Opinion ID: 1980771
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Egregious Conduct Exception

Text: We now turn to Torres's assertion that he qualifies for the second exception to the public duty doctrine for egregious conduct when the municipality has knowledge that it created a circumstance that forces an individual into a position of peril and subsequently chooses not to remedy the situation. Yankee v. LeBlanc, 819 A.2d 1277, 1279 (R.I.2003) (per curiam) (quoting Martinelli v. Hopkins, 787 A.2d 1158, 1168 (R.I.2001)). In a previous case, we held that the egregious conduct exception to the public duty doctrine applied to a plaintiff's allegation that the state was liable for her injuries when she was struck by an automobile after being forced to step off of a sidewalk onto Route 44. Verity v. Danti, 585 A.2d 65, 65-66 (R.I.1991). The plaintiff therein was walking on a sidewalk that was blocked by a large tree, forcing her to walk into the street to get around the tree. Id. at 65. As a result, she was struck by a car and injured. Id. at 66. We held that the egregious conduct exception applied because the state knew about the perilous condition that the tree presented, but still evaluated the condition of the sidewalk as satisfactory. Id. at 67. In the present case, the motion justice correctly ruled that the egregious conduct exception had not been met. She found that there was no evidence that the building inspector knew that he had issued a permit to an unlicensed contractor or that an unlicensed contractor was constructing Gentile's garage and did nothing about it. The building inspector may have been remiss in failing to follow up with Gentile to get the contractor's registration number; however, the alleged position of peril leading to Torres's financial injuries, i.e., the lack of workers' compensation coverage, was not created by the building inspector's failure to inform the registration board that Torres's employer was unregistered. We agree with the motion justice and hold that Torres's claim under the egregious conduct exception fails as a matter of law.