Patterson v. Sacramento City Unified School District

66 Cal. Rptr. 3d 337 (2007)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P enrolled in D's California Heavy Duty Truck Driving Program. The course provided students with the training and hands-on experience they needed to become professional truck drivers. D assigned credentialed heavy-duty truck driving instructors to teach each segment of the course. Joe Arcuri and Ward Allen taught the second and third segments. Allen also served as field instructor and supervisor for the community service projects. During the first week of the hands-on segment P and several other students participated in a community service project which involved picking up bleachers from several locations, loading them onto a flatbed trailer attached to a tractor, and transporting them to the site of a rugby tournament. The classroom curriculum covered freight loading in a basic sense but did not cover the specifics of loading flatbed trucks or trailers. The primary goal of the community service assignment was to teach students how to load the trailers safely. The instructors described the loading of cargo as a “hands-on kind of thing” that involved common sense. The instructors typically critiqued the students after they loaded the cargo. Allen was responsible for instructing P and the other students on loading the bleachers on the flatbed trailer. Allen was present when the students picked up aluminum bleachers at the first location and loaded them on the trailer without incident. He told the students to pick up the bleachers at the second location on their own. Allen did not know how much prior training or experience his students had in loading trailers. The bleachers at the second location were made of heavy wood. Allen had not seen the wooden bleachers before assigning the students to pick them up. The unsupervised students decided as a group how to load the wooden bleachers. It took six students to carry each section of wooden bleachers. P and a student named Cruse stood on the trailer bed. P and Cruse pulled on the wooden bleachers while the remaining students pushed the bleachers from below. P cautioned the students who were pushing to slow down when he recognized that he was running out of room at the edge of the trailer. The students gave the bleachers “one big push,” and P fell backward off the trailer. P sued D alleging that it had a duty to supervise the activity. D moved for summary judgment claiming P assumed the risk. The motion was granted and P appealed.