Keener v. Kimble
| Decision Date | 10 April 1984 |
| Docket Number | No. 67516,67516 |
| Citation | 317 S.E.2d 900,170 Ga.App. 674 |
| Parties | KEENER et al. v. KIMBLE et al. |
| Court | Georgia Court of Appeals |
Hugh G. Head, Jr., Kathleen Kessler, Atlanta, for appellants.
J. Eugene Beckham, Jr., Carrollton, William D. Barwick, Atlanta, for appellees. SOGNIER, Judge.
Violet Brookshire and Minnie Irene Page were passengers in a car driven by Erma Sue England when their vehicle was struck by a car driven by Danny M. Kimble. Kimble, who was operating the car at approximately 100 miles per hour while intoxicated, was being pursued by two Coweta County Sheriff Department deputies. Both Kimble and England were killed in the collision. Brookshire, Page and Donald Keener (the only child of England) brought suit against Coweta County, against various members of Kimble's family, against the two deputy sheriffs, and against various members, past and present, of the Coweta County Board of Commissioners, both individually and in their official capacities. A motion to dismiss the complaint was granted by the trial court as to the deputy sheriffs and the various Coweta County Commissioners. We granted this application for interlocutory appeal.
1. Appellants contend the trial court erred by granting the motion to dismiss as to the Coweta County Commissioners both in their individual and official capacities. We find no merit in appellants' argument that the Commissioners are liable in their official capacity for the actions of the deputy sheriffs. Deputy sheriffs are the employees of the sheriff and it is the sheriff who is vested with legal authority to direct and regulate the conduct of his deputies in reference to the discharge of their official duties. See generally Johnson v. U.S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 93 Ga.App. 336, 340, 91 S.E.2d 779 (1956). The act which requires Coweta County to provide supplies and equipment to the Sheriff Department, 1960 Ga.Laws, pp. 3028, 3029, does not give the county commissioners control over the use of the equipment thus furnished. Clayton v. Taylor, 223 Ga. 346, 348, 155 S.E.2d 387 (1967).
Nor do we agree with appellants' argument that the Commissioners are liable individually on the basis of appellants' nuisance claim. Appellants' claim on the basis of Town of Fort Oglethorpe v. Phillips, 224 Ga. 834, 165 S.E.2d 141 (1968) is foreclosed by the Supreme Court's decision in Williams v. Ga. Power Co., 233 Ga. 517, 212 S.E.2d 348 (1975), and the instant case did not involve inverse condemnation and the taking of property for public purposes. See Duffield v. DeKalb County, 242 Ga. 432, 435, 249 S.E.2d 235 (1978). Therefore, the trial court did not err by granting the motion to dismiss as to the Coweta County Commissioners.
2. Appellants contend that the trial court erred by granting the motion to dismiss as to the two deputy sheriffs. Damage suits against public officers are maintainable in this state for negligent performance of a ministerial duty, but such officers are immune from negligence claims when the acts complained of involve a discretionary duty of an office unless fraud, corruption, or an abuse of that discretion is shown. Nelson v. Spalding County, 249 Ga. 334, 336(2), 290 S.E.2d 915 (1982). The decision whether acts are ministerial or discretionary is determined by the facts of the particular case. Nelson, supra. In this instance appellants allege in their complaint that the deputy sheriffs were grossly negligent in contributing to the injuries and death sued upon by knowingly pursuing the intoxicated Kimble with the attendant danger to all the citizens in the area created by the high speed chase. Appellants argue that the deputy sheriffs, while in the course of their official duty, acted in wilful disregard of the safety of all persons in violation of OCGA § 40-6-6(b)(3), which authorizes the driver of an emergency vehicle to exceed posted speed limits only "so long as he does not endanger life or property." Appellants' allegations thus raised a factual...
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Thompson v. Spikes
...acts performed by managerial employees acting within the scope of their discretionary functions. More recently, in Keener v. Kimble, 170 Ga.App. 674, 317 S.E.2d 900 (1984), the Georgia Court of Appeals reviewed a case in which two sheriff's deputies were alleged to have negligently conducte......
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...public employees, and on municipal corporations when the acts in question are in the nature of a "ministerial duty." Keener v. Kimble, 170 Ga.App. 674, 317 S.E.2d 900 (1984); McCrary Engineering Corp. v. City of Bowdon, 170 Ga.App. 462, 317 S.E.2d 308 (1984); O.C.G.A. § 36-33-1. However, th......
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