Court Opinion

ID: 9525115
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:00:04.935856+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:13:00.561186
License: Public Domain

Judge Bronson,
dissenting in Churilla, supra, found that an extracurricular football program is not "of the essence of government” as defined by Justice Moody:
"I believe that an extracurricular football program is simply not of a uniquely governmental character or precipitated by governmental mandate. While MCL 380.1502; MSA 15.41502 mandates 'health and physical education’ in the public schools, it does not require the maintenance of extracurricular athletic activities.[2] There is nothing uniquely governmental in the function of staging competitive athletic events. I also reject the idea that holding school districts liable for the negligent operation of a football program constitutes 'an unacceptable interference with government’s ability to govern’.
"Nor do I believe a football program like the one in question here can only be accomplished through the government. It is true that the majority of football programs for high-school-aged participants are run through schools, and that Justice Moody considered the fact that private general hospitals exceeded governmental ones significant in holding that governmentally run general hospitals were not entitled to immunity. However, this factor is not dispositive and does not even clearly cut against the no-immunity view in this case. First, a number of extracurricular football programs are associated with private schools. Other football programs exist through private organizations and churches. Thus, there is an analogy to a similar function in the private sector. Second, if this factor were dispositive, I believe the result could be an anomalous situation in which school football programs would be entitled to immunity, but school baseball programs— *249because of the greater number of private leagues— would not be exempt.” 105 Mich App 37-38.
The majority in Churilla relied on four cases. However, neither Bush, supra, nor Deaner v Utica Community School Dist, 99 Mich App 103; 297 NW2d 625 (1980), dealt with an extracurricular football program. Common sense and cases like Weaver, supra, and Cobb, supra, instruct us to look at the particular activity involved. Furthermore, both Richards v Birmingham School Dist, 348 Mich 490; 83 NW2d 643 (1957), overruled on other grounds, Williams v Detroit, 364 Mich 231, 252; 111 NW2d 1 (1961), and Lovitt v Concord School Dist, 58 Mich App 593; 228 NW2d 479 (1975), overruled on other grounds, Galli v Kirkeby, 398 Mich 527, 536; 248 NW2d 149 (1976), used the now discarded governmental/proprietary test.
The difficulty in formulating and applying principles for governmental immunity is that the reasons justifying it remain unclear in the face of its apparent lack of fairness.3 Under governmental immunity, the negligent appear to go free while the innocent suffer.4 However, many believe that a government cannot function or afford to provide the services desired by the taxpayers when the government itself is liable for the negligent acts of individual governmental employees. The myriad attempts by Michigan courts to develop a standard to apply governmental immunity have arisen from the need to meet these competing demands._
*250Because few of us can agree on the particular balance to be struck, we have been unable to articulate a workable standard. The Supreme Court’s latest attempt to delineate standards ended in a 3-3 deadlock. Ross v Consumers Power Co, 415 Mich 1; 327 NW2d 293 (1982). In the face of this confusion, I believe that governmental immunity should not be applied when the "governmental function” involved is clearly tangential to government itself.
Government’s essential purpose is to promote public justice. Providing public education furthers this goal. A high school junior varsity football program, however, only tenuously relates to this purpose. Ruling that governmental immunity does not apply in this case would not impair either the school’s or the government’s ability to provide public justice.
Furthermore, other methods of assuring that such football programs continue are fairer than this blanket application of a doctrine which reasonably might be assumed by the public not to apply in this case. An example is found in California where some school districts have responded to the abolition of governmental immunity5 by requiring voluntary participants in extracurricular activities to sign written waivers of their right to sue and to obtain insurance to protect against the costs of injuries. This approach not only protects a student financially for his injuries but also informs him of the risks involved. Not only is David Boulet uncompensated for someone else’s alleged negligence but I seriously doubt that he ever considered the doctrine of governmental immunity when he decided to play high school football. What ap*251proach would be fairer in the present case? The majority’s approach which leaves a quadriplegic uncompensated for these injuries allegedly due to someone else’s negligence or an approach that forces the student to realize the risks ahead of time but compensates him through insurance? I would reverse in this case.

 In Weaver, supra, this Court emphasized the fact that MCL 380.1287(1); MSA 15.41287(1) authorizes a school district to offer vocational education when it found that the vocational education program involved was a governmental function.

 Although governmental immunity is constitutional, Thomas v Dep’t of State Highways, 398 Mich 1; 247 NW2d 530 (1976), as exemplified in this case, it can still be unfair.

 Moreover, those injured while attending public school are left uncompensated while those attending even a financially strapped private school are not.

 California abolished governmental immunity in Muskopf v Corning Hospital Dist, 55 Cal 2d 211; 11 Cal Rptr 89; 359 P2d 457 (1961).