No Special Duty Owed by School District to Adult Employees

The Second Department affirmed the grant of summary judgment to defendant school district in a suit brought by a school bus driver injured by a student. Although the district owes a special duty to students, no such duty is owed to adult employees:

“Liability for a claim that a municipality negligently exercised a governmental function turns upon the existence of a special duty to the injured person, in contrast to a general duty owed to the public'” … . While a school district owes a special duty to its students to adequately supervise them to prevent foreseeable injuries to fellow students, that duty does not extend to adults … . Here, the defendant demonstrated its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law by establishing that it did not owe the injured plaintiff a special duty … . Guerrieri v New York City Dept./Bd. of Educ., 2015 NY Slip Op 07816, 2nd Dept 10-28-15