Court Opinion

ID: 9632865
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 11:26:25.691999+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:00:29.088302
License: Public Domain

LAURA DENVIR STITH, Judge,
concurring and dissenting in part.
I concur with the majority opinion in all respects save one: I do not believe that the General Assembly abrogated quasi-judicial immunity with the enactment Of Section 331.100.5.
Three types of immunity are at issue in this case: official immunity, which protects public officials acting within the scope of their authority from liability for injuries arising from their discretionary acts or omissions, see Kanagawa v. State, 685 S.W.2d 831, 835-36 (Mo. banc 1985); the public duty doctrine, which recognizes that a public employee’s duty normally runs to the public at large rather than to an individual and the public employee therefore cannot be held liable to the individual for injuries allegedly arising from a breach of that duty, see Green v. Denison, 738 S.W.2d 861, 866 (Mo. banc 1987); and quasi-judicial immunity, which provides immunity to certain officials when they perform functions that closely resemble the function of a judge or other functions essential to the judicial process, see Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 512-17, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (1978).
As discussed below, official immunity and the public duty doctrine both exist primarily to protect the government and its agents from liability for acts that are performed on behalf of the citizens; they constitute the application of sovereign immunity principles and serve to protect the public purse. Quasi-judicial immunity, by contrast, exists to protect the integrity of the investigatory and judicial processes from unwarranted intrusions.
I agree with the majority that the statute can and does waive the board members’ official immunity and their immunity associated with the public duty doctrine, but I cannot agree that this statute abrogates their quasi-judicial immunity as it *585relates to their prosecutorial and quasi-judicial functions.
I. ORIGIN AND PURPOSE OF QUASI-JUDICIAL IMMUNITY
Quasi-judicial immunity has its foundation in the absolute immunity that has long been conferred upon judges for actions undertaken in the exercise of their judicial functions. See Butz, 438 U.S. at 508-09, 98 S.Ct. 2894 (discussing history of absolute judicial immunity). Courts historically have recognized that affording immunity from suit to judges is necessary to protect the integrity of the judicial process. “Liability to answer to every one who might feel himself aggrieved by the action of the judge ... would destroy that independence without which no judiciary can be either respectable or useful.” Bradley v. Fisher, 13 Wall. 335, 80 U.S. 335, 347, 20 L.Ed. 646 (1871) (holding that federal court judges are absolutely immune from suit). “Imposing such a burden on judges would contribute not to principled and fearless decision-making, but to intimidation.” Pierson v. Ray, 386 U.S. 547, 554-55, 87 S.Ct. 1213, 18 L.Ed.2d 288 (1967) (affirming that state court judges are absolutely immune from suit).
For similar reasons, prosecutors and grand jurors both enjoy absolute immunity from suit under federal law. As the Supreme Court has declared:
The office of public prosecutor is one which must be administered with courage and independence.... To allow [suits against the prosecutor] ... would open the way for unlimited harassment and embarrassment of the most conscientious officials by those who would profit thereby... .The apprehension of such consequences would tend toward great uneasiness and toward weakening the fearless and impartial policy which should characterize the administration of this office.
Imbler v. Pachtman, 424 U.S. 409, 423-24, 96 S.Ct. 984, 47 L.Ed.2d 128 (1976) (quoting with approval Pearson v. Reed, 6 Cal.App.2d 277, 44 P.2d 592, 597 (Cal.1935)). Again, the need for prosecuting attorneys to be independent and courageous when deciding whom to prosecute motivates the decision to confer upon them absolute immunity. “It is the functional comparability of their judgments to those of the judge that has resulted in both grand jurors and prosecutors being referred to as ‘quasi-judicial’ officers, and their immunities being termed ‘quasi-judicial’ as well.” Imbler, 424 U.S. at 423 n. 20, 96 S.Ct. 984.
“Immunity is justified and defined by the junctions it protects and serves, not by the person to whom it attaches.” Forrester v. White, 484 U.S. 219, 227, 108 S.Ct. 538, 98 L.Ed.2d 555 (1988); see also Cleavinger v. Saxner, 474 U.S. 193, 200-02, 106 S.Ct. 496, 88 L.Ed.2d 507 (1985) (discussing the Supreme Court’s functional approach to immunity). Because administrative agencies at times perform prosecu-torial and judicial functions, the United States Supreme Court has similarly extended this “quasi-judicial” immunity to decision-makers and prosecutors within federal administrative agencies.
Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. at 511-12, 98 S.Ct. 2894, is illustrative. The United States Supreme Court there rejected the contention that the location of administrative personnel within the executive branch of government should vary the degree of their immunity. “We think that the [lower courts] placed undue emphasis on the fact that the officials sued here are- — from an administrative perspective — employees of the Executive Branch. Judges have absolute immunity not because of their particular location within the Government but because of the special nature of them responsibilities.” Butz, 438 U.S. at 511, 98 S.Ct. 2894. The Supreme Court concluded *586that “adjudication within a federal administrative agency shares enough of the characteristics of the judicial process that those who participate in such adjudication should also be immune from suits for damages.” Id. at 512-13, 98 S.Ct. 2894.
