Opinion ID: 1725466
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Other Off-Duty Policeman Decisions

Text: The decision in Cheatham v. City of New Orleans, 378 So.2d 369 (La.1979), does not suggest a different result. In that case, an off-duty police officer shot and killed an unarmed civilian who had intervened in an altercation between the two off-duty officers and a young boy after the youngster made a nuisance of himself. Id. at 375 n. 7. The City judicially confessed that the police officers were acting in the course and scope of their employment when the tortious conduct occurred, and the City was precluded from asserting a contrary position on appeal. Id. at 375. The gratuitous statement that the evidence more likely than not established that the police officers' conduct was in the course and scope of their employment clearly was dicta. Id. at 375 n. 7. Significantly, Cheatham is factually distinguishable from the case before us. Unlike Officer Noullet, the two off-duty officers in that case did not initiate the sequence of events that culminated in the tortious conduct. Instead, the officers were attempting to quell a disturbance created by the youngster when the plaintiffs' decedent intervened on the boy's behalf. We also noted that the officers were required to carry their guns, while Officer Noullet, although permitted to carry his gun while off-duty, violated express Department rules by carrying his gun while consuming alcohol. Our holding today is consistent with our recent ruling in Roberts v. Benoit, 605 So.2d 1032 (La.1991). There, the sheriff hired Benoit as a cook and later commissioned him as a deputy sheriff to make him eligible for supplemental pay, but his duties remained those of a cook. While at the plaintiff's house having his automobile repaired by the plaintiff, Benoit became intoxicated and was playing with his revolver when it discharged and injured the plaintiff. The plaintiff asserted, inter alia, that the sheriff was vicariously liable for his injuries. Applying the LeBrane and Ermert [9] tests, we held that Benoit was unquestionably acting outside the scope of his employment at the time of the tragic accident. Roberts, 605 So.2d at 1041. We noted that the time and place of the accident were far removed from the sheriff's kitchen, explaining: The causation or motive for Benoit's presence at the plaintiff's home was purely personal and unrelated to his employment duties.... Neither his general activities nor his specific activity which caused the harm, horseplaying with the gun, had any connection with the furtherance of his employer's business. Serving a function of the sheriff's office did not actuate Benoit to any appreciable extent. Benoit's activitiesplaying with a loaded revolver while intoxicatedwere in violation of one of Sheriff Foti's written regulations. Moreover,... Sheriff Foti had no regulation requiring Benoit to carry a gun while on or off duty.... [W]e find that Benoit was not exercising any function for which he was employed.... Id. (emphasis added). Similarly, the conduct here at issue occurred during off-duty hours and at a place intended for purely social pursuits. Like Benoit, Officer Noullet's motivation for his general activities was purely personal. Moreover, the specific activity which caused the harm to Miller was not in furtherance of his employer's interest, and his shooting into the crowd for self-protection was a response to a situation brought on by personal conduct rather than by the exercise of police authority.