Court Opinion

ID: 9858489
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 16:25:50.593083+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:54:38.509756
License: Public Domain

Justice OWEN,
concurring.
The Court correctly decides the only issue that is before it, and I join the Court’s opinion. The Petitioner in this case, Mark Telthorster, asked the Court to decide only whether the need-versus-risk factors applied in Wadewitz v. Montgomery, 951 S.W.2d 464 (Tex.1997), an emergency response case, should be applied when a police officer arrests a suspect. Telthorster argues in this Court that “official immunity protects a police officer if the act was (i) made in exercise of a discretionary duty; (ii) performed in good faith; (iii) in the scope of his or her official authority.” Telthorster has not urged this Court to recognize a privilege similar to that described in section 132 of the Restatement (Second) of Torts for law enforcement officials when they use force for the purpose of effecting an arrest or recapture. The briefing in this case does not advocate any type of privilege or similar rule of law in negligence cases.
Thus, while I think that the privilege Justice Enoch’s concurring opinion would apply may have merit, I would not decide whether to recognize such a privilege until we have full briefing and argument on that point.