Court Opinion

ID: 9568064
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:00:27.580967+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:24:18.017695
License: Public Domain

Pope, Chief Judge,
dissenting.
1. In my opinion, defendants are not entitled to summary judgment based on official immunity because their alleged negligence was in a ministerial rather than discretionary capacity. See Hennessy v. Webb, 245 Ga. 329 (264 SE2d 878) (1980). State officers or employees may rely on official immunity when they “are sued for acting in areas where they are vested with discretion and empowered to exercise judgment in matters before them.” Id. at 330. The record reveals that the school board promulgated a rule mandating that teachers stand in their doorways between classes to monitor the hallways. Nonetheless, evidence in the record supports plaintiffs’ allegations that teachers failed to consistently comply with this rule; that defendant Irons failed to enforce it; and that defendant Faucette was not monitoring the hall from her doorway at the time of the incident resulting in the death of plaintiffs’ son. The complained of act — failure to monitor the hallways between classes — was not one which was within the discretion of either defendant. The school board made the decision and took away from defendants the power to exercise their judgment to the contrary. The board’s decision to make the rule was discretionary; the defendants’ alleged failure to enforce and comply with the rule must be characterized as ministerial. See Swofford v. Cooper, 184 Ga. App. 50, 52 (1) (360 SE2d 624) (1987), aff’d Cooper v. Swofford, *508258 Ga. 143 (368 SE2d 518) (1988) (“Under this standard it makes no difference that the official is required to perform discretionary acts if the complained-of act is more properly characterized as ministerial.”)
2. Because I conclude that defendants were not entitled to summary judgment based on official immunity, I must address defendants’ alternative argument that summary judgment was properly granted because plaintiffs presented no evidence that Derrick’s death was proximately caused by any breach of duty on their part.
Those who undertake to educate a child assume a duty to exercise ordinary care for the student’s safety. See Marques v. Riverside Military Academy, 87 Ga. App. 370 (73 SE2d 574) (1952). The pertinent analysis is similar to that applied in premises liability cases: the educator may be liable for failure to abate a dangerous condition if it appears, with due regard for the student’s age and ability to control his movements and actions, that the educator is in a better position than the student to know of the danger and abate or ameliorate it. See Watts v. Wayne County Bd. of Ed., 201 Ga. App. 777 (412 SE2d 541) (1991); Cooper v. Baldwin County School Dist., 193 Ga. App. 13 (1) (386 SE2d 896) (1989). The educator’s knowledge of the dangerous condition may be shown by evidence of prior, substantially similar incidents. Cooper, 193 Ga. App. at 14. Even if knowledge on the part of the educator is shown, however, the educator will not be liable if the injured party set into motion the chain of events leading to his injuries. See Sapp v. Effingham County Bd. of Ed., 200 Ga. App. 695 (1) (409 SE2d 89) (1991).
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to plaintiffs, it appears that in the two years prior to this incident, the police had been called to Harper High School forty-eight times. The record contains numerous police reports reflecting fighting and assaults in the school hallways, as well as almost 100 pages of transfer requests from parents fearing for their children’s safety. Almost all of these requests were denied. Indeed, Derrick’s mother had made such a request not long before his death, although it is undisputed that neither defendant saw it. The situation was bad enough that the school board established a rule requiring teachers to stand in their doorways to monitor the halls between classes. Yet there is evidence that this rule was not consistently followed or enforced.
Several days before Derrick was killed, Ball threatened him after Ball’s girl friend accused Derrick of attempting to rape her. Derrick’s friend Kent and Ball were both in Faucette’s third period chorus class, and when Ball was absent from chorus class the day before the killing, Kent explained Ball’s absence by telling Faucette that Ball had threatened to beat up Derrick and was probably out looking for him. Then, in the break between second and third period classes the following day, Ball carried out his threat by beating and kicking Der*509rick in the hallway outside Faucette’s classroom, inflicting the injuries which resulted in his death. Despite the rule requiring teachers to stand in their doorways and monitor the halls between classes, there is evidence from Derrick’s friend Kent that Faucette was not in her doorway on the day Ball killed Derrick and did not emerge from her classroom until the beating was over.
Unlike the plaintiffs in Watts and Cooper, plaintiffs in this case presented evidence showing that Irons knew or should have known that the school hallways were dangerous. See, e.g., Burdine v. Linquist, 177 Ga. App. 545 (340 SE2d 198) (1986). And even if Faucette was not aware of the police reports and transfer requests showing the dangerous nature of the hallways as a general matter, Kent notified her of the specific danger to Derrick posed by Ball the day before the incident. Accordingly, a jury could conclude that defendants were in a better position than Derrick to know of the danger in the hallways and act to ameliorate it, and that they nonetheless failed to do so. There is evidence in the record suggesting that Derrick did not need to be in the area of the chorus classroom, that he knew Ball would be there and that he set in motion the chain of events leading to his tragic death by purposefully choosing to go there and confront Ball. If so, defendants would not be liable under Sapp. See 200 Ga. App. at 696. As the record does not demand this conclusion, however, summary judgment was not warranted on this ground.
Defendants further argue that even if they were negligent, Ball’s intervening criminal act cuts off their liability because it rather than their negligence proximately caused Derrick’s death. However, the rule that the intervening criminal act of a third party cuts off a defendant’s liability applies only where the intervening criminal act is unforeseeable; it “is not applicable where the defendant has reasonable grounds for apprehending that such a criminal act will be committed. [Cit.]” Tolbert v. Tanner, 180 Ga. App. 441, 444 (2b) (349 SE2d 463) (1986); accord Confetti Atlanta, Ltd. v. Gray, 202 Ga. App. 241 (1) (414 SE2d 265) (1991); MARTA v. Allen, 188 Ga. App. 902 (1) (374 SE2d 761) (1988). In other words, the duty to provide safe conditions includes the duty to guard against criminal acts if those criminal acts are reasonably foreseeable. In this case, the known danger defendants failed to ameliorate was the danger of illegal acts such as assaults in the hallways. Thus, the evidence showing that the dangerous condition was known also shows that Ball’s intervening illegal act was reasonably foreseeable. For these reasons, I would conclude that questions of fact exist regarding whether Derrick’s death was proximately caused by a breach of duty on defendants’ part and would reverse the trial court’s grant of summary judgment.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge McMurray, Judge Cooper and Judge Blackburn join in this dissent.
*510Decided December 3, 1993
Reconsideration denied December 20, 1993
Neely & Player, David C. Marshall, Laura A. Shaw, Roberts & Isaf, Lawrence E. Newlin, for appellants.
Smith, Howard & Ajax, Warren C. Fortson, Julie J. Weatherly, for appellees.