Opinion ID: 1153220
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Individual Co-employee Defendants

Text: The plaintiffs alleged in their complaint that at the time of the accident David J. Nolen was the mayor of the City of Gadsden; that Jan Veal Kilgore was the city's risk manager, whose responsibilities included developing and implementing a safety program for all of the city's employees; that Eddie L. Taylor was the director of the city's Public Works Department and that his responsibilities included the overall operation of the city's garbage trucks; that Eugene L. Harrell was Taylor's assistant and the superintendent of the Preventive Maintenance Division of the city's Public Works Department; that Mack Smith was the superintendent of maintenance; and that Eugene T. Greeson was the superintendent of the city's shop where maintenance of the city's garbage trucks was actually performed. The plaintiffs further alleged that these defendants were liable under § 25-5-11(b) for willfully injuring them. The evidence, again viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, indicates that, because the garbage trucks used by the City of Gadsden were subjected to heavy duty, brake problems with the trucks were common. The truck in question had had various brake problems and had needed various brake adjustments during its period of service before the accident, and it had undergone regular, routine maintenance. The truck had had one previous brake failure that resulted in an accident; however, the truck was presumably repaired after that accident in accordance with normal repair procedures. Whenever anyone complained about a problem with one of the city's garbage trucks and requested that work be done on the brakes, one or more of the mechanics in the shop working under the supervision of Eugene Greeson always complied. After repairs or adjustments had been made to the brakes of a truck, the truck was road tested before it was authorized for a return to service. Only three of the individual defendants, Harrell, Taylor, and Kilgore, had been made directly aware by Davenport before the accident that there had been any significant problems with the truck's brakes, and, because the truck was a backup that was not used on a daily basis, it does not appear that any of the defendants could have known for certain on the day of the accident that the plaintiffs would be riding on the truck. The accident was caused by an unexplained, sudden loss of air pressure in conjunction with a broken push rod attached to the right rear air brake canister that had gone undetected for some time and that had reduced the effectiveness of the right rear brake. Detection of the broken push rod was hampered by its particular placement under the truck. Without belaboring the point, suffice it to say that we have sifted through the evidence and conclude that none of it constitutes substantial evidence that the defendants willfully injured the plaintiffs, within the meaning of § 25-5-11(c)(1). The plaintiffs do not argue that any of the co-employee defendants had a motive or a reason to want to intentionally injure them, and from the evidence one could not reasonably infer that reasonable people in the positions of these defendants would have known that injury or death was substantially certain to follow from the plaintiffs' use of the garbage truck on the day of the accident. See, e.g., Reed v. Brunson, 527 So.2d 102 (Ala.1988); Williams v. Price, 564 So.2d 408 (Ala.1990). The summary judgment was proper as to the individual co-employee defendants. For the foregoing reasons, the judgment is affirmed. AFFIRMED. HORNSBY, C.J., and ALMON, SHORES and KENNEDY, JJ., concur.