The First Department recently placed limits on a school’s responsibility when faced with a negligent supervision claim. In Giresi v City of New York (2015 NY Slip Op 00844), plaintiff’s three year old child was struck by a car in front of his school where he was in pre-K. The child had been let out of school when his mother, plaintiff, and sister came to pick him up. They left the school and went outside and plaintiff began speaking with another parent. At that time, her child ran into the street between two parked buses and was struck by a car. Plaintiff sued the City of New York, Board of Education of the City of New York and the Department of Education of the City of New York alleging negligent supervision and negligent traffic control.

While the lower court denied defendants motion for summary judgment, the First Department reversed. A school has a duty to supervise the students in its control. That duty is premised on the principle that when a school takes custody of a child, it is depriving the child of the protection of its parents. Here, the court held that when the school’s custody ceases and the child is passed back to its parents’ custody, the school duty also ceases, even if the child is still within the school zone. In this case, the school no longer had custody of the child, so the court held they could not be liable under a negligent supervision cause of action. As for the claim for negligent traffic control, the court further held that municipal defendants are immune from liability for negligence claims arising from the performance of its governmental functions. Further, here, defendants also established that inadequate traffic control was not a proximate cause of the injuries.

This was an obviously unfortunate accident involving a young child — the decision does not elaborate on the injuries, although we note it is a personal injury action, and not one for wrongful death. That said, the Court took care to appropriately apply the law to avoid placing blame where it did not belong.  Thanks to Anne Henry for her contribution to this post.