Perry v. S.N.

• Decision Date: 03 July 1998
• Docket Number: No. 97-0573,97-0573
• Parties: 41 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 1162 Douglas Wayne PERRY, Janise White, and Raul Quintero, Petitioners, v. S.N. and S.N., individually and a/n/f of B.N., a minor, and a/n/f of K.N., a minor, Respondents.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 301

973 S.W.2d 301

41 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 1162

Douglas Wayne PERRY, Janise White, and Raul Quintero, Petitioners, v. S.N. and S.N., individually and a/n/f of B.N., a minor, and a/n/f of K.N., a minor, Respondents.

No. 97-0573.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Argued Jan. 7, 1998.

Decided July 3, 1998.

Gary E. Zausmer, Jeffrey Jury, Tom Tourtellotte, Austin, for Petitioners.

Greg Reed, Lionel J. Roach, Austin, for Respondents.

PHILLIPS, Chief Justice, delivered the opinion of the Court.

Respondents' motion for rehearing is overruled. Our opinion of May 8, 1998, is withdrawn and the following is substituted in its place.

This is a suit for injuries arising out of the abuse of children at a day care center. Plaintiffs filed suit individually and as next friends of their two children, alleging that defendants witnessed the abuse and failed to report it to the police or child welfare officials. The sole issue before us is whether plaintiffs may maintain a cause of action for negligence per se based on the Family Code, which requires any person having cause to believe a child is being abused to report the abuse to state authorities and makes the knowing failure to do so a misdemeanor. See TEX. FAM.CODE §§ 261.101(a), 261.109 (formerly TEX. FAM.CODE §§ 34.01, 34.07). The trial court granted summary judgment for defendants, but the court of appeals reversed and remanded plaintiffs' negligence per se and gross negligence claims for trial. Nash v. Perry, 944 S.W.2d 728 (Tex.App.--Austin 1997). We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and render judgment that plaintiffs take nothing. Because plaintiffs did not preserve their common law negligence claims, we do not decide whether there should be a common law duty to report child abuse in some circumstances.

B.N. and K.N. attended a day care center operated by Francis Keller and her husband Daniel Keller from March 25, 1991, to August 28, 1991. Their parents, S.N. and S.N., allege that during that period, Daniel Keller regularly abused B.N. and K.N. and other children at the center both physically and sexually. Mr. and Mrs. N. brought suit against the Kellers and three of the Kellers' friends, Douglas Perry, Janise White, and Raul Quintero. Plaintiffs claim that Francis Keller confided in White at an unspecified time that Daniel Keller had "abusive habits toward children." They further allege that on one occasion in August 1991, while visiting the Kellers, defendants Perry, White, and Quintero all saw Daniel Keller bring a number of children out of the day care center into the Kellers' adjoining home and sexually abuse them. The record does not indicate whether B.N. and K.N. were among these children. According to plaintiffs, Perry, White, and Quintero did not attempt to stop Daniel Keller from abusing the children or report his crimes to the police or child welfare authorities.

Plaintiffs' brief filed in this Court alleges additional facts that were not contained in their trial court pleadings. They now assert that Perry pleaded guilty to indecency with a child by contact and that White and Quintero were indicted but not prosecuted for sex offenses involving the children at the day care center. Plaintiffs' trial court petition, however, did not allege that Perry, White, or Quintero participated in abusing B.N. and K.N. or other children. We may not consider factual assertions that appear solely in the appellate briefs and not before the trial court. See Estate of Arrington v. Fields, 578 S.W.2d 173, 183 (Tex.Civ.App.--Tyler 1979, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

Instead, Mr. and Mrs. N. alleged only that Perry, White, and Quintero were negligent per se because they violated a statute requiring any person who "has cause to believe that a child's physical or mental health or welfare has been or may be adversely affected by abuse" to file a report with the police or the Department of Protective and Regulatory Services. TEX. FAM.CODE § 261.109(a). Plaintiffs also asserted gross negligence and common law negligence claims. They claimed that Perry, White, and Quintero's failure to report the abuse proximately caused them harm by permitting the day care center to remain open, thus enabling Daniel Keller to continue abusing the children at the center. They sought damages for pain, mental anguish, and medical expenses, as well as loss of income when they could not work outside the home because of B.N. and K.N.'s injuries.

Perry, White, and Quintero moved for summary judgment on the sole ground that plaintiffs failed to state a cause of action. None of the parties presented any summary judgment evidence. A court may not grant summary judgment for failure to state a cause of action without first giving the plaintiff an opportunity to amend the pleadings. See Pietila v. Crites, 851 S.W.2d 185, 186 n. 2 (Tex.1993). Before any defendant moved for summary judgment, however, White filed special exceptions arguing that plaintiffs had not stated a cause of action, and plaintiffs subsequently amended their petition. Although it appears from the record that Perry and Quintero did not file special exceptions, their motions for summary judgment were based solely on the grounds argued in White's special exceptions. Thus, Mr. and Mrs. N. had a fair opportunity to correct any deficiency in their pleadings.

