Julia Huff Walker v. City of Huntsville

Summary

The court affirmed summary judgment for the City and individual defendants on all of Walker's state-law claims. It held that collateral estoppel barred relitigation of probable-cause and force issues decided in the prior federal action, that the individual officers and Chief Owens were protected by State-agent immunity, and that the City was immune for claims based on immune employees or intentional torts. Although the City was not immune from claims based on detention officers or the jail nurse, Walker failed to support that negligence argument with adequate authority under the appellate briefing rules. Justice Murdock, concurring in the rationale in part and in the result, disagreed only with the reasoning concerning the arresting officers' immunity.