Court rules Ferndale School District still part of lawsuit over deadly 2015 crash
The Ferndale School District should be a party to a lawsuit filed by the family of a student who died after an SUV crashed into a high school class in June 2015, the Court of Appeals ruled Monday, Feb. 10.
William Jeffrey Klein, 38, admitted he fell asleep at the wheel of his car and crashed into the group of students who were on an unauthorized class field trip in June 2015. Klein was acquitted in May 2016 of all criminal charges relating to the accident near Ferndale.
Gabriel Lewis Anderson, 15, and Shane Lawrence Ormiston, 18, both of Ferndale, died at the scene and Michael “Andy” Brewster, then 17, of Custer and Kole A. Randall, then 17, of Ferndale were injured, according to Whatcom County Superior Court records.
Anderson’s parents filed a civil wrongful death suit on Dec. 3, 2015, against Klein and the Ferndale School District. Anderson’s family is seeking damages for medical and funeral expenses, general damages for Anderson’s death, his pain and suffering before death and his future earnings if he had lived a normal life expectancy, according to court records.
Windward High School gym teacher Robert “Evan” Ritchie failed to follow district protocols when he took his class on an afternoon walk along Smith Road without adequate supervision, putting students in danger, the lawsuit alleges. Because Ritchie was a district employee acting in his official duties, the school district is liable, the lawsuit alleges.
The Ferndale School District admitted that the walk violated district protocols, according to court records, but said the incident was solely caused by Klein’s negligence.
The court agreed and the district was dismissed from the lawsuit Jan. 9, 2019. Anderson’s family appealed that decision on March 6, 2019, according to court records.
In its opinion filed Feb. 10, the Court of Appeals determined that the Whatcom County Superior Court erred in determining whether the collision that killed Anderson was foreseeable, and thus whether the district had a duty to prevent it. The Whatcom court had ruled the collision was not reasonably foreseeable and so the district didn’t have a duty to take steps to prevent it, according to court records.
The Court of Appeals ruling states that the Whatcom court should have based its ruling not on the specific harm that happened, but on the “general field of danger created when Ferndale staff took Anderson off campus for a walk along a public roadway,” according to court records.
Philip Talmadge, the Andersons’ attorney who handled the appeal, said the district’s liability in Anderson’s death now becomes an issue for a jury to decide. Talmadge said the school district has 20 days from the date of the appellate court’s ruling to ask the appeals court to review its decision, or 30 days from the date of the ruling to file a petition for the state Supreme Court to review it. If neither of those things happen, the case will come back to Whatcom County Superior Court and move toward a trial, he said.
