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City of Crossville v. Haynes8/12/2005
the neglect, carelessness and unskillfulness' of Chief McKinley and Officer Bryars. It is well established that, if a municipal peace officer is immune pursuant to § 6-5-338(a), then, pursuant to § 6-5-338(b), the city by which he is employed is also immune. Section 6-5-338(b) provides: 'This section is intended to extend immunity only to peace officers and governmental units or agencies authorized to appoint peace officers.' (Emphasis added.) See Ex parte City of Gadsden, 781 So. 2d 936, 940 (Ala. 2000). On the other hand, if the statute does not shield the officer, it does not shield the city. Borders v. City of Huntsville, 875 So. 2d 1168, 1183 (Ala. 2003).
"In this case, § 6-5-338 shields the City from liability for the alleged 'neglect, carelessness and unskillfulness' of Chief McKinley. Thus, the trial court correctly entered a summary judgment for the City with respect to the claims against Chief McKinley. However, the statute does not shield the City from liability for the alleged 'neglect, carelessness and unskillfulness' of Officer Bryars, based on evidence indicating that he failed to comply with paragraph 7 of the order. Insofar as the summary judgment for the City was entered with respect to those claims, the trial court erred."
Howard, 887 So. 2d at 211.
It is significant to note that the plaintiff in Howard alleged that the City of Atmore was liable for Chief McKinley's "neglect, carelessness or unskillfulness." This is the pivotal language from § 11-47-190, Ala. Code 1975, the statute under which Haynes premised her "direct" claim against the City of Crossville. However, as stated in Howard, "if a municipal peace officer is immune pursuant to § 6-5-338(a), then, pursuant to § 6-5-338(b), the city by which he is employed is also immune." 887 So. 2d at 211. It cannot be disputed that the Howard Court was applying the immunity granted a municipality under § 6-5-338(b) to an action asserted under § 11-47-190, Ala. Code 1975, against the city based upon the acts or omissions of its police chief.
Based on Howard, we conclude that the City of Crossville is immune from any liability arising out of the decisions made by the police chief for the City of Crossville regarding the intake, evaluation, and monitoring procedures of the Crossville Police Department at issue in this case. Because the police chief is immune from liability for those acts or omissions, the City of Crossville is also immune from liability for those acts or omissions. Because Chief Priest is the person charged with the administrative duty of implementing training programs and procedures for the police department and jail employees of the City of Crossville, there is no other agent, officer, or employee of the City of Crossville on whom liability for that failure to train can be predicated. Therefore, Haynes was not entitled to assert a "direct" claim against the City of Crossville under § 11-47-190, Ala. Code 1975. The trial court improperly reversed itself on the claim asserted "directly" against the City of Crossville.
Finally, we acknowledge that the claims Haynes asserted against the dispatchers individually were allowed to stand and to proceed to trial because, the trial court concluded, Towns and McLendon were not protected by peace-officer immunity and the evidence indicated that they had failed to follow a detailed regulation. However, based on our resolution of the issue of foreseeability, a judgment as a matter of law should have been entered for Towns and McLendon on those claims before the trial. Therefore, the trial court erred in submitting those claims to the jury. However, even if those claims had been properly submitted to the jury, the jury found in favor of the
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