sheriff's department owed no private duty to motorcyclist simply because cattle escaped onto a highway and sheriff attempted to contact cattle's owner
How later courts described this case
- sheriff's department owed no private duty to motorcyclist simply because cattle escaped onto a highway and sheriff attempted to contact cattle's owner
- “The critical inquiry associated with the test [for distinguishing decisions involving the formulation of basic policy from those involving only the execution or implementation of that policy] is ‘not merely whether judgment was exercised but whether the nature of the judgment called for policy considerations.’”
- under the Peavler planning-operational test, decisions involving formulation of basic policy are entitled to immunity while decisions regarding only execution or implementation of that policy are not
- “The trial court correctly determined that the estate failed to show that a special duty or relationship existed between the decedent and the Sheriffs Department and the County.”
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
GIVAN, Justice,
concurring in result on civil petition to transfer.
I concur in the result of the majority opinion; however, I cannot agree with the holding in the majority opinion that governmental immunity did not apply to the Sheriff{'s Department. The Court of Appeals opinion reported at 601 N.E.2d 419 correctly handles this question of law.
I would deny transfer in this case.