ORTEGA, P. J.
Plaintiffs brought this action based on incidents of sexual abuse by a teacher (Johnson) that they allege occurred between 1968 and 1984, while they were each students in Johnson's fifth-grade class. They sought damages from the Lake Oswego School District
In reviewing the trial court's disposition of the motions to dismiss under ORCP 21, "we assume the truth of the facts alleged in the complaint, drawing all inferences in plaintiffs' favor." American Fed. Teachers v. Oregon Taxpayers United, 208 Or.App. 350, 366, 145 P.3d 1111, adh'd to on recons., 209 Or.App. 518, 149 P.3d 159 (2006), rev. den., 345 Or. 95, 189 P.3d 750 (2008). Plaintiffs are all adult males born between 1957 and 1970. Between 1968 and 1984, each plaintiff was a fifth-grade student in Johnson's class at one of defendant's elementary schools. While a student in Johnson's class, and while on school grounds, each plaintiff was sexually abused by Johnson. Among plaintiffs, Jack Doe 6 was the last to be a student in Johnson's class. Over the course of the years, Johnson was transferred among and worked in three of defendant's elementary schools.
The summer before the school year in which Jack Doe 6 was abused, defendant learned that Johnson had been accused of molesting a young boy off school grounds. Although the police investigated the accusation, the boy refused to testify and, accordingly, Johnson was not prosecuted. Defendant took no action upon learning of the accusation.
After Jack Doe 6 was abused, he disclosed the abuse to his mother, who "contacted an administrator in the [school district] about the abuse." The administrator offered to have Johnson transferred if Jack Doe 6's mother would keep quiet about the abuse. She refused, reported the abuse to law enforcement, and Johnson was prosecuted and eventually convicted for the abuse of Jack Doe 6.
In 2008, plaintiffs brought this action. The first amended complaint included respondeat
In their amended pleading, plaintiffs reasserted their claims. In addition, Jack Doe 6 added a separate negligence claim against defendant. The new pleading clarified that each plaintiff had only recently discovered the harm that arose from the sexual abuse. Plaintiffs stated that, at the time of the abuse, they were unable to recognize that they had been harmed "due to the obedience, admiration, respect, and esteem" they had for their teacher, because they were confused by the touching and were "unable to discern at the time that the touching was inappropriate or harmful[,]" and because "the operation of the child abuse" on their "psyche[s] prevented [them] from recognizing that [they] had been injured."
With respect to the civil rights claim, plaintiffs alleged that defendant had "a custom or practice of ignoring signs and reports of misconduct of a sexual nature toward boys by * * * Johnson." In addition, they specifically alleged that defendant had received reports that Johnson "touched various boys in a sexual manner" but that the school district had either failed to act "or merely transferred [Johnson] from one of [defendant's] elementary schools to another," and that plaintiffs had discovered defendant's "custom or practice of transferring pedophiles among its schools" in March 2008. As for the separate negligence claim, Jack Doe 6's allegations centered around defendant's knowledge, before Jack Doe 6 was abused, of the investigation into Johnson's sexual abuse of another child off of school grounds. Further, Jack Doe 6 alleged that he had only discovered defendant's negligent conduct in March 2008.
Defendant again moved, pursuant to ORCP 21, for dismissal of all the claims against it. At the hearing, with respect to the OTCA claims for sexual battery and IIED, the court ultimately agreed with defendant's contention that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations. According to the court,
After being informed by counsel for plaintiffs that the analysis for the negligence claim was the same as that for the "vicarious liability tort claims," the court also dismissed the negligence claim with prejudice. Finally, as to the federal civil rights claim, the court stated that, in reaching its decision, it "disregarded what I saw as conclusions rather than statements of ultimate fact." In the trial court's view, the facts alleged did not state a federal civil rights claim. The court concluded that the claims were time barred and the facts, as pleaded, were not sufficient to "get around" that issue. Furthermore, the court concluded that plaintiffs failed to allege facts sufficient to demonstrate that defendant had a policy of acting to deprive plaintiffs of their civil rights or that defendant acted with deliberate indifference to plaintiffs' rights. Accordingly, the court dismissed the federal civil rights claim as well.
