## Facts

- Todd Cadorette was a student in Vicky Yeary’s art class at Beech High School in Sumner County, Tennessee.
- Yeary was employed by the Sumner County Board of Education (the Board).
- During class on April 15, 1993, Yeary asked for a volunteer to stand on a table approximately four feet high and model for the class while other students sketched.
- Cadorette volunteered and stood on the table for about ten minutes without incident.
- Cadorette then fainted without warning, fell from the table to the floor, and suffered a head injury.
- Yeary testified she had used student volunteers standing on tables as models for many years and had never had a student fall before this incident.
- Cadorette sued the Board under the Tennessee Governmental Tort Liability Act (TGTLA), alleging negligence based on the teacher’s decision to have him stand on the table and the lack of additional precautions to prevent a fall.
- After a bench trial, the trial court found the teacher’s conduct was not negligent because the accident was not foreseeable and entered judgment for the Board.
- Cadorette appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether the teacher breached a duty of reasonable care by permitting a student to stand on a four-foot table to model for an art class.
2. Whether the student’s fainting and fall were reasonably foreseeable so that negligence and proximate cause could be found against the teacher and, in turn, liability imposed on the Board under the TGTLA.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment for the Sumner County Board of Education.
- The court agreed the proof supported the finding that Cadorette’s fainting and fall were sudden and not reasonably foreseeable under the circumstances.
- Because the teacher was not negligent, the Board could not be held liable under the TGTLA on a respondeat superior theory.

## Legal Principles

- Negligence requires proof of duty, breach, injury, causation in fact, and proximate cause.
- Foreseeability is required for proximate cause; if an injury could not have been reasonably foreseen or anticipated, proximate cause is not established and negligence liability does not attach.
- Teachers and school systems owe students reasonable care under the circumstances, but they are not insurers of student safety.
- Tennessee law does not require teachers to anticipate unexpected student physical reactions or events absent prior incidents, warning signs, or other notice indicating an appreciable risk.
- Under the TGTLA, a school board’s liability for an employee’s conduct depends on proof of ordinary negligence by the employee; without employee negligence, the governmental entity is not liable.

## Conclusion

Cadorette v. Sumner County Board of Education holds that a teacher’s use of a student volunteer to model from a four-foot table in an art class was not negligent where the student unexpectedly fainted after standing for about ten minutes and there was no prior history of falls or warning signs making the risk reasonably foreseeable; with no underlying teacher negligence, the Board was not liable under the TGTLA, and the defense judgment was affirmed.


Cadorette v. Sumner County Board of Education, 1996 Tenn. App. LEXIS 239 (1996)