Barnhart v. Cabrillo Community College

In Barnhart v. Cabrillo Community College (1999) 76 Cal.App.4th 818, the Court addressed field trip immunity in the context of a community college soccer team's trip to attend a soccer match. California Code of Regulations, title 5, section 55450, provides field trip immunity to community college districts in language identical to the field trip immunity for school districts set forth in section 35330. The issue in Barnhart was whether California Code of Regulations, title 5, section 55450, field trip immunity barred personal injury claims against the community college and its soccer coach by soccer team members who were injured in an auto accident while en route to a match in a college van driven by the coach. This court concluded that the trial court had properly granted summary judgment for both the community college district and the coach, because the plaintiffs were injured during a field trip and therefore all defendants were immunized by the section 55450 field trip immunity. ( Barnhart, supra, 76 Cal.App.4th at pp. 828-829.) However, in Barnhart, this court did not specifically address the propriety of applying field trip immunity to a community college employee in light of the express extension of field trip immunity only to the community college district and the State of California. It appears that the parties in Barnhart did not raise the issue of whether field trip immunity applied to the soccer coach as well as the community college district.