Peters v. Jim Walter Door Sales of Tampa, Inc.

• Decision Date: 07 May 1987
• Docket Number: No. 84-598-A,84-598-A
• Citation: 525 A.2d 46
• Parties: 39 Ed. Law Rep. 163, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 11,401 Albert PETERS, Sr., et al. v. JIM WALTER DOOR SALES OF TAMPA, INC., et al. ppeal.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 46

525 A.2d 46

39 Ed. Law Rep. 163, Prod.Liab.Rep. (CCH) P 11,401

Albert PETERS, Sr., et al. v. JIM WALTER DOOR SALES OF TAMPA, INC., et al.

No. 84-598-Appeal.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

May 7, 1987.

Edward Moses, Asquith, Merolla, Anderson, Ryan & Wiley, Providence, for plaintiffs.

Raymond LaFazia, East Providence School Dept., John F. Cuzzone, Jr., Jim Walter Door Sales & Stanley Works, Providence, for defendants.

OPINION

SHEA, Justice.

This case presents cross-appeals by the plaintiffs from a grant of directed verdicts by the Superior Court in favor of the defendants East Providence School Committee (the school committee) and the Stanley Works (Stanley) and by the defendant school committee from the grant of the plaintiffs' motion to amend their complaint. The trial justice directed a verdict for the school committee, holding that it was not the proper defendant and that the plaintiffs instead should have named the city of East Providence in its suit. He found that the plaintiffs presented no evidence of a defect in Stanley's product and consequently granted its motion for a directed verdict. We affirm.

The plaintiffs' decedent, Albert Peters, Jr., then a student at East Providence Vocational School, sustained serious injuries when he was struck on the head by a descending garage door while attending an automotive-repair class. He later died as a result of his injuries. Albert and Dolores Peters originally filed their complaint in Providence County Superior Court as the heirs of Albert Peters, Jr., against a number of defendants. This appeal concerns the only two remaining defendants, the school committee and Stanley. The plaintiffs later moved to amend their complaint by adding as an additional plaintiff Albert Peters, Sr., as administrator of the estate of Albert Peters, Jr. This motion was granted on November 21, 1983.

In their complaint, plaintiffs alleged that the school committee negligently failed to supervise the automotive class and failed to maintain and repair the garage door, thereby causing injury to their son. The plaintiffs' suit against Stanley rested on theories of negligence, strict products liability and breach of the implied warranty of merchantability in connection with Stanley's manufacture of the garage-door opener (hereafter the operator).

In his grant of the school committee's motion for directed verdict, the trial justice, referring to Cummings v. Godin, 119 R.I. 325, 377 A.2d 1071 (1977), held that any suit against a municipal department, like the school committee, is a suit against the municipality itself and therefore must name the municipality as a defendant. Accordingly, he found that the school committee was not the proper party and that instead the city of East Providence should have properly been named defendant in this suit. Furthermore, he held that because plaintiffs alleged no personal liability against the individual members of the school committee, recovery against them was not possible since public officers cannot be held liable for the negligent acts of their subordinates. See Gray v. Wood, 75 R.I. 123, 130, 64 A.2d 191, 194 (1949). We agree.

In the case of Dawson v. Clark, 93 R.I. 457, 176 A.2d 732 (1962), upon which plaintiffs heavily rely, this court recognized that local school committees perform certain duties delegated to them by the General Assembly. See also City of Pawtucket v. Pawtucket Teachers' Alliance, 87 R.I. 364, 371, 141 A.2d 624, 628 (1958). The court acknowledged the autonomy in spending that may be exercised by a school committee once an appropriation is made to it by the municipality. Mellor v. Clancy, 520 A.2d 1278, 1279 (R.I. 1987). More importantly, however, this court also concluded that "school committees are agencies of the state, but are not 'state agencies,' " because their duties are limited to matters of local rather than statewide concern. Cummings v. Godin, 119 R.I. at 330, 377 A.2d at 1073; see also Coventry School Committee v. Richtarik, 122 R.I. 707, 714, 411 A.2d 912, 915 (1980) (school committees are "municipal bodies" and their employees are "municipal employees"). Our holding in Cummings is applicable to this case. Because the school committee is a department of the city of East Providence, the city itself and not the department is the proper party defendant.

The plaintiffs appeal the trial justice's grant of the school committee's motion for directed verdict, claiming that the trial justice failed to follow the law-of-the-case doctrine in rendering his decision. Prior to trial, the school committee filed a motion to dismiss on the grounds that plaintiffs failed to give notice of their claim to the city council in accordance with G.L. 1956 (1980 Reenactment) § 45-15-5. The justice who heard the motion held at that time that "the mechanics of notice as it relates to claims against the city or town, is not apropos." He ruled that a suit against a school committee is not the same as a suit against the municipality; therefore, lack of notice was not fatal to plaintiffs' suit and the school committee's motion to dismiss was denied. The plaintiffs now argue that this pretrial ruling established the law of the case and bound the trial justice to accept the ruling that the school committee was the proper defendant in this action.

In Payne v. Superior Court, 78 R.I. 177, 80 A.2d 159 (1951), this court adopted the law-of-the-case doctrine. In that case we concluded that "[w]here a pure question of law is involved, ordinarily the second justice should not, if the same question is presented to him in the same manner, review the action of the first justice. * * * It is the first justice's action that is the law of the case and that should not be disturbed; not his conception of the law that induced him to act." (Emphasis in original.) Id. at 184, 80 A.2d at 163. Furthermore, we held in the same opinion that the law-of-the-case doctrine is a flexible rule and does not enjoy the finality of res judicata. Id. Rather, it is more in the nature of a rule of policy and convenience. Salvadore v. Major Electric & Supply, Inc., 469 A.2d 353, 356 (R.I. 1983). The rule is designed to be one of procedure: it is meant to prevent needless repetition of work already completed in an earlier consideration of the same issue. Because of its flexibility, "the rule may be waived by reason of the importance of the issue involved to the ultimate disposition of the case." Payne, 78 R.I. at 185, 80 A.2d at 163.

The issue presented to the trial justice was certainly important to the ultimate disposition of this case. Whereas the justice who denied the school committee's motion to dismiss was asked to decide whether the notice provisions for claims against a city or town are applicable to a suit against a school committee, the justice who sat at trial was asked to decide whether a school committee can be held liable at all in this case. He should not be bound by an earlier decision concerning a related but not identical issue when the result may be the imposition of liability against a party that cannot be...