Law School Memory #31: Cases

It was the first Torts class after some sort of holiday during the first semester and we were still catching up on the assigned readings in class. So most of us were actually ahead in the reading. Which was good but also gave us a false sense of security as many of us didn't review for what we were going over that day in class. I don't think most people even knew where we were in that class. So it began. First person to be called on didn't know the answer, Prof. Torts was displeased; second person got skipped over because they were too slow to find the answer in the casebook, Prof. Torts was really displeased and told us so; third person told Prof. Torts to move on to another student if she wanted a quick answer, Prof. Torts was now looking for blood; another student or two were called on amid the sound of rustling pages of the casebook, and the word "pass" kept everyone flipping the pages. So now Prof. Torts was more than displeased, she was downright pissed at all of us and was looking for blood. Then... that's right... the name Wayne gets called. In response I gave her a resigned, "Yeah." Rita had pointed me to the right page in the casebook but I ignored it to begin with and started to give Prof. Torts an answer that had been given the previous week. Oooops. I got on track after that and did well for a few questions before she got me on the last one. Many appreciative thanks given from classmates afterwards, which in a way was more difficult to take than the questioning from Prof. Torts.

Here's the case:

This is a suit for injuries arising out of the abuse of children at a day care center. Plaintiffs filed suit individually and as next friends of their two children, alleging that defendants witnessed the abuse and failed to report it to the police or child welfare officials. The sole issue before us is whether plaintiffs may maintain a cause of action for negligence per se based on the Family Code, which requires any person having cause to believe a child is being abused to report the abuse to state authorities and makes the knowing failure to do so a misdemeanor. The trial court granted summary judgment for defendants, but the court of appeals reversed and remanded plaintiffs' negligence per se and gross negligence claims for trial. We reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and render judgment that plaintiffs take nothing. Because plaintiffs did not preserve their common law negligence claims, we do not decide whether there should be a common law duty to report child abuse in some circumstances. Perry v. S.N. 973 S.W.2d 301 (Tex.,1998).