Janelle Rodgers v. Valley County, Luke Strommen, & John Does 1-3

Summary

The United States District Court for the District of Montana denied Janelle Rodgers’s motion for partial summary judgment seeking to impose liability on Valley County under Restatement (Second) of Agency § 214 and Montana’s mandatory child-abuse reporting statute. The court held that Rodgers had not shown a significant and continuing relationship with Valley County or that the county owed her a non-delegable duty under Mont. Code Ann. § 41-3-201. The court did not decide whether Strommen’s alleged sexual abuse occurred within the scope of his employment.

Holdings

1. Rodgers failed to establish that Valley County owed her a nondelegable duty under Mont. Code Ann. § 41-3-201. The statute plainly requires law-enforcement officers themselves to report suspected child abuse and does not appear to extend the same duty to a county that employs the officers.
2. Rodgers did not establish the significant and continuing relationship with Valley County necessary to support application of § 214.
3. Rodgers was not entitled to partial summary judgment because, even assuming the most recent version of Montana's reporting statute applied, she failed to establish a nondelegable duty, a qualifying relationship with Valley County, or when Valley County was placed on notice of Strommen's conduct.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Restatement (Second) of Agency § 214 imposed a nondelegable duty on Valley County based on its employment of Strommen and Montana's mandatory-reporting statute.
2. Whether Rodgers established a sufficient significant and continuing relationship with Valley County to invoke the § 214 exception to the general scope-of-employment rule.
3. Whether Rodgers was entitled to partial summary judgment on Valley County's alleged liability under § 214.

Disposition

other