Forgnone v. Salvador Union Elementary School District

THE COURT.

The plaintiff has appealed from a judgment which was rendered against her pursuant to an order sustaining a demurrer to an amended complaint. The complaint seeks to recover damages for negligence of the Salvador Union Elementary School District for failing to provide supervision of its pupils during an intermission of school while they were eating their luncheons in a school room, during which time a fellow student in scuffling with Cecelia Forgnone twisted and broke her arm. It is alleged that no teacher'or supervisor was present in the school room when the accident occurred.

The amended complaint alleged that Cecelia Forgnone, a minor student at the Salvador Union Elementary School, while “eating her lunch . . . in the class-room”, was engaged by a fellow student in a scuffle which resulted in the twisting and breaking of her arm. It is further alleged that the fractured arm was the direct result of the negligence of the officers and agents of the school district by their failure to “take proper precautions to exercise proper care for the safeguarding of the pupils of the said school; . . . that at the said time and place ... no supervision whatever was exercised over the said children . . . and no teacher or other employee of the defendant was present in the said classroom during the time of said accident or at any of the times between the hour of 12 o’clock noon . . . until after the occurrence of the accident”.

[425]

We are of the opinion that is a sufficient allegation of negligence. In the case of

Taylor

v.

Oakland Scavenger Co.,

12 Cal. (2d) 310, 316 [83 Pac. (2d) 948], it is said with respect to the sufficiency of pleadings which attempt to allege negligence, that:

“It is elementary that negligence may be pleaded generally. This means that after what was done has been stated, it is sufficient to allege that it was negligently done, without stating the particular omission which rendered the act negligent.”

Numerous cases are cited in support of that statement of the law. In the present case the negligence is alleged to have consisted of an omission to supply the supervisor of students during an intermission of school which is required by law. Since the accident occurred in a school room during the luncheon hour, it requires no speculation to assume that if the" supervisor had been present in that room she would have observed the unusual scuffling and rough conduct of the students and she would naturally have commanded them to desist. Indeed, we may assume that if the teacher had been present the scuffling would not have occurred. Under those circumstances, with the supervision required by law, the injuries would not have resulted. It was unnecessary for the pleader to specifically recite the details of just how the accident would have been avoided if the supervisor had been present, under the circumstances of this case.