Opinion ID: 2628954
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: Statutory Reporting Obligations

Text: Nevertheless, as we previously noted, all of these cases, while helpful in distilling Kansas' view, are distinguishable from this case because of the statutes and court order dealing with outpatient treatment, which imposed reporting obligations under K.S.A. 59-2967(e) and K.S.A. 59-2969(a) that were violated by the Defendants. Consequently, we must consider an additional line of cases that deal with statutory reporting obligations. Of these cases, the one that is the most analogous is Kansas State Bank & Tr. Co. v. Specialized Transportation Services, Inc., 249 Kan. 348, 352, 819 P.2d 587 (1991), which involved the sexual molestation of a student by an employee retained by a school district to transport students in a special education program who had been reported to call the children names and act in a manner described as out of control. In Kansas State Bank & Tr. Co., it was argued that the statutory obligation to report child abuse created a duty to a child who was subsequently abused. This court noted that the reporting obligations were intended, at least in part, to protect the general public. Nevertheless, generally [s]tatutes enacted to protect the public ... do not create a duty to individuals injured as a result of a statutory violation. 249 Kan. at 371, 819 P.2d 587; but see Schlobohm v. United Parcel Service, Inc., 248 Kan. 122, 125, 804 P.2d 978 (1991) (citing rule but finding legislative intent to create duty in adopting building regulations that was owed to special class of individuals which included plaintiff who was injured in fall on noncompliant premises; Restatement §§ 288 Comments a and d, 288B Comments a and d). Applying this general rule, this court rejected the argument that the child abuse reporting statute created a duty owed to a subsequently abused child. In doing so, the court adopted the reasoning of an Indiana court that concluded: `When the provisions of the act are considered as a whole, there is no apparent intent to authorize a civil action for failure of an individual to make the oral report that may be the means of initiating the central procedures contemplated by the act. Furthermore, such an action is not authorized at common law.... It would, we believe, misdirect judicial time and attention from the very real problems of children in need of services in favor of pursuing collateral individuals, who are presumably capable of responding in money damages, on the ground that they knowingly failed to make an oral report. We concluded that was not within the legislative purpose of the act.' Kansas State Bank & Tr. Co., 249 Kan. at 372-73, 819 P.2d 587 (quoting Borne v. N.W. Allen County School Corp., 532 N.E.2d 1196, 1203 [Ind.App. 1989]).