Horridge v. St. Mary's County Department of Social Services, No. 80, September Term, 2003 (MD 7/28/2004)
| Decision Date | 28 July 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 80, September Term, 2003.,80, September Term, 2003. |
| Parties | Eric Horridge, et al. v. St. Mary's County Department of Social Services, et al. |
| Court | Court of Special Appeals of Maryland |
Opinion by WILNER, J.
Maryland law requires any person having reason to believe that a child has been subjected to abuse or neglect to make a fairly detailed report to either the local department of social services (DSS), which is a unit of the State Department of Human Resources and therefore a State agency, or an appropriate law enforcement agency. The law requires DSS, promptly after receiving such a report, to make a "thorough investigation" in order to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the child. Part of that requirement is the directive that, if the report is of physical or sexual abuse, DSS must, within 24 hours, "see the child," attempt to have an on-site interview with the child's caretaker, and decide on the safety of the child.
The principal questions before us are whether (1) the statutory obligation to conduct a thorough investigation and take appropriate steps to protect the child creates a civil duty on the part of DSS to the child who is the subject of a report of abuse, and (2) if so, and subject to the State Tort Claims Act, liability exists on the part of the State or individual social workers if harm ensues to a child because of a negligent breach of that duty. We shall answer both questions in the affirmative.
In an amended complaint filed in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, plaintiff, Eric Horridge, alleged that, between December, 1999, and February, 2000, he made eight reports to the St. Mary's County DSS of physical abuse being inflicted on his nineteen-month-old son Collin by Collin's mother or her boyfriend, that a neighbor also reported that Collin was being abused, that DSS failed to make a thorough investigation and take steps to protect Collin, as required by law, and that, as a result of that failure, Collin remained in mortal danger and, in fact, was beaten to death by his mother or her boyfriend eight days after the last report was made and ignored. The complaint charged the State and two DSS social workers, Briana Shirey and Deborah Walsh, with negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress on Collin, and depriving Collin of his State Constitutional right to procedural and substantive due process, and it added a count against the State for negligent selection, supervision, and retention of Ms. Shirey and Ms. Walsh.
The court dismissed the complaint as failing to state a cause of action upon which relief can be granted. Its decision was ultimately ground ed on its conclusion that no duty was owed to Collin by any of the defendants and that, even if a duty were owed to him, the breach of that duty was not the proximate cause of the harm that ensued. Horridge appealed, and we granted certiorari prior to proceedings in the Court of Special Appeals.
Because the complaint was dismissed on the ground that it failed to state a cause of action, the issues before us are purely ones of law. We must assume the truth of all well-pled factual allegations in the complaint, as well as any reasonable inferences that may be drawn from those allegations. Adamson v. Correctional Medical, 359 Md. 238, 246, 753 A.2d 501, 505 (2000); Muthukumarana v. Montgomery County, 370 Md. 447, 474, 805 A.2d 372, 388 (2002). Accordingly, we shall recite as fact that which, at this point, is merely alleged.
Collin was born in Texas, in June, 1998, to plaintiff, Eric Horridge, and Tiffany Fairris. In October, 1999, Ms. Fairris moved to St. Mary's County, Maryland, along with Collin, his three-year-old sister, Erica, and Ms. Fairris's boyfriend, Daniel Fowkes. Plaintiff remained in Texas. In December, 1999, he reported to "Defendants" that Collin was being abused. That abuse, the complaint alleges, "arose out of a series of telephone conversations that [Horridge] had with Tiffany Fairris during which she would physically abuse Collin while threatening Eric Horridge with never seeing his son again." The complaint does not indicate what, if anything, DSS did in response to that initial report. The two calls that are of particular importance were those that occurred later, in January and February, 2000.
On or about January 24, 2000, during the course of a telephone call to Maryland, Horridge "heard Collin screaming and crying in the background because Tiffany Fairris was hitting him and had pushed him in to a wall." He "immediately contacted the Defendants and provided them with detailed information about the physical injuries that Collin was suffering." Horridge also informed the defendants that Fairris abused drugs in the children's presence, that she became more abusive when under the influence of drugs and alcohol, that she had another child in Texas who had been abused while in her care, that a Texas court had restricted her right of visitation with that child, and that Fairris had threatened to abuse Collin in retaliation for Horridge having initiated custody proceedings in Texas.
