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VERDICT FINDING THE SCHOOL DISTRICT WAS NEGLIGENT BUT FURTHER FINDING THE NEGLIGENCE WAS NOT THE PROXIMATE CAUSE OF THE STUDENT’S SUICIDE WAS NOT AGAINST THE WEIGHT OF EVIDENCE; PLAINTIFFS ALLEGED BULLYING AT SCHOOL CAUSED THEIR SON’S SUICIDE (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department determined the verdict finding the school district was negligent but further finding the negligence was not the proximate cause of plaintiff-student’s suicide was not against the weight of the evidence. Plaintiffs alleged bullying at school was the reason for their son’s suicide and claimed the school was liable under a negligent-supervision theory:

“… [A] jury’s finding that a party was at fault but that [such] fault was not a proximate cause of [decedent’s] injuries is inconsistent and against the weight of the evidence only when the issues are so inextricably interwoven as to make it logically impossible to find negligence without also finding proximate cause” … . …

The conduct of defendant’s employees was not blameless … — indeed, it appears that several minor incidents involving decedent provided missed opportunities for them to uncover what was going on — but the fact remains that the trial proof neither established the degree of the bullying that decedent received at school nor showed that defendant could have anticipated its impact upon him. Therefore, the jury could logically find that defendant was negligent by failing “to adequately supervise” decedent in some respects … , but that the pain, suffering and suicide of decedent were not foreseeable consequences of that negligence … . The issues of negligence and proximate cause were not inextricably interwoven as a result and, after viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party, “we find that the evidence did not so preponderate in plaintiff[s’] favor that the jury’s verdict could not have been reached on any fair interpretation of the evidence” … . C.T. v Board of Educ. of S. Glens Falls Cent. Sch. Dist., 2020 NY Slip Op 00023, Third Dept 1-2-20

 

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