Section 2.20 Official Immunity and the Public Duty Doctrine—Protecting Municipal Officers and Employees From Liability

• Library: Local Government Deskbook (2017 Ed.)

D. (§2.20) Official Immunity and the Public Duty Doctrine—Protecting Municipal Officers and Employees From Liability

The official immunity doctrine is to municipal officers and employees what the sovereign immunity doctrine is to governmental entities: official immunity protects the government agent in his or her individual capacity (i.e., claims personal to the person) from negligence-based tort liability. See Southers v. City of Farmington, 263 S.W.3d 603, 610 (Mo. banc 2008) (explaining the official immunity doctrine in detail). A claim brought against a government agent in his or her official capacity invokes sovereign immunity—not official immunity—under notions of respondeat superior. See B.A.B., Jr. v. Bd. of Educ. of City of St. Louis, 698 F.3d 1037, 1041–42 (8^th Cir. 2012) (quoting Fischer v. Steward, No. 4:07CV1798, 2010 WL 147865, at *11 (E.D. Mo. Jan. 11, 2010)) (distinguishing Southers and explaining that, under Missouri law, “‘[a] suit against a government employee in her official capacity is equivalent to a suit against the government entity itself’”; claims brought against an employee in her individual capacity “would be subject to the individual capacity defenses of official and public duty immunity”).

When it applies, official immunity fully protects a government agent from all forms of negligence committed during the course of the agent’s official duties—i.e., acts taken in furtherance of one’s governmental duties, but not acts taken purely as a private citizen. Southers, 263 S.W.3d at 610. But distinctions are drawn between discretionary acts, which are immunized, and ministerial acts, which are not. Discretionary acts are those actions that depend on a degree of reason and judgment; conversely, ministerial...