On appeal, plaintiffs first assign error to the court's dismissal of their "respondeat superior claims on the basis of untimeliness under the OTCA." According to plaintiffs, they
Defendant responds that plaintiffs' claims for sexual battery and IIED "are barred by the notice and statute-of-limitation provisions of the OTCA. Both time periods commenced when the `harmful or offensive touching' occurred, and the discovery rule does not save Plaintiffs' tort claims." (Boldface omitted.)
Article IV, section 24, of the Oregon Constitution protects the state, including its political subdivisions, from "suit" unless the legislature provides a cause of action. Dowers Farms v. Lake County, 288 Or. 669, 679, 607 P.2d 1361 (1980). However, the OTCA, originally passed in 1967, "abrogated, in part, the state's sovereign immunity." Jensen v. Whitlow, 334 Or. 412, 416, 51 P.3d 599 (2002). Pursuant to the OTCA, "[s]ubject to the limitations of ORS 30.260 to 30.300, every public body is subject to action or suit for its torts and those of its officers, employees and agents acting within the scope of their employment or duties * * *." ORS 30.265(1). A school district is a public body. See ORS 30.260(4). Therefore, as a general proposition, an action may be brought against a school district such as defendant pursuant to the OTCA, subject to certain limitations.
Under ORS 30.275,
Furthermore,
ORS 30.275(9). Thus, a plaintiff seeking to bring an action against a public body, or an officer, employee, or agent of a public body who acted in the course and scope of employment, must give proper notice of the claim (within 270 days of the alleged loss or injury for minors) and must generally bring the action "within two years of the alleged loss or injury." ORS 30.275(2), (9).
Although the times for providing notice and bringing a claim pursuant to the OTCA are short, the discovery rule applies to OTCA cases and, therefore, the 270-day notice period and two-year statute of limitations applicable here do not begin to run until a plaintiff knows or reasonably should know of the facts giving rise to his claim. See Gaston v. Parsons, 318 Or. 247, 255-56, 864 P.2d 1319 (1994) (describing standard); Stephens v. Bohlman, 314 Or. 344, 349-50, 838 P.2d 600 (1992) (the discovery rule applies to OTCA cases); Duyck v. Tualatin Valley Irrigation Dist., 304 Or. 151, 161-64, 742 P.2d 1176 (1987) (discussing the discovery rule in the context of the OTCA). Accordingly, the statute of limitations on a claim against a public body begins to run only when the plaintiff knows or should know of (1) the injury, Dowers Farms, 288 Or. at 680-81, 607 P.2d 1361; (2) the identity of the tortfeasor, Adams v. Oregon State Police, 289 Or. 233, 239, 611 P.2d 1153 (1980); and (3) the cause of the injury, see Edwards v. State of Oregon, 217 Or.App. 188, 197, 175 P.3d 490 (2007) ("The notice and commencement periods set forth in the OTCA begin to run when the plaintiff knows or, in the exercise of reasonable care should know, facts that would make an objectively reasonable person aware of a substantial possibility that all three of the following elements exist: an injury occurred, the injury harmed one or more of the plaintiff's legally protected interests, and the defendant is the responsible party." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)).
Here, as to their claims for sexual battery and IIED, plaintiffs contend that they did not become aware that they had been injured until shortly before they filed their claims and that, accordingly, their claims against defendant are timely once the discovery rule is applied. The problem with that argument is that "injury," in this context, has a particular meaning. And given that particular meaning of "injury," the facts alleged in plaintiffs' operative pleading do not save their sexual battery and IIED claims.
In Cooksey v. Portland Public School Dist. No. 1, 143 Or.App. 527, 923 P.2d 1328, rev. den., 324 Or. 394, 927 P.2d 600 (1996), this court considered, in the context of a student's claims arising out of inappropriate sexual conduct by a teacher, the question of when a person suffers "injury" for purposes of the OTCA's statute of limitations. The court observed in that case that the term "injury" has a "well-defined meaning in the context of tort actions[.]" Id. at 533, 923 P.2d 1328. That recognized meaning in this context is "legally cognizable harm." Id. at 534, 923 P.2d 1328 (internal quotation marks omitted). The court in Cooksey explained that, because inappropriate sexual touching "is an invasion of a legally protected interest[,]" a tort claim based on such touching arises when that inappropriate touching occurs. Id. (citing Bakker v. Baza'r, Inc., 275 Or. 245, 249, 551 P.2d 1269 (1976) (a touching need not do "actual physical harm" to support liability for battery)). Furthermore, the fact that a plaintiff may later experience "physical and emotional symptoms resulting from the same incidents does not mean that the claims arising out of those incidents accrued later." Id. Given that the term injury, for purposes of the OTCA, means "legally cognizable harm," the "injury" that plaintiffs in this case suffered, like the plaintiff in Cooksey, was the sexual touching by their teacher. Thus, once plaintiffs knew that the sexual touching had occurred, they knew of the injury.
