Payne v. Twiggs County School Dist.
| Decision Date | 02 March 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. S98Q0351,S98Q0351 |
| Parties | , 124 Ed. Law Rep. 458, 98 FCDR 712 PAYNE, b/n/f v. TWIGGS COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT et al. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Thomas F. Jarriel, Lane & Jarriel, Macon, for Natasha N. Payne.
Lawrence J. Hogan, Beth Singletary Reeves, Chambers, Marbry, McClelland & Brooks, Lawrenceville, for Twiggs County School District et al.
A question was certified to this Court by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit regarding the interpretation of OCGA § 20-2-1090, which requires school boards to insure students against injuries sustained in school bus accidents. In answering the certified question, we interpret the language used both in the statute and in the insurance contract according to its plain and ordinary meaning, and conclude that section 20-2-1090 does not allow a direct action against a school bus insurer to recover damages for injuries sustained solely due to one student physically attacking another student while on a school bus.
On May 5, 1993, while riding a school bus home from school in Twiggs County, Payne was attacked with a knife by Smith, a fellow student, and badly cut on the face. Payne brought an action in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia against the Twiggs County School District, Basley, Assistant Principal of the school, and Bowden, driver of the bus at the time of the incident. The complaint asserted a cause of action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and Georgia principles of negligence liability. Payne later amended her claim to include Selective Insurance Co. ("Selective"), the Twiggs County School District's insurer. The School District, Basley and Bowden filed summary judgement motions, which were granted by the district court. Selective filed a separate motion to dismiss Payne's action, which was denied by the district court. The court certified its order denying Selective's motion to dismiss for immediate review in accordance with 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b), and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals granted Selective's petition for permission to appeal. The Circuit Court then certified the following question for this Court's resolution:
Whether OCGA § 20-2-1090, a statute requiring county school boards to purchase insurance for the purpose of insuring school children riding school buses to and from school against bodily injury resulting from an accident or collision in which such buses are involved, allows a direct action against a school bus insurer in a case where one student sustains an injury resulting from an attack by another student on the school bus. The insurance policy in question provides as follows: "We will pay all sums an 'insured' legally must pay as damages because of 'bodily injury' or 'property damage' to which this insurance applies, caused by an 'accident and resulting from the ownership, maintenance or use of a covered auto.' "
1. OCGA § 20-2-1090 provides that:
The various school boards of the counties, cities, and independent school systems employing school buses are authorized and required to cause policies of insurance to be issued insuring the school children riding therein to and from school against bodily injury or death at any time resulting from an accident or collision in which such buses are involved. The amount of such insurance shall be within the discretion of the respective boards.
In interpreting statutes, all words, other that words of art associated with a particular area of expertise, are given their ordinary and everyday meaning. 1 By its plain terms, OCGA § 20-2-1090 requires school boards to purchase insurance for the purpose of "insuring the school children riding [school buses] to and from school against bodily injury ... resulting from an accident or collision in which such buses are involved." When a student riding on a school bus suffers an injury that is not proximately caused by an accident or collision in which the bus is involved, such as when the student is injured due to an attack made by a fellow student, OCGA § 20-2-1090 is inapplicable. 2 Accordingly, the school board was not required by the statute to insure against the type of injuries Payne sustained due to Smith's attack.
2. Under Georgia law, an insurance company is free to fix the terms of its policies as it sees fit, so long as they are not contrary to the law, and it may insure against certain risks while excluding others. 3 As is true with all contracts, unambiguous terms in an insurance policy require no construction and their plain meaning will be given full effect, regardless of whether they might be of benefit to the insurer, or be of detriment to an insured. 4
Consistent with the requirements of Code section 20-2-1090, the Selective policy procured by the Twiggs County School Board insures against "bodily injury ... caused by an accident and resulting from the ownership, maintenance, or use of a covered auto [i.e.--school bus]," and requires Selective to pay all sums its insured must pay due to such bodily injury. As explained above, the facts alleged by Payne do not show a causal connection between her injuries and the use of a Twiggs County school bus. Nor do her allegations show that her injuries were sustained as the result of an accident involving a school bus. Rather, she alleges that her injuries were the proximate result of an attack inflicted by a fellow student. The school bus is only tangentially connected to Payne's injuries, and even then only to the extent that it was the situs of the attack.
On at least two occasions, the Court of Appeals has concluded that language identical to that in the Selective insurance policy at issue here does not encompass instances where a student riding on a school bus is injured when attacked by fellow students. In those instances, the Court of Appeals has concluded that:
[T]he injury bears no apparent relationship to the operation of the vehicle or the use to which it was being put. Instead, it resulted from a deliberate assault which took place in the vehicle simply because that is where the victim happened to be when the assailant came 'gunning' for him. Under these circumstances, we can discern no causal connection or relationship between the use of the vehicle and the injury, and we must accordingly conclude that the injury is not covered by the policy. 5
We agree with this reasoning, and concluded that the plain terms of the Selective policy did not...
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