McKenzie ex rel. C.M. v. Talladega City Board of Education

242 F. Supp. 3d 1244, 2017 WL 878401, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31409
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedMarch 6, 2017
DocketCase No. 1:15-cv-00243-JEO
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 242 F. Supp. 3d 1244 (McKenzie ex rel. C.M. v. Talladega City Board of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McKenzie ex rel. C.M. v. Talladega City Board of Education, 242 F. Supp. 3d 1244, 2017 WL 878401, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31409 (N.D. Ala. 2017).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OPINION

John E. Ott, Chief United States Magistrate Judge

This case originates in a school bus evacuation drill during which C.M., a special needs student at Graham Elementary School in Talladega, Alabama, fell and was injured. C.M.’s mother, Shirlenna McKenzie (the “Plaintiff’), has filed suit on behalf of her daughter against the Talladega City Board of Education (the “Board”); Jennifer Jackson, C.M.’s classroom teacher; and Jewell Monroe, the bus driver who conducted the evacuation drill (collectively, the “Defendants”). Her claims include a [1247]*1247claim under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against all of the Defendants for violating C.M.’s “substantive due process rights” and creating a “dangerous situation” when they forced C.M. to participate in the bus evacuation drill (Count I); a § 1983 claim against the Board for failing to adequately train and supervise Jennifer Jackson and maintaining a custom or practice that exhibited “deliberate indifference” to C.M.’s “constitutional rights” (Count ll); a claim against the Board for negligence (Count III); a claim against Jennifer Jackson for negligence and wantonness (Count IV); and a claim against Jewell Monroe for negligence and wantonness (Count V). (Doc. 31(“Am. Complaint”)).

The case in now before the Court on motions for summary judgment by Jackson and Monroe (doc. 56) and the Board (doc. 58). The Defendants have also filed a motion to strike two affidavits submitted by the Plaintiff in opposition to the motions for summary judgment. (Doc. 64). For the reasons discussed below, the Defendants’ motion to strike the affidavits will be granted in part and denied, in part; the Defendants’ motions for summary judgment will be granted as to the Plaintiffs § 1983 claims; and the Plaintiffs state law claims will be dismissed without prejudice.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The Plaintiff initially filed this action against only the Board and Jennifer Jackson. (Doc. 1). She subsequently amended her complaint and added Jewell Monroe as a defendant. (Doc. 31). The Defendants then filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings, arguing (in part) that the Court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the ease because the Plaintiff had not exhausted her administrative remedies under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”), 20 U.S.C. .§ 1400 et seq.1 (Doc. 48). The Plaintiff opposed the motion for judgment on the pleadings, asserting in her opposition that “[t]his is simply not an IDEA case.” (Doc. 51 at 5). She stated that she “has no issue and has made no claim regarding the sufficiency of C.M.’s IEP or access to a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE),” noting that “IDEA’S primary purpose is to ensure a FAPE, not to serve as a tort-like mechanism for compensating personal injury,” (Id. at 3-4). The Court agreed with the Plaintiff and denied the Defendants’ motion. (Doc. 55).

Following the completion of discovery, the Defendants filed the present motions for summary judgment. (Docs. 56 & 58). In response to the summary judgment motions, the Plaintiff has submitted (among other evidentiary support) the Affidavit of Bernadine Jackson (doc. 62-4) and the Affidavit of Robin Dates (doc. 62-12), two co-employees who witnessed the bus evacuation drill at issue here. The Defendants have moved to strike the two affidavits because they were not produced by the Plaintiff during discovery. (Doc. 64). The Court will first address the Defendants’ [1248]*1248motion to strike the affidavits, and will then turn to the motions for summary judgment.

THE DEFENDANTS’ MOTION TO STRIKE

Bernadine Jackson is a paraprofessional who worked in Jennifer Jackson’s classroom at Graham Elementary. She also drove the special needs bus that C.M. regularly rode. Robin Dates worked as a special education aide in teacher Amy Crowe’s classroom at Graham Elementary. She also served as Bernadine Jackson’s bus driver aide.

As noted, the Plaintiffs opposition to the Defendants’ motions for summary judgment includes an affidavit from Bernadine Jackson and an affidavit from Robin Dates. (Docs. 62-4 & 62-12). In the affidavits, Jackson and Dates provide background information regarding their employment by the Board, the training they have received over the years, and their familiarity with C.M., and describe what they witnessed on the date of the bus evacuation drill. Both affidavits were signed on April 16, 2015, during the discovery phase of this action. Pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 37(c) the Defendants have moved the Court to strike the affidavits as a sanction for the Plaintiffs failure to produce the affidavits during discovery.2 They argue that the Court should strike the affidavits in their entirety or, at a minimum, strike certain portions of the affidavits because they contain improper testimony as to causation and inadmissible hearsay. The Plaintiff did not respond to the motion to strike.

The Court declines to grant the Defendants’ motion to strike the affidavits in toto, for two primary reasons. First, Bernadine Jackson and Robin Dates are not surprise witnesses whose identities were kept hidden from the Defendants. To the contrary, the Plaintiffs amended complaint alleges that “C.M.’s bus driver Bernadine Jackson (who is also a para-professional) and another para-professional, Robin Dates, witnessed the entire incident from their nearby classroom windows.” (Am. Complaint at ¶ 42). The Court also notes that the Defendants do not argue that the Plaintiff failed to identify Jackson and Dates as “individuaos] likely to have discoverable information ... that the disclosing party may use to support its claims or defenses,” as required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a).3 The Defendants’ assertion in their motion to strike that they “would have deposed B. Jackson and Dates had they known Plaintiff intended to rely on B. Jacksonf’s] and Dates’ testimony” (doc. 64 at 5) rings hollow, given the Plaintiffs identification of Jackson and Dates as witnesses in her amended complaint and, presumably, in her Rule 26 disclosures. Indeed, the Court finds it surprising that the Defendants elected not to depose Jackson and Dates during discovery. Regardless of whether their affidavits had or had not been produced, the Court would have anticipated that the Defendants would want to depose two disclosed witnesses to the underlying incident.

Second, the Plaintiff did not conceal the existence of the two affidavits. As the De[1249]*1249fendants acknowledge, the Plaintiff identified both affidavits in her privilege log and asserted that they were “attorney work product and therefore not discoverable.” (Doc. 64-3 at 4). The Plaintiff provided the privilege log to the Defendants on October 15, 2015, more than a month and a half before the discovery cutoff date of November 30, 2015. (Doc. 64-3 at 2). The Court appreciates the Defendants’ position that the affidavits are not attorney work product and should not have been withheld, but the Defendants had ample time to either file a motion to compel production of the affidavits under Fed. R. Civ. P. 37

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Bluebook (online)
242 F. Supp. 3d 1244, 2017 WL 878401, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31409, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mckenzie-ex-rel-cm-v-talladega-city-board-of-education-alnd-2017.