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Rourk v. the11/12/1991
The plaintiff, Rebel Lynn Rourk, was injured in an automobile accident when she was returning home from a teenage drinking party. She brought an action for negligent supervision against her foster parents and against the State of Arizona and the Arizona Department of Economic Security (DES) for negligently licensing the foster home in which she lived, and for negligently placing her in it. The trial judge granted partial summary judgment for the state and DES on the claim for negligent licensing. At the close of the plaintiff's case, he directed a verdict in favor of all defendants on all issues.
We hold that the parental immunity doctrine does not protect foster parents from suit for the negligent supervision of a foster child if the foster parents are not related to the child by blood, marriage or adoption, or are not providing long-term foster care in contemplation of adoption. We also hold that the negligence of the driver of the car in which Rebel Rourk was riding at the time of the accident was not a superseding cause of her injury that would preclude her recovery against the foster parents and the state. We also find sufficient evidence to support a finding that the state was grossly negligent in placing Rebel Rourk in the foster home and in failing to remove her from that home when it knew or should have known that she was not receiving adequate supervision. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for a new trial.
FACTS
The evidence, in the light most favorable to the plaintiff, is as follows. In December 1984, Rebel Rourk was a seventeen-year-old girl in the care and custody of DES. She was suicidal and had once overdosed on drugs. A psychologist, Jeffrey Hatch-Miller, recommended that Rebel be placed in a therapeutic, or class three, foster home where she could be closely supervised. He also recommended that she receive immediate therapy.
The DES maintains three classifications for foster homes. A level one home is for children and teenagers without significant behavioral or emotional problems. A level two home is equipped to handle foster children with moderate behavioral or emotional problems, and a level three home can accept children with more severe behavioral or emotional problems who require constant monitoring and twenty-four-hour supervision.
In the spring of 1985, Donnovan Myers, a DES employee, placed Rebel in a foster home maintained by William and Debra Blount. The Blount home was a level one home, although the psychologist, Jeffrey
Hatch-Miller, was told, by whom is unspecified, that it was a level three home. No one from DES told the Blounts that Rebel had suicidal tendencies, that she suffered from severe depression, or that she had a problem with alcohol, although all of this was known to the state.
In addition to their own three children, the Blounts cared for four other foster children in their home. The foster children were frequently unsupervised and drank alcohol on several occasions. DES had been notified of at least two incidents involving lack of supervision and drinking. William Blount had a drinking problem and was frequently intoxicated. Debra Blount acted more like a friend to the children than a parent figure. Rebel was permitted to come and go as she pleased, and she was allowed to drink alcohol. She became intoxicated in the Blount home on five or six occasions. Debra Blount participated in drinking parties at the home and provided Rebel with a twelve-pack of beer on at least one occasion. The other foster children also drank alcohol and used drugs.
The week before the accident, Rebel and two other foster children had
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