Case Name: Florestine JENKINS, et al. v. JEFFERSON PARISH SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1981-06-22
Citations: 402 So. 2d 669
Docket Number: No. 80-C-1794
Parties: Florestine JENKINS, et al. v. JEFFERSON PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE.
Judges: BLANCHE, J., dissents and hands down reasons therefor.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 402
Pages: 669–675

Head Matter:
Florestine JENKINS, et al. v. JEFFERSON PARISH SHERIFF’S OFFICE.
No. 80-C-1794.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
June 22, 1981.
Rehearing Denied Sept. 4, 1981.
Orlando G. Bendana, Wayne H. Carlton, Jr., New Orleans, for plaintiff-applicant.
Kenneth V. Ward, Jr. of Cronvich, Wambsgans & Michalczyk, New Orleans, for defendant-respondent.

Opinion:
LEMMON, Justice.
We granted certiorari to review a judgment which held that the sheriff of a parish was not vicariously liable for the tort of a deputy sheriff committed in the exercise of the function for which the deputy was employed. 392 So.2d 684 (La.1980). We now reverse and hold that C.C. art. 2320 imposes liability on a sheriff, in his official capacity as employer of his deputy (but not in a personal capacity), for the deputy's torts in the course and scope of employment.
I.
Plaintiff's suit seeks recovery for damages allegedly caused by the negligence of a Jefferson Parish deputy sheriff in the operation of an official vehicle while on duty. The trial court dismissed Sheriff Alwynn J. Cronvich from the action on an exception of no cause of action. The court of appeal affirmed. 385 So.2d 578 (4th Cir. 1980).
II.
In Foster v. Hampton, 352 So.2d 197 (La.1977) Chief Justice Dixon undertook a thorough historical review of the legislative and jurisprudential developments regarding a sheriff's vicarious liability for his deputy's torts. The opinion relied on R.S. 33:1433, which expressly provided (since its 1950 amendment) that a sheriff was not liable for a tort committed by one of his deputies, beyond the amount of the deputy's bond, unless the deputy acted in compliance with a direct order of the sheriff and in the sheriff's presence. The opinion restated the common law notion adopted in Gray v. DeBretton, 192 La. 628, 188 So. 722 (1939) that the relationship between a sheriff and his deputy was official, rather than private, and was not one of master and servant, since the deputy's authority and duties were prescribed by law.
The Foster decision further noted that a deputy sheriff is an officer of the state, which might be considered the deputy's employer, but observed that the state was not a party to that suit. The decision did, however, expressly affirm the intermediate court's holding that the parish was not vicariously liable for the torts of a sheriff or his deputy.
The plaintiff in Foster then filed suit against the state, and this court subsequently held that the state was vicariously liable for the deputy's tort. See Foster v. Hampton, 381 So.2d 789 (La.1980).
In the meantime the first Foster decision of 1977 had generated a flurry of legislative activity. Acts 1978, No. 318, revised R.S. 33:1433 and added R.S. 42:1441.
The amendment to R.S. 33:1433 deleted the language, relied on in the first Foster decision, regarding the sheriff's general immunity from liability except for the deputy's acts in compliance with a direct order of and in the presence of the sheriff. Moreover, the title of Act 318, after referring to the "liability, of sheriffs for acts or torts of their deputies" stated that act's object to be "to delete certain limitations on such liability".
Significantly, in the same Act 318 the Legislature, for the obvious purpose of overruling the dicta in the first Foster decision, added R.S. 42:1441, which provides in pertinent part:
"The state of Louisiana shall not be liable for any damage caused by a district attorney, coroner, assessor, sheriff, clerk of court, or public officer of a political subdivision within the course and scope of his official duties, or damage caused by an employee of a district attorney, coroner, assessor, sheriff, clerk of court, or public officer of a political subdivision.
"B. The provisions of Subsection A hereof are not intended to and shall not be construed to affect any personal liability which may arise from damage caused by any public officer of a political subdivision, or by a district attorney, coroner, assessor, sheriff, clerk of court, or the employee of any such public officer, nor shall the provisions of said Subsection A be construed to amend or repeal R.S. 13:5108.1."
The accident at issue in the present case occurred after the effective date of Act 318. Accordingly, we must construe the effect of both acts as applicable to the facts of this case.
III.
First, we note that the state is not a party to the present litigation. Therefore, while noting the questionable constitutionality of R.S. 42:1441 in its conflict with the 1974 Constitution's abolition of governmental immunity, we cannot squarely decide the state's liability in this case. Nevertheless, we can refer to R.S. 42:1441 in determining the legislative intent of Act 318 and in attempting to identify the real employer of a sheriff's deputy. To achieve this identification we must assess the realities of the employment situation in the light of present day tort law and must reassess the prior jurisprudential and legislative attempts to arrive at a workable solution to the problem of responsibility to the innocent tort victim.