Plaintiffs nevertheless contend that their allegations, taken as true, state a claim because they did not perceive harm from the touching at the time and, therefore, did not know that they were injured—that is, according to plaintiffs, "the abuse caused such psychological confusion that they could not consciously
However, those allegations fail to avoid the rule from Cooksey that, for claims under the OTCA based on sexual battery, the "injury" is the inappropriate touching itself. See 143 Or.App. at 534, 923 P.2d 1328. Plaintiffs did not allege that they were unaware of the fact that Johnson had touched them sexually but, rather, that they were confused and unable to see that the sexual touching was harmful. Where, as here, a plaintiff seeking damages for sexual abuse under the OTCA knew that the sexual touching occurred as well as who did the touching, there is no basis to say that the plaintiff did not know of or could not reasonably have discovered the injury—that is, the legally cognizable harm.
We next turn to plaintiffs' assignment of error relating to Jack Doe 6's claim against the school district under the OTCA for negligence, in which plaintiffs raise additional issues distinct from those discussed in relation to the sexual battery and IIED claims. Specifically, plaintiffs contend that the court erred in dismissing Jack Doe 6's negligence claim as untimely "based on the mere fact that he knew he was abused by a teacher and his mother knew that [defendant] was aware of Johnson's danger." (Boldface omitted; emphasis in original.) According to plaintiffs, the claim was timely because Jack Doe 6 alleged that he was unaware of defendant's "prior knowledge until shortly before joining [the] lawsuit, he could not have discovered [defendant's] negligent conduct on his own as a fifth grade boy, and his mother's knowledge cannot be imputed to him." (Emphasis added.) However, before the trial court, plaintiffs did not contend that any of the issues with respect to the timeliness of Jack Doe 6's negligence claim should be considered separately from the other claims pursuant to the OTCA. In its motion to dismiss, defendant asserted that
Whether plaintiffs' representation to the trial court is viewed in terms of preservation or invited error, the result is that they failed to alert the trial court to the substance of the argument they seek to raise on appeal and, therefore, we will not address their distinct contentions regarding the trial court's dismissal of the negligence claim. See ORAP 5.45 (requiring preservation); State v. Kammeyer, 226 Or.App. 210, 214, 203 P.3d 274, rev. den., 346 Or. 590, 214 P.3d 822 (2009) ("Under the invited error doctrine, a party who was actively instrumental in bringing about an alleged error cannot be heard to complain, and the case ought not to be reversed because of it." (Internal quotation marks omitted.)); State v. Taylor, 198 Or.App. 460, 469, 108 P.3d 682, rev. den., 339 Or. 66, 118 P.3d 802 (2005) (to preserve an issue for appeal, "the appealing party's statements before the trial court must have alerted the trial judge and opposing counsel to the substance of the position that is advanced on appeal").
Plaintiffs also contend that the trial court erred in rejecting their claim for declaratory judgment, contending that, if their "state law claims are time barred under the OTCA, then the OTCA's notice and statute of limitations provisions effectively require these child abuse victims to bring suit before they are consciously able to comprehend that they have been injured" and violate Article I, section 20, of the Oregon Constitution and the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. We reject that assignment of error without discussion,
Finally, we turn to the trial court's dismissal of plaintiffs' federal civil rights claim. On appeal, plaintiffs contend that the trial court erred in ruling that they had failed to "state a claim for `deliberate indifference' under [42 USC] Section 1983." It is plaintiffs' position that their complaint alleges facts sufficient to establish "a prima facie case of deliberate indifference on the part of [d]efendant[.]" Defendant, on the other hand, asserts that plaintiffs' complaint "failed to allege facts, rather than mere conclusions, showing that a person with policy-making authority took actions that deprived [p]laintiffs of their federal [c]onstitutional rights or that any such action was taken with `deliberate indifference' to those rights." (Boldface omitted.) In addition, defendant contends that, even if the complaint otherwise states a claim for relief pursuant to section 1983, the claim is time barred. We conclude that the complaint does not allege facts sufficient to state a claim under section 1983, and, accordingly, do not reach the statute of limitations issue.
