R.B. v. Enterline
R.B. v. Enterline
Opinion of the Court
Sir Winston Churchill said, "To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often." It is in the spirit of this concept that I change my prior holding in this matter, in light of recent appellate court precedent.
I. BACKGROUND
Plaintiff, Ryleigh Benjamin
II. DISCUSSION
A. Motion to Dismiss Standard
When considering a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted,
B. Facts Alleged in the Amended Complaint
Accepting the facts alleged in the amended complaint as true for the purposes of this motion, I note, as follows.
Enterline is the cheerleading coach for Danville Area High School. Enterline has had training for recognition of, and care for, concussions.
In September 2014, Benjamin was a fifteen year old member of the non-competitive cheerleading squad.
Later during that same practice, Benjamin sustained a second head injury after another "cheerleader/student sat on the top of the minor Plaintiff's head from which both fell, causing additional impact and injury to Plaintiff's head when both fell to the ground."
The following day, September 11, 2014, Enterline returned Benjamin to practice, during which "another cheerleader/student kicked the minor Plaintiff on the left side of her jaw, causing her head to move in a whiplash-type manner and loss of consciousness."
Description of Incident: While basing, Ryleigh lost hold of her flywer's foot. Flyer's foot came down and got Ryleigh in the jaw. (No Blood-Slight red mark.)
Action Taken: Had cheerleader sit-offered ice pack-refused. Continued last 15 min. of practice.
Treatment Provided by:Coach. *After speaking with Ryleigh's mother on 9/12/14-possible concussion-taking her to be seen at GMC.22
C. Count I: Negligence and Willful Misconduct
In the amended complaint, Benjamin reframed her negligence claim as one sounding in willful misconduct in an effort to skirt the governmental immunity imposed by Pennsylvania's Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act. This strategy has worked-at least for the purposes of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion and its attendant plausibility standard.
School districts are immune from liability under Pennsylvania's governmental immunity law.
'Willful misconduct,' within meaning of Pennsylvania Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act, is synonymous with term intentional tort.
An example of the willful misconduct required to lose immunity from the Pennsylvania Political Subdivision Tort Claims Act is Estate of Massey v. City of Philadelphia.
Here, there are no allegations that Enterline was acting in a manner that evinces an intent for Benjamin to suffer a concussion. Enterline's actions sound in negligence, but simply do not rise to the level of intentional conduct necessary to lose immunity under the Act at issue.
Finally, as discussed in my June 12, 2017 opinion, Benjamin's reliance on the Safety in Youth Sports Act is misplaced. That Act merely expands immunity to coaches acting in accordance with it. The Act does not eliminate the immunity under the Tort Claims Act for those who do not act in accordance with it.
D. Count II:
In order for Benjamin to prevail under
The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit accepted the state created danger theory of liability as an actionable claim in 1996. Later that year, the Third Circuit in Kneipp v. Tedder , formulated a four-part test for applying the state created danger theory of liability.
1. the harm ultimately caused was foreseeable and fairly direct;
2. the state actor acted in willful disregard for the safety of the Plaintiff;
3. there existed some relationship between the state and the Plaintiff;
4. the state actor used his or her authority to create an opportunity that otherwise would not have existed for the third party's crime to occur.36
Over the past twenty years, the Third Circuit has further refined each of these four elements as follows:
Element 1-The harm ultimately caused was foreseeable and fairly direct.
The first element "requires that the harm ultimately caused was a foreseeable and a fairly direct result of the state's actions."
*461Element 2-A state actor acted with a degree of culpability that shocks the conscience.
The Third Circuit expanded the second element to include a "conscience shocking" test after the United States Supreme Court clarified the standard of culpability on the part of law enforcement for violating substantive due process in a pursuit case.
Justice Souter continued, "[we] have held that the Constitution does not guarantee due care on the part of state officials; liability for negligently inflicted harm is categorically beneath the threshold of constitutional due process."
The Third Circuit further explained that the amount of time the state actor has to deliberate is also instructive to determine when his or her actions are conscience shocking. Where an official does not need to make a decision in the heat of the moment, but still must act with some urgency, the mental state necessary is "proof that the defendants consciously disregarded, not just a substantial risk, but a great risk that serious harm would result."
Element 3-A relationship between the state and the plaintiff existed such that the plaintiff was a foreseeable victim of the defendant's acts, or a member of a discrete class of persons subjected to the potential harm brought about by the state's actions, as opposed to a member of the public in general.
The plaintiff must be a foreseeable victim.
Element 4-A state actor affirmatively used his or her authority in a way that created a danger to the citizen or that rendered the citizen more vulnerable to danger than had the state not acted at all.
