Court Opinion

ID: 9686132
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 15:30:47.638713+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:15.319541
License: Public Domain

WAHL, Justice
(concurring specially).
I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion and with virtually all of its reasoning. I agree that Anoka County has a special relationship with children in county-licensed child care facilities, a relationship that creates a tort duty, and that the county has waived its governmental immunity in this case to the extent of its liability insurance coverage. I also agree that the issue of whether a special relationship exists is to be analyzed under Cracraft and that not all of Cracraft ⅛ enumerated factors need to be present for a special duty to be found to exist. Finally, I agree that the third Cracraft factor is present in this case — the Public Welfare Licensing Act creates a statutory duty for Anoka County to protect a particular class, i.e. small children in licensed child care facilities — and that the presence of this factor alone is sufficient in this case to create in the county a tort duty to the plaintiffs. I believe, however, that two other of the factors enumerated in Cracraft are also present here.
*844Anoka County, in my view, had actual knowledge of a dangerous condition at the Ellefson home such that a special duty was imposed on them to do something about the condition. The county, through its inspectors and the reports of the next-door neighbor, knew of overcrowding in the Ellefson home in the period before Jerrett Aasen’s injury. The Ellefson home was licensed for five children only. After Aasen was hurt, child protection workers found 13 preschool age children, six of those children under 13 months of age, at the Ellefson home. For these 13 children there were only two caretakers, one mentally retarded. The two babies who were injured were seven months old. In the case of very young children in a child care situation, such overcrowding is per se dangerous.
Further, there is evidence that Jerrett Aasen’s parents reasonably relied on Ano-ka County’s licensing and supervision of the Ellefson home as a specific representation that this licensed home, as opposed to other nonlicensed homes, had met the standards for such facilities. The rules governing the licensing of family day care homes are detailed and comprehensive. They mandate, for example, required daily activities for children, training, supervision and personal and professional qualifications for care providers, health, safety and environmental conditions appropriate for young children, nutritional meals and health care for the children, etc. See Minn.Rules §§ 9545.0310-.0450 (1985). When a county licenses a child care facility, it represents to parents that these demanding standards have been met. This is not a general representation, but a representation that this specific licensee is a suitable person to have charge of children and that this particular facility provides adequate care and surroundings for young children. Parents, of course, may select a nonlicensed home because licensing of day care homes is not mandatory. Minn.Stat. § 245.791 (1984). Dennis Aasen’s affidavit stated that he and Jerrett’s mother would only place their child in a licensed home. Licensing standards are of critical importance to parents seeking adequate, nurturing child care and parents rely on enforcement of these rules. Parents who require child care have a special need to rely on the representation of quality indicated by licensing because, for a working parent, and most parents must work in today’s world, child care is a necessity. There is no other source through which parents can get reliable information about this essential service than from the county, the licensing and inspection authority.