Opinion ID: 2981765
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Supervisory Jailers

Text: The district court held that the Supervisory Jailers had a ministerial duty to enforce existing jail policies and therefore were not entitled to qualified immunity on either a failure to train theory or a negligent supervision theory. This Court has appellate jurisdiction over the discrete question of whether the supervision of employees and the training of employees is a ministerial or discretionary function.3 These legal questions are well-settled. As to training, although deciding on the content of policies and training is a discretionary function, the training of employees to adhere to their duties once that content is decided is a ministerial function. See Yanero, 65 S.W.3d at 529. Hedgepath’s claim is that the contents of the policy were decided and that the Supervisory Jailers simply failed to train the jailers on how to comply with those policies. Because this claim implicates a ministerial duty, the District Court’s denial of qualified immunity will be affirmed. With respect to the negligent supervision claim, the supervision of employees is a ministerial act when it merely involves enforcing known policies. See Yanero, 65 S.W.3d at 522. Hedgepath claims that the Supervisory Jailers did not enforce known policies. Consequently, the Supervisory 3 We lack jurisdiction to consider the factual issues raised by the Supervisory Jailers. For example, the Supervisory Jailers note the lack of evidence indicating that they ever permitted unlawful practices at the jail, and consequently assert that they cannot face liability under a failure-to-train theory. The Supervisory Jailers also point to the apparently undisputed fact that Pelphrey and Combs were not in the jail at the time of the incident, and thus argue that Hedgepath’s negligent supervision claim must fail. Even if true, these are factual questions about liability, not legal questions about the whether the Supervisory Jailers are entitled to qualified immunity, and are therefore outside of this Court’s jurisdiction in this appeal. No. 12-5314 Hedgepath v. Pelphrey, et al. Page 12 Jailers are not entitled to qualified immunity because their duty to supervise the Deputy Jailers was ministerial.