Court Opinion

ID: 9793670
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:51:22.245373+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:06:32.870467
License: Public Domain

DUBOFSKY, Justice,
dissenting:
I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that summary judgment for Jefferson County School District (school district) was proper because the school district had not assumed the duty to place crossing guards at the intersection in the morning. The question whether the school district had a duty to provide crossing guards at the intersection for kindergartners returning home before noon is ultimately a question of law. Metropolitan Gas Repair Serv., Inc. v. Kulik, 621 P.2d 313 (Colo.1981). See also W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton & D. Owen, Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts ch. 6 § 37 at 236 (5th ed. 1984). However, resolution of the legal question depends largely on the foreseeability of the harm. Metropolitan Gas, 621 P.2d at 317. W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton & D. Owen, Torts, supra, Ch. 7 § 45 at 320.1
The district court in this case found that school crossing guards were used at the intersection during the afternoon dismissal but were not used during the morning dismissal of kindergartners. By placing crossing guards at the intersection during the afternoon, the school district recognized that injury to children crossing the intersection was foreseeable. Injury to kindergartners, who are younger and less experienced in crossing streets than older children, is even more foreseeable. At the least, the evidence concerning the use of crossing guards was sufficient to raise a genuine question of material fact concerning foreseeability, thus precluding summary judgment on the issue whether the school district had a duty to provide school crossing guards at the time Christine Gilbert was injured.2 Therefore, I would affirm the part of the court of appeals’ opinion reversing the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the school district.
I join in Chief Justice QUINN’s dissent from section II of the majority opinion.

. While the majority resolves this case on the assumption of duty or good Samaritan doctrine, I believe there is no need to go beyond the customary considerations of duty and foreseeability to determine whether summary judgment was appropriate.

. The foreseeability of harm is not the only factor to be considered in determining whether the school district owed a duty to provide crossing guards for children returning home from kindergarten in the morning. Other factors to be weighed include the costs involved in imposing the duty, the likelihood of preventing future harm and the gravity of the possible harm. See Turner v. Grier, 43 Colo.App. 395, 397, 608 P.2d 356, 358 (1979); W. Keeton, D. Dobbs, R. Keeton & D. Owen, Torts, supra, ch. 7 § 43 at 298. In this case I think it unlikely that consideration of any of these factors would militate against the imposition of a duty on the school district if the factual question of foreseeability of harm was resolved against the district.