Archive

• Pleading Waiver of Governmental Immunity: What’s Enough?

  This entry was contributed by Trey Allen on November 17, 2017 at 9:00 am and is filed under Civil Practice, Civil Procedure-General.

  In lawsuits against units of local government, the general rule is that the trial court must throw out the plaintiff’s claims if the unit raises the defense of governmental immunity and the complaint fails to allege a waiver of that immunity.  This blog post looks at how detailed a waiver allegation must be for a complaint to survive an assertion of governmental immunity.

  The Concept of Waiver

  As I’ve explained in prior blog posts (here, here, and here), the defense of governmental immunity protects cities, counties, and other units of local government from civil liability for negligence and other claims – though not constitutional claims – that arise from the performance of governmental functions.  The courts have recognized that a unit may waive this immunity through any of the three actions described in the next section.  Essentially, by acting in any of those ways, a unit consents to be sued for any civil claims that fall within the scope of the waiver. Continue Reading

• Local Government Lawyers: Take Care Asserting Governmental Immunity

  This entry was contributed by Trey Allen on August 11, 2017 at 6:00 am and is filed under Civil Law.

  When a city, county, or other unit of local government is sued for negligence or other torts, it’s common practice for the unit’s attorney to file a motion asking the trial court to dismiss the lawsuit based on the defense of governmental immunity. (See blog posts available here and here for an explanation of governmental immunity fundamentals.)  Many local government attorneys believe that, if the trial court denies such a motion, the unit always has the right to an immediate appeal.  As a recent decision by the North Carolina Court of Appeals reminds us, however, whether the unit may immediately appeal can depend on how the immunity defense is framed in the motion.  This blog post aims to

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• Public Official Immunity and Intentional Torts – A New Publication Available

  This entry was contributed by Ann Anderson on October 12, 2016 at 7:00 am and is filed under Civil Law.

  Issues of governmental immunity and public official immunity arise relatively often in North Carolina appellate opinions.  Within this important area of the law, however, there remain challenging questions.  Among them is this:  Does public official immunity ever shield North Carolina public officials from personal liability for intentional torts, such as assault, battery, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution?  School of Government faculty member Trey Allen recently took on this question. His new Local Government Law Bulletin, Do Intentional Tort Claims Always Defeat Public Official Immunity?, includes an in-depth examination of existing case law with a discussion of malice in the context of intent, and closes with a proposed framework for analysis of future cases.  If, like me, you could simply use a primer on public official immunity, the bulletin starts with that.  And at the end there’s a handy list of which public official positions are eligible for immunity and which are not.  (Examples: Superintendent of County Schools – yes.  School bus driver – no).  Check out the bulletin (it’s free!) here.

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