Dunn v. Unified School District No. 367

40 P.3d 315, 30 Kan. App. 2d 215, 2002 Kan. App. LEXIS 117
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kansas
DecidedFebruary 8, 2002
Docket84,987
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 40 P.3d 315 (Dunn v. Unified School District No. 367) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dunn v. Unified School District No. 367, 40 P.3d 315, 30 Kan. App. 2d 215, 2002 Kan. App. LEXIS 117 (kanctapp 2002).

Opinions

Elliott, J.:

Following jury trial, defendant Unified School District (U.S.D.) No. 367 appeals the judgment and the district court’s denial of its motion for judgment as a matter of law or new trial. We affirm.

The factual background is straightforward and undisputed; the procedural background is somewhat muddled but manageable. On December 15, 1995, plaintiffs Michael R. Dunn and Terry Ray Ballou, Jr., seniors at Osawatomie High School, finished lunch early [217]*217and headed back to class. To get back to their classroom, Dunn and Ballou had to pass through double-glass hallway doors that were closed but were normally open and had been open when they went to lunch 20 minutes earlier. The plaintiffs noticed from a distance of 50 feet away the doors were closed but proceeded at a fast pace toward the doors. Both reached for the crossbar to open the door at the same time, but Ballou’s hand slipped, striking the glass and breaking it. The glass in the door was plate glass, not safety glass, and as a result broke into knife-like pieces severely injuring both students.

Dunn and Ballou each filed a separate claim of negligence against U.S.D. No. 367 pursuant to the Kansas Tort Claims Act (KTCA), K.S.A. 75-6101 et seq. To summarize, Ballou alleged that ■U.S.D. No. 367 was negligent in (1) failing to discover the plate glass and replace it with safety glass, (2) failing to warn of the danger the plate glass posed; (3) failure to leave a door with plate glass open for passage and to warn that the door was closed; and (4) failure to supervise the students. Dunn alleged that U.S.D. No. 367 was negligent in (1) fading to use safety glass on an interior door; (2) failing to take reasonable steps to make the school premises safe for anticipated uses by their teenaged students; and (3) failing to remove the plate glass in the face of overwhelming evidence of its propensity to cause enhanced injury when broken.

The plaintiffs’ claims were joined for discovery and trial. U.S.D. No. 367’s first motion for summary judgment, which argued it was immune pursuant to K.S.A. 75-6104(m) and that the claim was barred by the statute of repose, was denied by the district court. Following further discovery, U.S.D. No. 367 renewed its motion for summary judgment. The district court orally granted the motion in part and denied it in part on the date of trial. Specifically, the district court orally granted the renewed motion with respect to the governmental immunity found in K.S.A. 75-6104(m) and, thus, dismissed any claims of negligence for failure to replace the plate glass but denied the motion with respect to the statute of repose argument.

No journal entry was prepared with respect to the ruling on the renewed motion for summary judgment. Nonetheless, the case was [218]*218ultimately tried on plaintiffs’ allegations of breaches of duties other than failure to replace the plate glass with safety glass. We will, therefore, assume without deciding that U.S.D. No. 367 cannot be held hable for any design or planning defect that led to the installation of the plate glass.

The trial commenced, but a mistrial was declared during the examination of the plaintiffs’ first witness.

The new trial commenced almost a year later. Following the reception of evidence and counsels’ arguments, the trial court instructed the jury that the defendant had a duty to warn of the danger of the plate glass, duty to guard against breakage of the plate glass door, duty to inspect the school grounds for dangerous conditions, and a duty to properly supervise students and provide a safe learning environment. The jury found each plaintiff to be 10% at fault and U.S.D. No. 367 to be 90% at fault; it found Ballou’s damages to be $123,013.52 and Dunn’s damages to be $153,378.06.

U.S.D. No. 367 then moved for a judgment as a matter of law or a new trial, arguing (1) the statute of repose barred plaintiffs’ claims; (2) defendant’s liabilityis barred by K.S.A. 75-6104(m); and (3) a private person would not be liable under the facts of this case as required by K.S.A. 75-6103. The motion was denied. U.S.D. No. 367 appeals, bringing several issues. We take them in a slightly different order than presented.

Does the statute of repose bar plaintiffs’ claims?

U.S.D. No. 367 argues that the statute of repose, K.S.A. 60-513(b), bars the plaintiffs’ claims.

It is difficult to determine from its brief exactly from what ruling U.S.D. No. 367 appeals. The district court orally denied its motion for summary judgment based on a statute of repose argument and also denied its motion for judgment as a matter of law and, in the alternative, a new trial based on a statute of repose argument.

Nonetheless, a determination of whether the statute of repose applies is a question of law which we review de novo. See Davidson v. Denning, 259 Kan. 659, 667, 914 P.2d 936 (1996).

The statute of repose provides:

[219]*219“Except as provided in subsection (c), tire causes of action listed in subsection (a) shall not be deemed to have accrued until the act giving rise to the cause of action first causes substantial injury, or, if the fact of injury is not reasonably ascertainable until some time after the initial act, then the period of limitation shall not commence until the fact of injury becomes reasonably ascertainable to the injured party, but in no event shall an action be commenced more than 10 years beyond the time of the act eivins. rise to the cause of action.” (Emphasis added.) K.S.A. 60-513(b).

Thus, 10 years from the occurrence of the act giving rise to the cause of action is the absolute limit for filing actions. Dobson v. Larkin Homes, Inc., 251 Kan. 50, 52-53, 832 P.2d 345 (1992).

U.S.D. No. 367 argues the act giving rise to the cause of action was the installation of the plate glass in the door which occurred in the late 1960s. This argument must be seen as contra to the argument U.S.D. No. 367 has urged throughout this case. U.S.D. No. 367 has consistently and forcefully argued during the entire pendency of this case that there can be no cause of action based on the planning and design of the building which led to the installation of the plate glass door. The district court agreed with this argument in orally granting U.S.D. No. 367 partial summary judgment, and we have assumed that proposition of law without deciding that such is the case. U.S.D. No. 367’s actions in the late 1960s, designing and planning a door with plate glass, is not an act that can give rise to a cause of action because that act is not actionable pursuant to K.S.A.

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Dunn v. Unified School District No. 367
40 P.3d 315 (Court of Appeals of Kansas, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 P.3d 315, 30 Kan. App. 2d 215, 2002 Kan. App. LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dunn-v-unified-school-district-no-367-kanctapp-2002.