SJ v. Lafayette Parish School Bd.

959 So. 2d 884, 2007 WL 1866770
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJune 29, 2007
Docket06-C-2862
StatusPublished
Cited by32 cases

This text of 959 So. 2d 884 (SJ v. Lafayette Parish School Bd.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
SJ v. Lafayette Parish School Bd., 959 So. 2d 884, 2007 WL 1866770 (La. 2007).

Opinion

959 So.2d 884 (2007)

S.J., Individually and on Behalf of Her Minor Daughter, C.C.
v.
LAFAYETTE PARISH SCHOOL BOARD, et al.

No. 06-C-2862.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

June 29, 2007.

Doucet & Speer, Jeffery F. Speer, Julian Louis Gibbens, III, Jason Emile Fontenot, Lafayette, for applicant.

Preis, Kraft & Roy, Larry Lane Roy, Catherine Marie Landry, Dawn L. Morris, Kay Marie Karre, Lafayette respondent.

Robert Lloyd Hammonds, Carla Shedawn Courtney, and Brett Michael Searcy, Baton Rouge, for Louisiana School Boards Association, Amicus Curiae.

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff, S.J. individually and as tutor of her minor daughter, C.C., filed the instant petition for damages against the Lafayette Parish School Board and Gladys Marie Reed, a teacher employed at the Lafayette Middle School. Plaintiff alleged defendants were negligent for their failure to exercise adequate and/or reasonable supervision over C.C. while she attended a school sanctioned activity.

Upon defendants' motion, the district court granted summary judgment and dismissed plaintiff's suit with prejudice, finding a school board had no duty to safeguard a child after he or she leaves school property. The court of appeal affirmed the judgment of the district court in an unpublished opinion. We granted plaintiffs' application for certiorari to consider the correctness of that ruling.

We now render judgment, consisting of this decree.

DECREE

The judgment of the district court granting summary judgment in favor of defendants is reversed. The case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings.

JOHNSON, J., concurs and assigns reasons.

VICTORY, J., dissents.

KNOLL, J., dissents and assigns reasons.

*885 WEIMER, J., concurs and assigns reason, joined by KIMBALL and TRAYLOR, JJ.

JOHNSON, J., concurring.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

On November 4, 2004, C.C., a twelve-year old sixth grade student at Lafayette Middle School in Lafayette, Louisiana, was required to attend an after school Behavior Clinic on the campus of the school. The Behavior Clinic ended at approximately 4:00 p.m., and the students were dismissed. C.C. walked home from the school grounds and was sexually attacked by an unknown assailant. Following the attack, C.C. was treated and evaluated at Lafayette General Medical Center in Lafayette, Louisiana

On March 3, 2005, S.J. filed a Petition for Damages, individually and as tutor of her minor daughter, C.C., against the defendants, LPSB, and Mrs. Reed, where she alleged that LPSB and Mrs. Reed were negligent for their failure to exercise adequate and/or reasonable supervision over C.C. while she attended an after school sanctioned activity on November 4, 2004. The Defendants answered the Petition for Damages generally denying any responsibility or liability for C.C.'s injuries, and subsequently filed this Motion for Summary Judgment pursuant to LSA-C.C.P. art 966, asserting that there was no genuine issue of material fact and that they were entitled to judgment has a matter of law. LPSB and Mrs. Reed argued in their memorandum in support of the motion for summary judgment that the plaintiffs could not establish a duty or a breach of duty by the defendants, and that before liability can be imposed upon the defendants, "there must be proof of negligence in providing supervision, proof of a causal connection between the lack of supervision and the injury, and the risk of the injuring(sic) must be foreseeable, constructively or actually known, and preventable."

After hearing the motion for summary judgment, the trial court granted the defendants' motion, and dismissed the case with prejudice. The court stated that "case law is consistent that a school board has no duty to safeguard a childs [sic] well-being after he or she leaves the school property," citing Jackson v. Colvin, 98-182 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/23/98); 732 So.2d 530, writ denied, 99-228 (La.3/19/99),740 So.2d 117, and Frederick v. Vermilion Parish School Board, 772 So.2d 208(La.App.3Cir.10/18/00).

The court of appeal affirmed the trial court's judgment granting the motion summary judgment. The court found that the school board had a duty to provide C.C. transportation to and from school because C.C. lived more than one mile from school citing Jackson, 732 So.2d at 534. However, the court concluded that there was no duty to provide transportation for activities which occur at the school before and after normal school hours.

In affirming the trial court's judgment, the court also concluded, that "the school board had no duty to protect C.C. from criminal activity of third persons as she walked home." The court noted that the duty to protect others from criminal activity "only arises under limited circumstances, when the criminal act in question was reasonably foreseeable," citing Posecai v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 752 So.2d 762, 766(La.1999). The court of appeal concluded that S.J. failed to establish that she could satisfy her evidentiary burden of proof at trial because nothing in the record suggested that it was reasonably foreseeable that any student would be raped as she walked home from school. (Unpublished Opinion — S.J. individually *886 and on behalf of her minor daughter, C.C. v. Lafayette Parish School Board and Marie Reed, 06-0629, (La.App. 3 Cir.11/2/06), 940 So.2d 218).

LAW AND ANALYSIS

LSA-C.C. Art. 2320 provides, in pertinent part:

Teachers and artisans are answerable for the damages caused by their scholars or apprentices, while under their superintendence. (Emphasis added).

A school board, through its agents and teachers, owes a duty of reasonable supervision over students. LSA-C.C. art. 2320; Wallmuth v. Rapides Parish School Bd., XXXX-XXXX (La.4/3/02), 813 So.2d 341, 164 Ed. Law Rep. 511; Adams v. Caddo Parish School Bd., 25,370 (La App. 2 Cir. 1/19/94), 631 So.2d 70, writ denied, 94-684 (La.4/29/94), 637 So.2d 466. The supervision required is reasonable. Competent supervision must be appropriate to the age of the children, and the attendant circumstances. Jackson, supra. This duty does not make the school board the insurer of the safety of the children, and constant supervision of students is not required for educators to discharge their duty to provide adequate supervision. Adams, supra. In Comeaux v. Commercial Union Ins. Co., 269 So.2d 500 (La.App. 4th Cir.1972), the appellate court stated that, "Reasonable, competent supervision commensurate with the age of the child and the attendant circumstances." Id., at 502

In Gary On Behalf of Gary v. Meche, 626 So.2d 901 (La.App. 3 Cir.1993), the court held that a school board's duty to reasonably supervise young students is not restricted to school hours, and that school boards must have a policy to ensure that young children do not leave the school unattended. Gary answered the question of how far should the school board's duty extend.

In Gary, the court stated that:

In reaching [our] conclusion, we need not determine the appropriate method of supervision, for that is not within our province. Rather, we simply hold, as did the fourth circuit in Sutton v. Duplessis, 584 So.2d 362 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1991), that the School Board has a duty to provide reasonable supervision commensurate with the age of the children under the attendant circumstances. Specifically, the school must have a policy to ensure that young children . . . do not leave the school unattended. Id. at 905.

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Bluebook (online)
959 So. 2d 884, 2007 WL 1866770, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sj-v-lafayette-parish-school-bd-la-2007.