Case Name: Susan A. CURTIS, Appellant, v. BULLDOG LEASING COMPANY, INC., the City of Boca Raton, Carriers Insurance Company, Crawford Catia, Heavy Machinery Tool Transport, Inc. and Suwannee Transfer Company, Inc., Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1987-09-30
Citations: 513 So. 2d 238
Docket Number: No. 85-1432
Parties: Susan A. CURTIS, Appellant, v. BULLDOG LEASING COMPANY, INC., the City of Boca Raton, Carriers Insurance Company, Crawford Catia, Heavy Machinery Tool Transport, Inc. and Suwannee Transfer Company, Inc., Appellees.
Judges: GUNTHER, J., concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 513
Pages: 238–241

Head Matter:
Susan A. CURTIS, Appellant, v. BULLDOG LEASING COMPANY, INC., the City of Boca Raton, Carriers Insurance Company, Crawford Catia, Heavy Machinery Tool Transport, Inc. and Suwannee Transfer Company, Inc., Appellees.
No. 85-1432.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.
Sept. 30, 1987.
Steven P. Cullen of Law Offices of Hoad-ley and Gavigan, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellant.
Keith R. Pallo of Adams, Coogler, Watson & Merkel, P.A., West Palm Beach, for appellee-The City of Boca Raton.
Joseph H. Lowe of Marlow, Shofi, Smith, Connell, DeMahy & Valerius, Miami, for appellees.

Opinion:
LETTS, Judge.
The trial court granted a final summary judgment in favor of a municipality, sued because one of its off-duty officers, outside of his jurisdiction, stopped at an accident scene and allegedly carelessly caused a second accident. We affirm.
The off-duty officer was on his way to work, in uniform, when he gratuitously stopped at an accident scene outside of his jurisdiction to inquire if anyone was hurt. While doing so, he radioed his own municipal police department to request that they in turn call the Florida Highway Patrol to send a trooper to investigate the accident. While the off-duty officer was still at the scene, the driver of the tractor-trailer, involved in the crash, asked if his vehicle was parked far enough off the road or whether it should be moved. To this, the off-duty officer responded that he should not move it "until the highway patrolman gets here because I'm not investigating the accident."
As events unfolded, the Florida Highway Patrol arrived and very shortly after that, a second accident occurred when the plaintiff/appellant's car collided with the parked tractor-trailer allegedly partially blocking traffic.
The appellant compares this controversy to Department of Highway Safety v. Kropff, 491 So.2d 1252 (Fla. 3d DCA 1986), where a driver, involved in an accident, was standing in the road reciting her version of it to an investigating officer when she was struck by a pick-up truck and injured. In that case, the State claimed sovereign immunity under Trianon Park Condominium Association, Inc. v. City of Hialeah, 468 So.2d 912 (Fla.1985). However, the Third District pointed out that once the trooper undertook to "secure" the accident scene, he was required to use reasonable care and was performing a specific operational level function, not a discretionary one. Therefore, in accordance with Commercial Carrier Corp. v. Indian River County, 371 So.2d 1010 (Fla.1979), the State was not immune from suit.
Sub judice, the facts vary considerably from Kropff First of all, the policeman in Kropff was on duty investigating an accident within his jurisdiction. Second, in the line of duty, he undertook to seeure the scene and direct traffic, allegedly parking his police cruiser in a negligent manner. By contrast, the record before us indisputably provides that the policeman was off-duty, out of his jurisdiction and in his private station wagon. His actions were those of a Good Samaritan and not in line with his municipal duties as a police officer, his uniform notwithstanding.
The statute waiving sovereign immunity specifically provides that a waiver of immunity occurs only if the employee is "acting within the scope of his office or employment" Section 768.28(1), Florida Statutes (1985). It is true that an off-duty policeman might be within the scope of his employment because of actions taken within his jurisdiction. See Garner v. Saunders, 281 So.2d 392 (Fla. 2d DCA 1973). Likewise, an on-duty policeman might be held accountable for actions taken outside his jurisdiction. However, under the undisputed facts of this case, we cannot hold that this off-duty policeman, outside of his jurisdiction, acted within the scope of his employment. As a consequence, he did not waive the immunity of his sovereign. See Rabideau v. State, 391 So.2d 283 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980), affirmed, 409 So.2d 1045 (Fla.1982).
AFFIRMED.
GUNTHER, J., concurs.
GLICKSTEIN, J., dissents with opinion.