SKETCHES OF COURT: School not liable for child’s injury because victim came to school too early

April 23, 2015 By Alba Acevedo Special to the Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Court sketch by Alba Acevedo

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In this courtroom sketch, Hon. Richard Velasquez listens as defense attorney Lauren Roza (standing), of the office of the NYC Corporation Counsel, conducts a cross-examination of a witness in the bifurcated trial of Latavia Person v. City of New York. Court reporter Jean Marie Episcopia (seated, right) transcribes the proceedings.

In February 2011 the plaintiff, a 10-year-old child at the time, was dropped off at the main entrance of P.S. 72 in East New York just before opening hours on a wintry school day after a freezing rain. A school safety agent redirected the child back outside, to the appropriate entrance per their regulations. Unfortunately in traversing the distance between the entrances, the child suffered injury in a fall.

A motion for summary judgment on a claim of negligence in maintaining the sidewalk was dismissed, and the subsequent issue in the trial became the question of custody and control to determine liability.

Plaintiff’s attorney Alexis Diaz (seated, center), of the law firm Burns and Harris, sought to implicate the school in negligent supervision, as they had allowed the child to be dropped off and then steered her through an unsupervised area. The defense’s position was that the child was not within the school’s custody and control as she had been dropped off too early, in violation of school regulations regarding both timing and location. They supported their position with testimony that the school had made those regulations clear on multiple occasions.

The trial was resolved this week in Kings County Civil Term when the jury returned a liability verdict for the defendant, ruling that the school did not have custody and control at the time of the incident.