Helleloid v. Independent School Dist. No. 361

• Decision Date: 19 June 2001
• Docket Number: No. CIV 00-521 (RLE).,CIV 00-521 (RLE).
• Citation: 149 F.Supp.2d 863
• Parties: Burton HELLELOID and Rebecca Helleloid, Plaintiffs, v. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER 361, Defendant.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota

149 F.Supp.2d 863

Burton HELLELOID and Rebecca Helleloid, Plaintiffs, v. INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NUMBER 361, Defendant.

No. CIV 00-521 (RLE).

United States District Court, D. Minnesota.

June 19, 2001.

Teri Ellen Bentson, McCollum, Crowley, Vehanen, Moschet & Miller, Minneapolis, MN, for Plaintiffs.

Michael D. Hutchens, Alana K. Bassin, Bradley J. Lindeman, Meagher & Geer, Minneapolis, MN, for Defendant.

ORDER

ERICKSON, United States Magistrate Judge.

I. Introduction

This matter came before the undersigned United States Magistrate Judge pursuant to the consent of the parties, made in accordance with the provisions of Title 28 U.S.C. § 636(c), upon the Defendant's Motion to Dismiss.

A Hearing on the Motion was conducted on March 22, 2001, at which time, the Plaintiffs appeared by Teri E. Bentson, Esq., and the Defendant Independent School District Number 361 ("the District") appeared by Bradley J. Lindeman, Esq.

For reasons which follow, the Defendant's Motion is granted, in part. In addition, we direct the Plaintiffs, pursuant to Rule 12(e), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, to file a more definite statement of Counts II and III of their Complaint.

II. Factual and Procedural Background

This action arises from the sexual abuse that was suffered by the Plaintiffs' son, Justin M. McGee ("McGee"), while he was a student at Falls Elementary School in the School District, which is located in International Falls, Minnesota. In 1985, while a second grader at Falls Elementary School, McGee was designated a student with emotional or behavioral problems ("EBD"), and was assigned a special education teacher, John Alan Pearson ("Pearson"). Shortly thereafter, Pearson began to sexually abuse McGee.

According to the Plaintiffs' Complaint, in 1986, McGee told his mother, Rebecca Helleloid ("Helleloid"), that Pearson was "touching his bottom." See, Complaint, at ¶ 10. The Plaintiffs allege that, thereafter, Helleloid reported McGee's accusation to Pearson who, in turn, reported the complaint to the special education director, Michael Erickson ("Erickson"). However, no one from the District reported this alleged incident of abuse to the authorities, or undertook any remedial measures to investigate the alleged abuse, or to prevent further abuse. According to the Plaintiffs, the District informed them that the matter had been fully investigated by both a State Agency, and by the District itself, and that this investigation had resulted in a determination that McGee's complaint occurred as a result of misunderstood casual contact. Id. at ¶ 14.

For the next four to five years, McGee continued to suffer from sexual abuse at the hands of Pearson. Despite the fact that McGee reported this abuse, Erickson and Ruth Teeter ("Teeter"), who was the school psychologist, failed to investigate these allegations, or to inform the Plaintiffs of McGee's complaints. Further, although McGee's complaints were recorded in his school EBD file, which Erickson reviewed prior to consultative sessions with the Plaintiffs, the Plaintiffs maintain that Erickson deliberately withheld this information. Id. at ¶ 18.

In 1992, Pearson pled guilty to criminal sexual conduct, in the second degree, for his abuse of McGee. Thereafter, McGee sued the District, and Pearson, for damages under theories of respondeat superior, negligent retention, assault and battery, and the intentional infliction of emotional distress. See, McGee v. Independent School Dist. No. 361, 1998 WL 114077 (Minn.App.1998). Fourteen months after that Complaint was filed, the District moved for Summary Judgment, while McGee moved for a continuance to conduct additional discovery on whether Pearson's acts were foreseeable. The Trial Court granted Summary Judgment in the District's favor and, thereafter on appeal, the Minnesota Court of Appeals reversed the Trial Court's grant of Summary Judgment, and remanded the case back to the Trial Court. Id. Following a Jury Trial, McGee was awarded a favorable Verdict and, subsequently, the parties settled the dispute during the period for post-Trial Motions.

On March 7, 2000, McGee's parents filed this suit, which seeks damages under Title 42 U.S.C. § 1983, attorneys fees under Title 42 U.S.C. § 1988, and damages for fraud and intentional misrepresentation. In support of their Section 1983 claim, the Plaintiffs have alleged that the District had a custom and policy of not reporting allegations of abuse, and that, in furtherance of this policy, the District: (1) failed and refused to report repeated allegations of abuse, as required by State law; (2) failed and refused to investigate memoranda in McGee's school EBD file, which suggested that McGee was suffering from sexual abuse; (3) failed to inform the Plaintiffs of their son's complaints of sexual abuse; (4) withheld documents from their records which revealed sexual abuse; (5) deceived the Plaintiffs about the nature and extent of the District's alleged investigation into the complaints of abuse; and (6) engaged in a pattern of deceiving the Plaintiffs about the nature and extent of its investigations into the alleged abuse, in order to conceal its failure to act. See, Complaint, at ¶ 25.

