92 results for 'cat:"Immunity" AND cat:"Negligence"'.
J. Busby finds that the court of appeals improperly ruled against the Texas Department of Transportation in a negligence case filed by a property owner whose trees were cut down by a subcontractor who was tasked with clearing a right-of-way easement. Because the property owner failed to show that the subcontractor was in the department's "paid service," its governmental immunity had not been waived and the lower court should have dismissed the case accordingly. Reversed.
Court: Texas Supreme Court, Judge: Busby, Filed On: May 17, 2024, Case #: 22-0585, Categories: Government, immunity, negligence
J. Taylor dismisses claims brought against a principal and superintendent after a coach sexually assaulted a minor member of the school fishing team since they did not perform duties in bad faith and they had not been aware of allegations that had been brought against the coach. Affirmed.
Court: Kentucky Court Of Appeals, Judge: Taylor, Filed On: May 17, 2024, Case #: 2022-CA-1270-MR, Categories: immunity, negligence
J. Kelety finds that the trial court properly granted summary judgment to governmental entities on a trip and fall complaint. Trail immunity shields the entities from liability for a fall caused when a park visitor tripped on a cable that was strung between two wooden posts. No dispute existed about whether the cable was on a walking path down to a beach that both the visitor and the entities described as a trail, or that the wooden poles and cable were parts of the trail. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Kelety, Filed On: May 13, 2024, Case #: D083075, Categories: immunity, negligence
J. May finds that the lower court properly held that the city was immune from negligent hiring claims contending an unqualified employee's inspection of a privately owned building precipitated a lawsuit after a woman fell down a set of stairs because the woman failed to prove city misconduct. Reversed.
Court: Iowa Supreme Court, Judge: May, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: 23-0917, Categories: Property, immunity, negligence
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J. Brown finds that a school district, a principal and a teacher are not liable for the actions of an older student who touched younger female students inappropriately in the context of a student tutoring program. The district’s training of the teacher and principal is adequate and did not lead to the violations of the female students’ rights. The teacher and the principal are entitled to qualified immunity in that a reasonable person would not suspect that a mentoring program would lead to constitutional violations. Although the offending student violated the constitutional rights of the female students, he is not a state actor because mentorship is not considered a governmental function under Texas law, and the plaintiffs have not provided an authority that would support such a conclusion. The motions of the district, principal and teacher to dismiss are granted.
Court: USDC Northern District of Texas , Judge: Brown, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 3:23cv1243, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Civil Rights, immunity, negligence
J. Tenney finds that the trial court properly dismissed a negligent hiring complaint against a university that hired a nurse who had a sexual assault conviction and went on to abuse several patients. The patients failed to provide the university with the notice of claim as required for a waiver of statutory governmental immunity. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Supreme Court, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 20230197-CA, Categories: Civil Procedure, immunity, negligence
J. Mortensen finds that the trial court properly tossed a claim that road conditions at a railroad grade crossing caused an injury accident when a Jeep full of teenagers tried to jump the tracks. The railroad did not have a duty to change the steepness of the road, the county is immune since improving the road would be discretionary, no evidence showed that potholes caused the accident, an attractive nuisance claim failed because the driver and injured passenger are held to an adult standard of care as licensed drivers, and the city had only recently annexed the land and had not been made aware that a utility pole might be too close to the road. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Mortensen, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 20220139-CA, Categories: immunity, negligence
J. Zimmerer finds that the trial court should have dismissed the auto passenger's suit against the city over a crash with a police officer. The city's governmental immunity was not waived since the emergency exception applied to the actions of the officer, who was responding to an armed robbery when the accident occurred. Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Zimmerer, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 14-23-00344-CV, Categories: immunity, negligence, Jurisdiction
J. Orme finds that the trial court properly held that a traffic collision case was barred by a two-year statute of limitations of the Governmental Immunity Act. A driver argued she was unaware that the garbage truck she collided with had government status and that the statute of limitations had been tolled until she found out. But she was notified soon after the collision that the truck was owned by a waste and recycling district and insured by "Government Trust," which gave her early knowledge that the garbage truck was operated by a governmental entity, and any uncertainty could have been cleared up with a direct inquiry. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Orme, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 20221054-CA, Categories: immunity, negligence
J. Kelly finds a lower court properly dismissed a mother's civil rights and deliberate indifference claims against a police department and a county detention center. The mother argued that corrections employees failed to prevent her son from hanging himself inside of a jail cell, which resulted in his death. However, the corrections center employees are protected by qualified immunity. Affirmed.
