Opinion ID: 887645
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: State Claims Against the Council Members in their Individual Capacities

Text: ¶ 41 Section 2-9-305(5), MCA, titled Immunization, defense, and indemnification of employees, provides, in pertinent part, that recovery against a governmental entity means that the employee whose conduct gave rise to the suit is immune from liability for the same conduct if the claim arises out of the course and scope of the employee's employment. The explicit grant of immunity in the second sentence of § 2-9-305(5), MCA, belies Germann's contention that the statute serves merely as an anti-double recovery statute. ¶ 42 We applied this statute to a similar situation in Kenyon, 254 Mont. 142, 835 P.2d 742. Former county employee Roberta Kenyon (Kenyon) filed an age discrimination suit against Stillwater County (County) and the County Attorney, C. Ed Laws (Laws). Kenyon, 254 Mont. at 145, 835 P.2d at 744. Kenyon based her claim on Laws's decision to discharge her and replace her with a younger woman. Kenyon, 254 Mont. at 145, 835 P.2d at 744. She named both the County and Laws as defendants. Kenyon, 254 Mont. at 145, 835 P.2d at 744. The district court granted summary judgment to Laws individually on the grounds that Laws was an agent of the County acting within the scope of his authority. Kenyon, 254 Mont. at 146, 835 P.2d at 745. ¶ 43 We upheld the grant of summary judgment, but on different grounds. Kenyon, 254 Mont. at 146-47, 835 P.2d at 745. We noted that state law subjects governmental entities to liability for their wrongful conduct and that of their employees acting within the scope of their employment. Kenyon, 254 Mont. at 146, 835 P.2d at 745 (citing § 2-9-102, MCA (1987)). We cited § 2-9-305, MCA (1987), in reasoning that where a litigant brings an action against a county based on actionable conduct by a county employee, the employee enjoys immunity from individual liability for the conduct where the county acknowledges that the conduct arose out of the course and scope of the employee's official duties. Kenyon, 254 Mont. at 146, 835 P.2d at 745. ¶ 44 Here the City acknowledged that Germann based her claims upon the conduct of the Council Members taken in the scope and course of their employment. Germann named the City as a defendant based upon the actions of the Council Members in enacting the Emergency Ordinance and Ordinance 00-06, and subsequently denying her applications for conditional use permits. The plain language of § 2-9-305(5), MCA, and our decision in Kenyon demonstrate that the Council Members clearly enjoyed immunity from Germann's state law claims. We therefore agree with the District Court's determination that § 1988 entitled the Council Members to attorneys' fees for Germann's state law claims against them in their individual capacities. Franceschi v. Schwartz (9th Cir.1995), 57 F.3d 828, 832. We must still evaluate, however, whether the District Court properly determined that Germann should have known that § 2-9-305(5), MCA, afforded immunity to the Council Members from Germann's federal claims against them in their individual capacities.