Webb v. University of Utah

• Decision Date: 15 November 2005
• Docket Number: No. 20040282.,20040282.
• Citation: 125 P.3d 906,2005 UT 80
• Parties: James WEBB, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. The UNIVERSITY OF UTAH, a division of the State of Utah, Park Plaza Condominium Owners' Association, a Utah nonprofit corporation, and Jonette Webster, Defendants and Petitioner.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

125 P.3d 906

2005 UT 80

James WEBB, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. The UNIVERSITY OF UTAH, a division of the State of Utah, Park Plaza Condominium Owners' Association, a Utah nonprofit corporation, and Jonette Webster, Defendants and Petitioner.

No. 20040282.

Supreme Court of Utah.

November 15, 2005.

Brent Gordon, Salt Lake City, for respondent.

Mark L. Shurtleff, Att'y Gen., Debra J. Moore, Sandra L. Steinvoort, Asst. Att'ys Gen., Salt Lake City, for petitioner.

On Certiorari to the Utah Court of Appeals

NEHRING, Justice:

INTRODUCTION

¶ 1 We granted certiorari to review the court of appeals' holding that the University of Utah owed Mr. Webb a "duty to exercise ordinary and reasonable care when it directs students to engage in specific activities as part of its educational instruction." We reverse.

BACKGROUND¹

¶ 2 Mr. Webb was a University of Utah student enrolled in an earth sciences class. As part of the required course curriculum, Mr. Webb attended a field trip to a condominium complex to examine fault lines in the Salt Lake County area. Mr. Webb and other students were directed to walk on icy and snowy sidewalks through the condominium complex. While Mr. Webb was standing on a complex sidewalk, a fellow student slipped and grabbed Mr. Webb for support, causing him to fall and sustain injuries.

¶ 3 Mr. Webb sued the University of Utah and others. He alleged the University was negligent in directing students to occupy and traverse the condominium sidewalks on a school-organized, curriculum-related field trip. The University filed a rule 12(b) motion to dismiss on the grounds that no special relationship existed between Mr. Webb and the University and, therefore, the University owed Mr. Webb no duty. The trial court granted the University's motion and dismissed Mr. Webb's claims against it. Mr. Webb appealed.

¶ 4 The court of appeals reversed. The court held that the allegations in Mr. Webb's complaint adequately described a legal duty owed by the University to Mr. Webb. This duty was not one based on a special relationship, but rather a general negligence duty to "exercise ordinary and reasonable care when directing its students to take a certain route on a required field trip." The court of appeals was drawn to this characterization of the University's duty because it interpreted the allegation that Mr. Webb's instructor required the class to enter a dangerous area on a required school field trip to mean that the University had committed an affirmative act, thereby eliminating the need for the existence of a special relationship as a predicate for the creation of a duty. The court summarized its reasoning in its comment that "the University owe[s] a duty to exercise ordinary and reasonable care when it affirmatively acts in directing students to perform certain parts of its curriculum." Despite its determination that the University owed Mr. Webb an ordinary negligence duty, it was unwilling to concede the absence of a special relationship, noting that "were a special relationship required in this case, the facts alleged by Webb are sufficient to establish a special relationship."

¶ 5 The University of Utah sought certiorari review to decide whether (1) the court of appeals erred in holding that, in the absence of a special relationship, the University can be held liable in negligence for injury sustained by a student on a field trip and (2) whether the court of appeals erred in concluding that the allegations of the complaint suffice to establish a special relationship between Webb and the University.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 6 "When reviewing cases under certiorari jurisdiction, we apply a standard of correctness to the decision made by the court of appeals rather than the trial court." Brigham City v. Stuart, 2005 UT 13, ¶ 7, 122 P.3d 506.

ANALYSIS

¶ 7 The central challenge confronting us in this case is to make sense of the scene where common law negligence and governmental immunity law have collided. The court of appeals took on the same task. Webb v. Univ. of Utah, 2004 UT App 56, 88 P.3d 364. Although we disagree with the outcome of its effort, we attribute our decision to reach a different result to our conflicting readings of confusing cross-currents of tort law. The court of appeals' holding turns on the premise that, irrespective of the existence of legal forces that shape the tort liability of governmental entities, such as the public duty doctrine, the special relationship doctrine, and the governmental immunity statutes, an affirmative act by a governmental actor triggers the application of the general duty to act reasonably in the circumstances. Id. ¶¶ 6, 8. In the view of the court of appeals, where an affirmative act by a governmental actor is found, all other considerations must yield. Id.

