JUDGE TOLD TO CLARIFY HIS RULING IN SUIT HALLOWEEN INJURY AN ISSUE.

Byline: KAREN MAESHIRO Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- A judge has been ordered to reconsider his ruling in a lawsuit involving a boy whose leg was punctured as he tried to jump over a discarded Halloween decoration left on a sidewalk outside Juniper Intermediate School.

After a three-day trial, Antelope Valley Superior Court Judge Frank Jackson found that the seventh-grader was completely responsible for his own injury. But the 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled that the judge should have considered the boy's claim that school officials were negligent in supervising him.

``The court erred because appellant's absence of due care did not preclude the court from additionally finding, if the evidence so warranted, that the district failed to adequately supervise him,'' the three-justice panel said in a 2-1 ruling.

The boy's attorney said he was pleased with the decision.

``I thought there was error because a minor in the cases that I cited to the trial court as well as Court of Appeal has fairly consistently held that minors don't assume the risks of dangers on campus or near it,'' attorney Bruce Abel said. ``A 12-year-old doesn't assume risk of a dangerous condition on school property. Kids are liable to jump over things and a school would still have liability.''

The attorney for Palmdale School District said the justices merely want Jackson to clarify his decision.

``This is not a decision that remands the matter back for a new trial. This is a decision that remands the matter back for the court to determine whether the district breached its duty to supervise the appellant. The two justices want Judge Jackson to rewrite his decision and to address their concerns,'' attorney Martin Carpenter said.

The decorative piece punctured the boy's shin Nov. 2, 2001, when he tried to show off to his friends by jumping over it as he was leaving the campus, the ruling said.

What exactly the decoration was, and where it came from, wasn't clear. Containing chicken wire and black and orange paper, and about 5 feet long, it was left on a sidewalk near where Juniper's buses wait for pupils, attorneys said.

The boy denied having tried to jump over the object and his attorney argued on appeal that there was insufficient evidence for the court to find that he did. The appellate justices said they were bound by the findings of the trial judge, who believed a school bus driver's testimony that he saw the boy fall while trying to leap over the object.

The ruling notes that schools have a duty to supervise students, in part because society presumes youthful inexperience leads children to foolish, or even dangerous, conduct. Thus, the fact that a child's injuries might result from ``boisterous behavior'' does not preclude a finding of negligence by the school, the ruling said.

``As students flowed out of the gate, several dozen children walked past the metal object without incident,'' the ruling said. ``... (T)hat so many children encountered an object susceptible of causing injury with no supervising adult doing anything to remove the object or shoo away the children permits, but does not compel, the inference that the adults were inattentive.''

If it finds a breach, the court must then determine what portion, if any, of the appellant's injuries were caused by that breach of duty and the damages suffered by the boy.

``In remanding, we do not mean to suggest how the court should resolve the foregoing questions, only that they cannot be ignored,'' the ruling said.

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com

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