Court Opinion

ID: 9580647
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:07:14.969302+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:36:25.635055
License: Public Domain

THOMAS, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by the majority opinion insofar as it treats liability, compensatory damages, and punitive damages with respect to the individual police officers. I would not, however, consider the claims by the Town of Jackson made in its brief that it should be excused from exemplary damages under either the general law or the doctrine of sovereign immunity. I cannot find in the record where these claims were properly made to the district court and therefore preserved for consideration on appeal.
It is my conclusion that by implied amendment or otherwise the record discloses that the plaintiff was permitted to rely upon waiver of the doctrine of sovereign immunity. A supplement to the record made in this court suggests no insurance coverage for the exemplary damages. It does not appear that the Town of Jackson ever presented the claim that because there was no insurance coverage there was no waiver of sovereign immunity so far as the exemplary damages are concerned to the district court, and from the answers to interrogatories quoted in the majority opinion the inference would be to the contrary. In its motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, the Town of Jackson injected as a ground the general rule that a municipality is not liable for exemplary damages. That could not be considered by the district court, however, because the same ground was not presented in a motion for a directed verdict. Sulmeyer v. Coca Cola Company, 515 F.2d 835 (5th Cir. 1975), cert. denied 424 U.S. 934, 96 S.Ct. 1148, 47 L.Ed.2d 341 (1976); Hedden v. Hall, 23 N.C.App. 453, 209 S.E.2d 358 (1974), cert. denied 286 N.C. 334, 211 S.E.2d 212 (1974).
I find it regrettable that the nonliability of the Town of Jackson for exemplary damages was not preserved for consideration on appeal. If this issue were properly before this court, I would be disposed to hold that a municipal corporation, such as the Town of Jackson, is not liable for exemplary damages under the general rule as set forth in Desforge v. West St. Paul, 231 Minn. 205, 42 N.W.2d 633, 19 A.L.R.2d 898 (1950). See also the cases cited in support of that proposition in Annot., 19 A.L.R.2d 903 (1951).