S.H., ET AL. VS. K&H TRANSPORT, INC., ET AL. (L-2169-16, ESSEX COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (RECORD IMPOUNDED) (A-0413-18T4)
The court reverses summary judgment to defendants Orange Board of Education, Sussex County Regional Transportation Cooperative and K&H Transport Inc., the bus company responsible for transporting a seventeen-year-old special needs student to and from an out-of-district, State-approved school for students with disabilities. The trial judge determined the bus company owed no duty to plaintiffs "to protect against the alleged injury" — sexual assault — and that no reasonable person could find the bus company's actions caused plaintiff's injury. The court finds that whether the minor-plaintiff's sexual assault, by young men she encountered after being dropped off unsupervised blocks from the designated bus stop outside her home, was a foreseeable risk of injury to her was impacted by the extent of the minor's disability, and that the trial court erred in resolving that question on disputed facts.
