Title: McDuffie v. Roscoe
Citation: 679 So. 2d 641
Docket Number: 1941112
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: April 19, 1996

679 So. 2d 641 (1996)
Terry L. McDUFFIE, et al.
v.
George ROSCOE, Jr., as personal representative of the Estate of George Twiller Roscoe, deceased.
1941112.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
April 19, 1996.
Rehearing Denied August 30, 1996.
Jerry L. Weidler and Pamela R. Scott, State of Alabama Department of Transportation, Montgomery, for Appellants.
Larry U. Sims and Joseph P.H. Babington of Helmsing, Lyons, Sims &amp; Leach, P.C., Mobile, and Joseph W. Hutchinson III, Butler, for Appellee.
MADDOX, Justice.
This interlocutory appeal involves a single issue: Whether employees of the State Department of Transportation are entitled to substantive or discretionary function immunity under the particular facts of this case.
The plaintiff, George Roscoe, Jr., as personal representative of the estate of his son, George Twiller Roscoe, filed a wrongful death action against certain employees of the State Department of Transportation. He alleged that his son had been killed in an accident proximately caused by negligent or wanton conduct on the part of the State employees in maintaining the shoulders along a portion of State Highway 17. At the time of the accident, this portion of Highway 17 was being resurfaced.
In their answer, the State employees asserted the affirmative defense of substantive or discretionary function immunity, and, subsequently, they moved for a summary judgment based on this defense. The trial court denied the motion, and the employees, pursuant to Rule 5, Ala.R.App.P., appealed that denial. We reverse and remand, based on Grant v. Davis, 537 So. 2d 7 (Ala.1988).
The plaintiff contends that "[u]nder Alabama law, substantive or discretionary function immunity is to be applied on a limited basis to protect the citizens of this state," and he argues:
Because of this argument, we set out the facts and circumstances surrounding the accident and the activities of the defendants.
The one-car accident that resulted in the death of the plaintiff's son occurred on Highway 17 near milepost 81. George Twiller Roscoe was the only person in the vehicle, and there were no eyewitnesses to the accident. The evidence filed in support of the motion for summary judgment, along with the evidence filed in opposition to it, suggests that at the time of the accident the defendants, Terry L. McDuffie, Leroy Cobb, Johnny Cook, Joseph Dueitt, Edwin Knight, and Jerry Holt (collectively referred to as the "State employee defendants"), were employed by the Alabama Department of Transportation ("ALDOT"). McDuffie was employed as the district engineer for District 4 of ALDOT's Eighth Division; Cobb was a project engineer who worked on construction projects in the Eighth Division; Cook and Dueitt were project inspectors who also worked in the Eighth Division; Knight was the construction engineer for the Eighth Division; and Holt was the maintenance engineer for the Eighth Division. The portion of Highway 17 on which the accident occurred was within District 4 of the Eighth Division.
Prior to the accident, Butts &amp; Billingsley Construction Company, Inc., had contracted with ALDOT to resurface Alabama Highway 17 from milepost 79.28 to milepost 92.60. The parties concede that resurfacing causes the level of the road surface to be raised above the level of the shoulder of the road and that after a road is resurfaced the shoulders must be built back up to the level of the highway surface. The construction contract did not require that Butts &amp; Billingsley perform this shoulder work, nor did it require that the contractor place any signs warning of low shoulders along the resurfaced portion of the roadway. Instead, the shoulder work for the resurfacing project was to be performed by ALDOT.
Butts &amp; Billingsley had completed much of resurfacing work in District 4 under several contracts, and because the District 4 crews were required to do all the shoulder work, the ALDOT crews were behind in their work. At the time of the accident, the District 4 crews were working on the shoulders of two other highways where resurfacing had recently been completed. Mr. McDuffie testified in his deposition that he had planned to move the road crews to the area where the accident occurred after the shoulder work was completed on the other projects. Some "low shoulder" warning signs had been erected at the intersection of Highways 17 and 84 approximately 4-5 miles north of milepost 81, but there were none at the point of the accident.
The plaintiff alleges that the State employee defendants were negligent in the performance of their required duties and through their negligence caused or allowed a dangerous drop-off to exist at the edge of the pavement, that they failed to warn the motoring public of the dangerous drop-off, and that they either failed to inspect, or inadequately inspected, the dangerous drop-off or shoulder of the highway.
The leading case on the issue involved in this appeal is Grant. In Grant, the plaintiffs were injured in an accident they alleged was caused by a low shoulder. They sued certain employees of the State Highway Department, alleging negligence, recklessness, and wantonness "in failing to properly inspect, maintain, or repair the shoulder of the road." 537 So. 2d  at 7. A jury found for the plaintiffs. The defendants moved for a JNOV based on their defense of discretionary immunity. The trial court denied the JNOV.
In reversing the denial of a JNOV, this Court stated:
537 So. 2d  at 8-10 (emphasis original).
The plaintiff attempts to distinguish Grant by this argument:
(Appellee's Brief, 28-30; emphasis original; footnotes and citations omitted.)
Although we have carefully considered the plaintiff's argument that the State employee defendants had no discretion in posting warning signs, we cannot agree that posting warning signs was a ministerial function. We conclude that the facts of this case are not so different from those in Grant as to justify denying these defendants' defense of substantive or discretionary function immunity.
The State employee defendants were immune from liability, based on the qualified immunity doctrine set forth in Grant. The order denying these defendants' summary judgment motion is reversed. This cause is remanded for an order or proceedings consistent with this opinion.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
HOOPER, C.J., and COOK and BUTTS, JJ., concur.
HOUSTON, J., concurs specially.
HOUSTON, Justice (concurring specially).
In Taylor v. Shoemaker, 605 So. 2d 828 (Ala.1992), a case relied on by the defendants, I dissented and asked: "Where is the discretion?" 605 So. 2d  at 834-35. In today's case, I easily recognize the discretion.