State Supreme Court rules Ferndale Schools still part of lawsuit over deadly 2015 crash
The Ferndale School District will be included in a lawsuit filed by the family of a student who died after an SUV crashed into a high school class in June 2015, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled Thursday, March 4, 2021.
Whether the school district is liable in the student’s death will now become a question for a jury as the civil case heads back to Whatcom County Superior Court.
William Jeffrey Klein, 39, 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 seeks 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 argues that the walk was not an unauthorized field trip and that the incident was solely caused by Klein’s negligence, according to court records.
A Whatcom Superior Court judge agreed with the school district 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.
The Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 10, 2020, 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 stated 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.
In its Thursday decision, the state Supreme Court upheld the Court of Appeals’ ruling reversing the Whatcom court’s decision to dismiss the school district from the lawsuit. The state Supreme Court ruled that there are material issues of fact whether the school district owed a duty to its students and how far that duty extends, the court records show.
The state high court determined that Anderson’s family “presented sufficient evidence … establishing a factual question as to whether Ferndale’s act of taking the student off-campus led to the accident,” the Supreme Court ruling states.
A special relationship exists where school districts may be held liable for off-campus harms suffered by students even if the harm is caused by the act of a third party. Because students are involuntarily subjected to a school district’s control and rules, the district must take steps to protect students against reasonably foreseeable acts of third parties, the court records state.
While the Ferndale School District argued this would subject them to nearly unlimited liability, the state Supreme Court said the district failed to recognize that it would be free from civil liability if it followed proper supervision, safety precautions and instruction.
Because the off-campus class walk did not comply with internal school district policies and safety precautions, the school district can potentially be held liable for the student’s death, the state Supreme Court records show.
Brewster, one of the two students severely injured in the accident, also sued the school district and Klein in 2018. The case settled out of court in 2019 for an undisclosed amount, Whatcom County court records show.
The parents of Ormiston, who died, filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit Aug. 18, 2015, against Klein, seeking damages for medical and funeral expenses, general damages for Ormiston’s death, his pain and suffering before death and his future earnings if he had lived a normal life expectancy, according to court records.
The case was dismissed Jan. 12, 2017, after Klein and the Ormistons settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
This story was originally published March 5, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
CORRECTION: The Ferndale School District’s argument against its liability was corrected March 5, 2021.
