Pope v. McIntyre
Pope v. McIntyre
Opinion of the Court
In December, 1977, defendant McIntyre was a teacher at Clinton Middle School in Oak Park. Plaintiff Robin Pope, then a young woman of 13 years, was a student in defendant’s physical education class. According to her, on December 5, 1977, Richardo Wordlaw, a classmate, attacked and injured her while attending defendant’s class.
Robin Pope, through her mother, Carolyn Pope, and Carolyn Pope, individually, brought suit against defendant and Wordlaw on September 27, 1979. On July 7, 1981, defendant moved for summary judgment pursuant to GCR 1963, 117.2(1) on the ground that she was protected from plaintiffs’ suit by governmental immunity. The trial court granted the motion.
The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court erred in granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment. We must consider, therefore, whether defendant was sheltered by governmental immunity from liability for plaintiffs’ damages.
This Court is split on the correct standard to apply in deciding when a public employee enjoys
In their complaint, plaintiffs allege that the defendant negligently breached her "duty to exercise reasonable care and precautions for the safety of the school children”, including Robin Pope. A public employee’s negligent act falls within the scope of her employment only if the duty alleged to have been breached is imposed upon her because of her public employment. See Galli v
Affirmed. Defendant may tax costs.
Shortly thereafter, plaintiffs secured a default judgment against Wordlaw. Wordlaw is not a party to this appeal.
Concurring Opinion
(concurring). Although I authored the opinion in Gaston v Becker, 111 Mich App 692; 314 NW2d 728 (1981), I believe that the adoption (at least by most panels of this Court) of the "scope of employment” test has produced arbitrary results and is often unrelated to either the common-law reasons for the immunity doctrine or the Legislature’s apparent purposes in enacting the immunity statute. Because the examination of this issue is one of the Supreme Court’s most urgent priorities, I will not attempt to reassess my position here. I only wish to register my objection to the continued use of the "scope of employment” test and the accompanying expansion of the definition of what is a "governmental function”. The trial court properly applied the "scope of employment” test here.
I concur in the result.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- POPE v. McINTYRE
- Cited By
- 7 cases
- Status
- Published