Opinion ID: 1857261
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Claim Against Ellen Taylor.

Text: Plaintiff's claims against Ellen Taylor are two-fold: first, that she failed to perform her statutory duty as a mandatory reporter of child abuse, and second, that she was guilty of professional negligence in counseling plaintiff. The record is clear that Taylor did not learn of the alleged child abuse until after it had ceased. Thus, the reasons for granting summary judgment in favor of Taylor on the claimed failure to report child abuse are the same as those that we have upheld in affirming the claim against Kimary Darr. We reach the same result concerning the claim against Taylor. With respect to the claim of professional negligence against Taylor, the district court granted summary judgment based on the state of the record concerning expert testimony. The only expert witness identified by plaintiff concerning the issue of Taylor's professional negligence was Mindy Levine. Examination of Levine's deposition and affidavit reveals that she was not able to state Taylor's counseling of plaintiff fell below a required level of professional competence in any particular. Taylor successfully established the limited extent of plaintiff's expert testimony through discovery. Based on this state of the record the district court properly granted summary judgment on the professional negligence claim. See Cox v. Jones, 470 N.W.2d 23, 25-26 (Iowa 1991); Thomas v. Fellows, 456 N.W.2d 170, 171 (Iowa 1990); Donovan v. State, 445 N.W.2d 763, 766 (Iowa 1989).