The Plaintiffs also allege that the District intentionally deceived the Plaintiffs, by falsely professing that it had fully investigated and reported any allegations of sexual abuse that had been voiced by McGee, when, in fact, no investigation had been conducted. Id. at ¶ 21. According to the Plaintiffs, the District continued to make these false representations, in sworn pleadings and briefs, which were filed with the Koochiching County District Court in 1997 and 1998, and in a sworn brief which was filed with the Minnesota Court of Appeals, in 1997. Id.

As argued by the Plaintiffs, the actions, or inaction, of the District, deprived them of information and knowledge necessary for them to make informed decisions as parents, and thereby hindered their ability to protect McGee from harm, and to otherwise "parent" McGee. Id. at ¶ 26. As such, the Plaintiffs contend that they were denied their fundamental constitutional right to parent without State interference. Id. at ¶ 27. In addition, by continuing to falsely represent that it had investigated McGee's allegations of abuse, the Plaintiffs contend that the District committed fraud.

In response to the Plaintiffs' Complaint, the District filed its Motion to Dismiss. According to the District, the Plaintiffs' claims should be dismissed because they are barred by the applicable statute of limitations. As well, the District contends that the Plaintiffs cannot sustain a Section 1983 claim, because they cannot demonstrate that State action was directed at harming their parental relationship with McGee, nor can they demonstrate that they suffered a permanent, physical, loss of association with McGee. Finally, the District argues that the Plaintiffs' fraud claims should be dismissed because they have not pled those claims with particularity, as required by Rule 9, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

III. Discussion

A. Standard of Review. In considering a Motion to Dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6), Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, we accept as true, in a hypothetical sense, all of the factual allegations of the Complaint, and we view those allegations in a light most favorable to the nonmoving party —here the Plaintiffs. See, Riley v. St. Louis County of Missouri, 153 F.3d 627, 630 (8th Cir.1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1178, 119 S.Ct. 1113, 143 L.Ed.2d 109 (1999); Anderson v. Franklin County, Mo., 192 F.3d 1125, 1131 (8th Cir.1999); Springdale Educ. Ass'n v. Springdale School Dist., 133 F.3d 649, 651 (8th Cir. 1998). Under such an analysis, a Motion to Dismiss, for failing to state a claim, should only be granted if it is beyond doubt that no relief could be granted, under any set of facts, when the allegations are construed in a light most favorable to the pleader. Hartford Fire Ins. Co. v. California, 509 U.S. 764, 811, 113 S.Ct. 2891, 125 L.Ed.2d 612 (1993); Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 236, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974); Conley v. Gibson, 355 U.S. 41, 45-46, 78 S.Ct. 99, 2 L.Ed.2d 80 (1957); County of St. Charles v. Missouri Family Health Council, 107 F.3d 682, 684 (8th Cir.1997), cert. denied, 522 U.S. 859, 118 S.Ct. 160, 139 L.Ed.2d 105 (1997).

In deferring to the well-pleaded factual allegations, the Court need not accept, as true, wholly conclusory allegations, or unwarranted factual inferences. See, Hanten v. School Dist. of Riverview Gardens, 183 F.3d 799, 805 (8th Cir.1999); Springdale Educ. Ass'n v. Springdale School Dist., supra at 651; Bradley v. Chiron Corp., 136 F.3d 1317, 1322 (Fed.Cir.1998); Morse v. Lower Merion School Dist., 132 F.3d 902, 906 (3rd Cir.1997); LRL Properties v. Portage Metro Housing Authority, 55 F.3d 1097, 1103 (6th Cir.1995). Moreover, in treating the factual allegations of a Complaint as true, the Court "do[es] not, however, blindly accept the legal conclusions drawn by the pleader from the facts." Westcott v. City of Omaha, 901 F.2d 1486, 1488 (8th Cir.1990), citing Morgan v. Church's Fried Chicken, 829 F.2d 10, 12 (6th Cir.1987).

B. Legal Analysis. The District seeks a dismissal of the Plaintiffs' Section 1983 claim, and their fraud claims. Since these issues involve different considerations, we address them separately.

1. The Plaintiffs' Section 1983 Claim. In moving to dismiss the Plaintiffs' Section 1983 claim, the District urges that the claim is time-barred, and that, as pled, the claim fails to state a viable cause of action. Again, we discuss these subsidiary issues separately.

a. Is the Plaintiff's Section 1983 Claim Time-Barred.

According to the District, because Pearson pled guilty to criminal sexual conduct in 1992, at a minimum, the Plaintiffs were aware of the abuse McGee suffered for a period of over nine years before their Complaint was filed and, therefore, their Section 1983 claims are...