Sergent v. City of Charleston, 209 W. Va. 437

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed summary judgment for municipalities and police officers in a wrongful-death action arising from a police pursuit. The court held that the officers' conduct during the pursuit and their earlier conduct in arranging a drug transaction did not constitute negligent, wanton, or reckless conduct that proximately caused the decedent's death. Separate dissents argued that the issues of negligence, foreseeability, and causation should have been submitted to a jury.

Holdings

1. A trial court may reconsider, revise, alter, or amend an interlocutory order denying summary judgment; therefore, the renewed summary-judgment motions were not procedurally improper.
2. When police pursue a known or suspected law violator and the pursued vehicle collides with a third party, the pursuing officer is not liable unless the officer's conduct amounted to reckless conduct or gross negligence and was a substantial factor in bringing about the collision.
3. The undisputed evidence did not establish negligent, wanton, or reckless conduct by the officers during the pursuit, and summary judgment was proper on that claim.
4. Even assuming the officers' conduct during the Motel 6 operation could be characterized as negligent or reckless, the criminal acts of the suspects were intervening efficient causes that were not foreseeable as a matter of law and therefore broke the chain of causation as to the pedestrian's death.
5. The plaintiff failed to produce concrete evidence sufficient for a reasonable jury to find negligent, wanton, or reckless conduct or proximate causation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court improperly reconsidered its prior denial of the defendants' motions for summary judgment.
2. Whether the police officers' conduct during the vehicle pursuit constituted negligence, wantonness, or recklessness under West Virginia law.
3. Whether the officers' conduct during the Motel 6 undercover operation constituted wanton or reckless conduct.
4. Whether any allegedly negligent or reckless conduct during the Motel 6 operation was a proximate cause of the decedent's death.
5. Whether summary judgment was proper for the municipalities and police officers under the West Virginia Governmental Tort Claims and Insurance Reform Act.

Disposition

affirmed