Summers v. St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Inc.

• Decision Date: 11 May 2000
• Docket Number: No. 1999-CA-00198-SCT.,1999-CA-00198-SCT.
• Citation: 759 So.2d 1203
• Parties: Dorothy Nicole SUMMERS, By and Through Her Next Friend, Johnnie DAWSON, Johnnie Dawson and Timothy Summers, M.D. v. ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL, INC.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

759 So.2d 1203

Dorothy Nicole SUMMERS, By and Through Her Next Friend, Johnnie DAWSON, Johnnie Dawson and Timothy Summers, M.D. v. ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL SCHOOL, INC.

No. 1999-CA-00198-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

May 11, 2000.

Gail Wright Lowery, Jackson, Attorney for Appellants.

James A. Keith, Charles Edwin Ross, Kimberly N. Howland, Elizabeth Robbins Lee, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellee.

EN BANC.

SMITH, Justice, for the Court:

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

¶ 1. Dorothy Nicole ("Nikki") Summers, a minor child, by and through her next friend and mother, Johnnie Dawson, and her parents, Johnnie Dawson and Timothy Summers, M.D. (collectively the plaintiffs) filed against St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Inc. ("St. Andrew's") on July 11, 1996. This action arose out of an incident on May 13, 1996, on the playground of the school. The claims are in nature of personal injuries, both psychological and physical. Nikki alleges that St. Andrew's teachers and/or its assistant teachers failed to exercise reasonable care in supervising the activities of the playground and that their alleged lack of adequate supervision caused her to sustain emotional harm. Nikki seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Nikki's parents also seek compensatory damages for emotional distress and lost wages that they sustained as a result of the alleged injuries suffered by Nikki as well as punitive damages.

¶ 2. Prior to any actions requiring court intervention, the plaintiffs filed a Motion for Recusal based upon Dr. Summers' prior history with Circuit Judge W. Swan Yerger. Judge Yerger declined to recuse. Judge Yerger also granted St. Andrew's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment on the claims of the parents on August 14, 1997. On October 1, 1998, Judge Yerger dismissed the remaining claim of Dorothy Nicole Summers.

¶ 3. The circuit court ruled that the undisputed material facts mandated summary judgment on the compensatory damages claim. The court further found the actions of St. Andrew's were not willful, wanton, or malicious, and as such, summary judgment on the punitive damage claim was also granted.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

¶ 4. Dorothy Nicole Summers ("Nikki") was a 5 year old enrolled in kindergarten at St. Andrew's for the 1995-96 school year by her parents, Johnnie Dawson and Dr. Timothy Summers. There is no dispute that an incident occurred on May 13, 1996, involving Nikki. However, the characterization of the incident is disputed. The trial court adopted Nikki's characterization as set forth in her affidavits.¹

I attended St Andrews in 1995-96 as a kindergarten student. My teacher was Candace Coker and the Principal was Jean Jones. I am eight (8) years old and attend New Hope Christian School. I attended school on May 13, 1996 and I recall going outside to play. While I was outside several of the students in the kindergarten class threw me to the ground and held down my arms and legs. My dress was pulled up, my shorts were pulled down and my panties were pulled down. My private parts were seen by the children. My panties were pulled down to above my knee. The children also touched me on my private parts while I was being held down.

I told the children to stop and no one came to help me. A second group of children came up and the children repeated what they had done before. I continue to tell them to stop. Another child finally came up and I was let go.

We were on the playground in the back under the trees. The teachers could not see us. They were sitting down talking. I did not see them get up and walk around the play area.

Before the children did this to me, earlier in the school year I had told my teacher, Ms. Coker that one of my classmates had kicked me. I was also scratched in the face with a pine cone and slapped. At another time, I was spit on. I told my parents and they talked to my teacher about it. This all happened before May 13, 1996.

No adult came to help me on May 13, 1996. I fought trying to get away but no adult came to help me. The children did this to me for a long time. We spent most of the play period in the back.

I felt sad and embarrassed by the incident. I told Dr. Wood Hiatt about this incident and Dr. Glenda Scallorn. I also talked to my parents about it.

¶ 5. During the 1995-96 academic school year, there were five kindergarten classes at St. Andrew's, with a maximum of 16 children in each class, for a total of no more than 80 kindergartners. Nikki's class had a total of only 15 children. Each class was staffed with one teacher, and all five classes shared three assistant teachers.

