Summary
The Alabama Supreme Court reviewed by mandamus the denial of summary judgment sought by Dixon Mills Volunteer Fire Department and assistant chief Louis Cass White based on immunity under Alabama’s Volunteer Service Act. The Court held that White, a volunteer firefighter, was immune from the plaintiffs’ negligence claims because the evidence did not establish willful or wanton misconduct. The Court rejected the fire department’s claim of derivative immunity, explaining that the Act expressly permits respondeat superior liability against a nonprofit organization for a volunteer’s negligent acts.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether White was immune from the plaintiffs' negligence claims under the Alabama Volunteer Service Act.
- Whether the fire department was entitled to share White's immunity from negligence liability under a respondeat superior or vicarious-immunity theory.
- Whether the petitioners established a clear legal right to mandamus relief from the denial of summary judgment.
Holdings
- White was immune from civil liability for the negligence claims because he was an uncompensated volunteer acting in good faith and within the scope of his duties for a nonprofit organization, and the evidence did not establish willful or wanton misconduct.
- The fire department was not entitled to vicarious immunity from the plaintiffs' negligence claims because Alabama Code § 6-5-336(e) expressly permits a nonprofit organization to be held liable under respondeat superior for a volunteer's negligent act or omission notwithstanding the volunteer's immunity.
- Mandamus relief was appropriate as to White but not as to the fire department.
Key quotations
“A writ of mandamus is an extraordinary remedy available only when there is: ‘(1) a clear legal right to the order sought; (2) an imperative duty upon the respondent to perform, accompanied by a refusal to do so; (3) the lack of another adequate remedy; and (4) the properly invoked jurisdiction of the court.’” (331)
“Section (e) of the Volunteer Service Act expressly provides that a nonprofit organization may be held liable for the negligent act or omission of a volunteer, based upon the doctrine of respondeat superior, regardless of the immunity afforded the volunteer under the section (d) of the Act.” (337)
Factual background
Dixon Mills Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. is an uncompensated volunteer fire department incorporated as a nonprofit organization to provide fire protection in an unincorporated Alabama community. On November 13, 2012, assistant fire chief Louis Cass White drove the department's fire truck, with its lights and siren activated, toward a house fire and entered the intersection of County Road 6 and Alabama Highway 10. The truck collided with the vehicle driven by Westbrook, in which Lewis was a passenger, seriously injuring both plaintiffs. Evidence differed about whether White stopped at the stop sign, but the record did not establish that White acted with the consciousness that injury was likely or probable.
Procedural history
Westbrook and Lewis sued the fire department and White for negligence and wantonness arising from a collision between the fire department's truck and their vehicle. The defendants asserted immunity under Alabama's Volunteer Service Act and moved for summary judgment. After the Marengo Circuit Court denied the motion, the defendants petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus.
Remand instructions
The trial court was directed to enter a summary judgment for White on the negligence claim. The petition for a writ of mandamus was denied as to the fire department.