Margaret W. v. Kelley R.

INTRODUCTION

The night of December 12, 1998, devolved into tragedy for appellant Margaret W. Appellant, who was then 15 years old and a high school sophomore, went to a sleepover at a friend’s house and drank too much. Without permission from either her parents or the host parent, she left the house in the company of a girlfriend and some boys from school to hang out at the house of one of the boys, where she alleges she was brutally raped by the boys. Several people’s lapses of judgment, failures to communicate, and criminal conduct contributed to the horrible events of that night. The issue is not whether plaintiff was the victim of a terrible wrong nor whether she suffered devastating injury as a result of that wrong, but instead who is liable under our tort law for her injuries. Appellant has sued the boys she alleges raped her, the parents of the boy at whose house she was raped, and respondent Kelley R., the mother of appellant’s sleepover host. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of respondent, concluding that she did not owe appellant a duty to prevent the criminal conduct that occurred under the circumstances of this case, and appellant challenges…