# Cook v. County of St. Clair

> Supreme Court of Alabama · April 4, 1980 · 384 So. 2d 1

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9935626

## Case

- **Full name:** Bobby D. Cook, as Administrator, Etc. v. County of St. Clair Corinda Bradshaw v. Houston County, Alabama, Etc.
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Alabama
- **Decided:** April 4, 1980
- **Citations:** 384 So. 2d 1
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Concurrence by Maddox
- **Judges:** Faulkner, Maddox, Torbert
- **Cited by:** 29 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9935626

## Opinion text

I was strongly inclined to register my dissent in this case, but had I dissented, I would have stood alone, and I see no useful purpose in continuing to express a dissenting view when I know that the other members of this Court are committed to a contrary opinion. My views on the extent and scope of "governmental immunity" in Alabama were clearly stated in Hutchinson v. Board of Trustees of University of Alabama , 288 Ala. 20 , 256 So.2d 281 (1971), and in the dissenting opinions of Justice Merrill in Jackson v. City of Florence , 294 Ala. 592 , 320 So.2d 68 (1975), and Lorence v. Hospital Board of Morgan County , 294 Ala. 614 , 320 So.2d 631 (1975). I refer the reader to those opinions.
My prior views of "governmental immunity" were based upon a sincere belief that if "governmental immunity" was to be abolished, the legislative branch was the appropriate branch to abolish it. In Lorence, supra , Justice Merrill suggested that the legislature could change the effect of that decision. Because the legislature did not change the effect of Lorence , and because I feel compelled to follow the precedent this Court, as presently constituted, has now established, I concur in the result. See Mr. Justice Black's special concurrence in Morgan v. Virginia , 328 U.S. 373 , 66 S.Ct. 1050 , 90 L.Ed. 1317
(1946), where he said: "In view of the Court's present disposition to apply that formula, I acquiesce."

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9935626. Public record. Not legal advice.