The Rule of Vallejo City Unified School District v. Superior Court is that a school district is immune from liability under Education Code section 44808 for harm to parents caused by a student's off-campus suicide, under circumstances where the student was not and should not have been under the immediate and direct supervision of district employees at the time of death, even if the district was allegedly negligent in its on-campus supervision and response to the student's mental health crisis.
Appeal from order denying summary judgment in Superior Court, County of Solano.
Petitioner Appellant was Vallejo City Unified School District — the school district that moved for summary judgment claiming immunity under Education Code section 44808.
Real Parties in Interest Respondents were Vionalyn Caguin and Renato Caguin — the parents of 11-year-old Maria "Therese" Caguin who sued the District after their daughter's suicide, alleging the District's negligent supervision and response to bullying and suicidal ideation proximately caused her death.
The suit sounded in negligence and statutory duty violations related to student supervision and suicide prevention. The parents brought four causes of action: vicarious liability for negligent supervision, breach of suicide prevention policies, survival action for Therese's pre-death suffering, and negligent hiring/retention.
The key substantive facts leading to the suit were that sixth-grader Therese was physically assaulted at school, emailed her teacher expressing suicidal thoughts and self-harm, received mental health assessments from school staff, and later committed suicide at her father's home during winter break on January 2, 2023.
The procedural result leading to the Appeal: The trial court denied the District's motion for summary judgment, ruling that triable issues of material fact existed regarding whether the District exercised reasonable care and whether Therese suffered on-campus injury, making the District's section 44808 immunity inapplicable under Hoyem v. Manhattan Beach City School District.
The key question(s) on Appeal: 1. Whether the District is entitled to section 44808 immunity from liability for claims premised on the student's off-campus suicide, and 2. Whether the District is immune from liability on the survival claim for the student's alleged on-campus injuries.
The Appellate Court held that the District is statutorily immune under Education Code section 44808 from liability for the parents' suffering caused by their daughter's off-campus suicide, since the student was not and should not have been under the immediate and direct supervision of District employees when she died, but the District is not immune from the survival claim premised on alleged on-campus harm that occurred while the student was under District supervision.
The case is inapplicable when the student's harm occurs on-campus while under school supervision, when the district has undertaken specific responsibilities like transportation or school-sponsored off-campus activities, or when evaluating survival claims for on-campus injuries rather than off-campus deaths.
The case leaves open questions regarding what constitutes "specifically assuming responsibility" for student supervision, the scope of survival claims for on-campus emotional injuries, and the precise parameters of when section 44808 immunity applies to negligent hiring and training theories.
Counsel
For Petitioner: Horvitz and Levy, Robert Herring Wright, Karen Marie Bray, and Peder Kristian Batalden; Lewis, Brisbois, Bisgaard, & Smith, Dana Alden Fox, and Eliot Andrew Bennion
For Real Parties in Interest: Gavrilov & Brooks, Ognian A. Gavrilov, Eliezer M. Cohen, and Priscilla Mercedes Parker; Harrison Kristopher, Bryan James Harrison and Edi Patience Kristopher