Court Opinion

ID: 9762693
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 02:29:13.340097+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:36.033065
License: Public Domain

ENOCH, Justice,
joined by HECHT and OWEN, Justices,
dissenting.
I agree with the Court that on the issue of official immunity, a party’s summary judgment evidence must address both the need to which an officer responds and the risks of an *468officer’s course of action. See 914 S.W.2d at 243 However, unlike the Court, and for reasons I express below, I would hold that Officer Wadewitz was entitled to summary judgment because he conclusively established that he acted in good faith.
I agree that Chambers guides our decision. City of Lancaster v. Chambers, 883 S.W.2d 650 (Tex.1994). On the other hand, the Court glosses over an important distinction between Chambers and this ease which helps illuminate the good faith element of the affirmative defense of official immunity. It is significant that Wadewitz was responding to a call at a fixed location. Why is this of note? Because when an officer receives instructions to proceed to a call at a fixed location, she must make but one decision— how to respond.
Chambers involved pursuit of a suspect. Although a police officer makes an initial decision to pursue, that officer does not know where the chase will lead. Consequently, the officer cannot evaluate all the risks of the pursuit at the moment it begins. Instead, as the circumstances evolve, the officer must make another decision — whether to continue the pursuit. See Chambers, 883 S.W.2d at 656 (good faith inquiry weighs need to immediately apprehend suspect against risk of continuing pursuit).
In responding to a call at a fixed location, however, an officer knows precisely where he is going. In planning the route to the location, the officer can assess the risks of proceeding on an emergency basis. Such risks may include, among other things, the presence of traffic signals, school zones, and pedestrians, as well as the quantity of traffic at that specific time of day. Another risk that must be factored into the officer’s decision is the fact that civilian drivers don’t always hear or see the approach of emergency vehicles. In determining whether an officer acted in good faith in responding to a call at a fixed location we must examine his conduct at the moment he decides to proceed. We then evaluate whether a reasonably prudent officer could have proceeded to the call on an emergency basis by the route the officer chose, considering the nature of the call.
This standard advances the policy we have articulated for the defense of official immunity:
the injustice ... of subjecting to liability an officer who is required, by the legal obligations of his position, to exercise discretion; [and] the danger that the threat of such liability would deter his willingness to execute his office with the decisiveness and the judgment required by the public good.
Chambers, 883 S.W.2d at 656 (quoting Scheuer v. Rhodes, 416 U.S. 232, 240, 94 S.Ct. 1683, 1688, 40 L.Ed.2d 90 (1974)). Our focus must be on the officer’s decision as she initiated her response rather than on each discrete circumstance that confronts her at each moment of her course of action. To second-guess the officer along each freeze-frame of the route to the scene of the crime would deprive that officer of any meaningful official immunity. See 914 S.W.2d 239, 246 (Vance, J., dissenting). As the frames get closer to the scene of the accident, the risk becomes progressively greater and the officer’s conduct appears less reasonable. Eventually, official immunity as a viable public policy protection disappears.
In this case, traffic was stopped at a traf-fie-signal-controlled intersection because Wa-dewitz, responding to what he understood to be a purse snatching, was approaching the intersection with lights, siren, and air horn activated. The Montgomerys, according to the summary judgment record, were not alerted to the emergency approach, failed to stop, and collided with Wadewitz. The Montgomerys argue that Wadewitz acted in bad faith because he entered the intersection although his view of the Montgomerys’ lane of travel was blocked. They argue that Wa-dewitz should not have entered the intersection under those circumstances.
Based on these essentially undisputed facts, Wadewitz submitted an expert’s affidavit stating that a reasonable police officer could have responded to the call on an emergency basis and could have selected the route Wadewitz chose. In response, the Montgom-erys submitted another expert’s affidavit stating that no reasonable officer would have proceeded blindly through that intersection *469given the risk of harm to the other drivers. The Montgomerys’ affidavit deals only with the moment in which Wadewitz entered the intersection. It says nothing about Wadew-itz’ decision to proceed on an emergency basis and selection of his route. Consequently, Wadewitz presented conclusive evidence of good faith which the Montgomerys failed to controvert.
Wadewitz’ decision to respond to a call on an emergency basis using a route he chose to a fixed location was reasonable in light of the risks. This decision does not become unreasonable solely because he unfortunately encountered one of these risks.
Wadewitz established that a reasonably prudent officer could have responded as he did to the call. Accordingly, he was entitled to summary judgment on the basis of official immunity. I would reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and render judgment for Wadewitz.