Court: 8th Circuit, Judge: Kelly, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 21-2459, Categories: Civil Rights, immunity, negligence
J. Thacker finds the lower court improperly granted immunity to the healthcare provider. A patient's personal medical information was stolen during a cyberattack on the provider's computer system. Healthcare providers are immune from federal suits arising out of medical, surgical, dental, or related functions. The provider argued that the patient's medical information rises out of a medical function, but safeguarding data is not a medical function. Vacated.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Thacker, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 22-2268, Categories: Health Care, immunity, negligence
J. Brimmer allows plaintiff to continue pro se claims disputing a laboratory's methods for collecting DNA related to a paternity test because the lab was not entitled to absolute immunity since it failed to cite precedent in which a court had granted absolute immunity to a medical laboratory or a doctor that had performed such a test.
Court: USDC Colorado, Judge: Brimmer, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv2077, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: immunity, negligence, Contract
J. Cetrulo dismisses claims plaintiff brought after he was struck by a car while crossing the street in an area with no crosswalk. Plaintiff contends the county failed to install pedestrian crosswalks in the area in question despite determining such would be necessary, but the county's determination constituted only a recommendation. Meanwhile, failing to install such did not constitute negligence. Affirmed.
Court: Kentucky Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cetrulo, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 2023-CA-0439-MR, Categories: Transportation, immunity, negligence
J. Shea finds that the district court properly determined that immunity applies only to individuals and not the state in a case alleging that the state's Health and Human Services Department failed to protect an infant from permanent injuries. But it was error to find that the injuries were foreseeable and the state was liable as a matter of law, so a jury must determine if the state's child abuse investigation was negligent. Also, the district court's sanction for spoliation over some missing photos of bruising was disproportionately harsh since there was no evidence of bad faith and other evidence was available to show bruising. The jury's $16.6 million damages award is vacated in light of the new trial order. Reversed in part.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: Shea, Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: DA 22-0018, Categories: Sanctions, immunity, negligence
J. Cradle finds the lower court properly granted the city and its employee's motion for summary judgment on negligence claims brought by the mother of the child injured by a falling tree in a public park. All of the duties at issue in the case, including the inspection and flagging of the tree as a possible hazard, did not involve any discretion on the part of the employee, which entitled her and the city to governmental immunity. Affirmed in part.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Cradle, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: AC45807, Categories: Government, immunity, negligence
J. Windhorst finds that the trial court properly denied the Department of Transportation's second motion for leave to file an amended answer and affirmative defenses on a driver's claim for damages arising from a Department employee rear-ending her vehicle. The department's claim to amend its answer to assert statutory immunity was made over four years into the litigation. The record shows that the driver would be unduly prejudiced by allowing the department to amend their answer and assert an immunity defense at this point in the litigation. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Windhorst, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: 23-C-588, Categories: immunity, negligence
J. Wood finds that the trial court properly ruled in battery claims brought against the school board after a minor was administered a Covid-19 vaccine without parental authorization because the school board is entitled to immunity under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act. Affirmed.
Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals, Judge: Wood, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: COA23-487, Categories: immunity, negligence, Covid-19
J. Walker reverses the lower court's order denying the social services agency’s motion to dismiss two negligence claims from a woman's suit claiming it violated the West Virginia Child Welfare Act and Human Trafficking Statute, when the child protective services worker assigned to her case lured her into confiding in him and then supplied her with drugs and alcohol and sexually assaulted her at a hotel. The judge erred in not finding the department has qualified immunity since the woman failed either to state a claim in her amended complaint of how the department negligently violated the Child Welfare Act or identify any "bad actors" within the department who failed to properly train and supervise the worker. Reversed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Walker, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 22-0389, Categories: Government, immunity, negligence
J. Acree finds that the board of education was properly granted summary judgment in a student's claims that he had been battered by a security officer. The student attempted to leave school while intoxicated and was legally restrained by the officer and a coach while screaming and resisting the restraint. Affirmed.
Court: Kentucky Court Of Appeals, Judge: Acree, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 2021-CA-1311-MR, Categories: Education, immunity, negligence
J. McNeill finds that the director of public works was improperly denied summary judgment based on immunity in claims brought after plaintiff tripped and fell on a public sidewalk because the director had no connection to the day-to-day workings of the subdivision tasked with repairing sidewalks. Reversed.
Court: Kentucky Court Of Appeals, Judge: McNeill, Filed On: February 9, 2024, Case #: 2023-CA-0110-MR, Categories: immunity, negligence
J. Walker grants the government's motion for summary judgment in a negligence suit. A sailor fought with a British sailor at a bar near the base, causing the sailor to suffer severe damage to his left eye. Despite repeated requests to be evacuated to the United States, the Navy said he was cleared to remain on duty. When he finally got back to the U.S. on leave, a doctor found a permanent injury that could have been prevented if he had surgery to repair the eye closer to the time of the incident. The claim is barred by sovereign immunity as it was the Navy doctors' judgment to clear him for work and deny his evacuation request.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Virginia, Judge: Walker, Filed On: February 6, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv527, NOS: Marine - Contract, Categories: immunity, negligence, Military