Pursuant to 42 USC section 1983, a
Although public bodies are "persons" within the meaning of the statute, such a body "may not be held liable under [section] 1983 merely because it employs a tortfeasor." Board of County Comm'rs v. Brown, 520 U.S. 397, 403, 117 S.Ct. 1382, 137 L.Ed.2d 626 (1997). "In other words, respondeat superior liability does not apply in section 1983 actions." T.R. v. Boy Scouts of America, 344 Or. 282, 290, 181 P.3d 758, cert. den., 555 U.S. 825, 129 S.Ct. 146, 172 L.Ed.2d 40 (2008). Instead, the public body must, itself, "be the actor, and its own actions must violate the citizen's constitutional rights." Id. Thus, a plaintiff seeking recovery from a government body must identify a "`policy' or `custom' that caused the plaintiff's injury." Brown, 520 U.S. at 403, 117 S.Ct. 1382. "[I]t is when execution of a government's policy or custom, whether made by its lawmakers or by those whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy, inflicts the injury that the government as an entity is responsible under [section] 1983." Monell v. New York City Dept. of Social Services, 436 U.S. 658, 694, 98 S.Ct. 2018, 56 L.Ed.2d 611 (1978). Official policy "includes the decisions of a government's lawmakers, the acts of its policymaking officials, and practices so persistent and widespread as to practically have the force of law. These are actions for which the [government actor] is actually responsible." Connick v. Thompson, 563 U.S. ___, 131 S.Ct. 1350, 1359, 179 L.Ed.2d 417 (2011) (internal citation, brackets, and quotation marks omitted); see St. Louis v. Praprotnik, 485 U.S. 112, 126-27, 108 S.Ct. 915, 99 L.Ed.2d 107 (1988) (government policy or custom is one that is authorized by official with final policy-making authority); Pembaur v. Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 483, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986) ("[M]unicipal liability under [section] 1983 attaches where—and only where—a deliberate choice to follow a course of action is made from among various alternatives by the official or officials responsible for establishing final policy with respect to the subject matter in question.").
Given those standards, to state a claim for relief pursuant to section 1983, plaintiffs were required to sufficiently allege that they were deprived of a constitutional right pursuant to a custom or policy of defendant that amounts to deliberate indifference and that the custom or policy was "the moving force behind the constitutional violation." Plumeau v. School. Dist. # 40 County of Yamhill, 130 F.3d 432, 438 (9th Cir.1997) (internal quotation marks omitted); see T.R., 344 Or. at 291, 181 P.3d 758 (describing what the plaintiff was required to prove to prevail on a section 1983 claim). With respect to the substance of plaintiffs' section 1983 claim, the parties focus on (1) whether plaintiffs' complaint sufficiently alleged that defendant had a "policy or custom" of transferring sexual abusers (and specifically Johnson) which led to their abuse; and (2) whether plaintiffs sufficiently alleged action by a policy-making official.
As noted, in evaluating whether a complaint states a claim for relief, we look at the facts pleaded, but "disregard any allegations that state conclusions of law." Gafur v. Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital, 344 Or. 525, 529, 185 P.3d 446 (2008). "An ultimate fact is a fact from which legal conclusions are drawn. A conclusion of law, by contrast, is merely a judgment about a particular set of circumstances and assumes facts that may or may not have been pleaded." Fearing v. Bucher, 328 Or. 367, 375 n. 5, 977 P.2d 1163 (1999). Bald legal conclusions are not sufficient to support a claim. Walthers v. Gossett, 148 Or.App. 548, 558, 941 P.2d 575 (1997). Rather, a complaint must allege ultimate facts from which the required conclusions are
Bernards v. Summit Real Estate Management, Inc., 229 Or.App. 357, 368, 213 P.3d 1 (2009) (emphasis in original).
