Dobbins v. Board of Education of Henry Hudson Regional School
Dobbins v. Board of Education of Henry Hudson Regional School
Opinion of the Court
The .judgment is affirmed substantially for the reasons expressed by the Appellate Division in its majority opinion. 133 N. J. Super. 13.
Dissenting Opinion
Temporarily Assigned (dissenting). In 2ny view this is purely, as recognized by the dissenter in the Appellate Division, a case of liability of a school board for breach of its well-recognized duty “to exercise reasonable supervisory care for the safety of - students.” Titus v. Lindberg, 49 N. J. 66, 73 (1967); and see Jackson v. Hankinson and Bd. of Ed. of New Shrewsbury, 51 N. J. 230, 233 (1968). The fact that the locus of the injury resulting from such breach of duty happens to be school property is irrelevant, and, as I see it, N. J. S. A. 18A:20-35 Was not intended and should not by a blindly literal reading of it be deemed to relieve the school board of its liability.
Literally, any one present on school property is “using” it, in a sense. If the statute were, accordingly, taken 'to mean that anyone injured while on school property, is, by. virtue of that fact alone, precluded from maintaining an ac
It seems to me that Judge Bigelow pointed the way, broadly, to the intrepretation of N. J. S. A. 18A:20-35 which is appropriate here, when, in Estelle v. Bd. of Ed., Red Bank, 26 N. J. Super. 9, 18 (App. Div. 1953), mod. other grounds, 14 N. J. 256 (1954), he distinguished between injuries from defects in the “design, construction or maintenance” of the premises and those arising from “activities conducted there”, the latter not to be considered as arising from “use” of the premises. In the present case there was no default of “maintenance” or any claim based thereon, as assumed by the Appellate Division majority below. There is nothing unusual or dangerous about a gravel-covered parking lot, qua parking lot. This is a situation commonly observed. But it is clearly inferable that such a parking lot is not a safe place to conduct footraces between pupils in a physical education class.
I would reverse the judgment of the Appellate Division and reinstate the jury award.
Chief Justice Hughes and Justice Jacobs join in this dissent.
For affirmance — Justices Mountain, Sullivan, Pashman and Clieeokd — 4.
For reversal — Chief Justice Hughes, Justice Jacobs and Judge Coneokd — 3.
Thus, too, if the running child were struck by a car emerging from its parked position, the Board’s liability for providing a racing site unsafe in relation to traffic should not be negated because the area was being “used” by the child.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- CHARLENE DOBBINS, INFANT BY HER GUARDIAN AD LITEM, PAULINE DOBBINS WHITNEY AND PAULINE DOBBINS WHITNEY INDIVIDUALLY v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF HENRY HUDSON REGIONAL SCHOOL, DEFENDANT-RESPONDENT
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- 7 cases
- Status
- Published