Doe v. Wright SEC. Services, Inc.

950 So. 2d 1076, 2007 WL 656832
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedMarch 6, 2007
Docket2005-CA-02198-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 950 So. 2d 1076 (Doe v. Wright SEC. Services, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Doe v. Wright SEC. Services, Inc., 950 So. 2d 1076, 2007 WL 656832 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

950 So.2d 1076 (2007)

Jim DOE, a minor by and through his Mother and next Friend, Mary DOE, Appellant
v.
WRIGHT SECURITY SERVICES, INC., Appellee.

No. 2005-CA-02198-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

March 6, 2007.

*1077 Rick D. Patt, Shane F. Langston, Rebecca M. Langston, G. Joseph Diaz, Jr., Jackson, attorneys for appellant.

Joel W. Howell, III, Jackson, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, C.J., IRVING and GRIFFIS, JJ.

GRIFFIS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Jim Doe[1], through his mother and next friend Mary Doe, brought this action for personal injuries against Wright Security Services, Inc. ("Wright"). The circuit court entered a summary judgment in favor *1078 of Wright. Jim Doe appeals and argues that summary judgment was not proper because there were genuine issues of material fact in dispute and Wright was not entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. We find reversible error, and we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

FACTS

¶ 2. In April of 1998, Jim Doe was a ten-year-old student at Capitol City Alternative School in Jackson. The school teaches children who have been either expelled from their regular Jackson Public School for violent behavior or who have committed felonies.

¶ 3. The school had a bus drop off/pick up location at Livingston Road, in front of an abandoned fire station and next to a McDonald's restaurant. There were sixty students assigned to the bus stop. Their ages ranged from ten to seventeen. Jim Doe was one of two ten-year-olds at the stop.

¶ 4. Jackson Public School District ("JPSD") assigned three security guards to this bus stop. Two of the guards, Willie Norwood and Leila Poindexter, were employees of JPSD. Wright provided the third guard, Joseph Williams, Jr., under a contract to provide supplemental security services for JPSD. The guards monitored the students at the bus stop, rode the bus with the students, and monitored the students at school.

¶ 5. At the bus stop, the guards were there to prevent fights, to keep the students separated and not to let students leave the bus stop unescorted. There had been a history of fights at this bus stop. At school, the guards were to escort the students to the bathroom and not let them go there together. The same rules were to apply at school and at the bus stop. The guards were to stay at the bus stop until the last child was picked up by his/her parent.

¶ 6. On April 13, 1998, at approximately 3:34 p.m., Jim Doe asked one of the male guards if he could go to McDonald's to use the restroom. The guard gave Jim permission to go there unescorted. While in the bathroom, Jim was sexually assaulted by John Smith.[2] Smith was a fellow alternative school student. He was fifteen, and he was known as a particular troublemaker. Nevertheless, the guards would let Smith leave the bus stop without repercussion.

¶ 7. On July 13, 1999, Jim Doe brought this action against JPSD, the City of Jackson, Stanley E. Wright, and Wright Security Services, Inc. Jim Doe brought an earlier interlocutory appeal to the supreme court. The court reversed the trial court's exclusion of Jim Doe's expert witness. Thereafter, Jim Doe settled with JPSD. The City and Stanley Wright were subsequently dismissed. The day before trial, which was scheduled for September of 2005, the trial court granted Wright's motion for summary judgment. The court found no issues of material fact as to duty and foreseeability. The court determined that Wright did not have a duty to protect Jim Doe while he was at McDonald's, and that Jim Doe's specific injury of rape was unforeseeable. It is from this judgment that Jim Doe appeals.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 8. This Court employs a de novo standard of review of a lower court's grant or denial of summary judgment and examines all the evidentiary matters before it—admissions in pleadings, answers to interrogatories, depositions, affidavits, etc. *1079 McMillan v. Rodriguez, 823 So.2d 1173, 1176-77 (¶ 9) (Miss. 2002) (citations omitted). The evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party against whom the motion has been made. Id. at 1177 (¶ 9). If, in this view, there is no genuine issue of material fact, and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, summary judgment should forthwith be entered in his or her favor. Id. Issues of fact sufficient to require reversal of a summary judgment obviously are present where one party swears to one version of the matter in issue and another says the opposite. Id.

¶ 9. Jim Doe also argues that a de novo review is necessary because the trial court adopted verbatim the order submitted by Wright's counsel. See Miss. Dep't of Transp. v. Johnson, 873 So.2d 108, 111 (¶ 8) (Miss. 2004). Since our standard of review of summary judgments is de novo, whether the trial court adopts the verbatim order/judgment offered by counsel or independently authors the order/judgment does not change the standard.

ANALYSIS

I. Whether the trial court committed error by granting summary judgment in the matter on the basis that there was no duty owed to minor Jim Doe by Wright, in spite of the clear duty owed and numerous, material issues of fact remaining which should have been properly submitted to the jury.

¶ 10. The trial court held that "the incident happened off the premises in an area the guard had no duty to protect and, therefore, there was no breach of duty." The court further concluded that "the guard followed his sole legal duty, which was to monitor, supervise, and protect the children on the premises of the abandoned station." Jim Doe claims that the trial court was in error in this ruling. Jim Doe argues that Wright had a duty to protect him. In particular, Jim claims that the guards were hired to prevent children from leaving the drop off location alone and were not to leave the premises themselves until all children had been picked up by their parents. Wright contends that it had no duty to protect Jim after he left the bus stop.

¶ 11. To prove Wright's negligence at trial, Jim must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that (1) Wright owed him a duty of care, (2) Wright breached that duty, and (3) this breach proximately caused (4) Jim's damages. Lyle v. Mladinich, 584 So.2d 397, 398-99 (Miss. 1991). If a triable issue of fact regarding each of these elements exists, then summary judgment must be reversed. Id at 399.

¶ 12. Whether a duty is owed is a question of law. Rein v. Benchmark Constr. Co., 865 So.2d 1134, 1143 (¶ 29) (Miss. 2004). The general duty is to act as a reasonable prudent person would under the circumstances. Donald v. Amoco Prod. Co., 735 So.2d 161, 175 (¶ 48) (Miss. 1999). "[T]he important component of the existence of the duty is that the injury is `reasonably foreseeable.'" Rein, 865 So.2d at 1143 (¶ 29) (quoting Lyle, 584 So.2d at 399). "When the conduct of the actor is a substantial factor in bringing about the harm to another then, `the fact that the actor neither foresaw nor should have foreseen the extent of the harm or the manner in which it occurred does not prevent him from being liable.'" Id. at 1144-45 (¶ 34) (quoting Restatement (Second) of Torts § 435 (1965)). "[D]efendants `cannot escape liability because a particular injury could not be foreseen, if some injury ought to have been reasonably anticipated.'" Id. at 1145 (¶ 34) (quoting Delta *1080 Elec. Power Ass'n v. Burton, 240 Miss.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
950 So. 2d 1076, 2007 WL 656832, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/doe-v-wright-sec-services-inc-missctapp-2007.