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When a police employee acts outside the scope
of their employment for purely personal purposes the employer
and its insurer will not be liable. A case from the Court
of Appeals of Georgia, 2nd Division, decided on April 21st
provides an example of the ultimate bad case.
Georgia Interlocal
Risk Management Agency v. Godfrey, 2005 Ga. App. LEXIS
413 (GA. Ct. App. 2nd Dist. 2005), involved
a police trainee named Carswell of the City of McIntyre
Police Department. While attending the police academy,
Carswell was authorized to drive a police vehicle to his
training.
On December 3, 2001, Carswell went into the police station
to borrow a patrol car. Carswell told Officer Hasty, the
only officer on duty, that Carswell’s brother needed
to borrow Carswell’s truck and therefore Carswell
needed to borrow a police car to drive into work in the
morning.
After borrowing the patrol car, Carswell
met up with a man named Howell. He and Howell had previously
planned to
rob Marvin Godfrey. When Godfrey left work, Carswell used
the police car to pull Godfrey over. When Godfrey exited
his vehicle, Howell shot him. Carswell then took and envelope
of money from Godfrey and left him on the side of the
road.
The Godfrey family filed a lawsuit against
the McIntyre Police Department which is insured by the Georgia
Interlocal
Risk Management Agency (GIRMA). The family argued that
since Carswell was authorized to use and did use a police
car
to stop Godfrey, the city should be liable. In analyzing
the case, the court recognized that under state law, employers
have liability where an employee, acting in the scope
of their employment, causes injury. An employer is not liable
where the “act is committed not in furtherance of
the employer’s business, but rather for purely personal
reasons disconnected from the authorized business” of
the employer. The court noted that although Carswell was
driving a police car, he was not on his work shift. He had
borrowed the car for purposes of transportation to work
the next day and not to perform any police function. As
a trainee, Carswell had no police power and no authority
to use the police emergency lights to stop Godfrey. The
court concluded that Carswell stopped Godfrey for purely
personal reasons and therefore the City was not liable for
his actions.
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