Title: Moore v. Adams
Citation: 754 So. 2d 630
Docket Number: 1981156
State: Alabama
Issuer: Alabama Supreme Court
Date: December 17, 1999

754 So. 2d 630 (1999)
Bertha MOORE
v.
Dale ADAMS and the City of Decatur.
1981156.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
December 17, 1999.
*631 R. Scott Anderson, Decatur, for appellant.
Robert E. Morrow, Department of Public Safety Legal Unit, Montgomery, for appellee Dale Adams.
Jon R. Sedlak of Coleman &amp; Sedlak, Decatur, for appellee City of Decatur.
COOK, Justice.
Bertha Moore sued the City of Decatur and Dale Adams, in his individual capacity; Adams is a state trooper and a narcotics agent for the Alabama Bureau of Investigation ("ABI"). Moore alleged that she had been injured during the execution of a search warrant at her home. Her complaint alleged false imprisonment, the tort of outrage, trespass, assault and battery, negligence, and wantonness, and alleged that she had suffered emotional distress. The defendants filed motions for summary judgment based upon claims of discretionary-function immunity, § 6-5-338, Ala. Code 1975. The trial judge entered a summary judgment for the defendants; Ms. Moore appealed. We affirm.
Rule 56, Ala. R. Civ. P., sets forth a two-tiered standard for determining whether to enter a summary judgment. In order to enter a summary judgment, the trial court must determine: 1) that there is no genuine issue of material fact and 2) that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law. In determining whether a summary judgment was properly entered, a reviewing court must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the nonmovant. See Turner v. Systems Fuel, Inc., 475 So. 2d 539, 541 (Ala.1985); Ryan v. Charles Townsend Ford, Inc., 409 So. 2d 784 (Ala.1981). Rule 56 is read in conjunction with the "substantial evidence rule" (§ 12-21-12, Ala. Code 1975), for actions filed after June 11, 1987. See Bass v. SouthTrust Bank of Baldwin County, 538 So. 2d 794, 797-98 (Ala.1989). In order to defeat a properly supported motion for summary judgment, the plaintiff must create a genuine issue of material fact by presenting "substantial evidence," i.e., "evidence of such weight and quality that fair-minded persons in the exercise of impartial judgment can reasonably infer the existence of the fact sought to be proved." West v. Founders Life Assurance Co. of Florida, 547 So. 2d 870, 871 (Ala.1989).
On January 9, 1997, ABI Agent Dale Adams obtained a search warrant from Judge Billy Cook, of the Decatur Municipal Court, in connection with an ABI investigation concerning the sale of crack cocaine in Decatur. During the investigation, Agent Adams had instigated "controlled *632 buys" by an informant; on two occasions the informant had purchased crack cocaine from someone at Bertha Moore's house, located on 12th Avenue in northwest Decatur. After the second buy, Agent Adams obtained a warrant to search the house. Agent Adams believed that the house number was 308; the house next door was marked 306. Ms. Moore admitted in her deposition that there was no number on her house. After obtaining the search warrant, Agent Adams requested the assistance of Decatur police in executing it. Agent Adams told the Decatur police officers that the person the ABI was looking for, Thomas Tucker, was on probation for shooting a man in the face and that there was a chance that Tucker was armed. The search warrant was executed at approximately 9:00 p.m. on the same day it was issued. The officers found Thomas Tucker in the residence, in possession of crack cocaine, a 9-millimeter handgun, and three marked $20 bills that had been used to purchase crack cocaine from Tucker earlier that day.
The plaintiff contends that the search warrant was invalid, because the actual address of her house was 312 12th Avenue, Northwest, but the house number on the warrant was 308. The affidavit attached to the search warrant identifies the house as follows: "308 12th Avenue Northwest, Decatur, Morgan County, Alabama, the same is described as a one story dwelling that is green in color, that is under the control of black male Thomas Tucker." When the warrant was executed, Agent Adams told the law-enforcement officers that it was the fourth house on the right, north of 2d Street, on 12th Avenue, Northwest; that it was a green-colored house; and that the house was directly adjacent to 306 12th Avenue, Northwest. The failure to give the correct street number of a house in a search warrant is not so material a variance as to make the warrant invalid if the arresting officer has been to the house, knows the location exactly, and therefore can clearly determine, from the face of the warrant, the location to be searched. State v. Graham, 571 So. 2d 1267 (Ala.Crim.App.1990). The house searched met the description in the warrant, not only in configuration and color, but also by the presence of Thomas Tucker, who was inside but who was clearly visible to the officers outside before they entered to execute the warrant. In arguing that the warrant was invalid, the plaintiff relies on Finch v. State, 479 So. 2d 1314 (Ala.Crim.App.1985). However, the present case is clearly distinguishable. In Finch, the house located at the number listed on the warrant was not the house to be searched and the officer executing the warrant was not familiar with the residence that was to be searched.
The defendants made a showing that they were engaged in the execution of a valid search warrant, a discretionary function. Discretionary acts have been defined as those acts as to which there is no hard and fast rule as to the course of conduct that one must or must not take, and those acts requiring exercise in judgment and choice and involving what is just and proper under the circumstances. Wright v. Wynn, 682 So. 2d 1, 2 (Ala.1996), citing L.S.B. v. Howard, 659 So. 2d 43 (Ala. 1995). Upon that showing, the burden shifted to the plaintiff to establish that the defendants acted fraudulently, in bad faith, or with malice or willfulness, in order to deny the defendants the immunity from suit otherwise provided them by § 6-5-338. Wright v. Wynn, supra.
The evidence before the trial judge included the affidavit of Agent Dale Adams, in which he stated:
Also before the trial court was Ms. Moore's testimony by deposition, as follows:
The plaintiff further testified that after this incident she visited an emergency room and there described her problems as "blood pressure and nerves."
Significantly, the plaintiff does not controvert that portion of Agent Adams's affidavit wherein he states that he announced the officers' presence and states that after three times demanding entry the agents used force to enter. This case is therefore distinguishable from Wright v. Wynn, supra, in that the evidence presented to the trial judge in this case did not establish a *634 factual dispute that would have allowed a jury to determine whether the defendants were entitled to the protection of the discretionary-immunity doctrine. The plaintiff has produced no "substantial evidence" indicating that the defendants' conduct was "so egregious as to amount to willful or malicious conduct or conduct engaged in bad faith." Couch v. City of Sheffield, 708 So. 2d 144, 153 (Ala.1998); Wright v. Wynn, supra. The judgment of the trial court is due to be affirmed.
AFFIRMED.
HOOPER, C.J., and MADDOX, HOUSTON, LYONS, BROWN, JOHNSTONE, and ENGLAND, JJ., concur.
SEE, J., concurs in the result.
[1]  See § 15-5-9, Ala.Code 1975.