Robbins

The then fifteen-year-old daughter of plaintiffs Nelson and Sharon Robbins left home for three days and stayed at a private nonprofit shelter for abused and troubled teenage girls, claiming that she did not want to go home because she was fighting with her parents and her father had physically abused her on three recent occasions. The suspected child abuse was reported to the authorities, who advised the shelter not to disclose the girl’s whereabouts. Within that three-day period, the authorities apparently determined to take no action, and plaintiffs then came to the shelter and took their daughter home. Subsequently, plaintiffs filed this action on their own behalf against the shelter and its counselors, alleging federal civil rights violations and various state law causes of action, asserting that the defendants interfered with parental rights of custody and inflicted emotional distress on plaintiffs. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of defendants on all causes of action. Plaintiffs appeal. We affirm.

I

Factual Background

Stripped of mere conclusions and legal arguments in plaintiffs’ opposition to defendants’ motion for summary judgment, the…