Kyreacos v. Smith, 44586

• Decision Date: 29 December 1977
• Docket Number: No. 44586,44586
• Citation: 572 P.2d 723,89 Wn.2d 425
• Parties: Virginia KYREACOS, Individually and as Executrix of the Estate of Nicholas George Kyreacos, Deceased, Appellant, v. David Terron SMITH and the City of Seattle, Respondents.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

Page 425

89 Wn.2d 425

572 P.2d 723

Virginia KYREACOS, Individually and as Executrix of the Estate of Nicholas George Kyreacos, Deceased, Appellant, v. David Terron SMITH and the City of Seattle, Respondents.

No. 44586.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

Dec. 29, 1977.

Trethewey & Brink, Daniel Brink, Seattle, for appellant.

Bill Lanning, Scholfield & Stafford, Jack P. Scholfield, A. Richard Dykstra, Seattle, for respondent.

BRACHTENBACH, Associate Justice.

This is a damage action for wrongful death brought by a widow, individually and as executrix of her husband's estate. Plaintiff's husband was shot to death by a Seattle police detective. That detective, a defendant in this case, was convicted of first degree murder; the conviction was affirmed on appeal. State v. Smith, 85 Wash.2d 840, 540 P.2d 424 (1975). The bizarre circumstances of the murder are set out in State v. Smith, supra. For purposes of this opinion, suffice it to say that the jury was convinced that Detective Smith was guilty of premeditated murder in killing plaintiff's husband.

Plaintiff sued the City of Seattle and Detective Smith. She alleged four causes of action for damages: (1) liability of the City under the doctrine of respondeat superior for Detective Smith's act in killing her husband; (2) negligence in hiring and training Detective Smith; (3) negligence in failing to provide protection to the decedent; and (4) violation of decedent's civil rights.

Defendant City moved for summary judgment on all issues. The trial court, taking judicial notice of the facts in State v. Smith, supra, granted a summary judgment in the City's favor as to the respondeat superior cause of action but did not rule on the remaining claims. Thus the only issue before us is the propriety of summary judgment on the question of whether, under these facts, the City can be liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior. The trial court held that the commission of a first degree murder is, as a matter of law, outside the scope and course of Detective Smith's employment by the City. We affirm.

The essence of plaintiff's argument is that the first degree murder conviction of defendant-Detective Smith is not conclusive on the issue whether Smith was within the scope and course of his employment in killing plaintiff's husband. Plaintiff argues that the criminal conviction does not prevent relitigation in the civil case of the issue of premeditation as related to scope of employment.

Plaintiff urges that the trial court necessarily relied upon the doctrine of res judicata to hold the criminal conviction determinative on the question of scope of employment. More accurately, the principle involved is collateral estoppel, a kindred but somewhat different idea. Res judicata prevents relitigation of the same cause of action while collateral estoppel prevents relitigation of a particular issue or determinative fact necessary to a prior decision in a different cause of action. Bordeaux v. Ingersoll Rand Co., 71 Wash.2d 392, 429 P.2d 207 (1967); Bahler v. Fletcher, 257 Or. 1, 474 P.2d 329 (1970); Comment, 7 Willamette L.J. 151 (1971).

We have said:

Both doctrines (res judicata and collateral estoppel) require a large measure of identity as to parties, issues and facts, and in neither can the party urging the two doctrines as a defense be a stranger to the prior proceeding. He must have been a party, a participant, or in privity with either, and the action out of which the bar is claimed must be qualitatively the same as the case in which the doctrine is set up as a bar.

Bordeaux v. Ingersoll, supra, 71 Wash.2d at 396, 429 P.2d at 209. These words express the doctrine of mutuality. Historically mutuality has been an essential ingredient of collateral estoppel but an erosion has set in as to its applicability. We noted that in dictum in Henderson v. Bardahl Int'l Corp., 72 Wash.2d 109, 431 P.2d 961 (1967), which was applied in Lucas v. Velikanje, 2 Wash.App. 888, 471 P.2d 103 (1970), and noted in Gibson v. Northern Pac. Beneficial Ass'n Hospitals, Inc., 3 Wash.App. 214, 473 P.2d 440 (1970).

We acknowledge that plaintiff was not a party nor in privity with a party in the criminal case. However, this is a most unique case which must be confined to its peculiar facts and to its procedural posture.

We must determine whether it will work an injustice upon the plaintiff to hold as a matter of law that the murder conviction conclusively determines that Detective Smith was outside the scope of his employment. Stated differently, will the plaintiff be prejudiced by lack of identity, mutuality, in the criminal case?

We conclude that allowing relitigation of the character of the act of murder would be an absurd result under the facts and pleadings of this case. First, the plaintiff chose to name Detective Smith as a defendant in this civil action. Thus his conviction of premeditated first degree murder could be introduced to impeach his credibility.

Second, in response to a request for admissions, plaintiff admitted the fact of conviction and the court took judicial notice of...