Lyons v. Richmond Community School Corp.

19 N.E.3d 254, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 867, 2014 WL 5461953
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 28, 2014
DocketNo. 89S04-1312-PL-788
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 19 N.E.3d 254 (Lyons v. Richmond Community School Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lyons v. Richmond Community School Corp., 19 N.E.3d 254, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 867, 2014 WL 5461953 (Ind. 2014).

Opinion

On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 89A04-1204-PL-159

MASSA, Justice.

The parents of a child who choked to death during lunchtime in a high school cafeteria sued the school and several administrators. The trial court granted defendants’ motion for summary judgment. We reverse.

Facts and Procedural History1

Megan Lyons, a seventeen-year-old Richmond High School student with Down Syndrome, was severely disabled. She had difficulty eating and sometimes failed to chew her food sufficiently or took too many bites before swallowing. To address these concerns, Achieva Resources Corporation, a provider for persons with developmental disabilities, worked with the State to develop safety plans for Megan. Achieva Program Manager Julia Hamilton provided the School with Megan’s Risk Plan, which stated in part: “Staff monitors Megan at every meal/snack. She is never to be left alone to eat a meal or snack.” App. at 517. Hamilton also provided the School with Megan’s Dining Plan, which stated in part':

Megan does not chew her food well. Some foods she does not chew at all, she swallows whole. Megan tends to shovel her food. She will choke if she gets too much in her mouth. Megan needs monitoring during meals/snacks. She eats fast and needs verbal prompts to slow down.

App. at 562. According to Megan’s paraprofessional, Vicki Lett, “there was an established procedure because [the School] knew how Megan only chewed once or twice and just swallowed her food. Her food was to be cut up.” App. at 933.

On January 7, 2009, however, paraprofessional Cindy DeLucio was assigned to supervise Megan during lunchtime. De-Lucio had never supervised Megan during lunch before, was unaware of her Risk and Dining Plans, and did not cut Megan’s sandwich into pieces. At some point during the lunch period, Megan began to choke, and DeLucio sought help from Assistant Principal Joe Spicer, who was in the hallway outside the cafeteria. When she was unable to get his attention, DeLu-cio called Lett, who was stationed at a nearby table. Lett began pounding Megan’s back and told DeLucio to get help. DeLucio returned with Assistant Principal Jeff Thorne, who also pounded Megan on the back. These efforts were unsuccessful, so DeLucio approached Spicer and told him he was needed in the cafeteria. Spi-cer went to Megan and began trying to assist Thorne. During this time, no one attempted the Heimlich maneuver or CPR, and despite the fact that the School’s Quick Response Guide recommends calling 911 immediately in the event of an emergency, no one did. Toni Amburgey, a health teacher responsible for training students in CPR, was standing in the cafeteria doorway but did not offer any assistance.

Three or four minutes after Megan began choking, someone contacted the nurse’s station. Nurse Sharon Provance received the call and assumed there had been a fight, so before walking to the cafeteria, she gathered first-aid supplies and prepared a bag of ice. She arrived about ten minutes after receiving the call, [258]*258at which point she removed a tennis ball-sized clump of bread from Megan’s mouth but was unable to clear her airway. Pro-vance then instructed Spicer to call 911, which he did. Emergency medical technicians arrived approximately three minutes later and restored Megan’s airway before taking her to the hospital.

Shortly afterward, Principal Barbara Bergdoll and Food Services Coordinator Margaret LaRue held a meeting with cafeteria worker Rhonda Swearingen, who had witnessed the entire incident, and three other cafeteria workers.- LaRue, while pointing at Swearingen, told the cafeteria workers that if they spoke to anyone about the incident, they would be fired on the spot. That same afternoon, Bergdoll also held a second meeting with various school administrators, including Assistant Principal Rusty Hensley, at which attendees “discussed what could have been done better” during the incident. App. at 674. Someone also brought up the fact that the School’s video surveillance system covered the area of the cafeteria where Megan was sitting, and the cameras were angled such that they would have recorded the entire choking incident. Administrators can download video footage to their computers in 10 minutes, and they routinely review it anytime there is a fight or a theft. The footage is preserved for 90 days and then overwritten to conserve space on the hard drive.

