Court Opinion

ID: 9740478
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:36:19.443465+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:18.458412
License: Public Domain

FOSHEIM, Chief Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I agree with the majority decision affirming dismissal of the action against the city. I would, however, also affirm dismissal of the action against the city employee. We have held that a unit of state government can act only through its employees. Norgeot v. State, 334 N.W.2d 501 (S.D.1983); Merrill v. Birhanzel, 310 N.W.2d 522 (S.D.1981). It logically follows that a municipal employee, acting within the scope of his employment, and thus performing the governmental will, should derive the same immunity as his employer.
Sioux Falls Construction Co. v. City of Sioux Falls, 297 N.W.2d 454 (S.D.1980), set forth the concept that, in determining whether municipal immunity extends to an employee, a court should inquire into the nature of the function exercised by the employee. National Bank of South Dakota v. Leir, 325 N.W.2d 845 (S.D.1982). If the activity was ministerial, personal liability attached to the employee; if discretionary — no liability. We embraced this rule while recognizing its chaotic potential:
We perceive the possibility of some instances where a city could be immune while exercising a governmental function, yet an officer could be liable; or, in the alternative,-a situation where a city could be liable while acting in a proprietary function, yet the officer could be immune.

To uphold governmental immunity as to the governmental unit only, while allowing the officers, agents, and employees to be held liable, would be chaotic.

Sioux Falls Construction Co. v. City of Sioux Falls, supra, at 458 (emphasis added). That dreaded chaos now appears. The majority would hold the City of Aberdeen immune while its employee could be liable for acts performed in the scope of his employment.