MELVIN and RAEGHN TORRIE individually, and MELVIN and RAEGHN TORRIE for and on behalf of their deceased minor child WAYNE TORRIE, Plaintiffs and Appellants, v. WEBER COUNTY and DENTON HARPER, Defendants and Appellees.
No. 20120500
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF UTAH
Filed August 6, 2013
2013 UT 48
This opinion is subject to revision before publication in the Pacific Reporter
Second District, Layton Dep‘t
The Honorable Robert Dale
No. 100605463
Peter Stirba, J. Michael Hansen, Julia D. Kyte, Salt Lake City, for appellees
ASSOCIATE CHIEF JUSTICE NEHRING authored the opinion of the Court, in which CHIEF JUSTICE DURRANT, JUSTICE DURHAM, JUSTICE PARRISH, and JUSTICE LEE joined.
ASSOCIATE CHIEF JUSTICE NEHRING, opinion of the Court:
INTRODUCTION
¶ 1 This case presents an issue of first impression for this court—whether law enforcement owes a duty of care to fleeing suspects. Under a plain language analysis of the governing statute, we hold that law enforcement officers engaged in pursuit owe a duty to all persons, including fleeing suspects. The appellants, however, fail to meet their burden on appeal on their separаte claim that Weber County owes a fleeing suspect a duty of care with respect to its law enforcement agency‘s implementation of policies and procedures regarding vehicular pursuits and with regard to the training and supervision provided to its officers.
BACKGROUND
¶ 2 On March 23, 2010, sixteen-year-old Wayne Torrie returned home from school upset because he had been teased by classmates. After an argument with one of his siblings, and against his mother‘s wishes, Wayne left home in his family‘s red Chevrolet Suburban. Mrs. Torrie called the Cache County Sheriff‘s Office and reported that her son had taken the family vehicle. She requested that officers locate Wayne and bring him into custody. While Mrs. Torrie was on the phone with police dispatch, Wayne returned home and pulled into the driveway next to his mother and rolled down the window of the Suburban. Wayne then left again after hearing his mother on the phone speaking with dispatch.
¶ 3 After speaking with the police, Mrs. Torrie attempted to reach Wayne on his cell phone. Wayne did not answer his mother‘s calls but responded with text messages indicating that he was suicidal. Mrs. Torrie informed dispatch that her son was threatening to commit suicide by crashing the vehicle if police attempted tо apprehend him, but she did not ask law enforcement to stop their search efforts.
¶ 4 Cache County personnel eventually determined that Wayne had entered Weber County and contacted the Weber County Sheriff‘s Office. Cache County provided Weber County with a summary of the situation, including a description of Wayne and the vehicle he was driving, a warning that he was likely suicidal, and that he had texted his parents saying that he was almost out of gas. Cache County also requested that Wayne be brought into custody if he was located.
¶ 5 Deputy Denton Harper of the Weber County Sheriff‘s Office spotted Wayne in unincorporated Weber County. When he first saw Wayne, the two were traveling in opposite directions. Deputy Harper waited for Wayne to pass him, then turned around and pulled up behind him. Deputy Harper verified
¶ 6 Wayne‘s parents filed a lawsuit against Deputy Harper and Weber County, alleging various theories of negligence in connection with Deputy Harper‘s pursuit of their son.2 After the conclusion of discovery, Mr. and Mrs. Torrie filed for summary judgment, arguing that summary disposition was appropriate because the defendants had not designated an expert witness to rebut their expert on the standard of сare. Deputy Harper and Weber County responded with a cross-motion for summary judgment, arguing that no legal duty was owed to fleeing suspects. The district court denied the Torries’ motion and granted Deputy Harper and Weber County‘s motion, stating, “The Court, having reviewed the memoranda filed by the parties, having heard the arguments of counsel, and being fully advised in the premises[,] hereby rules that Defendants Weber County and Dentоn Harper owed no duty to Plaintiffs’ decedent, Wayne Torrie.” Plaintiffs timely appealed. This court has jurisdiction pursuant to
STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶ 7 “We review the district court‘s decision to grant summary judgment for correctness, affording the trial court no deference.”3 “An appellate court reviews a trial court‘s legal conclusions and ultimate grant or denial of summary judgment for correctness, and views the facts and all reasonable inferences drawn therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.”4
ANALYSIS
¶ 8 The district court dismissed the Torries’ claims on summary judgment, determining that there was no legal duty owed to their son. The Torries argue that the district court erred because the statutory language exempting emergency vehicle operators from general traffic laws imposes a duty, including to fleeing suspects. We agree and reverse, determining that the district court prematurely dismissed the Torries’ cause of action. The Torries also contend that a common law duty should be imposed.5 Because we determine that there is a statutory duty, we decline to reach that issue.
