Lynch v. Board of Ed. of Collinsville Community Unit Dist. No. 10

• Citation: 45 Ill.Dec. 96,82 Ill.2d 415,412 N.E.2d 447
• Decision Date: 15 September 1980
• Docket Number: No. 52176,52176
• Parties: , 45 Ill.Dec. 96 Cynthia L. LYNCH et al., Appellees, v. The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF COLLINSVILLE COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT NO. 10, Appellant.
• Court: Supreme Court of Illinois

Page 447

412 N.E.2d 447

82 Ill.2d 415, 45 Ill.Dec. 96

Cynthia L. LYNCH et al., Appellees, v. The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF COLLINSVILLE COMMUNITY UNIT DISTRICT NO. 10, Appellant.

No. 52176.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Sept. 15, 1980.

Rehearing Denied Nov. 26, 1980.

James C. Cook, of Walker & Williams, Belleville, for appellant.

Robert C. Nelson, Belleville, for appellees.

CLARK, Justice, delivered the decision of the court and the following opinion in which KLUCZYNSKI, Justice, joins:

The plaintiffs, Cynthia L. Lynch, by her father and next friend, Raymond L. Lynch, and Raymond L. Lynch, individually, filed a two-count complaint in the circuit court of Madison County on September 12, 1975. In count I Cynthia sought damages from the defendant, the board of education of Collinsville Community Unit District No. 10, for injuries she suffered during a "powderpuff" football game held at the Vandalia campus of the Collinsville high school on October 27, 1974. Count II consisted of the same pleaded facts, but damages were sought by Raymond Lynch for the expenses he had incurred as a result of Cynthia's injuries. An amended complaint was filed on October 9, 1975. It added a paragraph to each count of the original complaint alleging that the defendant possessed insurance coverage. The defendant filed an answer on January 6, 1976. On March 21, 1977, the plaintiffs filed a second amended complaint which consisted of four counts. Upon a motion to dismiss, the court ordered on April 6, 1977, that counts I and III be dismissed. The defendant filed an answer to the remaining counts. Thereafter on March 9, 1978, the first day of trial, the court granted the plaintiffs' motion to reinstate counts I and III of the second amended complaint. In count I, Cynthia alleged that the defendant was negligent in failing to provide her with protective equipment. In count II, Cynthia alleged that the defendant was wilfully and wantonly negligent by failing to supervise the football game. In counts III and IV, Raymond Lynch repeated the allegations of counts I and II, respectively. At the conclusion of the trial, a jury returned a general verdict for Cynthia in the amount of $60,000; the jury returned a verdict against Raymond Lynch on counts III and IV. Judgment was entered on the verdicts on March 15, 1978. Subsequently, Cynthia, by now of age, was substituted as party plaintiff in her own name. The defendant's post-trial motion to vacate the judgment was denied by the trial court on August 13, 1978. The defendant appealed to the Appellate Court for the Fifth District. The appellate court, with one justice dissenting, affirmed the judgment of the circuit court. (72 Ill.App.3d 317, 28 Ill.Dec. 359, 390 N.E.2d 526.) We subsequently granted the defendant's petition for leave to appeal. 73 Ill.2d R. 315(a).

Since an issue is raised herein as to whether the jury's verdict in favor of Cynthia was against the manifest weight of the evidence, a detailed recitation of the facts is warranted. We note, incidentally, that since no appeal was taken from the judgment entered against Raymond Lynch the merits of that judgment are not before us.

The plaintiff, Cynthia Lynch, was playing quarterback on the junior girls' football team on October 27, 1974. She had thrown a pass to a teammate when she was struck in the face by an opposing player and knocked down. The back of her head struck the ground with considerable force. Cynthia was taken to the hospital by her parents, who had been at the game as spectators. The hospital records admitted into evidence at the trial reveal that Cynthia suffered a small linear fracture of the nasal bone. The senior girls eventually won the game 52 to 0.

