I.C. v. Compton Unified School District

I.C. (plaintiff) and Christopher L. were high-school students in the Compton Unified School District (district) (defendant). While in an art class led by longtime teacher Marco Godinez (defendant), I.C. and Christopher started fighting. Godinez, who weighed 375 pounds and used a walker for back problems, intervened to prevent the boys from hurting each other. When Godinez started pulling Christopher off I.C., Christopher stopped fighting, but I.C. kept throwing punches. I.C. hit Godinez, who lost his balance and fell onto I.C., badly breaking I.C.’s leg. Another student recorded the incident. I.C. sued Godinez and the district for negligence. He argued Godinez should not have intervened because of his weight and physical condition and that the district failed to provide teachers with adequate intervention training. At trial, the jury saw the recording multiple times. The judge instructed the jury on negligence, explaining that I.C.’s claim succeeded only if Godinez or the district was negligent and the negligence was a substantial factor in causing I.C.’s harm. The instructions defined negligence as “the failure to use reasonable care to prevent harm to oneself or to others.” They expounded that negligence arose if a person either did something a reasonably careful person would not have done in the situation or failed to do something that a reasonably careful person would have done. I.C. requested certain additional instructions stating that teachers and school districts had an affirmative duty to exercise reasonable care to protect students from foreseeable harm. The judge rejected the special instructions, reasoning that even though they were correct legal statements, they did not add anything to the issued instructions and were thus unnecessary. The jury concluded that neither Godinez nor the district was negligent but instead that I.C.’s harm resulted from I.C. and Christopher’s negligence. I.C. appealed, arguing, among other things, that the trial judge’s refusal to issue the special instructions was reversible error.