Court Opinion

ID: 9689205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 18:24:37.984647+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:18:46.085005
License: Public Domain

*194SABERS, Justice
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I agree except for the majority's “narrow construction” of the statutes for purchase of insurance for agents and waiver of immunity to the extent of insurance coverage.
In South Dakota, the register of deeds is the state’s agent for maintaining vital records and statistics. SDCL 34-25-4.1. Other “state” duties include maintaining records concerning secured transactions, tax liens, and motor vehicle titles. Many duties of the register of deeds involve acting as the state’s agent for specific purposes, such as indexing and maintaining land title records. In fact, land title records may be destroyed only upon permission of the state records destruction board. SDCL 7-9-1. In this case, the Cod-ington County Register of Deeds admitted in its answer that it was “a branch of County government and the State of South Dakota.”
21-32-15. Liability insurance — Purchase by state. The state of South Dakota, through the commissioner of administration, may obtain and pay for public liability insurance to the extent and for the purposes considered expedient by the commissioner for the purpose of insuring the liability of the state, its officers, agents or employees.
21-32-16. Waiver of immunity to extent of insurance coverage — Consent to suit. To the extent such liability insurance is purchased pursuant to § 21-32-15 and to the extent coverage is afforded thereunder, the state shall be deemed to have waived the common law doctrine of sovereign immunity and consented to suit in the same manner that any other party may be sued.
I would interpret these statutes “realistically,” not “narrowly.” I would hold that the purchase of insurance under SDCL 21-32-15 and SDCL 21-32-16 is a waiver of the common law doctrine of sovereign immunity “to the extent coverage is afforded thereunder.” For the state to purchase insurance and then hide behind the doctrine of sovereign immunity is unfair to injured parties and a windfall to the insurance company. To make matters worse in this case, the Codington County Register of Deeds purchased its own policy of insurance as permitted by SDCL 7-18-8, which provides:
Any board of county commissioners may obtain and pay for all forms of liability insurance, or in lieu thereof, make other arrangements, including entering into agreements with others, which agreements may create separate legal or administrative entities pursuant to chapter 1-24, to protect and assist the county in meeting obligations arising from such acts or omissions for which the county ⅛ may be legally liable. The liability insurance coverage or other arrangement obtained shall protect the county officers and employees in the performance of official duties and against acts committed by them that could be reasonably considered to be within the scope of their official duties.
In other words, insurance premiums paid by the state and by the county for this type of protection are simply wasted by the “narrow construction” of Holland, supra, and Zens, supra. I would overrule both Holland and Zens to the extent necessary to conform to this dissent.