers. See Anderson v. Ohm, 258 N.W.2d 114 (Minn.1977); Mikes v. Baumgartner, 277 Minn. 423, 152 N.W.2d 732 (1967); cf. State v. Bock Island Motor Transit Co., 209 Minn, 105, 118, 295 N.W. 519, 526 (1940) (common carrier generally one who transports others “for hire or reward”).

The Minnesota Board of Education has authority to create rules governing school bus transportation. Minn.Stat.' § 169.45 (1990). The Board of Education has in turn given local school boards authority to adopt necessary rules that do not conflict with state laws or rules. Minn.R. 3520.2900 (1991). The District used this authority to adopt a rule delegating responsibility to bus drivers for the safety of students riding the driver’s bus or “loading or unloading at points not immediately adjacent to the school.” Independent Sch. Dist. 273 Bus Rules (June 29, 1971) (amended Jan. 14, 1985). The District also adopted a rule prohibiting students from carrying on its buses guns “or any other objects which in the opinion of the driver are dangerous.” Id.

A plaintiff who shows that a school district violated Board of Education rules has made a prima facie case of negligence. Mikes, 277 Minn. at 428, 152 N.W.2d at 736. This necessarily implies that a rule established under the Board of Education’s authority for the purpose of governing a school district’s actions creates a parallel duty on the part of the district. See Hudson v. Snyder Body, Inc., 326 N.W.2d 149, 157 (Minn.1982) (duty is element of negligence). In other words, the District rules that made Jacobson responsible for enforcing the prohibition on guns and other dangerous objects also imposed a duty on him to use care to protect his passengers from harm arising out of violations of the prohibition.

Moreover, Jacobson had a duty to use ordinary care to prevent the injuries caused by Shaughnessy’s acts even if there had been no explicit rules prohibiting guns on buses. A school district must exercise ordinary care to prevent harm to a student caused by another student’s foreseeable, sudden misconduct. Raleigh v. Independent Sch. Dist. No. 625, 275 N.W.2d 572, 576 (Minn.1978). Jacobson knew that Shaughnessy had a pistol, and it is clearly foreseeable that a child with a pistol may shoot someone with it. Johnson v. Clement F. Sculley Constr. Co., 255 Minn. 41, 52, 95 N.W.2d 409, 417 (1959). Contrary to the dissent’s assertion, Anderson was not let off at a safe place. She was let off in the company of a student with a gun. A school district that knows a student’s behavior is potentially dangerous may not avoid its duty to protect the other children within its care simply by transporting them off school property.

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Burton v. Des Moines Metropolitan Transit Authority
530 N.W.2d 696 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1995)
ANDERSON BY ANDERSON v. Shaughnessy
526 N.W.2d 625 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1995)
Anderson ex rel. Anderson v. Shaughnessy
526 N.W.2d 625 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1995)
Anderson Ex Rel. Anderson v. Shaughnessy
519 N.W.2d 229 (Court of Appeals of Minnesota, 1994)

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519 N.W.2d 229, 1994 WL 372802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anderson-ex-rel-anderson-v-shaughnessy-minnctapp-1994.