On January 28, 2000 — four days after that call was received — the defendants "purported to conduct an on-site visit" with Collin, but, according to the amended complaint, failed to conduct a thorough investigation of the reported abuse. During the on-site visit, defendant Shirey observed circular bruising on Collin "that was consistent with the particulars of the abuse reported by [Horridge] to the Defendants, and which was inconsistent with normal toddler play," but Shirey declined to remove Collin from the home, have a doctor examine him, monitor the home environment, or take any other action to protect Collin. Instead, the defendants "purported to rely upon a statement, taken in the presence of the suspected abuser(s), from Collin, a nineteen-month-old toddler whose linguistic ability was limited to single words, in which he attributed his injuries to play activities." On February 2, 2000, the Defendants closed the case without taking any further action.
On or about February 17, 2000, Fairiss informed Horridge that she would abuse Collin in retaliation for his reports of abuse. Horridge immediately reported that threat to the defendants, but they refused to investigate it. Instead, Shirey accused Horridge of being a "disgruntled parent" and told him that "she did not care about his report because the case was closed." Walsh instructed him "not to call back again with a report of abuse concerning [Collin]." Apart from Horridge's complaints, "a concerned neighbor with personal knowledge of abuse or neglect of [Collin], also made a report, at a time or times to be determined, to DSS that [Collin] was being abused or neglected," but the defendants essentially ignored that report as well.
On February 25, 2000, Collin was beaten to death by Fairris or her boyfriend, Fowkes. The autopsy revealed that Collin died from multiple blunt force injuries, including "multiple abrasions and contusions of varying ages, scalp hemorrhage, lacerations of the liver, contusions of the right lung, lacerations of the pancreas, lacerations of the mesent[e]ry and mesenteric lymph nodes [membranes that connect the intestines to the dorsal abdominal wall], hemorrhage within the soft tissues of the anterior mediastinum [the space containing the heart and viscera of the chest, other than the lungs], perirenal adipose, pelvic soft tissues, and within the anterior diaphragm, multiple serosal contusions of the bowel, pulmonary edema and congestion." The autopsy also revealed "numerous and significant wounds on his body that were more than seven days old," including wounds "that were circular in appearance; wounds that are consistent with Collin being struck by an adult hand or knuckles and the reports by [Horridge] of physical abuse being inflicted on Collin by [Fairris or Fowkes]."
The nine-count amended complaint stated four counts of negligence — two against the State (DSS) and two against Shirey and Walsh. In Count I, against DSS, the complaint noted the requirements set forth in Maryland Code, §§5-702 through 5-706 of the Family Law Article and in implementing regulations of the Department of Human Resources that require DSS to make a thorough investigation of reports of child abuse and to render appropriate service in the best interest of the child. It alleged that those statutory and regulatory obligations were the basis of a duty that DSS owed to Collin, "because as a child in a home where suspected abuse had been reported he was a member of the class specifically protected by law." DSS knew, the complaint said, from the reports by Horridge and the neighbor and from their own observations, that Fairris and Fowkes were harming Collin and that it was reasonably foreseeable that the abuse would continue. It breached its duty to Collin by (1) failing to protect him from known abuse, (2) failing to investigate reports of abuse properly and in compliance with statutory, administrative, and professional standards, (3) failing to provide services and follow-up monitoring after the initial home visit to minimize the risk of retaliatory abuse, (4) failing to properly investigate reports of abuse of Collin made after DSS had closed the case, and (5) failing to competently hire, train, and supervise Walsh and Shirey.
Count II charged DSS with negligence based on a special relationship with Collin. It averred that DSS knew that Collin faced a special danger of abuse and it had "specifically proclaimed by word and deed its intention to protect him against that danger," that, having undertaken to do so, it "acquired an affirmative duty to do so in a reasonably competent fashion," and, for the reasons noted in Count I, failed to carry out that duty. Counts III and IV charged Walsh and Shirey with gross negligence —...
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