Title: Moore v. Crocker
Citation: 852 So. 2d 89
Docket Number: 1992321
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: April 12, 2002

852 So. 2d 89 (2002)
Jerry MOORE
v.
Clyde CROCKER.
1992321.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
April 12, 2002.
Rehearing Denied January 31, 2003.
Robert H. Turner, Jr., Marion, for appellant.
James W. Porter II and Robert D. Henry of Porter, Porter &amp; Hassinger, P.C., Birmingham, for appellee.
JOHNSTONE, Justice.
The plaintiff Jerry Moore appeals a summary judgment in favor of the defendant Clyde Crocker, a police officer of the City of Brent, located in Bibb County. Moore sued Crocker and others for torts allegedly committed in arresting Moore without a warrant at Moore's home in Marion in Perry County, transporting him to Brent, and jailing him there overnight without charging him. Moore asserted, among other theories, assault and false imprisonment. Crocker asserted, among other defenses, peace officers' immunity pursuant to § 6-5-338, Ala.Code 1975. We reverse and remand.
The order by the trial court states the operative facts and reveals the dispositive issue:
The place of the arrest, Marion in Perry County, is over 20 miles from the City of Brent in Bibb County, and is outside the police jurisdiction of the City of Brent, which employed Crocker as a police officer.
Section 6-5-338, Ala.Code 1975, invoked by Crocker, provides in pertinent part:
This statute, by its terms, extends state-agent immunity to peace officers performing discretionary functions within the line and scope of their law-enforcement duties. Our plurality decision of Ex parte Cranman, 792 So. 2d 392 (Ala.2000), adopted by a majority of this Court in Ex parte Butts, 775 So. 2d 173 (Ala.2000), and Ex parte Rizk, 791 So. 2d 911 (Ala.2000), restated the law of state-agent immunity in Alabama. Cranman reads, in pertinent part:
Ex parte Cranman, 792 So. 2d  at 405 (emphasis in paragraphs (4) and (2) added; other emphasis original). In Newton v. Town of Columbia, 695 So. 2d 1213, 1217 (Ala.Civ.App.1997), our Court of Civil Appeals aptly held:
Section 15-10-1, Ala.Code 1975, restricts a police officer's authority to arrest to the limits of the county containing the city or town which employs the police officer:
Crocker cannot rely on Rule 3.3, Ala. R.Crim. P., for his authority to arrest Moore without a warrant outside the limits of Bibb County, where the City of Brent is located. Rule 3.3 reads:
First, Rule 3.3 governs only the execution and return of arrest warrants. Crocker does not claim that he had any arrest warrant or search warrant. Second, in Ex parte Borden, 769 So. 2d 950 (Ala.2000), this Court held that Rule 3.3 does not eliminate statutory jurisdictional restrictions on a law-enforcement officer's authority to arrest. Borden explains:
769 So. 2d  at 959 (final emphasis, except emphasis on "where," added; emphasis on "where" and other emphasis original). This reasoning applies with equal if not greater force to warrantless arrests, like the one we are considering in this case before us, which are governed by § 15-10-1.
Crocker cites Smith v. State, 727 So. 2d 147 (Ala.Crim.App.1998), for the proposition that Rule 3.3 supersedes § 15-10-1 and authorizes any law-enforcement officer within the State of Alabama to execute a warrant anywhere within the State of Alabama. In Borden, we observed that Smith was "based on a mistakenly expansive reading of Rule 3.3(a), Ala. R.Crim. P." 769 So. 2d  at 959.
Crocker's arresting Moore outside the county containing the city employing Crocker exceeded his authority and therefore forecloses his claim of peace officer immunity under § 6-5-338. Therefore, the trial court erred to reversal in granting Crocker's motion for a summary judgment.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
MOORE, C.J., and HOUSTON, LYONS, BROWN, HARWOOD, and WOODALL, JJ., concur.
SEE and STUART, JJ., concur in the result.