Opinion ID: 2135602
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Submission of the Res Ipsa Loquitur Theory.

Text: The State contends that the district court erred in submitting the case to the jury under a theory of res ipsa loquitur in addition to those claims of specific negligence that were submitted. It contends that plaintiff's case fails to meet the two foundational elements required for submission of res ipsa loquitur. These are: (1) that the defendant had exclusive control of the instrumentality involved in the injury, and (2) that the accident was of a nature that it would not have occurred in the ordinary course of things had ordinary care been employed. See Sammons v. Smith, 353 N.W.2d 380, 385 (Iowa 1984). The plaintiff argues that several of the instrumentalities that combined to produce Jessica's death were under the exclusive control of state employees at the Iowa School for the Deaf. We will assume that to have been the case as we seek to discover the presence of the second foundational element. In the somewhat analogous cases of Mastland, Inc. v. Evans Furniture, Inc., 498 N.W.2d 682, 686 (Iowa 1993); Wong v. Waterloo Community School District, 232 N.W.2d 865, 870-71 (Iowa 1975); and Fosselman v. Waterloo Community School District, 229 N.W.2d 280, 283 (Iowa 1975), we have recognized that the potential for young children to act out in unpredictable and freakish ways precludes any presumption of negligence by supervising authorities when this occurs. We continue to adhere to that view. Although there is circumstantial evidence from which negligence might be found in the present case, the foundation for the application of the res ipsa loquitur doctrine must be established without regard to any specific act of negligence. Focusing on the control that the State exercised over the playground, the child, or both, we are unable to agree that the accident was of a nature that it would not have occurred in the ordinary course of things had ordinary care been employed. The district court erred in submitting the case to the jury under a theory of res ipsa loquitur.