Opinion ID: 1059524
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Immunity of the School Board

Text: Linhart first argues that pursuant to Code § 22.1-194, the School Board is not entitled to the defense of sovereign immunity under the circumstances of this case. That section provides, in pertinent part, that if a school board is the owner, or operator through medium of a driver, of, or otherwise is the insured under the policy upon, a vehicle involved in an accident, the ... school board shall be subject to action up to, but not beyond, the limits of valid and collectible insurance in force to cover the injury complained of or, [if self-insured under] § 22.1-190, up to but not beyond the amounts of insurance required under subsection A of § 22.1-190 and the defense of governmental immunity shall not be a bar to action or recovery.. . . The . . . school board may be sued alone or jointly with the driver, provided that in no case shall any member of a school board be liable personally in the capacity of a school board member solely. We have held that this statute abrogates the immunity of a school board for acts of simple negligence to a limited degree and when the conditions of the statute are met, the defense of sovereign immunity will not bar an action ... for recovery of damages in an amount up to the limits of the insurance policy. Wagoner v. Benson, 256 Va. 260, 262-64, 505 S.E.2d 188, 188-90 (1998). At the time of the accident in this case, the School Board was self-insured in the amount of at least $50,000 for injury to one person pursuant to Code § 22.1-190. Therefore, the doctrine of sovereign immunity does not bar this action against the School Board to the extent of the limits of the School Board's self-insurance. The School Board argues, however, that the trial court nevertheless was correct in dismissing the motion for judgment against the School Board. Any liability it may have is solely vicarious liability, the School Board argues, and, under common law principles, the standard of liability applied to Lawson and the School Board must be the same. Because Lawson can only be liable for acts of gross negligence, the School Board argues that it too can only be liable for gross negligence. Therefore, the School Board concludes, the trial court correctly dismissed the motion for judgment because the motion did not allege gross negligence against the School Board or Lawson. We disagree. The common law principle that the liabilities of principals and agents are coterminous is not applicable when altered by the General Assembly. Schwartz v. Brownlee, 253 Va. 159, 166, 482 S.E.2d 827, 831 (1997). In Schwartz, we considered Code § 8.01-581.15, which imposes a cap on medical malpractice recovery but limits the cap to health care providers. Therefore, even though the employer's liability was predicated on the acts of its employee, a health care provider, the non-health care employer was not entitled to the limitation of the cap. Code § 8.01-581 abrogated the common law principle that the liabilities of agent and principal are coterminous. Id. at 166-67, 482 S.E.2d at 831-32. In this case, as we have said, Code § 22.1-194 subjects the School Board to limited liability for injuries incurred through the acts of its employee school bus drivers. The statute does not require that the school board and its employee be sued jointly and in fact allows a plaintiff to proceed solely against a school board. As in Schwartz, we conclude that, in enacting Code § 22.1-194, the General Assembly created an exception to the common law principle recited above and imposed liability on a school board for simple negligence, even if its employee is liable only for acts of gross negligence. Therefore, the trial court erred in dismissing Linhart's motion for judgment against the School Board for failure to plead gross negligence.