¶ 9 For a plaintiff to prevail on a claim of negligence, the plaintiff must establish: “(1) that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty, (2) that the defendant breached thаt duty, (3) that the breach of duty was the proximate cause of the plaintiff‘s injury, and (4) that the plaintiff in fact suffered injuries or damages.”6
“Duty arises out of the relationship
¶ 10 “‘For a governmental agency and its agents to be liable for negligently caused injury suffered by a member of the public, the plaintiff must show a breach of a duty owed him as an individual, not merely the breach of an obligation owed to the gеneral public at large . . . .‘”10 The public duty doctrine precludes the imposition of a duty on a government entity with respect to specific individuals in the absence of a “specific connection between the government agency and the individuals that makes it reasonable to impose a duty.”11 There are at least four circumstances that may create such a special relationshiр:
(1) by a statute intended to protect a specific class of persons of which the plaintiff is a member from a particular type of harm; (2) when a government agent undertakes specific action to protect a person or property; (3) by governmental actions that reasonably induce detrimental reliance by a member of the public; and (4) under certain circumstances, when the agency has actual custody of the plaintiff or of a third person who causes harm to the plaintiff.12
The Torries argue that the first example applies here and that Deputy Harper had a statutory duty to use reasonable care in deciding whether to pursue Wayne and in his subsequent execution of that high speed pursuit.
¶ 11 We previously determined in Day v. State ex rel. Utah Department of Public Safety that a law enforcement officer engaged in high speed pursuit of a suspect owes a statutory duty of care to innocent third parties.13 We must now decide whether that duty extends to the fleeing suspect. In analyzing whether a statutory duty exists, we look first to the statute itself and give effect to its plain language. “[W]e presume that the legislature was deliberate in its choice of words and used each term advisedly and in accordance with its ordinary meaning. Where a statute‘s language is unаmbiguous and provides a workable result, we need not resort to other interpretive tools, and our analysis ends.”14
¶ 12 While we recognize that other jurisdictions have looked to the plain language of similar statutes and interpreted that the duty did not extend to fleeing suspects,18 we decline to depart from our established plain language analysis.19 “[I]t is elementary that we do not seek guidance from legislative history and relevant policy considerations when the statute is clear and unambiguous. Rather, [w]e must be guided by the law as it is[.]”20 “When language is clear and unambiguous, it must be held to mean what it expresses, and no room is left for construction.”21 We determine that the statutory language imрoses a duty on Deputy Harper in this case, precluding summary disposition at this early stage of the litigation.
¶ 13 Further bolstering our decision, the conclusion we reach today was alluded to in the dicta of Day v. State ex rel. Utah Department of Public Safety.22 While Day was based on the prior statutory language,23 our court of appeals has compared the two statutes and determined that “the language imposing the duties is nearly identical. Both statutes state that they ‘do not relieve the operator of an authorized emergency vehicle’ of or from the enumerated duty.”24 We agree.
¶ 14 Day acknowledged that sometimes pursuit is not the proper course of action:
Although law enforcement officers have a general duty to apprehend those who break the law, that duty is not absolute, especially where the violation is only a misdemeanor or an infraction—such as driving ten miles per hour over the spеed limit—and the attempt to apprehend the person creates a serious risk of death or injury to third persons or the fugitive.25
[t]he test is whether the driver of the emergency vehicle acted reasonably and with appropriate care for the safety of others in light of all the circumstances. Among the factors that should be considered in deciding whether an officer acts with reasonable care for the safety of others using the highways and streets are the density of traffic and population of the area in which the pursuit occurs; whether the area is rural or urban; the nature of the street, e.g., whether freeway or city streets with stop signs and semaphores; the presence of pedestrians and school zones; the weather and visibility; аnd, of course, the urgency of apprehending the fleeing person and whether
allowing that person to escape may itself pose a serious threat to the safety of others.27
¶ 16 While we do not per se adopt this test in the case at bar, many of the enumerated factors will likely remain relevant on remand in this case. Additionally, the Weber County Sheriff‘s Office policy and procedures manuаl may be relevant in determining whether Deputy Harper‘s pursuit of Wayne was reasonable.28
¶ 17 In reaching the conclusion that law enforcement officers owe a legal duty to fleeing suspects, we reiterate that the imposition of a duty is a separate and distinct analysis from breach and proximate cause. The Torries recognize in their briefing that a “police officer may engage in the pursuit so long as it is reasonable to do so.” “An essential difference among the elements is that duty is a question of law determined on a categorical basis, while breach and proximate cause are questions for the fact finder determined on a case-specific basis.”29 “[Q]uestions about which circumstances pose such a high degree of risk that a [professional] should have taken greаter precautions are questions of breach of duty; they are insufficient to defeat the categorical existence of a duty.”30 To impose liability on Deputy Harper, the fact finder will also need to be persuaded that his conduct was the proximate cause of Wayne‘s accident.31
¶ 18 Under the law, the Torries are entitled to an opportunity to attempt to establish that Deputy Harper did not conduct his pursuit of Wayne “as a reasonably prudent emergency vehicle operator in like circumstances.”32 Therefore, we reverse the district court‘s grant of summary judgment holding that Deputy Harper owed no duty to Wayne and remand for further proceedings.
¶ 19 With regard to the issue of whether a separate duty of care is owed by Weber County, the Torries fail to meet their burden of persuasion before this court. Appellants bear the burden of demonstrating
CONCLUSION
¶ 20 The plain language of