89 Hawai'i 315, Ruf v. Honolulu Police Dept.
| Decision Date | 23 February 1999 |
| Docket Number | No. 21255,21255 |
| Parties | 89 Hawai'i 315 Tracy Alicia RUF, individually and as Special Administratrix of the Estate of Aleisea Kuuipo Tua Lani Maliateza Woolsey-Ruf, and Dathaniel T. Woolsey, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT and City and County of Honolulu, Defendants-appellees, and Aaron Christopher Schonlau and Todd Lee Schonlau, Defendants |
| Court | Hawaii Supreme Court |
Joseph P.H. Ahuna, Jr., and John H.W. Yuen (of the Law Offices of Joseph P.H. Ahuna, Jr.), on the briefs, for plaintiffs-appellants Tracy Alicia Ruf, individually and as special administratrix of the Estate of Aleisea Kuuipo Tua Lani Maliateza Woolsey-Ruf, and Dathaniel T. Woolsey.
Edwin C. Nacino, Deputy Corporation Counsel, on the briefs, for defendants-appellees Honolulu Police Department and the City and County of Honolulu.
Before MOON, C.J., and KLEIN, LEVINSON, NAKAYAMA, and RAMIL, JJ.
The plaintiffs-appellants Tracy Alicia Ruf, individually and as special adminstratrix of the Estate of Aleisea Kuuipo Tua Lani Maliateza Woolsey-Ruf (hereinafter, Aleisea), and Dathaniel T. Woolsey (collectively, the plaintiffs) appeal from the orders of the fifth circuit court (1) denying the plaintiffs' motion for leave to file a second amended complaint and (2) granting the defendants-appellees Honolulu Police Department and the City and County of Honolulu's (collectively, "the HPD") motion to dismiss the first amended complaint. 1 On appeal, the plaintiffs argue that the circuit court: (1) erred in granting the HPD's motion to dismiss the first amended complaint because (a) it should have (i) treated the motion as a motion for summary judgment and (ii) ruled that the HPD had failed to meet its burden of showing that there was no genuine issue of material fact and that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law, and (b) the first amended complaint alleged sufficient facts to state a claim against the HPD for which relief could be granted; and (2) abused its discretion in denying the plaintiffs' motion to file a second amended complaint. The plaintiffs' initial argument that the "motion to dismiss" should have been treated as a motion for summary judgment is without merit. Moreover, for the reasons discussed below, we do not agree that the plaintiffs' complaint--in any of its amended forms, filed or proffered to date--states a claim against the HPD for which relief can be granted. Accordingly, it is unnecessary to address the plaintiffs' last argument that the circuit court abused its discretion in denying the plaintiffs' motion to file a second amended complaint. We therefore affirm the circuit court's orders and judgment. I. BACKGROUND
On July 25, 1995, the plaintiffs filed a complaint in the fifth circuit court against the HPD, Aaron Christopher Schonlau (hereinafter, Aaron), and Todd Lee Schonlau (hereinafter, Todd), alleging in relevant part as follows:
... On or about July 27, 1993, [Aaron] intentionally, wilfully, and wantonly abducted, sexually assaulted, raped and murdered a four year old girl named [Aleisea] at Anini Beach, County of Kauai, State of Hawaii (hereinafter the "incident").
... At the time of this incident, [Aaron] had a criminal record and history of serious crimes, and was an escaped felon who was wanted in the State of Colorado for burglary and escape. [Aaron] was listed as a wanted felon in the National Crime Information Center's (hereinafter "NCIC") computer network.
....
... On or about June 25, 1993, a woman filed a complaint with [the HPD] reporting that [Aaron] had entered her tent and attempted to rape her in the early morning of June 25, 1993 at a camping ground near Punalu[']u, in the City and County of Honolulu, Hawai[']i. Thereafter [the HPD] arrested [Aaron] for burglary and sexual assault at the camping ground ... and held him in their control and custody for several hours. [The HPD] released [Aaron] later that same day because they could not find the complainant and the NCIC computer check indicated that [Aaron] was not on the "wanted" list.
... After the July 27, 1993 incident, the Kauai Police Department discovered through the NCIC that [Aaron] was wanted for burglary and escape in the State of Colorado.
... [The HPD] did not discover that [Aaron] was wanted for burglary and escape in the State of Colorado on June 25, 1993 because [the HPD] had entered the wrong spelling of [Aaron's] name and the wrong social security number into the NCIC computer when they had him in custody and control on June 25, 1993.