Morse v. Lower Merion School District , also clarified the fourth element, stating "the dispositive factor appears to be whether the state has in some way placed the plaintiff in a dangerous position that was foreseeable, and not whether the act was more appropriately characterized as an affirmative act or an omission."
"While these four elements of a claim under the state-created danger theory of § 1983 liability are well established in this Circuit, their application in the context of high school sports is a relatively recent phenomenon."
I held in my June 12, 2017 Memorandum Opinion that Benjamin had not stated a claim as to the first, second, and fourth *463elements. However, I revise my holding today, in light of the Third Circuit's September, 22, 2017 opinion in Mann v. Palmerton Area School District.
Our Court of Appeals in Mann , although addressing the issue on a motion for summary judgment, and in the context of football, changed the game, in this area of the law, so to speak. Sheldon Mann was a football player for the Palmerton Area School District who experienced a "hard hit" during a practice in November 2011.
In Mann , the defendant coach testified at his deposition that he had been trained to identify the symptoms of a concussion and that the first hit Sheldon experienced could have been a symptom. Based on this, it was held that the Mann plaintiffs set forth evidence sufficient to support a jury finding as to the first element-the harm was foreseeable and fairly direct.
In Mann our Court of Appeals found that by failing to remove Sheldon Mann from practice and instead requiring him to continue practice, a jury could find the coach was 'deliberately indifferent' to the risk posed by sustaining a second substantial blow to the head.
Enterline does not challenge the third element-the relationship between the state and Benjamin. Not unlike the Mann defendants, in athlete-coach relationship, this element is easily established.
Finally, the fourth element, whether Enterline affirmatively took action that created danger to Benjamin, states a plausible claim for relief-but by the thinnest margin. Mann held that a reasonable juror could find that the coach there was aware of the first blow to Sheldon Mann's head and the resulting concussive symptoms, *464and by sending Sheldon back into practice rendered him vulnerable to harm. Although seemingly less likely than in Mann , discovery here may show that Enterline may have recognized symptoms of a concussion in Benjamin that rendered her more susceptible to harm by having her continue to practice.
However, despite reconsidering my June 2017 holding in light of Mann , the issue of qualified immunity still remained an open question in this matter until today. The ultimate outcome for Benjamin remains the same, as I find that this constitutional violation did not become clearly established law in this Circuit until Mann v. Palmerton Area School District was decided in September 2017.
Consequently, I am compelled to consider what was firmly established law during the time of the events in question-September 10 and 11, 2014.
Qualified Immunity
"Clearly established law for purposes of qualified immunity means that 'the contours of the right must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what he is doing violates that right.' "
In this case, the specific context is whether a cheerleading coach, lacking in concussion training, who fails to send a student athlete to an athletic trainer or other medical personnel after the athlete falls during practice, violated that student's constitutional rights for not sending the athlete for concussion screening. I am aware of no binding case decided prior to September of 2014 that held that the coach violated the athlete's constitutional rights by not sending her for medical evaluation.
III. CONCLUSION
For all of the foregoing reasons, Enterline is immune from liability for both the state law and federal law claims. Accordingly, this action must be dismissed.
An appropriate Order follows.
See Mann v. Palmerton Area School Dist.,
Hereinafter "Benjamin."
Benjamin's counsel filed the amended complaint, then moved with withdraw as counsel. Ms. Benjamin, and her mother, Kyle Hickey, are proceeding pro se.
Hereinafter "Enterline."
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6).
Phillips v. Cnty. Of Allegheny ,
Ashcroft v. Iqbal ,
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 10.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 13 and 16.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 15-30.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 14.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 33.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 35.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 35.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 36.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 38.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 40-41.
ECF No. 17 at 42.
ECF No. 17 at 43.
ECF No. 17 at 45.
ECF No. 17 at ¶ 46.
42 Pa. C.S.A. § 5841 et seq.
Amended Complaint., ECF No. 17 at ¶ 62.
See Allen v. District Attorney's Office of Philadelphia ,
Orange Stones Co. v. City of Reading ,
See, e.g. M.U. v. Downingtown High School East,
As discussed in my prior opinion, these two counts allege the same claim.
See Kost v. Kozakiewicz ,
Kneipp v. Tedder ,
Morse v. Lower Merion School District ,
County of Sacramento v. Lewis ,
Rivas v. City of Passaic ,
Morse,
Morse ,
Bright v. Westmoreland County,
Rivas ,
M.U. v. Downingtown High Sch. East ,
Mann v. Palmerton Area Sch. Dist. ,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- R.B., a minor, BY her parent and natural guardian Kyle HICKEY, in her own right v. Jennifer ENTERLINE
- Status
- Published