Saville v. Sierra College

• Decision Date: 26 October 2005
• Docket Number: No. C047923.,C047923.
• Citation: 133 Cal.App.4th 857,36 Cal.Rptr.3d 515
• Court: California Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
• Parties: Robin J. SAVILLE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. SIERRA COLLEGE et al., Defendants and Respondents.

36 Cal.Rptr.3d 515

133 Cal.App.4th 857

Robin J. SAVILLE, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. SIERRA COLLEGE et al., Defendants and Respondents.

No. C047923.

Court of Appeal, Third District.

October 26, 2005.

As Modified October 31, 2005.

As Modified on Denial of Rehearing November 28, 2005.

Clayeo C. Arnold, Anthony M. Ontiveros, and Leslie Mitchell, Sacramento, for Plaintiff and Appellant.

Johnson Schachter & Lewis, Luther R. Lewis, Sacramento, and Danielle R. Teeters for Defendants and Respondents.

NICHOLSON, J.

Plaintiff suffered injury while practicing arrest and control techniques during a peace officer training class. He sued the community college that offered the class for negligence. The trial court granted the college's motion for summary judgment, determining the complaint was barred by the doctrine of primary assumption of risk. For the reasons that follow, we affirm.

UNDISPUTED FACTS

In 2000, plaintiff enrolled in helicopter flight school in Sacramento to become a helicopter search and rescue pilot. After four months of training, plaintiff left the school due to financial concerns. He planned to complete the remaining hours required for his training through on-the-job experience as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.

To improve his chances of being hired, plaintiff enrolled in a class at defendant Sierra College entitled Administration of Justice 600, also referred to as PC 832 (referring to Pen.Code, § 832), Arrest, Communications, and Firearms. Sierra College is a community college operated by the Sierra Joint Community College District. (For convenience, we refer to the different Sierra College entities named in plaintiff's complaint as the College.)

The course was open to any student who could pass a firearms background check. The College's catalog for spring 2001 described the course as follows: "P.C. 832: ARREST, COMMUNICATION, AND FIREARMS [¶] . . . [¶] Meets requirements of California Penal Code Section 832 requiring individuals having Peace Officer powers to complete a training course prescribed by the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST). Partially satisfies POST Level III Module training. Covers ethics, courts, community relations, laws of arrest, use of force, search and seizure, investigations, arrest and control methods, shooting principles, and range qualification." The class was scheduled for about four hours every Tuesday and Thursday evening from January 16 through February 24. The class would also meet all day on three Saturdays. Plaintiff believed having the POST certificate would "help get [his] foot in the door."

The course consisted of three portions: lectures, methods of arrest and control, and a firearms portion. Plaintiff declared in his separate statement of undisputed facts participation in the activity to learn arrest and control methods was required: "The class was pass/fail. In order to pass the class, the students were required to attend and pass all three parts including arrest and control procedures."

Auburn Chief of Police Nick Willick was the lead instructor of the course. He taught the lecture portion of the course, and other officers taught the control methods and firearms portions. Willick explained the arrest techniques portion of the course to the students. Although he did not use the words "role-playing," Willick informed the students they would learn the techniques in as realistic an experience as possible, and they would be "modeling" the actions an actual police officer would take when performing a takedown in the field.

At one of the lecture sessions held before the control methods activity, Lieutenant David Johnstone of the Rocklin Police Department gave a lecture on the arrest and control techniques the students would subsequently learn. In the lecture, he told the students they would be playing the roles of police officer and suspect in order to learn the techniques. When asked if a student could pass the class if the student could not meet the physical requirements of the techniques portion, Johnstone testified the student would not complete that portion of the class. If, however, a student was able to play the role of police officer but not suspect, that student could still pass the class.

Officer Scott Horrillo was one of the instructors at the activity where the techniques and maneuvers were taught and practiced. Horrillo also testified the students were required to attend the activity. They could not pass the course unless they passed that activity.

Saturday, February 3, 2001, was the first day the students performed techniques and maneuvers for controlling a suspect. The class was held at a private kickboxing gym. Mats covered the entire floor area. Scheduled to last most of the day, the class began at 8:00 a.m. with a 45-minute period for stretching exercises and calisthenics.

