Ball v. Bright Horizons Children Center, Inc.

578 S.E.2d 923, 260 Ga. App. 158, 2003 Fulton County D. Rep. 909, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 359
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedMarch 11, 2003
DocketA02A2176
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 578 S.E.2d 923 (Ball v. Bright Horizons Children Center, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ball v. Bright Horizons Children Center, Inc., 578 S.E.2d 923, 260 Ga. App. 158, 2003 Fulton County D. Rep. 909, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 359 (Ga. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

Barnes, Judge.

Vanessa Ball sued Bright Horizons Children Center, Inc. as next friend and natural mother of M. C., a minor. Ball alleged that the day care center’s teacher negligently supervised M. C.’s classroom, which proximately caused him injuries. Bright Horizons moved for summary judgment, which the trial court subsequently granted. Ball ¡appeals, and after reviewing the entire record, we affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to Bright Horizons.

Ball alleges in her complaint that, “while in the care, custody, and control of defendants and employees of defendants, M. C. and T. S.,” another boy in M. C.’s class, were allowed to remain unsupervised within a “fort” built of blocks inside their classroom.1 M. C. was four and T. S. was six at the time. Ball further alleges that [159]*159T. S. “sexually abused” and committed sodomy on M. C. within that fort sometime during the period of July through December 1996. This negligent failure to supervise proximately caused M. C. “severe and excruciating mental pain and anguish,” according to Ball’s complaint. Ball further sought punitive damages against Bright Horizons, characterizing the center’s actions as reckless and evincing conscious disregard for M. C.’s rights.

In its answer, Bright Horizons denied Ball’s allegations and counterclaimed for slander. In its subsequent motion for summary judgment, Bright Horizons argued that it was not liable to Ball because it had no notice that there was a risk of such an occurrence, and because it is not an insurer against all possible hazards. Ball responded that Bright Horizons need not be on notice of a specific harm to be liable if that harm befalls one of the children in its care, and contended that Bright Horizons is liable for failing to properly supervise the two children, and in allowing them to build an enclosed structure in the classroom within which they could not be seen by staff. The trial court granted summary judgment to Bright Horizons, concluding that “[t]here is no evidence that the classroom was not supervised, that the children were not observed or that Bright Horizons personnel allowed the boys to wander off the premises. [Cit.] The evidence does not show the date of the incident or how long the incident lasted.”

This court has reviewed the entire record in this case, which is almost 2,000 pages long and includes nine depositions, of Ball; M. C.’s counselor; T. S.’s father; T. S.’s mother, who was also the center’s director at the time of the incident; the regular teacher of M. C. and T. S.’s class; a Cobb County detective with the Crimes Against Children Unit; plaintiff’s expert in day care supervision; Bright Horizons’ regional manager; and Bright Horizons’ current director. There is no evidence in the record, by way of affidavit or deposition or anything else, directly from the two boys involved.

Ball testified that she picked up M. C. from day care in December 1996, and during the ride home he said that T. S. wanted to play the “suck weenie” game that day. M. C. said they did not play because he did not want to. M. C. had turned five the previous September, and T. S. was six. Ball pulled over to the side of the road, and upon being questioned more closely, M. C. said the game involved one person putting his mouth on the other person’s penis. He began crying when he saw her reaction because, she said, he did not realize how bad or wrong the game was, and cried because he thought T. S. would be mad at him for telling and would not be his friend anymore.

In response to being asked when and where this happened, M. C. said it happened in summer, in class inside a fort they built out of large blocks, while the teacher was present in the classroom. Ball tes[160]*160tified that apparently the boys played this game more than once, she thought it happened sometime between June and August 1996, she had never seen the “fort” M. C. described, and she did not know if any other children were present at the time. She removed him from the center after one more day of attendance, put him in counseling, and contacted a lawyer within a week. She further testified that he had been “absolutely, 100 percent normal” before this revelation, happy both in the mornings before school and after he came home from school.

The mother of T. S., Linda Stansbury, testified that Ball called her that evening and related the story. Stansbury said she talked to T. S. about it, and he said M. C. had asked T. S. to touch and suck M. C.’s weenie, and T. S. did so. He said it happened a long time ago when he was five, inside a house of blocks the two boys built at Bright Horizons, and did not say whether it happened once or more than once. T. S. also said a “mean boy in the neighborhood” told him to do that one day, but denied playing the game with this boy, who could never be identified. Stansbury testified that she explained to T. S. that this sort of behavior was inappropriate and unhygienic and made T. S. call Ball to apologize. T. S.’s father also testified that he talked to T. S. regarding the incident, that T. S. said M. C. asked him to suck his weenie, which he did, and that it happened one time.

Stansbury testified that she took T. S. to a health care professional the next day because she was concerned that he had been a victim, but was satisfied that the episode represented one occasion of exploratory play of a sexual nature. Such play involves children seeing, touching, and showing their private parts to each other. She also testified that exploratory play can occur even when children are properly supervised with an appropriate student-teacher ratio. The boys’ classroom was licensed for 20 children in the summer of 1996, and enrollment was less than 20. Stansbury testified that it was impossible for a teacher to watch each child 100 percent of the time.

The. classroom teacher testified that, during the summer of 1996, she and an assistant supervised M. C.’s class, which T. S. also attended. She could see all around the classroom, which was divided into play areas, and if there was something she could not see, she would move until she could see it. The only time she could not see the children was when they were in the bathroom. When asked to identify a picture of a block structure that was completely enclosed, the teacher testified that, while the classroom had an area for playing with large blocks, she had never seen a structure in her class like that pictured. She further testified that she would not have allowed such a structure to remain because the roof could have fallen and hurt the children and because she could not see them playing inside. She testified that she first learned of this incident the day after M. C. [161]*161told his mother about it in the car, but could never ascertain specifics about what happened, such as the time or date, or even whether the incident took place.

Plaintiffs expert witness testified concerning the standards of supervising young children. Dr. Linda Miller, who holds a doctorate in educational leadership, testified that one of the reasons a maximum ratio of students to teachers is allowed is to enable the teacher to supervise properly. Teachers need to position themselves within a classroom so that they can observe every child, even if they are in the process of assisting a particular child with something. While she did not know how long the incident between T. S. and M. C.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
578 S.E.2d 923, 260 Ga. App. 158, 2003 Fulton County D. Rep. 909, 2003 Ga. App. LEXIS 359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ball-v-bright-horizons-children-center-inc-gactapp-2003.