Sayers v. Ranger

• Decision Date: 22 October 1951
• Docket Number: No. A--426,A--426
• Parties: SAYERS et al. v. RANGER et al.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division

Page 22

16 N.J.Super. 22

83 A.2d 775

SAYERS et al. v. RANGER et al.

No. A--426.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Argued Aug. 6, 1951.

Decided Oct. 22, 1951.

Edison Hedges, Atlantic City, argued the cause for respondents.

Robert Peacock, Mount Holly, argued the cause for appellant.

Before Judges LEYDEN, DANIEL J. BRENNAN and SCHETTINO.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

DANIEL J. BRENNAN, J.S.C.

The defendant, Alfred Ranger, appeals from a judgment against him entered in the Law Division of the Superior Court, Atlantic County, awarding $1,000 to the plaintiff William Frederick Sayers, a minor, by his guardian Ad litem, Joseph P. Sayers, Sr., and $151 to Joseph P. Sayers, Sr., in his own right.

The facts are that the infant plaintiff, a 14-year-old boy, a freshman in Pleasantville High School in this State, on March 17, 1950, by election, was jumping over a gymnasium horse used as one of the instrumentalities of physical exercise in the school. While in the course of said jump he fell and broke his arm. The complaint is predicated on the alleged negligence of the physical education teacher (Ranger) for failure to supervise the final jump of the infant and directing him to walk to the office of the supervisor after he was hurt. The defendant Hedelt, who was in charge of physical education in said high school, is charged with negligently attempting to attend to said arm.

The several members of the board of education and the secretary thereof were impleaded as defendants, but the counts contained in the amended complaint were, as to them, on motion of the attorney for the defendants and by appropriate order of the trial court, stricken, being dismissed for that they do not disclose a legal cause of action against these defendants.

During the trial the court granted a motion for judgment of dismissal as to the defendant Hedelt, and the case was submitted to the jury on the question of the alleged negligence of the individual defendant Ranger, the gymnasium teacher.

The single question for resolution is the right of the plaintiffs to have recovery in the light of the circumstances under the testimonial record. It should be noted that physical education is compulsory in our public school system for all those students above the kindergarten level who are physically fit, R.S. 18:14--93--96, N.J.S.A. The defendant Ranger is an accredited physical education instructor and from the testimony it apears that proper mats were set out to protect the students and the jumps were supervised by the defendant and a volunteer student. In addition to these precautions against injury there was a demonstration by the defendant as to how the jump should be done. The testimony of the witnesses indicates that the infant plaintiff could choose the character of gymnasium exercise he wanted; that on the day of the accident he had successfully jumped several times; that he jumped in leap frog fashion; that he went to put his hands down and his foot hit the top boy throwing him off balance before his hands could get on the boy's back; that before the boy started the instructor cautioned him (as testified by the infant plaintiff): 'This is dangerous and to do it the way he showed us and if...