Court Opinion

ID: 9588678
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 23:36:51.239518+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:41:11.922391
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
dissenting.
I agree completely with Presiding Judge McMurray’s opinion that under the present state of the facts, Paideia is not entitled to escape this problem and possibility of liability. The majority opinion correctly states the general rule for determining whether a master/ servant or an employer/independent contractor relationship exists, but it fails to apply that rule to the facts of this case. As noted by that other dissent, there was evidence that when the moonlighting police officer arrived at the school, Paideia’s agent told him “what to do, how to do it, and where to do it.” That is sufficient evidence of the employer’s assumption of control as to create an issue of fact precluding the grant of summary judgment for Paideia.
I am unpersuaded by the majority opinion’s emphasis that the officer’s duties in this case constituted a police function that prevented imputing the officer’s acts to his private employer. In certain situations, even where the officer’s duties are those of a police nature, the private employer may be responsible. See Massachusetts Cotton Mills v. Hawkins, 164 Ga. 594 (1) (139 SE 52) (1927); Pounds v. Central of Ga. R. Co., 142 Ga. 415 (83 SE 96) (1914). The majority opinion overlooks the reality that, notwithstanding the police nature of the duties assigned to the officer by the private employer, the private employer’s primary purpose is to obtain a private benefit. The price of that private benefit ought to be responsibility for the acts of those officers, at least in situations where the employer assumes some degree of control over the exercise of those duties.
*186“It has been generally held to be a question of fact for determination by a jury, whether, when a special officer performed the acts for which the master is sought to be held liable, he was acting in his capacity as servant, or in his capacity as a public officer.” Massachusetts Cotton Mills, supra at 596. This is just such a case.
“Preparation for the duties of citizenship is one of the three objectives of any sound system of public schooling in our society. Preparation for earning a living is another, and the third is preparation for discharging everyone’s moral obligation to lead a good life and make as much of one’s self as possible. Our present system of compulsory basic schooling, kindergarten through the twelfth grade, does not serve any of these objectives well. The reasons why this is so and what must be done to remedy these grave deficiencies have been set forth in a series of books that have initiated much-needed reforms in our school system. The books are: The Paideia Proposal, Paideia Problems and Possibilities, and The Paideia Program.” Adler, We Hold These Truths (New York: Macmillan Pub. Co. 1987), p. 20 (separate paragraphs and footnote combined).
Some may consider it to be ironic that the school system specifically designed to prepare students for the duties of citizenship and discharging moral obligation seeks, in Adler’s words, to “do whatever is really good for us and nothing else” and to deny any responsibility for the consequences of its acts. (Adler, Ten Philosophical Mistakes, New York: Macmillan Pub. Co. 1985, p. 125.) However, this is not a completely fair projection. Paideia’s present position points to its non-control over the officer’s duties, in advocating the latter’s designation as an independent agent. It is a close subjective call; therefore, this is the reason I would submit the question to a jury.