Wilson v. Dothan City Board of Education

Supreme Court of Alabama

Wilson v. Dothan City Board of Education

322 So. 2d 708, 295 Ala. 61, 1975 Ala. LEXIS 1365

CourtSupreme Court of Alabama

DecidedNovember 6, 1975

DocketSC 1304

StatusPublished

Cited by3 cases

This text of 322 So. 2d 708 (Wilson v. Dothan City Board of Education) 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

Wilson v. Dothan City Board of Education, 322 So. 2d 708, 295 Ala. 61, 1975 Ala. LEXIS 1365 (Ala. 1975).

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Opinion

SHORES, Justice.

Plaintiff-appellant filed suit against the Dothan City Board of Education and the City of Dothan on April 1, 1975, claiming damages for injuries allegedly sustained as a result of the negligence of the Dothan City Board of Education, her employer.

The Board and the City filed motions to dismiss, which motions asserted that the city board of education and the municipality were immune from liability for damages while acting within a governmental capacity.

The trial court granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss and the plaintiff appealed.

The only case cited by appellant is Jackson v. City of Florence, 294 Ala. 592, 320 So.2d 68, decided July 10, 1975. She concedes that, for her to prevail on this appeal, the rule of that case must be extended to cases pending at the time of deliverance of the opinion. This court, in Jackson, abolished the defense of immunity for municipalities, and necessarily the agencies thereof, but limited the operation of the rule there laid down to causes of action arising on or after July 10, 1975. The decision to so limit the rule was carefully considered. We were faced with a choice of giving the new rule retrospective application, prospective application only, or so-called quasi-prospective application. We appreciated that either choice was capable of working a hardship on some, and arrived at the selection we made, because we believed it would adversely affect fewer litigants. Having made what was admittedly a difficult decision, we are not now inclined to change it.

In granting the defendants’ motions to dismiss, the trial court correctly applied [63]*63the law as it existed at that time. No other assignment of error having been made, the judgment appealed from must be affirmed.

Affirmed.

BLOODWORTH, FAULKNER, JONES, ALMON and EMBRY, JJ., concur. HEFLIN,'C. J., and MERRILL and MADDOX, JJ., concur in the result.

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SHORES, Justice.

Plaintiff-appellant filed suit against the Dothan City Board of Education and the City of Dothan on April 1, 1975, claiming damages for injuries allegedly sustained as a result of the negligence of the Dothan City Board of Education, her employer.

The Board and the City filed motions to dismiss, which motions asserted that the city board of education and the municipality were immune from liability for damages while acting within a governmental capacity.

The trial court granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss and the plaintiff appealed.

The only case cited by appellant is Jackson v. City of Florence, 294 Ala. 592, 320 So.2d 68, decided July 10, 1975. She concedes that, for her to prevail on this appeal, the rule of that case must be extended to cases pending at the time of deliverance of the opinion. This court, in Jackson, abolished the defense of immunity for municipalities, and necessarily the agencies thereof, but limited the operation of the rule there laid down to causes of action arising on or after July 10, 1975. The decision to so limit the rule was carefully considered. We were faced with a choice of giving the new rule retrospective application, prospective application only, or so-called quasi-prospective application. We appreciated that either choice was capable of working a hardship on some, and arrived at the selection we made, because we believed it would adversely affect fewer litigants. Having made what was admittedly a difficult decision, we are not now inclined to change it.

In granting the defendants’ motions to dismiss, the trial court correctly applied [63]*63the law as it existed at that time. No other assignment of error having been made, the judgment appealed from must be affirmed.

Affirmed.

BLOODWORTH, FAULKNER, JONES, ALMON and EMBRY, JJ., concur. HEFLIN,'C. J., and MERRILL and MADDOX, JJ., concur in the result.

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322 So. 2d 708, 295 Ala. 61, 1975 Ala. LEXIS 1365, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wilson-v-dothan-city-board-of-education-ala-1975.

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