Opinion

Williams v. City of Midfield

  • 161 So. 3d 1158
  • 2014 Ala. LEXIS 86
  • 2014 WL 2619862
Court
Supreme Court of Alabama
Filed
Jun 13, 2014
Status
Published
Author
Shaw
On the bench
Bolin, Bryan, Main, Moore, Murdock, Parker, Shaw, Stuart, Wise
Cited by
10 cases
Authority
More cited than 17.3%

reaffirming the principle that it is necessary for the municipality to identify whether the hiring, training, or supervising person is a police officer in deciding whether a municipality is immune

How later courts described this case

  • reaffirming the principle that it is necessary for the municipality to identify whether the hiring, training, or supervising person is a police officer in deciding whether a municipality is immune
  • “As noted previously, a plaintiff can show that a State agent acted beyond his or her authority by proffering evidence that the State agent failed to discharge duties pursuant to detailed rules or regulations, such as those stated on a checklist.”

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

SHAW, Justice

(concurring in part and concurring in the result).

I concur fully in the main opinion, except as to the portion discussing the claim against the City of Midfield seeking damages for the alleged “negligence, carelessness and unskillfulness” of various fictitiously named defendants. As to that issue, I concur in the result.

In their motion for a summary judgment, the Midfield defendants did not argue that immunity barred this claim. Instead, they alleged (1) that Alabama law did not recognize an action against a municipality for negligent hiring, supervising, or training; (2) that liability under Ala. Code 1975, § 11^7-190, could be based only on a theory of respondeat superior; and (3) that the plaintiffs could not present *1170 evidence in support of their claim. Because the motion for a summary judgment as to this claim was not grounded on a claim of immunity, its denial is not reviewable by a petition for a writ of mandamus. See Ex parte City of Montgomery, 99 So.3d 282, 296-97 (Ala.2012) (refusing, on petition for a writ of mandamus, to review the denial of a portion of a summary-judgment motion that was not grounded on a claim of immunity). Thus, the issue whether this claim is barred by State-agent immunity or Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-338, must await another day.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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