Here, with respect to their section 1983 claim, plaintiffs allege that defendant "had a custom or practice of ignoring signs and reports of misconduct of a sexual nature toward boys by Defendant Johnson." Their factual allegations in that respect are as follows:
It is plaintiffs' position that those facts are sufficient to raise the inference that defendant had "[a] practice or custom of deliberate indifference[.]" We disagree.
To begin with, we are not persuaded that the facts set forth in the complaint sufficiently allege a policy or custom that resulted in plaintiffs' abuse. Those facts are (1) that Johnson had worked in the three Lake Oswego elementary schools over the course of the years; (2) that before Johnson abused Jack Doe 6, the school district learned of the uncharged abuse of a child outside of the school, but did nothing; and (3) after Jack Doe 6's mother informed an administrator who worked for defendant of Johnson's abuse of Jack Doe 6, the administrator offered to transfer Johnson in exchange for the mother not disclosing the abuse to others. Assuming those allegations to be true, they do not allow the inference that over the years in which the alleged abuse occurred (approximately 15 years), the district had a persistent and widespread practice of transferring sexual abusers to various schools in response to complaints. Nor do they permit us to infer that the official policy was to transfer abusers when complaints were made. Furthermore, contrary to the position taken by plaintiffs, those facts are simply not sufficient to allow a factfinder to "inductively infer" the necessary facts. According to plaintiffs, the "speed and sureness" with which the transfer offer was made leads to the inference that defendant had a policy of transferring sex abusers. However, the inference that plaintiffs wish to draw does not logically follow from the sparse facts they have alleged. The facts that Johnson continued teaching after he was accused of abusing another child outside of school and that a quick offer of transfer was made following an allegation of abuse of a student does not logically lead to the conclusion that the district had an existing policy or widespread practice as plaintiffs allege. While they may give rise to a suspicion that the school district was transferring abusers or allow for speculation that defendant may have been engaging in such a practice, that is not sufficient to support the conclusions plaintiffs contend a factfinder could draw. See State v. Bivins, 191 Or.App. 460, 467, 83 P.3d 379 (2004) (the line between inference and speculation is drawn by the laws of logic).
In addition, plaintiffs did not sufficiently allege any action by an official policy-maker. Whether a particular official is a final policy-making official for purposes of section 1983 liability is purely a legal question and not one of fact. Los Angeles Police Protective League v. Gates, 907 F.2d 879, 889 (9th Cir.1990); see Jett v. Dallas Independent School Dist., 491 U.S. 701, 737, 109 S.Ct. 2702, 105 L.Ed.2d 598 (1989) (identification of officials whose decisions represent official policy is a legal question to be resolved by the court); Praprotnik, 485 U.S. at 124, 108 S.Ct. 915 (identification of policy-making officials is not a question of fact in the usual sense). Plaintiffs' allegation in that respect—that the offer of transfer was made by an administrator with final policy-making authority—is a mere legal conclusion and is unaccompanied by facts, such as the identity of the administrator, to support it. A bare allegation that an unnamed person was "a final policy-making official" is insufficient to support a claim for relief pursuant to section 1983. See Davenport v. City of Garland, No 3:09-CV-798-B ECF, 2010 WL 1779620, at *3 (N.D.Tex., Apr 9, 2010) (so concluding pursuant to FRCP 12).
In light of the foregoing, the trial court did not err in dismissing plaintiffs' claims against defendant.
Vacated and remanded with instructions to enter a judgment declaring that the statute of limitations contained in the Oregon Tort Claims Act does not violate Article I, section 20, of the Oregon Constitution or the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution; otherwise affirmed.
Jasmin construed the term "injury" for purposes of ORS 12.117 to mean something different than it means for purposes of the OTCA. However, our analysis in that case was based on the particular wording of ORS 12.117 and is not applicable in this case. See Jasmin, 177 Or.App. at 215 n. 3, 33 P.3d 725 (observing that, in light of the text of ORS 12.117, "[a] definition equating the `injury' with the abusive conduct itself makes the statute unintelligible: the statute treats the abuse and the injury as logically and temporally distinct concepts, in that the `abuse' is said to cause the `injury,' and a thing cannot cause itself" (Emphasis in original.)).