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Posted in Torts Blog

St. Louis is liable for its cops

July 31st, 2007 by Dawn Mefford

In Hodges v. City of St. Louis, 217 S.W.3d 278 (Mo.,. Feb. 2007), the Missouri Supreme Court addressed issues of the liability of the City of St. Louis for the actions of its police officers, as well as damage caps that limit the awards available to plaintiffs injured by the agents of public entities. 

The civil suit followed a March 2003 traffic accident involving the plaintiff’s mother, who later died of her injuries, and a St. Louis City police officer, who drove his police car down a one way street, the wrong way, without any lights or sirens activated.  Initial defendants included police officer Willie Walker, the St. Louis Board of Police Commissioners and the City of St. Louis.  Prior to trial, Hodges settled with the Board and the officer.  As for the City, it lost at trial, where a jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiff and awarded damages totalling $1.2 million.  That was reduced by the judge to $335,118 because of state statute Section 537.600.1(1) which limits the damages payable by a public entity. 

Hodges and the City both appealed after the City’s motion to have the verdict set aside was denied by the trial court.  The City’s appeal argued that it could not be liable for Walker’s negligence because the police are agents of the Board of Police Commissioners, a state controlled board, and not of the City.  Hodges appeal claimed that the damage cap, which reduced her award by nearly $865,000, was unconstitutional.  The Supreme Court ruled against both arguments, and upheld both the verdict and the damage reduction. 

The Court held that the City was liable under the legal theory of respondeat superior (where an employer is liable for the negligent conduct of his employee or agent) because Missouri statute section 84.330 declares the police officers of St. Louis and Kansas City “to be officers of the said cities… and also to be officers of the state of Missouri….”  The Court went on to cite the case of Carrington v. City of St. Louis, in which the Court determined a police officer was an officer and an agent of the city, and that such a determination was made by express law (per section 84.330).   

The Court further held that the damage caps did not violate the equal protection clause of the Missouri Constitution, despite the plaintiff’s argument that the limits bar full recovery for economic damages caused by the negligence of public employees, while the law would allow full damages from private defendants for the same negligent act.  The holding reiterated the Court’s finding from a previous case, Richardson v. State Highway and Transportation Commission, that “the General Assembly has a rational basis to fear that full monetary responsibility for tort claims entails the risk of insolvency or intolerable tax burdens.”   

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