Currie v. Lao

• Decision Date: 19 March 1992
• Docket Number: No. 70566,70566
• Citation: 170 Ill.Dec. 297,148 Ill.2d 151,592 N.E.2d 977
• Parties: , 170 Ill.Dec. 297 Joseph CURRIE, Appellee, v. Jose LAO, Appellant.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 977

592 N.E.2d 977

148 Ill.2d 151, 170 Ill.Dec. 297

Joseph CURRIE, Appellee, v. Jose LAO, Appellant.

No. 70566.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

March 19, 1992.

Rehearing Denied June 1, 1992.

Neil F. Hartigan and Roland W. Burris, Attys. Gen., Springfield (Robert J. Ruiz and Rosalyn B. Kaplan, Sols. Gen., and Eve Moran, Asst. Atty. Gen., Chicago, of counsel), for appellant.

McKeown, Fitzgerald, Zollner, Buck, Hutchison & Ruttle, Joliet (Timothy J. Rathbun and Gary S. Mueller, of counsel), for appellee.

Justice BILANDIC delivered the opinion of the court:

Plaintiff, Joseph Currie, brought this action in the circuit court of Will County against defendant, Joseph Lao, an Illinois State trooper. Plaintiff's complaint, sounding in negligence, sought recovery from Lao for damages plaintiff sustained when Lao's patrol car collided with plaintiff's pickup truck. Lao's motion to dismiss the action, based upon the common law doctrine of public officials' immunity, was denied. The case was tried to a jury which returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff, reduced by 25% on the basis of plaintiff's comparative negligence. The trial judge entered judgment on the verdict. Lao appealed to the appellate court, arguing that both sovereign immunity and public officials' immunity barred plaintiff's claim. The appellate court affirmed the judgment in favor of plaintiff. (198 Ill.App.3d 625, 144 Ill.Dec. 851, 556 N.E.2d 318.) We granted Lao's petition for leave to appeal (107 Ill.2d R. 315).

On November 25, 1985, Lao was employed by the Illinois State Police as a trooper with an area of responsibility which included Will County. Lao's assignment on that date was to patrol Interstate 80 and his primary duty was to regulate traffic on that highway. Lao testified that at approximately 8:45 p.m. on that date, the State Police dispatcher for his district directed him to proceed to a reported disturbance on Eastern Avenue in the City of Joliet in Will County. It is unclear precisely what the alleged disturbance involved, something in the nature of a possibly intoxicated person pounding on a trailer. Joliet has its own police force and it was not Lao's normal role to respond to a call within that city. Lao testified that, upon receiving this dispatch, he activated his siren and his flashing lights, exited the interstate, using an exit which he could not recall at trial, and proceeded to the disturbance.

Lao further testified that, while he was en route to the call in Joliet, he missed the turn onto Eastern Avenue and executed a "U-turn" in order to proceed back to Eastern. After Lao completed the "U-turn," he was traveling east on Cass Street, which, at that location, was one-way headed west. Thus, Lao was then proceeding the wrong way on a one-way street. Lao was beginning a left turn off of Cass onto Eastern when he collided with plaintiff's vehicle in the intersection. Plaintiff had been traveling north on Eastern at the time of the collision. Plaintiff testified that he had the green light as he entered the intersection and that he checked the intersection for traffic before proceeding. Lao testified that he was unable to tell if he had the green light as he began his turn because, Cass being a one-way street, the sole traffic signal for traffic on Cass faced the opposite direction. Plaintiff further stated that he did not see Lao's vehicle until it was approximately 10 to 20 feet away and that Lao's vehicle did not have its lights on.

Lao made contradictory statements during the trial regarding whether or not he had believed that the call to which he was proceeding was an emergency. At one point, Lao admitted that he had not felt it to be an emergency situation. Lao further testified that he drove to the scene of the reported disturbance at a speed close to the speed limit and that he had already been traveling for approximately 15 minutes when the collision with plaintiff occurred.

A City of Joliet police sergeant testified that he was the keeper of records for the police department, including records of calls for assistance to the State Police. The sergeant testified that the Joliet police force normally responds to calls for assistance within the City of Joliet. The sergeant further stated that he found no record reflecting a call for State Police assistance regarding the reported break-in testified to by Lao. On cross, the sergeant admitted that there are other methods by which State Police assistance is requested, which requests would not be reflected in the records he checked. However, no such records were introduced at trial to substantiate Lao's claim that he had been directed to a call in Joliet.