The Richmond Community School Corporation reported the incident to its insurer, Indiana Insurance. On February 25, Indiana Insurance conducted an investigation “oriented toward the prospect of litigation,” including on-site interviews with school personnel. App. at 928. Indiana Insurance, however, never discovered the existence of the surveillance system or the video footage. Ultimately, no one ever downloaded the video, and it was presumably overwritten. Bergdoll later testified no one watched it because “I don’t think we thought there was a reason.” App. at 636.

While Megan was in the hospital, Berg-doll and Hensley visited the Lyonses there. During the visit, Mrs. Lyons asked Hensley several times how long Megan had been without oxygen, and he responded “it was a very short period of time.” App. at 817. Bergdoll said only that Megan had choked. Megan passed away on January 10.

After Megan’s death, Mrs. Lyons repeatedly requested a meeting with Hensley to discuss what had happened. Each time, Hensley responded, “we’ll get together,” but no meeting was ever scheduled. App. at 311. At one point, Hensley suggested waiting to schedule a meeting until after graduation on June 14, 2009. The Lyonses did not follow up with him.

On October 1, 2009, Swearingen contacted Mr. Lyons and informed him that “things were not done properly” during the emergency. App. at 788. On January 11, 2010, the Lyonses filed a Notice of Tort Claim; about six months later, they filed a complaint against RCSC, Spicer, Thorne, and LaRue, alleging negligence, wrongful death, and federal civil rights violations. During discovery, the Lyonses sought certain information from Indiana Insurance, which moved to quash their request. The trial court granted that motion, concluding (1) Indiana Insurance did not owe the Lyonses a duty to direct the School to preserve the video evidence and (2) most of the documents the Lyonses had requested were privileged.

The defendants moved for summary judgment on all claims, and the Lyonses filed a cross-motion for summary judgment on the issue of their compliance with the Indiana Tort Claims Act notice requirement. They also moved for leave to [259]*259add Indiana Insurance as a defendant based upon its failure to conduct a reasonable investigation of the incident. After a hearing, the trial court issued a summary order granting the defendants’ motion and denying the Lyonses’ motions.

The Lyonses appealed, and in a published opinion, a divided panel of our Court of Appeals affirmed in part and reversed in part, concluding the defendants were entitled to summary judgment on the Lyonses’ federal claims but not on the ITCA notice issue or on the state law claims. Lyons v. Richmond Cmty. Sch. Corp., 990 N.E.2d 470, 476 (Ind.Ct.App.2013). The majority also affirmed the trial court’s decision to quash the Lyonses’ third-party discovery requests and to deny their motion for leave to amend their complaint to add Indiana Insurance as a defendant. Id. at 488.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Garrett Norman v. HNTB Corporation
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2025
NFI Interactive Logistics LLC v. Dawn Bruski
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2024
New Augusta North Public Academy v. K G
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2023
Z D v. COMMUNITY HEALTH NETWORK
Indiana Supreme Court, 2023
Krieg DeVault LLP v. WGT V, LLC
Indiana Court of Appeals, 2023
MCINTYRE v. GEO GROUP, INC.
S.D. Indiana, 2023
MITCHELL v. TIBBS
S.D. Indiana, 2022
Valerie Cortez v. Cook Incorporated
27 F.4th 563 (Seventh Circuit, 2022)
Brenda Sue Gittings and Marc Richmond Gittings v. William H. Deal
109 N.E.3d 963 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2018)
Mary (Jones) Shirey v. Rex Flenar, M.D.
89 N.E.3d 1102 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2017)
Milbank Insurance Company v. Indiana Insurance Company
56 N.E.3d 1222 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2016)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
19 N.E.3d 254, 2014 Ind. LEXIS 867, 2014 WL 5461953, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lyons-v-richmond-community-school-corp-ind-2014.