The trial court granted Perry, White, and Quintero's motions for summary judgment and severed plaintiffs' claims against those three defendants from their suit against the Kellers, which is not before us. Because defendants' motions for summary judgment argued only that plaintiffs failed to state a cognizable claim, the trial court's judgment can be upheld, if at all, only on that ground. See McConnell v. Southside Indep. Sch. Dist., 858 S.W.2d 337, 341 (Tex.1993). When the ground for the trial court's decision is that plaintiffs failed to state a cause of action, we must take the allegations in the pleadings as true in determining whether a cause of action exists. See El Chico Corp. v. Poole, 732 S.W.2d 306, 309 (Tex.1987).

The court of appeals affirmed the summary judgment on plaintiffs' common law negligence claims but reversed and remanded for trial on the issues of negligence per se and gross negligence, holding that a violation of the Family Code's child abuse reporting requirement is negligence per se. 944 S.W.2d 728. Mr. and Mrs. N. have not appealed the court of appeals' judgment affirming the summary judgment against them on common law negligence. Therefore, the question of whether Texas should impose a new common law duty to report child abuse on the facts of this case is not before us. See generally Golden Spread Council, Inc. v. Akins, 926 S.W.2d 287, 291-92 (Tex.1996); Butcher v. Scott, 906 S.W.2d 14, 15-16 (Tex.1995) (both refusing to recognize a common law duty to report abuse under the circumstances of those cases); Greater Houston Transp. Co. v. Phillips, 801 S.W.2d 523, 525 (Tex.1990) (setting out factors for deciding whether a common law duty should exist). We granted defendants' application for writ of error to resolve the conflict between the court of appeals' decision remanding the negligence per se claims for trial and the decisions of three other courts of appeals declining to permit tort liability for violation of the statutory child abuse reporting requirement. See Marshall v. First Baptist Church, 949 S.W.2d 504, 508 (Tex.App.--Houston [14th Dist.] 1997, no writ); Childers v. A.S., 909 S.W.2d 282, 289-90 (Tex.App.--Fort Worth 1995, no writ); Scott v. Butcher, 906 S.W.2d 16, 20-21 (Tex.App.--Tyler 1994), rev'd on other grounds, 906 S.W.2d 14 (Tex.1995). ¹

"It is fundamental that the existence of a legally cognizable duty is a prerequisite to all tort liability." Graff v. Beard, 858 S.W.2d 918, 919 (Tex.1993). The court of appeals found a duty in the following mandatory child abuse reporting provisions of the Texas Family Code:

A person having cause to believe that a child's physical or mental health or welfare has been adversely affected by abuse or neglect by any person shall immediately make a report as provided by this subchapter.

TEX. FAM.CODE § 261.101(a). ²

(a) A person commits an offense if the person has cause to believe that a child's physical or mental health or welfare has been or may be adversely affected by abuse or neglect and knowingly fails to report as provided in this chapter.

(b) An offense under this section is a Class B misdemeanor.

Id. § 261.109. ³ The court concluded that these provisions create a "statutory duty" to report child abuse, and that a violation of this duty is negligence per se. See 944 S.W.2d at 730.

All persons have a duty to obey the criminal law in the sense that they may be prosecuted for not doing so, but this is not equivalent to a duty in tort. See, e.g., Smith v. Merritt, 940 S.W.2d 602, 607-08 (Tex.1997) (statute making it a crime to furnish alcohol to persons under age 21 did not impose a tort duty on social hosts). "It is well-established that the mere fact that the Legislature adopts a criminal statute does not mean that this court must accept it as a standard for civil liability." Carter v. William Sommerville & Son, Inc., 584 S.W.2d 274, 278 (Tex.1979). "The considerations which warrant imposing tort liability are not identical with those which warrant criminal conviction," Morris, The Role of Criminal Statutes in Negligence Actions, 49 COLUM. L.REV. 21, 22-23 (1949), and we will not apply the doctrine of negligence per se if the criminal statute does not provide an appropriate basis for civil liability. ⁴ See Smith, 940 S.W.2d at 607; Rudes v. Gottschalk, 159 Tex. 552, 324 S.W.2d 201, 204-05 (1959); Phoenix Refining Co. v. Powell, 251 S.W.2d 892, 896 (Tex.Civ.App.--San Antonio 1952, writ ref'd n.r.e.).

Before we begin our analysis of whether section 261.109 of the Family Code is an appropriate basis for tort liability, we emphasize that we must look beyond the facts of this particular case to...