SCHOOL’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION ACTION STEMMING FROM A STABBING WAS PROPERLY DENIED, THE INADEQUATE SECURITY CAUSE OF ACTION, HOWEVER, SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED (SECOND DEPT).

The Second Department, modifying Supreme Court, determined the negligent supervision cause of action against the school district properly survived summary judgment, but the inadequate security cause of action should have been dismissed. Plaintiff was stabbed by another student in the hallway at school. The school district did not demonstrate the assault was not foreseeable and did not demonstrate negligent supervision was not the proximate cause of plaintiff’s injuries. However the inadequate security cause of action should have been dismissed because no special relationship between the school and the plaintiff was demonstrated:

“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”… . “In determining whether the duty to provide adequate supervision has been breached in the context of injuries caused by the acts of fellow students, it must be established that school authorities had sufficiently specific knowledge or notice of the dangerous conduct which caused injury; that is, that the third-party acts could reasonably have been anticipated”… . Actual or constructive notice to the school of prior similar conduct generally is required, and “an injury caused by the impulsive, unanticipated act of a fellow student ordinarily will not give rise to a finding of negligence” … . A plaintiff also must establish that the alleged breach of the duty to provide adequate supervision was a proximate cause of the injuries sustained … . The adequacy of a school’s supervision of its students is generally a question left to the trier of fact to resolve, as is the question of whether inadequate supervision was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injury … .

Here, the District failed to demonstrate, prima facie, that the assault on the plaintiff was not foreseeable or that the District’s alleged negligent supervision was not a proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries … . The District failed to eliminate triable issues of fact as to whether it had knowledge of the offending student’s dangerous propensities based on his involvement in other assaultive altercations with fellow students in the recent past … . Thus, the District failed to establish, prima facie, that it lacked sufficiently specific knowledge or notice of the dangerous conduct that caused the alleged injuries to the plaintiff. As to proximate cause, the District failed to demonstrate, prima facie, that the subject incident occurred so quickly and spontaneously “that even the most intense supervision could not have prevented it” … . …

However, the District established, prima facie, its entitlement to judgment as a matter of law dismissing the cause of action alleging inadequate security by demonstrating that there was no special relationship giving rise to a special duty to protect the plaintiff. Gaston v East Ramapo Cent. Sch. Dist., 2018 NY Slip Op 06720, Second Dept 10-10-18

NEGLIGENCE (EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW, SCHOOL’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION ACTION STEMMING FROM A STABBING WAS PROPERLY DENIED, THE INADEQUATE SECURITY CAUSE OF ACTION, HOWEVER, SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED (SECOND DEPT))/EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW (NEGLIGENCE, SCHOOL’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION ACTION STEMMING FROM A STABBING WAS PROPERLY DENIED, THE INADEQUATE SECURITY CAUSE OF ACTION, HOWEVER, SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED (SECOND DEPT))/NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION  (EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW, SCHOOL’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION ACTION STEMMING FROM A STABBING WAS PROPERLY DENIED, THE INADEQUATE SECURITY CAUSE OF ACTION, HOWEVER, SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED (SECOND DEPT))/INADEQUATE SECURITY (EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW, SCHOOL’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION ACTION STEMMING FROM A STABBING WAS PROPERLY DENIED, THE INADEQUATE SECURITY CAUSE OF ACTION, HOWEVER, SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED (SECOND DEPT))/THIRD PARTY ASSAULT (EDUCATION-SCHOOL LAW, SCHOOL’S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN THIS NEGLIGENT SUPERVISION ACTION STEMMING FROM A STABBING WAS PROPERLY DENIED, THE INADEQUATE SECURITY CAUSE OF ACTION, HOWEVER, SHOULD HAVE BEEN DISMISSED (SECOND DEPT))