Opinion ID: 2611900
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Absolute Judicial Immunity

Text: It is well-settled that judges are accorded absolute immunity from liability for damages for acts performed in the exercise of their judicial functions. See Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 225, 108 S.Ct. 538, 543, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988); Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 553-54, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 1217-18, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967); Howard v. Drapkin, 222 Cal. App.3d 843, 271 Cal. Rptr. 893, 896 (1990). This absolute immunity protects even the judge who acts maliciously or corruptly. Pierson, 386 U.S. at 555, 87 S.Ct. at 1218; Howard, 271 Cal. Rptr. at 897; Seibel v. Kemble, 63 Haw. 516, 631 P.2d 173, 177 (1981). The United States Supreme Court has noted that absolute judicial immunity serves the twin purposes of protecting the finality of judgments and preserving judicial independence by insulating judges from vexatious actions prosecuted by disgruntled litigants. Forrester, 484 U.S. at 225, 108 S.Ct. at 543 (citing Bradley v. Fisher, 80 U.S. 335, 348, 20 L.Ed. 646 (U.S. 1871)). If judges were personally liable for erroneous decisions, the resulting avalanche of suits, most of them frivolous but vexatious, would provide powerful incentives for judges to avoid rendering decisions likely to provoke such suits. The resulting timidity would be hard to detect or control, and it would manifestly detract from independent and impartial adjudication. Id. 484 U.S. at 226-27, 108 S.Ct. at 544 (citations omitted). The Court has further noted that the broad scope of the immunity is not intended to protect the malicious or corrupt wrongdoer, but instead is for the benefit of the public, whose interest it is that the judges should be at liberty to exercise their functions with independence and without fear of consequences. Pierson, 386 U.S. at 554, 87 S.Ct. at 1218 (citation omitted); see also J. Randolph Block, Stump v. Sparkman and the History of Judicial Immunity, 1980 Duke L.J. 879, 922 (1980) (Judicial immunity exists not to protect judges but to protect litigants.). In Denardo v. Michalski, 811 P.2d 315 (Alaska 1991), this court recognized the existence of absolute judicial immunity in Alaska. However, we have not yet addressed or recognized the existence of quasi-judicial immunity, under which persons, other than judges, who perform judicial functions are granted immunity coextensive with that accorded judges.