... [The HPD] owed a duty of reasonable care to protect individuals such as [Aleisea] from a dangerous person such as [Aaron] when such dangerous person was under arrest and in their custody and control. A special relationship between [the HPD] and the [plaintiffs] was created and, thus[,] a duty of reasonable care to the [plaintiffs], when [the HPD] could reasonably foresee that they would be expected to take affirmative and proper actions to protect the public and individuals such as [Aleisea], and that harm, even harm and death to individuals such as [Aleisea], would result if they failed to do so.
... [The HPD] knew or should have known that [Aaron] would cause bodily harm to others, even harm and death to [Aleisea,] if [Aaron] was not kept in [its] custody and control, and thus, owed a duty to exercise reasonable care to keep in their custody and/or control [Aaron] to prevent him from doing harm to others, even injury and death to [Aleisea].
... The incident ... was directly and proximately caused by the negligent ... acts and omissions of [the HPD.]
(Emphasis in original.) The complaint further alleged that Todd (1) was Aaron's natural brother, (2) knew of Aaron's criminal history and violent proclivities, and (3) failed to reasonably restrain him in order to prevent Aleisea's death. The plaintiffs prayed for damages, inter alia, for wrongful death, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of love and affection.
The HPD filed an answer to the complaint and a cross-claim against Aaron and Todd on August 25, 1995. Aaron and Todd apparently failed to make an appearance in the case. On June 26, 1997, the HPD filed a "notice of dismissal without prejudice" of its claims against Aaron and Todd. On the plaintiffs' motion, default judgment was entered against Aaron and Todd and in favor of the plaintiffs on January 12, 1998. Neither Aaron nor Todd made an appearance in the present appeal.
On March 20, 1997, the HPD filed a motion to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the plaintiffs had failed to allege sufficient facts to support their claim of a special relationship between the HPD and the plaintiffs, and that, consequently, the HPD owed them no duty. In response, on March 25, 1997, the plaintiffs filed a motion for leave to amend their complaint. In the memorandum in support of their motion, the plaintiffs alleged that they had learned at some unspecified time "through discovery" that, Although the plaintiffs asserted that they "f[elt] there [were] sufficient facts to support a claim for negligent release" in the original complaint, they prayed leave of the court to amend it in order to add allegations regarding the confession. On April 2, 1997, the plaintiffs filed a memorandum in response to the HPD's motion to dismiss, arguing that the complaint alleged sufficient facts to state a claim pursuant to the Restatement (Second) of Torts (hereinafter, Restatement (Second)) § 319 (1965).
Following a hearing conducted on April 10, 1997, the circuit court orally granted the HPD's motion to dismiss the original complaint, but also granted the plaintiffs' motion to file an amended complaint. As the court explained to the HPD's counsel, The circuit court invited the HPD to file a new motion to dismiss with respect to the amended complaint, if the HPD believed it would be appropriate to do so. The circuit court's written orders granting the plaintiffs' motion to amend the complaint and the HPD's motion to dismiss the original complaint were filed on April 24, 1997 and June 13, 1997, respectively.
The plaintiffs filed their first amended complaint on April 14, 1997, incorporating the allegations regarding Aaron's confession as described above. The HPD filed an answer to the first amended complaint on May 8, 1997. On June 3, 1997, the HPD filed a motion, denominated "motion to dismiss with prejudice plaintiffs' first amended complaint," substantially reiterating the arguments advanced in its first motion to dismiss. The HPD's memorandum in support of its motion included the following:
For the purposes of this motion only, the facts alleged in Plaintiffs' First Amended Complaint ... as well as the following facts are undisputed: On June 25, 1993, at approximately 2:00 a.m., Aaron ... was arrested by the Honolulu Police Department ("HPD") for the criminal offenses of Burglary and Attempted Sex Assault. The appropriate local and National Crime Index Computer ("NCIC") checks of [Aaron] were performed by the [HPD]. However, outstanding arrest warrants issued by the State of Colorado were not discovered[, and] therefore [,] not served on [Aaron]. The alleged victim of the attempted sex assault and burglary failed to appear at the police station at the scheduled time to pick [Aaron] from a live line-up in order to fulfill the element of identification and could not be physically located. On June 25, 1993, at approximately 3:00 p.m., the investigating detective, facing federal and state constitutional constraints under ...
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