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Doe Parents No. 1 v. State11/27/2002
s' participation in the criminal proceedings against Norton conducted in connection with Melony's and Nicole's accusations is a superceding, intervening cause of their damages. Thus, the DOE urges us to hold that, to the extent that any of its employees were negligent, their negligence was not a legal cause of the plaintiffs' damages.
We perceive no clear error in the circuit court's determinations regarding legal causation. That the plaintiffs' respective trauma includes that associated with Norton's molestation of Melony and Nicole, as well as that associated with their participation in subsequent criminal proceedings conducted in connection with his molestation of the two girls, is irrelevant. See, e.g., Taylor-Rice, 91 Hawai`i at 74, 979 P.2d at 1100 ("a defendant's negligence need not have been the whole cause or the only factor in bringing about the harm"). Moreover, such trauma is a part of the very harm that the DOE was subject to a duty to take reasonable steps to prevent, given the foreseeability (a) that Norton's molestations would be criminally prosecuted and (b) Norton could be acquitted, given Dr. Annon's testimony, see supra note 20, that pedophiles were often acquitted of criminal charges.
Insofar as the DOE's negligent acts contributed to the conditions that facilitated Norton's molesting the girls, the DOE's negligence was a substantial factor in causing the plaintiffs' injuries. Accordingly, we hold that the circuit court did not clearly err in finding that the DOE's negligence legally caused the plaintiffs' various psychological injuries.
B. The Plaintiffs' Appeal
Under the STLA, the DOE "shall be liable in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual under like circumstances[.]" HRS § 662-2. Nevertheless, pursuant to HRS § 663-10.5, "in any case where a government entity is determined to be a tortfeasor along with one or more other tortfeasors, the government entity shall be liable for no more than that percentage share of the damages attributable to the government entity." Undertaking to apply HRS § 663-10.5 in the present matter, the circuit court determined that the "percentage share" of the plaintiffs' damages that was "attributable" to the DOE was forty-nine percent of the total.
The plaintiffs urge us to hold that the DOE is liable to them for all of their damages, rather than merely forty-nine percent. They argue that, under the circumstances of this case, that HRS § 663-10.5 does not limit the DOE's liability for its negligence. Citing the statute's nonretroactivity clause, which expressly renders it applicable to "causes of action based upon acts or omissions" occurring on or after June 22, 1994, see 1994 Haw. Sess. L. Act 214, § 4 at 517 (emphasis added), the plaintiffs posit that, "since the key negligent act" of the DOE's employees that predicated their claim for relief in negligence occurred "on January 19, 1993[,] when Norton was put ack in the classroom without having undergone an appropriate administrative investigation," HRS § 663-10.5's nonretroactivity clause renders the statute inapplicable to their claims. The plaintiffs contend that the circuit court consequently erred in construing the statute's nonretroactivity clause to bar claims that "accrued" before June 22, 1994. As such, the plaintiffs posit that the circuit court erroneously determined that the plaintiffs' negligence and NIED claims did not "accrue" until well after June 22, 1994, i.e., at the earliest, when Norton molested Melony and Nicole, and, at the latest, when the plaintiffs became aware that Norton had done so. Thus, the plaintiffs maintain that -- HRS § 663-10.5 being inapplicable --the circuit court should have determined that
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