Based on these principles, administrative hearing officers, agency officials who decide whom to prosecute, and agency attorneys who actually conduct the prosecution are all absolutely immune from liability, even though 42 U.S.C. otherwise waives sovereign immunity from suit of federal officials. Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 514, 98 S.Ct. 2894, 57 L.Ed.2d 895 (“the risk of an unconstitutional act by one presiding at an agency hearing is clearly outweighed by the importance of preserving the independent judgment of these men and women. We therefore hold that persons subject to these restraints and performing adjudicatory functions within a federal agency are entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability for their judicial acts”); Id. at 515, 98 S.Ct. 2894 (“Agency officials performing certain functions analogous to those of prosecutor should be able to claim absolute immunity with respect to such acts”); Id. at 516, 98 S.Ct. 2894 (“an agency attorney who arranges for the presentation of evidence on the record in the course of an adjudication is absolutely immune from suits based on the introduction of such evidence”). See also Group Health Plan, Inc. v. State Bd. of Registration, 787 S.W.2d 745, 750 (Mo.App. E.D.1990) (holding that quasi-judicial immunity protects “[ajgency official responsible for deciding whether to initiate proceedings ... from a suit for damages for their parts in that decision”).
Federal courts have applied this principle to preclude suits under section 1983 that are similar in kind to the present suit. For example, Horwitz v. State Bd. of Medical Examiners, 822 F.2d 1508 (10th Cir.1987), evaluated the claim of a podiatrist that the state board of medical examiners violated his civil rights under section 1983 by recklessly pursuing a false claim against him in an effort to discipline his license. The Tenth Circuit concluded:
the defendant Board members, who performed statutory functions both adjudicatory and prosecutorial in nature, are entitled to absolute immunity from damages liability.... There exists a strong need to insure that individual Board members perform then’ functions for the public good without harassment or intimidation. There exist adequate due process safeguards under Colorado law to protect against unconstitutional conduct without reliance upon private damages lawsuits. It is important to insulate Board members from political influences in meeting them adjudicatory responsibilities in the adversarial setting involving licensure to practice medicine. Public policy requires that officials serving in such capacities be exempt from personal liability.
Horwitz, 822 F.2d at 1515. Other federal courts have reached similar conclusions. See, e.g., Watts v. Burkhart, 978 F.2d 269, 274-74 (6th Cir.1992) (en banc) (concluding that board of medical examiners entitled to quasi-judicial immunity and overruling previous 3-judge panel decision to the contrary); Bettencourt v. Bd. of Reg. in Medicine, 904 F.2d 772, 782-85 (1st Cir.1990) (concluding that board of medical registration is entitled to quasi-judicial immunity).
Without citation to or discussion of these strikingly analogous federal cases relied on by respondent, the majority opinion says quasi-judicial immunity is no different in kind than the sovereign immunity principles reflected in the public duty and official immunity doctrines, and is equally subject to legislative amendment or abol-ishment. Although, here, the statute would abrogate quasi-judicial immunity *587only in the case of gross negligence, presumably the majority would reach the same result were the statute to abrogate such immunity for simple negligence, or were it to impose absolute or strict liability for incorrect decisions, for the principles would be the same.
I respectfully disagree that this analysis is mandated simply because 331.100.5 states that the board shall not be immune from suit for gross negligence. As noted, 42 U.S.C. section 1983 similarly was enacted specifically to waive state sovereign immunity.1 Yet, Horwitz and similar cases readily and uniformly concluded that both common law doctrines of judicial and quasi-judicial immunity persist and cloak those they cover with absolute immunity from suit.2 Other state courts, equally concerned about the integrity of the decision-making process, have held that statutory waivers of immunity will be similarly narrowly interpreted. See Berry v. State, 400 So.2d 80, 82-83 (Fla.App.1981) (interpreting statutory waiver of sovereign immunity narrowly to preserve common law judicial immunity).
I would follow this same path. I would not interpret the very general language of section 331.100.5 broadly to eliminate not just common law immunities of the sovereign, but also those immunities put in place to protect the integrity of the judicial process. I would follow the lead of the United States Supreme Court and interpret this statute more narrowly, in recognition of the fact that quasi-judicial immunity is different in kind from official immunity and the public duty doctrine. See Pierson, 386 U.S. at 554-55, 87 S.Ct. 1213 (“The legislative record gives no clear indication that Congress meant to abolish wholesale all common-law immunities ... and we presume that Congress would have specifically so provided had it wished to abolish the doctrine.”). As Judge Learned Hand wrote in 1947: “to submit all officials, the innocent as well as the guilty, to the burden of a trial and to the inevitable danger of its outcome, would dampen the ardor of all but the most resolute, or the most irresponsible, in the unflinching discharge of their duties.... [I]t has been thought in the end better to leave unredressed the wrongs done by dishonest officers than to subject those who try to do their duty to the constant dread of retaliation.” Gregoire v. Biddle, 177 F.2d 579, 581 (2d Cir.1947) (Hand, J.).
In sum, all of the conduct alleged in the petition occurred pursuant to the board members quasi-judicial functions. The statute here makes no express waiver of quasi-judicial immunity. It simply says that the board members are immune from suit in the case of gross negligence. This is sufficient to constitute waiver of official and public duty immunities, doctrines that were developed to protect the sovereign from suit, and which the sovereign therefore can surely waive.
*588But, the common law doctrine of quasi-judicial immunity was developed to protect the integrity of the decision-making process, not to protect the purse of the sovereign. The policy decisions that would go into deciding whether to eliminate that guarantee of impartiality and lack of arbitrariness are far different than those that would underlie a decision to waive sovereign immunity for gross negligence.
It may be that the legislature could expressly waive quasi-judicial immunity in the case of an administrative agency that it has itself created by statute as a part of the executive branch. But, in the absence of an explicit statement that this is the General Assembly’s specific intention,3 I must conclude that the language of section 331.100.5 does not waive quasi-judicial immunity.
For these reasons, I concur in part and dissent in part.