¶ 6. The incident occurred on the playground on May 13, 1996, sometime during the noon recess. The normal schedule for the kindergarten children at St. Andrew's was to eat their lunch in their classroom from 11:00 a.m.-11:30 a.m. The teachers would then escort the children to the playground. From 11:30-12:00, the assistant teachers would eat their lunch. At approximately 12:00 noon when the assistant teachers had finished their lunch, they relieved the teachers on the playground so that the teachers could eat their lunch. After the 30-minute lunch break, the teachers would return to the playground to gather their students together for the remaining afternoon activities. This routine was followed on the date of the incident. According to the policy of the school, the children's activities on the playground are monitored at all times by a minimum of at least one teacher or assistant teacher for each class of 16 kindergarten children.

¶ 7. On this particular day, Candace (Candy) Coker ("Coker"), Nikki's teacher, supervised the playground for 10 minutes because she had a parent-teacher conference. Angie Smith, a substitute for the regular assistant teacher, monitored the children's activities on the playground. At the time the incident occurred, there were between 62 and 64 children on the playground being supervised by at least four adults. None of the adults present on the playground were aware that the incident had occurred.

¶ 8. Coker learned of the incident the evening of May 13, 1996, when a parent called her at home and informed her that her daughter had related an incident that had happened at school. The next morning, upon Nikki's arrival at school, she informed Coker that some of her girl classmates had held her arms down, tickled her, and pulled on her panties. Coker then asked the children she could determine were involved in the incident to tell her what happened. Nikki was a part of this group. In the group discussion, the children stated that four or five of them were playing together when Nikki laid down on the gravel to play dead. Nikki told Coker she was laughing when the game started. Some of the group then suggested that the group tickle Nikki to wake her up. One of the girls began doing that when she asked two other girls to hold Nikki's arms down so that she could tickle her some more. The girl who was tickling Nikki pulled on her panties. Nikki also told Coker she did not like it when the girls pulled on her panties, and she asked them to stop, but they did not. The children also told Coker that about the same time that one of the girls was pulling on Nikki's panties, three boys walked up and saw what was happening, and said, "Do it again so we can see", and the girls began tickling Nikki again. According to the children in the group, at that point, they stopped. Nikki discussed the incident in this group and corrected others with details about what happened. Coker instructed the children to talk to their parents about the incident. During the rest of the school week, Nikki continued to play with her regular classmates, including the same group of girls who were involved in the incident.

¶ 9. The circuit court, having heard and considered the matter, noted as to the issues on which the plaintiffs bear the burden of proof at trial, St. Andrew's need only demonstrate an absence of evidence in the record in support of an essential element of the plaintiffs' claim. According to the trial court, the plaintiffs had not met this burden in that evidence had not been produced in the record upon which a reasonable juror could find that the incident was foreseeable, that St. Andrew's did not provide adequate supervision, and that there was any proximate cause between St. Andrew's acts or omissions and the incident.

¶ 10. The court found that the undisputed material facts mandated that summary judgment be entered in favor of St. Andrew's on plaintiff's compensatory and punitive damages claim. The court also held that the actions of St. Andrew's, even assuming arguendo that an issue of fact existed as to the issue of underlying liability, did not support any finding that the actions were willful, wanton, or malicious, and as such ordered summary judgment on the punitive damage claim.

¶ 11. Aggrieved by the circuit court's judgment, the plaintiffs appeal to this Court and assign the following issues as error:

STATEMENT OF THE ISSUES

I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN DENYING THE APPELLANTS' MOTION FOR RECUSAL.

II. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON THE PARENT'S CLAIM FOR RELIEF.

III. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT ON THE CLAIMS OF THE MINOR CHILD.

IV. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ERRED IN FINDING THAT PUNITIVE DAMAGES WERE NOT RECOVERABLE.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 12. The trial court may grant summary judgment where no genuine issues of material fact exist and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Miss.R.Civ.P. 56(c). Numerous, immaterial facts may be controverted, but only those that "affect the outcome of the suit under the governing law will properly preclude the entry of summary judgment." Sherrod v. United States Fidelity & Guar. Co., 518 So.2d 640, 642 (Miss.1987) (quoting Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 248, 106 S.Ct. 2505, 2510, 91 L.Ed.2d 202, 211(1986)). This Court reviews de novo a trial court's...