Court Opinion

ID: 9580372
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:04:29.408033+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:14.776590
License: Public Domain

Andrews, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The defendants violated no duty for which they could be held liable in tort, therefore, the trial court correctly granted summary judgment.
The majority refers to a line of cases from other jurisdictions discussing what has been labeled the “public duty doctrine” dealing with governmental liability for torts in the absence of immunity (see Annot. 38 ALR4th 1194 (1985)), and concludes the trial court incorrectly applied this analysis to limit the scope of the defendants’ duty by creating, in effect, a limited immunity similar to sovereign immunity to which the defendants were not entitled.1 It is unnecessary to decide whether the “public duty doctrine,” or any other limitation on governmental tort liability may apply in the absence of sovereign immunity in this case. From an analytical perspective, the threshold issue is whether the defendants had any duty under traditional tort principles to protect Jordan from Marks’ attack. The traditional tort duty issue necessarily precedes any discussion of governmental immunity or other limits on tort liability under any theory, since a defendant must first be potentially liable for the breach of a legal duty to conform to a standard of conduct before there is any need to invoke a form of immunity from the breach. See Galati v. Town of Longboat Key, 562 S2d 780, 781 (Fla. App. 2 Dist. 1990); Williams v. State, 664 P2d 137, 139 (Cal. 1983) (immunity issues do not arise until it is determined that a governmental entity owes a duty of care to the plaintiff). I disagree with the majority’s conclusion that by requiring a special relationship between the plaintiff and the defendants in order to trigger a legal duty, this granted the defendants a type of immunity applied only to governmental entities to give them more favorable treatment than private entities would receive under traditional tort analysis. To the contrary, to establish the threshold tort element of duty based *671solely on a general duty to the public has the effect of expanding the defendants’ duty beyond that applicable under traditional tort law. Under the present allegations of police nonfeasance, traditional tort principles apply to establish that the defendants breached no duty for which they could be held liable.
“To state a cause of action for negligence in Georgia, the following elements are essential: (1) [a] legal duty to conform to a standard of conduct raised by the law for the protection of others against unreasonable risks of harm; (2) a breach of this standard; (3) a legally attributable causal connection between the conduct and the resulting injury; and, (4) some loss or damage flowing to the plaintiff’s legally protected interest as a result of the alleged breach of the legal duty.” Bradley Center v. Wessner, 250 Ga. 199, 200 (296 SE2d 693) (1982) (punctuation and citation omitted). “Generally, a person does not have a duty to control the conduct of another person, who is a potential tortfeasor, so as to prevent that person from harming a third person, unless (a) a special relation exists between the actor and the third person which imposes a duty upon the actor to control the third person’s conduct, or (b) a special relation exists between the actor and the other which gives to the other a right to protection.” Associated Health Systems v. Jones, 185 Ga. App. 798, 801 (366 SE2d 147) (1988) (punctuation and citations omitted); Bradley Center, supra at 201; Restatement, Law of Torts 2d, § 315. Similarly, “a person is under no duty to rescue another from a situation of peril which the former has not caused.” Alexander v. Harnick, 142 Ga. App. 816, 817 (237 SE2d 221) (1977). Even where one having no initial duty undertakes to come to another’s aid the actor must exercise due care in performing, and is liable only if the failure to exercise due care increases the risk of harm, or harm is suffered because of the other’s reliance on the undertaking. Restatement, Law of Torts 2d, § 323; see Lau’s Corp. v. Haskins, 261 Ga. 491, 495, n. 2 (405 SE2d 474) (1991).
I know of no reason these general tort principles should not apply to police officers. “A person does not, by becoming a police officer, insulate himself from any of the basic duties which everyone owes to other people, but neither does he assume any greater obligation to others individually. The only additional duty undertaken by accepting employment as a police officer is the duty owed to the public at large.” Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A2d 1, 8 (D. C. App. 1981); Lehto v. City of Oxnard, 217 Cal. Rptr. 450, 455 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. 