LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - A man who sued the City of Pine Bluff, Ark. over a fatal car collision with a fallen tree has no case because the city didn’t carry liability insurance, an appeals court has ruled.
Citing a state law protecting municipalities against negligence lawsuits, the Arkansas Court of Appeals, in a Jan. 19 decision, affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit by Leodis Sledge against Pine Bluff, its mayor, the city council, the head of the streets department and the police chief.
Sledge sued as the administrator of the estate of Tanesha Leach, who was killed when a car driven by Kelli Shavers drove into a tree that had fallen in the street after a line of severe thunderstorms passed through Arkansas on April 12, 2020. Sledge claimed the city received several 911 calls over the next couple of days but took no action to remove the tree until after Leach was killed early in the morning of April 16.
“Shavers stated that she knew there was a downed tree on Hutchison Street, but she did not remember exactly where it was located, it was dark, and even though she slowed her vehicle as she believed she was getting close to the tree, she still hit the tree,” the appeals court observed.
A trial judge dismissed the case under Arkansas Code Annotated section 21-9-301, which grants immunity from tort suits to municipalities unless they carry liability insurance. Pine Bluff proved to the court it had no such insurance and the trial court granted summary judgment even though the judge said Sledge had pleaded sufficient facts to establish a prima facie case of “utter indifference and conscious disregard.”
Sledge appealed but the appeals court upheld the dismissal. The court first rejected Sledge’s argument the city officials he sued shouldn’t have been protected by qualified immunity, saying the lower court never ruled on that question.
“The circuit court never made a ruling on Sledge’s qualified-immunity argument; thus, it is not preserved for appeal,” the court said.
Even if the claim were valid, the court continued, qualified immunity only applies to officials acting in their individual capacities and Sledge failed to make any claims of individual conduct against them, only gross negligence claims that are considered to be against the city itself.