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Fawcett v. Adreon8/21/2001
. Adreon then entered a construction zone, and Officer Sullivan backed off somewhat. Around this time, Adreon testified, Fawcett woke up and began screaming for him to stop.
Rattled by this, Adreon misread the lanes in the construction zone and started to travel on the left hand side of the road, when he should have been more toward the right. He then overcorrected, and the car went off the right hand side of the road and flipped over. Adreon was thrown from the vehicle and suffered minor injuries. Fawcett received injuries that resulted in her death. Investigation of the accident revealed that Fawcett had a blood alcohol level of 0.18, and Adreon had a blood alcohol level of 0.04. Adreon was later convicted of criminally negligent homicide.
Fawcett's father, Richard Fawcett, sued Adreon and the City of Franklin for negligence resulting in her wrongful death. The City moved for summary judgment. The trial court granted summary judgment to the City on the grounds that there was no disputing the fact that Fawcett was not an "innocent third party," and that this precluded Mr. Fawcett from suing the city for negligence. From this order, Mr. Fawcett now appeals.
On appeal, Mr. Fawcett argues that he does not have to prove the "innocence" of his daughter in order to hold the City liable for her death, citing Haynes v. Hamilton Co., 883 S.W.2d 606, 609 (Tenn. 1994). Rather, Mr. Fawcett argues, Tennessee Code Annotated 55-8-108(d) imposes a duty on law enforcement personnel to drive with due regard for the safety of all third parties. Since his daughter was a passenger in the fleeing car, Mr. Fawcett contends that she was a third party to whom the City owed a duty of care. If so, under Tennessee Code Annotated § 55-8- 108(e), the City can be held liable if its negligence was a proximate cause of her death.
In this case, the essential facts are undisputed. Since only questions of law are involved, we review the trial court's grant of summary judgment de novo, with no presumption of correctness. See Warren v. Estate of Kirk, 954 S.W.2d 722, 723 (Tenn. 1997).
A governmental entity such as the City of Franklin is normally immune from suit under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. See Williams v. Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, 773 S.W.2d 522, 523 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1988). This immunity is removed by statute in limited circumstances. Such a removal of governmental immunity is set forth in Tennessee Code Annotated § 29-20-202(a), which permits a tort action against a governmental entity such as the City for the negligence of its employee while operating a motor vehicle in the scope of his or her employment. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 29-20-202(a) (2000); Haynes, 883 S.W.2d at 609. However, an exception to this is contained in Tennessee Code Annotated § 55-8-108, which permits law enforcement and emergency personnel to disregard certain rules of the road in limited circumstances. See Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 55-8-108(a), 55-8-108(b) (1998). Sections 55-8-108(d) and (e) state:
(d) The foregoing provisions shall not relieve the driver of an authorized emergency vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for the safety of all persons, nor shall such provisions protect the driver from the consequences of the driver's own reckless disregard for the safety of others.
(e) Notwithstanding the requirement of this section that drivers of authorized emergency vehicles exercise due regard for the safety of all persons, no municipality or county nor the state or any of its political subdivisions, nor their officers or employees, shall be liable for any injury proximately or indirectly caused to an actual or suspected violator of a law or ordinance who is fle
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