Court Opinion

ID: 9679032
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:38:47.784533+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:09.760017
License: Public Domain

MARK D. PFEIFFER, Judge,
concurring.
I concur with Judge Mitchell’s opinion. Given the current status of the law on *263municipal sovereign immunity, the result reached today is correct. However, something is wrong when municipal employee discharge or demotion, constructive or otherwise, occurs in the context of intentional misconduct by the supervisory entity responsible for personnel decisions. Such intentional misconduct should never be deemed “actions benefiting the general public,” Junior Coll. Dist. of St. Louis v. City of St. Louis, 149 S.W.3d 442, 447 (Mo. banc 2004), and should not, in my opinion, receive the shield of sovereign immunity. To do so turns the shield of sovereign immunity into a sword that promotes intentional misconduct by our city government officials instead of protecting our city government officials that make honest mistakes.
A jury of twelve residents of Boone County concluded1 that Bennartz’s City of Columbia co-employee referred to Ben-nartz as a “fag” and someone who “fucks off’ at work; Bennartz’s co-employee stalked Bennartz at his home, made death threats to Bennartz, and filled out voluntary resignation forms for Bennartz and placed the forms in Bennartz’s personal mailbox in an intentional effort to force Bennartz to resign from the workplace.
Bennartz’s co-employee referred to their mutual supervisor as a “nigger” and essentially dared Bennartz to “blow the whistle” to the supervisor, effectively predicting that the supervisor would do nothing about it. And, the jury concluded that Ben-nartz’s co-employee was right. When Bennartz complained to the supervisor about this repulsive conduct on multiple occasions, the supervisor ignored Bennartz and sent Bennartz back into an arguably criminal environment. The jury concluded that Bennartz’s supervisor’s conduct constituted intentionally complicit misconduct. Bennartz’s supervisor was enabling an environment of intentional hostility and abuse.
In sum, Bennartz alleged and proved to a Boone County jury that his co-employee engaged in intentional misconduct and the supervisor in charge of “personnel decisions” also engaged in intentional misconduct in fostering a work environment that led to Bennartz’s constructive demotion.
Municipalities have immunity for actions undertaken as part of the municipal government’s “governmental functions — actions benefiting the general public.” Junior Coll. Dist. of St. Louis, 149 S.W.3d at 447 (emphasis added). The Missouri Supreme Court has concluded that the “termination” of a city employee is a “governmental function.” State ex rel. Gallagher v. Kansas City, 319 Mo. 705, 7 S.W.2d 357 (1928); see also Kunzie v. City of Olivette, 184 S.W.3d 570, 574 (Mo. banc 2006) (“Personnel decisions ... are governmental”).
However, our Missouri Supreme Court has only been faced with fact patterns in which there was an allegation of intentional misconduct by a co-employee. Our Missouri Supreme Court has not been faced with the fact pattern in which the supervisor or supervisory entity in charge of personnel decisions also engages in intentional misconduct leading to employee discharge or demotion, constructive or otherwise. The current case presents just such a fact pattern.
The fact pattern of this ease begs the question: How can intentional misconduct by a municipality in exercising personnel decisions ever be deemed an “action[ ] benefiting the general public,” such that this *264intentional misconduct should be deemed a “governmental function” entitled to immunity? This author respectfully argues that it should not.
However, multiple districts of the Missouri Court of Appeals have so found (as pointed out in Judge Mitchell’s opinion), and we are bound by that precedent. I respectfully submit that it would benefit our state for our Missouri Supreme Court to address the issue of intentional misconduct by a municipality in exercising personnel decisions and the impact that such intentional misconduct has upon municipal immunity. Perhaps this is a case that our Missouri Supreme Court will earnestly consider when reviewing what I anticipate will soon be Bennartz’s application for transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court.
NEWTON, C.J., concurs.

. This court reviews the facts in a light most favorable to the jury verdict. State v. Armentrout, 8 S.W.3d 99, 102 (Mo. banc 1999).