Opinion

State v. Harris

  • 612 So. 2d 1177
  • 1992 Ala. LEXIS 1541
  • 1992 WL 371478
Court
Supreme Court of Alabama
Filed
Dec 18, 1992
Status
Published
Author
Houston
On the bench
Almon, Shores, Adams, Steagall, Ingram, Maddox, Houston, Kennedy
Cited by
4 cases

" 'Quasi-judicial immunity is more limited than the immunity afforded to judges and extends only to those acts committed within the scope of the actor's jurisdiction and with the authorization of law.' "

How later courts described this case

  • " 'Quasi-judicial immunity is more limited than the immunity afforded to judges and extends only to those acts committed within the scope of the actor's jurisdiction and with the authorization of law.' "

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

HOUSTON, Justice

(dissenting).

The Alabama Board of Pardons and Paroles had no standing to petition for the writ of prohibition from the Court of Criminal Appeals prohibiting Judge Joseph Phelps from enforcing his order directing the Board to “intensively supervise” William Donald Harris, a defendant in a pending criminal case. While on bail, Harris advised his wife that he intended to obtain certain weapons and to kill her, his immediate family, and himself. Because the com *1182 plaining party, Harris’s wife, refused to appear at a hearing to revoke Harris’s bond, Judge Phelps had no basis upon which to hold Harris without bond. Judge Phelps invoked Ala.R.Crim.P. 7.3(b)(3) and the contract between the Montgomery County Commission and the Board whereby the Commission paid the Board $10,-566.16 a month to investigate and monitor the conduct of not more than 80 pre-trial releasees. The contract between the Board and the Commission may need to be judicially construed to determine the meaning of the phrase “to monitor the conduct of not more than eighty (80) releasees at any time,” if the Board contends that it does not include “intensive[] supervis[ion] of any ... releasee,” but it does not give the Board standing to seek a writ prohibiting Judge Phelps from requiring such monitoring.

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.

A word about cookies

We need a few to keep you signed in and the library working. The rest help us see which pages people use and where they get stuck. They stay off unless you say yes.