Opinion ID: 848858
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Liability of the Employee

Text: Plaintiff also brought claims asserting that the city's employee, Mr. Howard, negligently maintained and operated the forklift. [11] Mr. Howard is entitled to immunity as a city employee from the negligent maintenance and operation claims if § 1407(2) is satisfied. Section 1407(2) provides: Except as otherwise provided in this section, and without regard to the discretionary or ministerial nature of the conduct in question, each officer and employee of a governmental agency, each volunteer acting on behalf of a governmental agency, and each member of a board, council, commission, or statutorily created task force of a governmental agency is immune from tort liability for an injury to a person or damage to property caused by the officer, employee, or member while in the course of employment or service or caused by the volunteer while acting on behalf of a governmental agency if all of the following are met: (a) The officer, employee, member, or volunteer is acting or reasonably believes he or she is acting within the scope of his or her authority. (b) The governmental agency is engaged in the exercise or discharge of a governmental function. (c) The officer's, employee's, member's, or volunteer's conduct does not amount to gross negligence that is the proximate cause of the injury or damage. As used in this subdivision, gross negligence means conduct so reckless as to demonstrate a substantial lack of concern for whether an injury results. There is no dispute that subsections (a) and (b) are satisfied, thus, the question is whether Mr. Howard was grossly negligent in maintaining and operating the forklift under subsection (c). Plaintiff asserts that Mr. Howard was grossly negligent in failing to check the brakes after knowing the brakes were faulty and in driving the forklift without a valid license to operate the lift. We reject plaintiff's arguments. As the Court of Appeals noted, once Mr. Howard noticed the problematic brakes, he notified his supervisor. Once Mr. Howard retrieved the forklift, he thought the brakes had been fixed, as there was no indication otherwise. Moreover, once the forklift began to roll forward at the time of the accident, Mr. Howard used his toe to unstick the brakes and the forklift retreated backward, as intended. Even though Mr. Howard did not have a valid license to operate the lift at the time plaintiff was injured, the above evidence shows that Mr. Howard was not otherwise unqualified to operate the forklift. Additionally, Mr. Howard maintained the forklift as best he could by reporting the problem, taking the forklift for repairs, and retrieving and operating the lift after he thought repairs were completed, since there was no red flag on the forklift, which would have indicated a faulty lift. We agree with the Court of Appeals that no reasonable mind could conclude that this amounts to reckless conduct showing Mr. Howard's substantial lack of concern of whether an injury would occur when Mr. Howard used the forklift. Thus, we hold that summary disposition for defendants on the negligent maintenance and operation claims was proper.