Flournoy v. School Dist. No. One in City and County of Denver

• Decision Date: 22 March 1971
• Docket Number: No. 23199,23199
• Citation: 482 P.2d 966,174 Colo. 110
• Parties: Roy FLOURNOY and Ruth L. Flournoy, Plaintiffs in Error, v. SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER ONE IN the CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVER, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

Page 966

482 P.2d 966

174 Colo. 110

Roy FLOURNOY and Ruth L. Flournoy, Plaintiffs in Error, v.SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER ONE IN the CITY AND COUNTY OF DENVERDefendant in Error.

No. 23199.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

March 22, 1971.

Rehearing Denied April 12, 1971.

John S. Carroll, Walter L. Gerash, Denver, for plaintiffs in error.

Henry, Cockrell, Quinn & Creighton, Richard C. Cockrell, Peter C. Guthery, Peter M. Eggleston, Denver, for defendant in error.

GROVES, Justice.

The plaintiffs(plaintiffs in error here) brought an action against the defendant school district and others to collect damages for the alleged wrongful death of their son.The court granted a motion for summary judgment in favor of the school district on the ground of governmental immunity and the amended complaint was dismissed as to it.The school district is the only defendant in error in this proceeding.The only issue we are called upon to decide is whether we shall continue to follow the doctrine of governmental immunity as to school districts.

There has been cited 1965 Perm.Supp., C.R.S.1963, 123--30--10(23) and (24), and 123--30--11 authorizing boards of education of school districts to procure liability insurance and providing that each policy shall contain a condition that the insurer shall not assert the defense of sovereign immunity.It has been argued that this statute abrogates the doctrine of governmental immunity.We have not considered this argument and we do not pass on the issue.Our ruling is upon a broader ground.

For the reasons expressed in Evans v. Board of County Commissioners, Supreme Court, 482 P.2d 968, announced contemporaneously with this opinion, we hold that the court-made doctrine of governmental immunity of school districts is overruled.As to the parties to this proceeding and the two contemporaneous proceedings (Evans, Supra, and Proffitt v. State of Colorado, Supreme Court, 482 P.2d 965) this decision is effective immediately.As to all other causes of action the ruling shall be prospective and shall be effective only as to causes of action arising after June 30, 1972.

The other defendants in the district court action were Deloris I. Sayles(Sayles), Robert McComas(McComas) and Kenneth E. Oberholtzer(Oberholtzer).Following the entry of summary judgment in favor of the school district, the plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint in which they alleged the following: that McComas was the principal of the junior high school in Denver School DistrictNo. 1 attended by their son, David, and that Oberholtzer was the superintendent of schools for School...