The reality of the situation is that there does exist an employment relationship between a sheriff and his deputies. The sheriff, and not the state, hires and fires deputies, exercises direct and -indirect supervision and control over them, fixes their time and place of work, and generally allocates their responsibility and assigns their duties. Although the money for the operation of the various sheriffs' departments may come from various sources of public funds (primarily fees as tax collector and in civil and criminal matters), the sheriffs disburse the allocated funds and actually pay most of the salaries of the deputies with these funds. No one but the sheriff can realistically be viewed as the employer of the deputies. Whether the sheriff is the appropriate governmental entity on which to impose liability for the employment-related torts of the deputy sheriff is a more difficult question.
The doctrine of respondeat superior is based on the rationale that the enterprise should pay for damages caused by one who is acting in furtherance of the enterprise. Here, there is no enterprise. The deputy on duty is acting in furtherance of the public good, and the damages caused by those actions of the deputy should be paid by public funds.
The Legislature, in enacting Act 318 of 1978, has clearly indicated its intention that governmental responsibility for torts committed by a public employee should be placed on the public officer most closely related to the tortfeasor. The Legislature also removed the previous statutory immunity enjoyed by the sheriff. Moreover, as noted in the discussion of the employment relationship, neither the state nor the parish (the other logical entities on which liability might be imposed) exercises any significant control over sheriff's deputies. We conclude that the sheriff is the appropriate governmental entity on which to place responsibility for the torts of a deputy sheriff.
However, in the employment relationship which gives rise to delictual responsibility, the sheriff acts solely in his official capacity; he cannot reasonably be viewed as acting in a personal capacity in the employment relationship. Therefore, if the sheriff as an employer is to be held vicariously liable for the torts of his employee, he is liable only because he is sheriff and is only liable to the extent that he holds that office. He is not liable personally, and his personal funds and property cannot be subjected to execution of a judgment decreeing that liability. The public funds which are to be used to compensate victims of the torts committed by sheriff's deputies are the public funds controlled by the deputy's employer. The sheriff should be no more personally responsible for the deputy's torts than he is (in the absence of special circumstances) for the deputy's salary, or for the gasoline purchased for official vehicles. It is the officer who is responsible.
How the obligation may be enforced is one of the practical problems not solved by this decision. In this case, for example, any judgment against this sheriff in his official capacity will have to be recovered (disregarding the probability of liability insurance) from the official funds of his successor sheriff, since Cronvich is no longer in office. Future incidents can be provided for by liability insurance. While pending unlitigated claims may cause budget problems, perhaps special legislative appropriations may be required for special interim cases arising after Act 318 and before this opinion. Nevertheless, this area of the law so badly needs clarification that the present result is required (especially when the intention of Act 318 is considered). An overall legislative plan of action (rather than of reaction) is needed to resolve the problem of which governmental entity is responsible in this type case so that the appropriate entity may set aside funds to cover that responsibility with liability insurance.
For these reasons the judgments of the lower courts are reversed insofar as they dismissed the suit against Sheriff Alwynn J. Cronvich in his official capacity. The judgments are affirmed, however, insofar as they dismissed the suit against Sheriff Alwynn J. Cronvich in his personal capacity.
BLANCHE, J., dissents and hands down reasons therefor.
MARCUS and WATSON, JJ., dissent and assign reasons.
. The court of appeal also affirmed the dismissal in the same judgment of the "Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office". Plaintiffs do not assign any error to that portion of the judgment.
. The Gray decision and other earlier decisions were undoubtedly influenced by underlying considerations of governmental immunity. That doctrine had been abolished when the Foster case arose, but the court was faced with numerous decisions and statutes which reflected the influence of the doctrine.
Nevertheless, the Foster decision relied on the tort victim's right to recover against the state as the deputy's employer in order to maintain the constitutionality of R.S. 33:1433.
. This case does not involve the sheriffs liability for his own negligence, as might occur, for example, when the sheriff sends a deputy out on patrol in a motor vehicle when the sheriff actually knew that the deputy was intoxicated.
. The pleadings indicate there was liability insurance coverage in this case.
. See R.S. 33:1450, which expressly authorizes sheriffs to purchase liability insurance for this purpose.
. See, for example, the suggested approach in K. Murchison, The Work of the Louisiana Appellate Courts for the 1977-1978 Term-Local Government Law, 39 La.L.Rev. 657, 843 at 878 (1979).