. It is possible, then, that the plaintiff in this case could pursue a Section 1983 claim against the same defendants alleging the same conduct, and the outcome would be different under federal law than it is under the analysis employed by the majority.

. None of the federal cases discussed above are constitutional law decisions. Instead, the United States Supreme Court has concluded that the absolute immunity of judges, grand jurors, prosecutors, and administrative adjudicators derives from the common law. See, e.g., Imbler, 424 U.S. at 422-23, 96 S.Ct. 984 ("the common-law immunity of a prosecutor is based upon the same considerations that underlie the common-law immunities of judges and grand jurors acting within the scope of their duties”) (emphasis added). Consequently, these cases are not directly binding upon this Court. They do, however, have significant persuasive value, and no doubt for that reason were discussed in the briefs filed with this Court and in the court of appeals’ opinion in this case.

. I note that, although constitutional claims were not raised in this case, other courts have suggested that legislative abrogation of common law immunities that protect the integrity of the judicial and quasi-judicial decisionmak-ing process could present constitutional problems. See Berry v. State, 400 So.2d 80, 82-83 (Fla.App.1981) (interpreting broad statutory waiver of sovereign immunity narrowly to preserve judicial immunity to avoid constitutional problems with waiver of judicial immunity); see also Mo. Const. art. II, sec. 1.