Title: Neighbors v. City of Birmingham

State: alabama

Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court

Document:

384 So. 2d 113 (1980)
Kendall NEIGHBORS
v.
CITY OF BIRMINGHAM.
79-204.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
May 30, 1980.
W. Howard Donovan, III of Large & Donovan, Birmingham, for appellant.
Herbert Jenkins, Jr., Asst. City Atty., Birmingham, for appellee.
PER CURIAM.
The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether a municipality can be held liable for malicious prosecution. For the reasons discussed herein, we hold that it cannot.
Appellant Kendall Neighbors was arrested by Birmingham police officers G. R. McCreless and M. E. Curry on March 25, 1978, for the offense of "public drunkenness." He was eventually acquitted of the charge. He subsequently filed a civil suit for malicious prosecution against the City of Birmingham and the police officers. The City moved to dismiss the complaint against it for failure to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. The motion was granted and this appeal followed.
The issue of a city's liability for malicious prosecution was discussed and settled in the 1927 case of McCarter v. City of Florence, 216 Ala. 72, 112 So. 335, which held that a municipality is not responsible for the acts of its officers, agents, or servants in making false arrests or for instituting a malicious prosecution. This is consistent with the rule in most jurisdictions. At 57 Am.Jur.2d Municipal, School, and State Tort Liability § 111 (1971), the following appears:
Appellant insists that McCarter v. City of Florence, supra, was overruled by this Court's decision in Jackson v. City of Florence, 294 Ala. 592, 320 So. 2d 68 (1975), a decision which he contends absolutely abolished governmental immunity in Alabama. We do not agree. Jackson abolished the judicial doctrine of municipal immunity, but recognized "... the authority of the legislature to enter the entire field, and further recognize[d] its superior position to provide with proper legislation any limitations or protections it deems necessary *114...." 294 Ala. 592, at 600, 320 So. 2d 68, at 75.
In so holding, Jackson gave effect to former Tit. 37, § 502, now Code 1975, § 11-47-190, a legislative effort to impose liability on municipalities for the negligence of their employees, which had been thwarted by the interpretation placed on it by the courts. That section reads in pertinent part:
Section 11-47-190 remains the pertinent legislative enactment. It limits the liability of municipalities to injuries suffered through "neglect, carelessness or unskillfulness." To construe that language to include an action for malicious prosecution would be to expand the words beyond their normal meaning. This we decline to do.
Appellant argues, however, that the phrase we have quoted must be read in conjunction with the closing sentence of the Code section, which provides that whenever the municipality is made liable for the "unauthorized or wrongful acts or the negligence, carelessness or unskillfulness of any person or corporation," that person or corporation shall also be held liable. Appellant contends that the language, "unauthorized or wrongful act," would include a malicious prosecution. However, under the first sentence of the section, the municipality is not liable until injury has been suffered through "neglect, carelessness or unskillfulness." Appellant's argument is thus circuitous. Until the legislature chooses to expand the liability of municipalities to include damages for malicious prosecution, the rule of McCarter v. City of Florence, supra, based as it is on the language of what is now Code 1975, § 11-47-190, remains the law.
The judgment appealed from is affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
TORBERT, C. J., and MADDOX, JONES, SHORES and BEATTY, JJ., concur.