Personal Injury Suit by Student Against School District Alleging Negligent Supervision Properly Survived Summary Judgment

The Second Department determined a personal injury suit by a student alleging negligent supervision properly survived summary judgment.  The student was injured when she was pushed by those behind her into a door which should not have been locked:

“Schools are under a duty to adequately supervise the students in their charge and they will be held liable for foreseeable injuries proximately related to the absence of adequate supervision” … . While schools are not insurers of student safety, they have a duty to exercise the same degree of care toward their students as would a reasonably prudent parent under comparable circumstances … . Here, the evidence submitted by the defendants, which included the deposition testimony of the infant plaintiff and Breen, was insufficient to establish, prima facie, that they properly supervised the infant plaintiff and her physical education class or that their alleged negligent supervision was not a proximate cause of the infant plaintiff’s injuries … . In addition, the defendants’ evidence was insufficient to establish that the locked door of the girls’ locker room was open and obvious and not inherently dangerous under the circumstances … . “Whether a hazard is open and obvious cannot be divorced from the surrounding circumstances,” as the condition may be rendered a trap where it is obscured or the plaintiff is distracted … . Maneri v Patchogue-Medford Union Free Sch Dist, 2014 NY Slip Op 07336, 2nd Dept 10-29-14