The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy is not financially liable for paying the medical expenses of a woman he struck with his marked K-9 SUV while responding to a burglary call in Brooklyn Center, Minn., on Dec. 25, 2009.
The state Supreme Court’s 4-3 ruling reverses the decision of a lower court, which found that Deputy Jason Majeski was liable for the medical expenses accrued by Jolene Vassallo, who was driving the car Majeski struck that day.
According to court documents, Majeski turned his siren and lights on when he was dispatched to the scene, but turned off his siren when he got closer, since he says he didn’t want to alert the suspects of his presence.
Though he had flashing lights on, Majeski traveled through an intersection while the light was red, a fact Hennepin County disputes, which is when he saw 38-year-old Vassallo’s vehicle coming toward him.
Majeski said that he tried to avoid a collision, but his efforts were unsuccessful.
As a result of the crash, Vassallo reportedly sustained extensive injuries and has no memory of the accident. According to her lawyer Douglas Schmidt, Vassallo suffered serious brain damage and will require nursing care for the rest of her life.
Since the deputy failed to sound his siren, which is required under Minnesota Statute 169.03, Vassallo, with the help of her guardian ad litem, filed a personal injury lawsuit against Majeski and Hennepin County, alleging negligence.
While a district court ruled Majeski’s actions were not willful or malicious so therefore the deputy should be entitled to immunity, the Minnesota court of appeals ruled Majeski’s immunity was lost when he failed to sound his siren.
The state Supreme Court disagreed and ruled this week that since Majeski is a public official, he is not liable for the accident or any of the physical, emotional or financial damage Vassallo suffered.
The majority opinion explained that state policy “does not require that red lights and a siren be used in a continuous fashion, leaving open the question of whether both red lights and siren is required at all times during an emergency response,” which is concerning for some, such as Vassallo’s lawyers.
“It is troubling that Hennepin County was given emergency status without ever proving the existence of any emergency,” according to a statement from Schmidt. “And whatever so-called emergency there was, was over, done, and finished by the time of this collision.
“This decision has frightening public-safety implications,” Schmidt said.
The public-safety implications Schmidt is referring to is likely tied to the fact that since 2011, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that 108 people were killed in accidents involving emergency-response vehicles. In 2012, there were 116 “injury-causing accidents” involving police vehicles in Minnesota alone.
Michael Bryant, who represented the Minnesota Association for Justice, a plaintiffs’ lawyers group, agreed the decision was concerning, and that the court’s decision may have made the streets a little less safer.
Dan Rogan, managing attorney of the Hennepin County attorney’s office’s civil division, said that while the situation is “obviously tragic,” he concorded police officers’ need immunity protection so they can do their job without worrying about personal liability.
“We want officers who are responding to emergencies to be thinking about what are the best options that they have,” he said. “Official immunity protects those split-second decisions that officers are required to make in responding to emergencies.”
According to Rogan, Majeski has not been disciplined, and the county sheriff’s office hasn’t changed any policies as a result of the accident.
As for Vassallo, her attorney said she cannot make any more appeals and plans to move to an assisted living facility in New York to be closer to her family.