From the voluminous testimony adduced at trial it appears that the junior-senior "powderpuff" football game had been played each year as a half-time event of the homecoming varsity football game from 1970 to 1973. In 1974, when Rodney Woods became the principal of Collinsville high school, he ordered that the game not be held during half time of the homecoming game. Nevertheless, several students approached some of the teaching faculty and requested them to coach the girls' teams. Three teachers agreed to do so. None of the three teachers had been hired by the district to be coaches. It is not entirely clear from the record, but between four and six practice sessions were held in preparation for the football game. These sessions were held after school on school grounds. The girls changed their clothes in the school locker room prior to the practices. It is unclear whether a school football was used in either the practice sessions or during the game. There was testimony that one of the footballs was supplied by a student while no one knew the owner of a second football which was used. The game was played on Sunday of homecoming weekend, October 27, 1974, but not during half time of the varsity football game.

The testimony is undisputed that little instruction in the rules of football was given during the practice sessions. Two witnesses who had played in the game, in addition to the plaintiff, testified that these sessions consisted primarily of passing and hiking the ball and blocking each other in order to get an idea as to which girl was best suited for each position. It was suggested by one of the teachers that the girls purchase mouth guards since tackle football could be "rough" at times. Most of the girls, including the plaintiff, did purchase and wear mouth guards for the game.

The plaintiff testified that several notices of the game were posted on bulletin boards throughout the school. This testimony was corroborated by Reese Hoskins, an assistant principal, and by Rodney Woods, the principal. Additionally, the plaintiff, and two of the participants in the game who testified, stated that at least one, if not more, announcements were made by students over the school's public address system to inform the students of the practice sessions and the game.

Further evidence was adduced at trial by the plaintiff to establish that her injuries were more extensive than a fractured nose. Testimony of a psychiatrist, Dr. Anthony K. Busch, and the result of an electroencephalogram indicating an abnormal brain-wave pattern, were admitted during trial. This evidence related to the testimony given by the plaintiff, her parents, and friends and neighbors of the plaintiff that after the football game in October 1974 the plaintiff's behavior changed. The evidence tended to establish that she became irritable, rebellious and moody. The plaintiff testified that she had six jobs between the time of the accident and the trial, and she was fired from five of them. The plaintiff's parents testified that since the accident the plaintiff had broken windows in her room in a fit of temper; they would find her walking the streets alone at night; and that she would sit in a rocking chair for hours, none of which she had done before her injury. In May 1975, the plaintiff took her father's car and, with another girl and two boys, drove to Colorado and Utah, where they were apprehended by the authorities, but the plaintiff managed to escape. After an accident involving her father's car in Wyoming, the plaintiff was placed in a girls school by the authorities until her parents could travel to Wyoming to take her home with them.

On cross-examination, the plaintiff testified that she had been involved in a fight with another student prior to the football game. Also, the plaintiff testified that her parents began to put more restrictions on her behavior at approximately the same time as the football game.

Dr. Busch testified that he began treating the plaintiff soon after her return from Wyoming. She was placed in the hospital by her parents, where Dr. Busch ordered her to be placed in leather restraints to keep her from running off. Dr. Busch stated that the plaintiff became "more cooperative" after she received sedatives and other medication he prescribed for her which neutralized the effects of her abnormal brain-wave pattern. A second electroencephalogram, taken six months later, showed no appreciable change in the plaintiff's brain-wave pattern.

Dr. Busch stated that in his opinion, based upon a reasonable degree of psychiatric certainty, the plaintiff's condition is of permanent duration, and that while medication would enable her to have better control of her behavior, it would not eliminate her difficulties. Dr. Busch further testified that those difficulties would include impulses that the plaintiff would find difficult to control and some faultiness in judgment. In response to a hypothetical question which recited all of the facts in evidence, Dr. Busch testified that, in his opinion, the injury the plaintiff sustained on October 27, 1974, "quite probably was the causation of her difficulties."

On cross-examination, Dr. Busch testified that his diagnosis of the plaintiff's condition upon her discharge from the hospital was "a behavioral disorder of adolescence." The doctor stated that if an electroencephalogram had been taken before the plaintiff's injury it "would have helped tremendously" in judging whether her abnormal brain-wave pattern existed prior to the accident, but no such test had been conducted. The doctor further testified that he did not think that the plaintiff's abnormal brain-wave pattern existed before the accident because some outward manifestations, including, possibly, fighting, would probably have occurred.

Donald Eugene Arnold, an instructor in football officiating and football coaching at the University of Illinois, also testified. Professor Arnold testified concerning the rules governing high school football in Illinois. He stated that the object is to promote the safety of the players. He further testified that he knew of no organized tackle football games where equipment such as helmets, shoulder pads and the like are not used; that such...