David LaShay v. Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services William Young

Summary

The Supreme Court of Vermont affirmed summary judgment in favor of the Commissioner of SRS on absolute official immunity but reversed as to a former case-worker supervisor and the agency itself. The Commissioner's alleged failures — placing the child in an unlicensed foster home and inadequately training and supervising staff on child-abuse reporting — fell within his statutory authority under 3 V.S.A. § 3052, while disputed facts about whether the supervisor knew of warnings that the foster father had sought sex with a minor precluded summary judgment on qualified immunity, because a mandatory duty to report under 33 V.S.A. § 4913(a) would be ministerial and its breach inconsistent with good faith. The court also held that SRS's conduct had private analogs — private child-placing agencies and private professionals bound by the reporting statute — so sovereign immunity was waived under 12 V.S.A. § 5601; although all claims arose out of alleged assault and fell within the § 5601(e)(6) exception, the subsection (e) limitations do not apply to the extent SRS carried liability insurance under § 5601(f).