¶ 8 The court of appeals buttressed its holding by stating that even if a special relationship was necessary to establish liability, that relationship could be present in the relationship between the University actor and Mr. Webb. We now explain why neither of these grounds for the court of appeals' holding is viable.

I. THE SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP AS A SOURCE OF DUTY

¶ 9 To establish a claim of negligence, the "plaintiff must establish four essential elements: (1) that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty, (2) that the defendant breached that duty, (3) that the breach of duty was the proximate cause of the plaintiff's injury, and (4) that the plaintiff in fact suffered injuries or damages." Hunsaker v. State, 870 P.2d 893, 897 (Utah 1993) (citations omitted). "Duty arises out of the relationship between the parties and imposes a legal obligation on one party for the benefit of the other party." Delbridge v. Maricopa County Cmty. Coll. Dist., 182 Ariz. 55, 893 P.2d 55, 58 (1994). "A court's conclusion that duty does or does not exist is `an expression of the sum total of those considerations of policy which lead the law to say that the plaintiff is [or is not] entitled to protection.'" Univ. of Denver v. Whitlock, 744 P.2d 54, 57 (Colo.1987) (quoting Prosser and Keeton on the Law of Torts § 53, at 358 (5th ed.1984) ).

¶ 10 The court of appeals correctly observed that as a general proposition of tort law, the distinction between acts and omissions is central to assessing whether a duty is owed a plaintiff. Webb, 2004 UT App 56, ¶ 6 n. 3, 88 P.3d 364; see also Restatement (Second) of Torts § 302 (1965). In almost every instance, an act carries with it a potential duty and resulting legal accountability for that act. By contrast, an omission or failure to act can generally give rise to liability only in the presence of some external circumstance—a special relationship. Restatement (Second) of Torts § 314A (1965). The Restatement describes the following as examples of special relationships: common carrier to its passenger, innkeeper and guest, landowner and invitees to his land, and one who takes custody of another. Id. As we have explained, "[t]hese relationships generally arise when one assumes responsibility for another's safety or deprives another of his or her normal opportunities for self-protection." Beach v. Univ. of Utah, 726 P.2d 413, 415 (Utah 1986). The "essence of a special relationship is dependence by one party upon the other or mutual dependence between the parties." Id. (citations omitted).

¶ 11 In situations not involving governmental actors, the duality between omission and action serves as a workable analytical tool. In the realm of governmental actors, however, matters change. In a fundamental way, governmental actors owe a duty to the public at large or at least to that segment of the public which visits the particular realm of responsibility served by the governmental actor. In a very real sense, the professional lives of governmental actors are comprised of an unending sequence of actions and failures to act that in many instances can directly affect the health, safety, and general well-being of citizens. As a matter of public policy, we do not expose governmental actors to tort liability for all mishaps that may befall the public in the course of conducting their duties. Day v. State, 1999 UT 46, ¶ 10, 980 P.2d 1171. Doing otherwise would have the likely effect of reducing the pool of potential public servants. Our search for sound public policy has led us, however, to decide that governmental actors should be answerable in tort when their negligent conduct causes injury to persons who stand so far apart from the general public that we can describe them as having a special relationship to the governmental actor. Id. ¶¶ 12-13.

¶ 12 The use of the special relationship label to describe persons who may be entitled to recover in tort from governmental actors is a potential source of confusion because it is the same nomenclature that the law uses to describe the class of persons who may be owed a duty arising from another's failure to act under general tort law principles. See Black's Law Dictionary 1405 (7th ed.1999) (defining special relationship as "[a] nonfiduciary relationship having an element of trust, arising [especially] when one person trusts another to exercise a reasonable degree of care" and defining special-relationship doctrine as "the theory that if a state has assumed control over an individual sufficient to trigger an affirmative duty to protect that individual, then the state may be liable for harm inflicted on the individual"). Thus, identical terminology is used to describe two tort concepts that, while very different, occupy domains just close enough to one another to promote confusion.

¶ 13 "Special relationship" therefore has two meanings: one applicable to the general tort duty analysis, the other defining the necessary predicate to the creation of a duty in a governmental actor. Id. As noted above, when used in the context of ordinary negligence, a special relationship is what is required to give rise to a duty to act, whereas the existence of a...