Another State trooper who had been on patrol in Will County on the date in question testified that he overheard a dispatch from State Police district headquarters directing Lao and another trooper to respond to a disturbance in the area of Cass Street in Joliet. This other trooper, who was said to have been sent to the call with Lao, did not testify.

At the close of the evidence, the case was sent to the jury to decide the issues of Lao's negligence and plaintiff's comparative negligence. The question of Lao's immunity from suit was not put before the jury. The jury returned a verdict in favor of plaintiff and assessed his damages at $28,310. The jury further found plaintiff to have been 25% liable for the collision and thus reduced his award to $21,232.50. The appellate court affirmed the judgment, finding that neither sovereign immunity nor public officials' immunity barred plaintiff's action against Lao. Lao argues on appeal to this court that he is immune from plaintiff's suit under both doctrines of immunity.

I

Lao first contends that the doctrine of sovereign immunity barred plaintiff from pursuing his claim against Lao in the circuit court. Lao argues that plaintiff's suit is in reality a claim against the State because Lao was performing his official duties as a State trooper at the time of the collision. Therefore, because sovereign immunity dictates that the State can be sued only in the Court of Claims, Lao asserts that the Court of Claims has exclusive jurisdiction over the matter and the circuit court was without subject-matter jurisdiction to hear the case. We note that, although Lao did not raise the defense of sovereign immunity in the trial court, no waiver was effected because the issue of subject-matter jurisdiction cannot be waived. Smith v. Jones (1986), 113 Ill.2d 126, 130, 100 Ill.Dec. 560, 497 N.E.2d 738.

Article XIII, section 4, of the Illinois Constitution of 1970 abolished sovereign immunity "[e]xcept as the General Assembly may provide by law." (Ill.Const.1970, art. XIII, § 4.) Pursuant to this grant of authority, the legislature enacted the State Lawsuit Immunity Act, which provides, in pertinent part:

"Except as provided in * * * 'AN ACT to create the Court of Claims * * * ', * * * the State of Illinois shall not be made a defendant or party in any court." Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 127, par. 801.

The Court of Claims Act established the Court of Claims and endowed it with the exclusive jurisdiction to hear certain matters, including the following:

"(d) All claims against the State for damages in cases sounding in tort, if a like cause of action would lie against a private person or corporation in a civil suit, * * * provided, that an award for damages in a case sounding in tort, other than certain cases involving the operation of a State vehicle described in this paragraph, shall not exceed the sum of $100,000 to or for the benefit of any claimant. The $100,000 limit prescribed by this Section does not apply to an award of damages in any case sounding in tort arising out of the operation by a State employee of a vehicle owned, leased or controlled by the State." (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 37, par. 439.8(d).)

The issue before us is whether plaintiff's claim against Lao, an employee of the State of Illinois, is in reality a claim against the State such that the Court of Claims has exclusive jurisdiction over the action.

The determination of whether an action is in fact a suit against the State turns upon an analysis of the issues involved and the relief sought, rather than the formal designation of the parties. (Healy v. Vaupel (1990), 133 Ill.2d 295, 140 Ill.Dec. 368, 549 N.E.2d 1240; Robb v. Sutton (1986), 147 Ill.App.3d 710, 713, 101 Ill.Dec. 85, 498 N.E.2d 267.) An action brought nominally against a State employee in his individual capacity will be found to be a claim against the State where a judgment for the plaintiff could operate to control the actions of the State or subject it to liability. Gocheff v. State Community College (1979), 69 Ill.App.3d 178, 184, 25 Ill.Dec. 477, 386 N.E.2d 1141.

A State employee is not immunized by sovereign immunity for his own acts of negligence merely because he was acting within the scope of his employment. (Gocheff, 69 Ill.App.3d at 183, 25 Ill.Dec. 477, 386 N.E.2d 1141.) The issue of when a State employee's on-the-job negligence is immunized has been the focus of numerous divergent, and sometimes contradictory, approaches in the case law. After careful study of these approaches, we conclude that the proper inquiry is to analyze the source of the duty the employee is charged with breaching in committing the allegedly negligent act. Where the charged act of negligence arose out of the State employee's breach of a duty that is imposed on him solely by virtue of his State employment, sovereign immunity will bar maintenance of the action in circuit court. (Healy, 133 Ill.2d at 313, 140 Ill.Dec. 368, 549 N.E.2d 1240; American Family Insurance Co. v. Seeber (1991), 215 Ill.App.3d 314, 318, 158 Ill.Dec. 829, 574 N.E.2d 1222.) Conversely, where the employee is charged with breaching a duty imposed on him independently of his State employment, sovereign immunity will not attach and a negligence claim may be maintained against him in circuit court...