1985). Only where a special relationship exists between the parties, such as that between an officer and the prisoner in his custody, may social policy justify imposing a legal duty to assist or rescue another in danger. Thomas v. Williams, 105 Ga. App. 321, 326 (124 SE2d 409) (1962). Thus, in the context of a tort claim that the city’s police negligently failed to furnish police protection to Jordan, the *672application of a duty limited in scope by the type of relationship between the claimant and the city police is a traditional tort law concept applicable to both government and private entities. Application of a generalized duty of the defendants to protect persons within the city’s boundaries, found by the majority to be inherent in the power of government, expands the defendants’ duty and potential liability beyond that imposed under traditional tort analysis. “[W]hen negligence began to take form as a separate basis of tort liability, the courts developed the idea of duty, as a matter of some specific relation between the plaintiff and the defendant, without which there could be no liability.” (Emphasis supplied.) Prosser & Keeton On Torts, § 53, pp. 356, 357 (5th ed. 1984). The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on the basis that they violated no duty since no special relationship was demonstrated with Jordan. Although making reference to the public duty line of cases, the trial court’s order was consistent with the application of traditional tort principles in an equal manner to the defendants. This is not a form of limited governmental immunity. When the government’s responsibility for alleged negligence is limited by the scope of its duty, the “immunity” which results is not premised on the sovereign immunity maxim “the king can do no wrong,” but on the tort principle that the king is not liable for the wrong done.
The tort claim made here for failure of the city police to protect Jordan from the criminal acts of another must be based, not on the general duty of the government to provide police- protection to the public, but upon a special relationship that exists between the claimant and the governmental entity. In determining whether such a special relationship exists under these circumstances, the test applied in Cuffy v. City of New York, 505 NE2d 937, 940 (N.Y. 1987) provides a rational approach: “(1) an assumption by the municipality, through promises or actions of an affirmative duty to act on behalf of the party who was injured; (2) knowledge on the part of the municipality’s agents that inaction could lead to harm; (3) some form of direct contact between the municipality’s agents and the injured party; and (4) that party’s justifiable reliance on the municipality’s affirmative undertaking.” Id. at 940. Assuming without deciding that there was some form of direct contact between the police and Jordan, and that the city’s officers assumed an affirmative duty to act on her behalf by promising to send a car, there is an absence of evidence in support of the remaining elements necessary to find a special relationship. Jordan let Marks in because she perceived no danger at the time even though her sister-in-law stated that she would call the police. In the subsequent phone call, police told Jordan’s sister-in-law that a car would be sent. In a later telephone call to Jordan while Marks was still present, Jordan was unable to inform her sister-in-law of the at*673tack, and answered in response to a question that the police had not arrived. Under these facts, I find no evidence that the harm resulted from any reliance Jordan placed on the statement police made to her sister-in-law that a car would be sent. There is no evidence that she forwent the possibility of help from other sources, or that she otherwise relaxed her own defenses. Based on the sparse information imparted to the police by phone, there is no basis to find that the police had knowledge that the failure to send a car could lead to the harm incurred. There is no evidence that the police inaction made the situation worse or increased the danger to Jordan.
Decided March 20, 1992
Reconsideration denied April 2, 1992
Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, Daniel A. Ragland, William H. Stanhope, for appellants.
Brinson, Askew & Berry, Robert M. Brinson, J. Anderson Davis, Robert N. Farrar, for appellees.
Under the majority’s analysis, the jury may well conclude that the police inaction did not proximately cause the harm. However, the threshold issue of duty is a question of law for the court. First Fed. &c. Bank of Brunswick v. Fretthold, 195 Ga. App. 482, 485-486 (394 SE2d 128) (1990). There being no basis upon which to find a special relationship under the facts, the trial court correctly concluded under traditional tort analysis that the defendants violated no duty, and properly granted summary judgment.
I am authorized to state that Presiding Judge Birdsong, Judge Pope and Judge Johnson join in this dissent.

 The public duty doctrine, and its special duty exception, has been accepted in the majority of jurisdictions which have considered it. See Sawicki v. Village of Ottawa Hills, 525 NE2d 468, 477 (Ohio 1988); Leake v. Cain, 720 P2d 152, 158 (Colo. 1986). The doctrine has been applied where an individual sues a governmental entity for breach of a duty owed to the general public such as the duty to protect the public from criminal acts. Generally, in the absence of a “special relationship” between the plaintiff and the governmental entity, the doctrine provides that there is no breach of duty upon which tort liability can be based. The special duty exception provides that a duty upon which tort liability may be established is recognized only if the duty of due care breached was a special duty, one owed to the plaintiff because of a special relationship established with that individual, rather than a duty owed to the public in general.