Basketball game (Photo: Shutterstock.com)Court Says School District, Teacher Immune in Student's Fundraiser Basketball Game Injury
"There were no facts showing that the game was being conducted in a reckless or out of control manner before plaintiff was injured," said Appellate Division Judges Joseph Yannotti, Robert Gilson and Arnold Natali Jr. in a per curiam decision.
November 16, 2018 at 05:22 PM
3 minute read
A New Jersey school district cannot be held liable for injuries a middle school girl sustained while going up for a rebound during a student-teacher fundraising basketball game, an appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge Appellate Division panel, in an unpublished opinion, said the Rahway Board of Education and officials at the Rahway Middle School did not breach any duty of care owed to the student, identified only as C.H., when she was injured.
“There were no facts showing that the game was being conducted in a reckless or out of control manner before plaintiff was injured,” said Appellate Division Judges Joseph Yannotti, Robert Gilson and Arnold Natali Jr. in a per curiam decision.
The accident occurred in June 2013. C.H. was a 14-year-old eighth-grader at the time and played for the Rahway Middle School girls basketball team, the court said.
She was playing in the fundraiser event when she went up for a rebound against a teacher, Garry Martin. Martin and C.H. collided in mid-air, and C.H. came down awkwardly, injuring her knee, according to the opinion.
She and her guardian, Brenda Cummings, then filed the lawsuit against the school district, the middle school and Martin.
During depositions, C.H. said Martin “shoved me … to get me out of the way so he could get the rebound.”
Union County Superior Court Judge Mark Ciarrocca granted the district's motion to dismiss the case on summary judgment.
Ciarrocca said there was no evidence that the district failed to properly supervise the event or that Martin acted in a reckless or negligent manner.
C.H. appealed.
The appeals court said there was no showing that any of the defendants acted with purposeful intent.
“There are no facts showing defendants breached their duty to provide supervisor to plaintiff as a student participant in a basketball game,” the appeals court judges said. “Moreover … the material undisputed facts do not show that Martin acted recklessly or intentionally.”
C.H.'s attorney, Juan Cervantes of Foreman & Cardonsky in Elizabeth, said he had not had a chance to review the ruling with his clients and could not comment.
The district's attorney, Howard Nirenberg of Nirenberg & Varano in Hackensack, didn't return a call seeking comment.
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