On Friday, March 14, 2014, the Alabama Supreme Court rendered a decision on a permissive appeal from the Circuit Court of Montgomery County, Alabama in Wayne Morrow v. Shameka Caldwell, as mother and next friend of Keandrick Russell, a deceased minor. At issue on appeal was whether the Circuit Court improperly denied Morrow’s request for a judgment declaring that the $100,000 cap on damages in Section 11–47–190, Ala. Code 1975, applied to Morrow, a municipal employee sued in his individual capacity for negligence and wantonness. The pure legal question on appeal was “whether the claims against a municipal employee, sued in his individual capacity, are subject to the statutory cap of Ala. Code 1975, § 11-47-190, when those claims fall within the ‘willful or wanton’ exception to the doctrine of state-agent immunity, under Ex parte Cranman, 792 So. 2d 392 (Ala. 2000).” Morrow argued that the plain language of Section 11-47-190 requires application of the cap where the employee is obviously acting on behalf of the municipality and that Ex parte Cranman is a restatement of sovereign immunity which is inapplicable in the context of a legislatively enacted judgment cap. The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court, holding that the plain language of Section 11–47–190 does not limit the recovery on a claim against a municipal employee and his or her individual capacity, thus the $100,000 statutory cap on recovery in that section does not apply to Caldwell’s claim against Morrow.
Parties on both sides of the issue awaited this sovereign immunity decision with anticipation. The Alabama Supreme Court invited both the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association and the Alabama Association for Justice to submit briefs as amicus curiae and to participate in oral argument. Christian & Small partner Sharon Stuart participated in her role as Chair of the Amicus Curiae Committee of the Alabama Defense Lawyers Association.
Prepared by Sharon D. Stuart, partner