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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

School Isn’t Liable for Intentional Mow-Down

(CN) - A Montana school district is not liable for injuries suffered by a student who was deliberately run over by another student, the Montana Supreme Court ruled, despite the discovery of a school assignment written by the driver claiming he wanted to do "horrible things" behind the wheel.

C.M. Russell High School freshman Daniel Robbins turned in a school assignment listing his New Year's Resolutions for 2002. One of them was to "get a driver's license so I can do those horrible things that people like to read about in the paper."

The administration met with Robbins' parents and they agreed that Robbins was a normal boy who had attempted "black humor."

Seventeen months later, Brandon Sand was riding in a car with Robbins behind the wheel. Robbins ran over fellow student Patty Emanuel in his car. Sand said that Robbins planned to run her down and engage in necrophilia with her corpse.

Emanuel sued the school district for negligence relating to the discovery of Robbins' resolution list. The trial court ruled that the district was not liable, because it did not have a special relationship with either Robbins or Emanuel.

Justice Leaphart affirmed the decision, saying the school district should not have "foreseen that Robbins would have deliberately run over a pedestrian, after school hours, off school grounds, nearly 17 months after the disturbing New Year's Resolutions list was brought to its attention."

Also, Leaphart ruled that the "black humor" explanation was plausible because the list contained ridiculous items like "kill the tooth fairy."

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