Three police officers, Officers Horrillo, Susan Davis, and Casey Finney, taught the class that day. Finney first demonstrated a step-back maneuver, showing the students how to get away from a suspect. He next demonstrated a hand-hold maneuver on a student a couple of times. After the demonstration, the students paired up and practiced the move on each other. Plaintiff, weighing 230 pounds and standing six feet one inch tall, paired up with Terry Giese, who weighed 190 pounds and stood five feet ten inches tall.

After the hand-hold move, the class went on to learn four different takedown moves. Two of those moves were performed facing the suspect, and the other two were performed from behind the suspect. The first takedown move required the "arresting officer" to jab his fingers down inside the suspect's collar bone with enough pressure to force the suspect down to his knees. Finney demonstrated the move, and then plaintiff and Giese practiced the move on each other. They performed the maneuvers at essentially half speed.

The second takedown maneuver required the arresting officer to grab the suspect by the shoulders and trip him over the officer's leg. Finney demonstrated this move, and plaintiff and Giese practiced the move. Both were able to knock each other over and onto the ground.

The third maneuver involved the arresting officer grabbing the suspect's hair from behind and pulling the suspect backward and down to the ground. Finney demonstrated this move on a student, and plaintiff and Giese successfully knocked each other down to the mat by using this move.

The fourth takedown maneuver was described as a forehead sweep. According to plaintiff and Lt. Johnstone, the arresting officer performing this move would come from behind the suspect, wrap his right hand around the suspect's face and grab the bridge of the nose, put his right elbow in the suspect's back, and then pull the head back to compress the neck into the spine, causing the suspect to fall to the ground. The officer was to stand to the left of the subject at a 90-degree angle.

Finney demonstrated this maneuver, and then plaintiff and Giese performed the move on each other two or three times before breaking for lunch at 11:00 a.m. Each person knocked the other down, and neither was injured. While the students practiced the moves, the three officers walked around the room and observed the students to see if they were performing them correctly. At least one officer saw plaintiff perform each maneuver at least one time.

Between noon and 12:15 p.m., plaintiff and Giese practiced the maneuvers they had learned that morning. Plaintiff was injured while the two performed the forehead sweep with Giese acting as the arresting officer and plaintiff as the suspect. As Giese pulled plaintiff down, plaintiff hit his neck on Giese's knee. Plaintiff sustained a herniated cervical disc and other injuries that necessitated surgery.

At no time during the class did the students receive verbal or written instruction on where to place their feet while performing the maneuvers. However, Officer Finney, when demonstrating the forehead sweep, would step aside as he pulled the suspect back. This was the way he performed the maneuver that day. After learning how Giese performed the forehead sweep maneuver on plaintiff, Officer Davis and Lt. Johnstone opined Giese had performed the maneuver incorrectly. His feet were not correctly positioned when the injury occurred.

Plaintiff understood the class was a police officer training course. (He later changed his testimony to say it was an Administration of Justice class.) The College's catalog had informed him the class would cover the use of force and arrest and control methods. He understood the training had to replicate real-life situations, and he acknowledged the curriculum called for demonstrations. He understood the class was designed to train him how to perform had he become a police officer. He understood the class's philosophy increased the risk of injury to a point.

When asked if he understood when he enrolled the class would include physical activity, plaintiff did not say no unequivocally. Instead, he responded, "I did not know that I would be used, so to speak, as a guinea pig by an inexperienced person to do these moves or have these moves done on me with a prior injury to my neck from when I was taking care of my mother. I wouldn't have really agreed to have done these if I knew that an inexperienced person would be doing these on me."

As the class progressed that morning, plaintiff knew the class involved him getting grabbed and getting knocked down. He became concerned about a preexisting neck injury, and wondered if it was safe for him to continue participating in the class. Before he was injured, plaintiff considered informing the instructors of his prior injury, but he did not. He had no particular reason for not telling them.

Plaintiff filed this action against the College seeking damages for his injuries. He alleged the College negligently failed to: (1) inform plaintiff when he registered for the class of the risk of...