Tubbs v. City of Greensboro

948 So. 2d 540, 2006 Ala. LEXIS 151, 2006 WL 1966987
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJuly 14, 2006
Docket1031591
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 948 So. 2d 540 (Tubbs v. City of Greensboro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tubbs v. City of Greensboro, 948 So. 2d 540, 2006 Ala. LEXIS 151, 2006 WL 1966987 (Ala. 2006).

Opinion

PARKER, Justice.1

The City of Greensboro and Marjorie Davis, the municipal court clerk and magistrate for Greensboro, defendants in an action pending in the Hale Circuit Court, petition for a writ of mandamus directing that court to grant their motion for a summary judgment on the basis of immunity and the failure of the plaintiff, Sandra Tubbs, to satisfy the necessary jurisdictional requirements or to prove her claim of negligence or wantonness. Because we hold that Davis is entitled to immunity, we pretermit any discussion of the other issues raised in this petition.

I. Background

On April 8, 1999, the municipal court for the City of Greensboro, located in Hale County, issued warrant no. 99125 for the arrest of Tubbs on a contempt charge for failure to pay fines and costs relating to six counts of negotiating a worthless instrument. On April 9, 1999, the same court issued warrant no. 99124 for the arrest of Tubbs for failure to appear with regard to another worthless-instrument charge.

On January 26, 2000, Tubbs was arrested on both warrants. Following Tubbs’s arrest, her mother arrived at Greensboro city hall and arranged to pay Tubbs’s fines in lieu of Tubbs’s serving jail time. Davis, as clerk of the municipal court and magistrate, recalled both warrants before Tubbs’s mother left city hall. Davis then telephoned a Hale County emergency 911 dispatcher, because the emergency 911 system was the only entity in the county with access to the Alabama Criminal Justice Information System (“ACJIS”) and the National Crime Information Center (“NCIC”). She told the dispatcher that the warrant-recall order would be coming and asked the dispatcher to direct ACJIS and NCIC to recall the warrants; the dispatcher indicated that the warrants would be recalled. Davis then sent the warrant-recall order to the dispatcher; she also gave one copy of the warrant-recall order to the chief of police of the City of Greensboro, one copy to a Greensboro police officer, and one copy to the Hale County Sheriffs Department. Davis also noted on the warrant-recall sheet posted on the wall of the police department that the warrant had been recalled.

On January 28, 2000, Tubbs’s mother paid Tubbs’s fines. On March 31, 2000, Tubbs received a speeding ticket from an Alabama state trooper. He gave no indication when he issued the speeding ticket to Tubbs that there were any outstanding warrants for her arrest. On November 9, 2001, a Tuscaloosa County deputy sheriff stopped Tubbs because her vehicle tag was expired, and during that stop the deputy discovered that Tubbs was operating the vehicle without insurance. The deputy arrested Tubbs because the NCIC showed [542]*542an active warrant for her arrest. Tubbs was detained for a short time in the Tuscaloosa County jail and then released when the Hale County emergency 911 dispatcher received notification from the City of Greensboro that the warrant had actually been recalled. Hale County emergency 911 records show that both warrants were cleared out of the system on January 26, 2000; however, a Hale County emergency 911 dispatcher mistakenly put warrant no. 99125 back into the NCIC computer on September 20, 2001. Hale County emergency 911 is not a division of or a department of, nor is it affiliated in any other way with, the City of Greensboro or its police department, but it is the only entity in Hale County with access to the NCIC.

On September 10, 2002, Tubbs sued the City of Greensboro and its clerk and magistrate, Davis, in the Hale Circuit Court, asserting several.claims, one of which alleged that she had been wrongfully arrested because of Greensboro and Davis’s negligence or wantonness, and seeking punitive damages. The City of Greensboro and Davis filed a motion to dismiss. After considering Greensboro and Davis’s motion to dismiss, the trial court dismissed with prejudice Tubbs’s claim for punitive damages, her claim alleging the tort of outrage, and her claim alleging wantonness against the City of Greensboro.

Following discovery, the City of Greensboro and Davis filed a motion for a summary judgment. They asserted (a) that Tubbs had failed to comply with the statutory notice requirements for a claim against a municipality and that her claim is therefore barred by the statute of limitations; (b) that Davis and Greensboro are entitled to discretionary-function immunity; (c) that Davis and Greensboro are entitled to judicial immunity; (d) that Tubbs failed to present evidence that raises a genuine issue of material fact as to whether Davis or Greensboro had been negligent or wanton; (e) that Tubbs failed to produce substantial evidence indicating that the City of Greensboro is liable under the theory of respondeat superior; and (f) that Tubbs’s claim is barred because she failed to name as a defendant an allegedly negligent third party.

On May 14, 2004, the trial court denied Greensboro and Davis’s motion for a summary judgment, and on June 4, 2004, the clerk entered the trial court’s denial of their motion. Greensboro and Davis then filed this petition for a writ of mandamus.

II. Standard of Review

This Court has recognized that mandamus is an extraordinary remedy requiring a showing of:

“ ‘(1) a clear legal right in the petitioner to the order sought; (2) an imperative duty upon the respondent to perform, accompanied by a refusal to do so; (3) the lack of another adequate remedy; and (4) properly invoked jurisdiction of the Court.’ ”

Ex parte City of Birmingham, 624 So.2d 1018, 1019 (Ala.1993) (quoting Ex parte Edgar, 543 So.2d 682 (Ala.1989)). Moreover, “ ‘ “[a]n appellate court reviewing a ruling on a motion for summary judgment will, de novo, apply [the] same standards applicable in the trial court.” ’ ” Ex parte Sawyer, 876 So.2d 433, 435 (Ala.2003)(quoting Ex parte Turner, 840 So.2d 132, 135 (Ala.2002), quoting in turn Ex parte Rizk, 791 So.2d 911, 912 (Ala.2000)).

III. Legal Analysis

Judges acting in an official judicial capacity are entitled to absolute judicial immunity under Alabama law:

“Broad policy interests support allowing immunity for judges acting within their judicial capacity:
[543]*543“ ‘Since the English common law doctrine of absolute judicial immunity was recognized in the United States, courts have held its application necessary to preserve the system established for the administration of justice and the law. Judicial immunity arose because it was in the public interest to have judges who were at liberty to exercise their independent and impartial judgment about the merits of a case without apprehension of the personal consequences of exposure to potential damages liability from vexatious and frivolous actions prosecuted by disgruntled litigants.’ ”

City of Bayou La Batre v. Robinson, 785 So.2d 1128, 1132 (Ala.2000) (quoting 46 Am.Jur.2d Judges §■ 69 (1994) (footnotes omitted)). Judicial immunity extends to magistrates and court clerks performing judicial functions:

“This Court has extended the principle of judicial immunity to the discretionary judicial acts of magistrates and clerks of court:

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Bluebook (online)
948 So. 2d 540, 2006 Ala. LEXIS 151, 2006 WL 1966987, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tubbs-v-city-of-greensboro-ala-2006.