Opinion ID: 2637827
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Did the district court appropriately grant summary judgment to the deputy on the state law tort claims?

Text: [¶ 8] The appellant contends vigorously on appeal that, even if dismissal of the state law tort claims under the WGCA was appropriate, those claims should survive as personal claims against the deputy. [4] Indeed, relying upon Milton v. Mitchell, 762 P.2d 372, 376-78 (Wyo.1988), the district court initially denied the deputy's motion for summary judgment on this issue on the ground that sexual assault was outside the deputy's scope of duties. The relevant holding of Milton is that the WGCA and its statute of limitations apply only to allegations of conduct within the scope of duties, as opposed to allegations of conduct within the scope of employment. Id. at 378. After the publication of Krenning v. Heart Mountain Irrigation District, 2009 WY 11, 200 P.3d 774 (Wyo.2009), however, the district court reconsidered and granted the summary judgment motion. The district court found that, as in Krenning, the appellant in the instant case has consistently pled and argued that [the deputy] was acting within the course and scope of his duties, and that the WGCA and its statute of limitations were applicable. Having reviewed the complaint filed in this matter, we find the latter conclusion of the district court to be correct as it applies to the only state law tort claim appealed, that being the claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress, and we affirm the granting of summary judgment to the deputy. [5] That allegation was pled against the deputy as a WGCA claimwhile on duty as a detention officerand the statute of limitations governing WGCA actions was correctly applied. When a claim is pled under the WGCA, we will not speculate that the appellant also intended to plead a separate tort claim against the governmental employee. See Krenning, 2009 WY 11, ¶¶ 30-31, 200 P.3d at 783; Watts v. Holmes, 386 P.2d 718, 719 (Wyo.1963); W.R.C.P. 8(a), (e).