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Agnes Scott Campus Police Lose Appeal

Decision in false arrest case against Agnes Scott police is win for plaintiff--and the state
Alyson M. Palmer, Daily Report

June 23, 2014

A decision by the Georgia Supreme Court was a win for a plaintiff who claims she was falsely arrested--and also for those who guard the state treasury.

That odd pairing of interests fits with the bizarre facts underlying the case. They concern a woman who sued campus police at Agnes Scott College in Decatur after she was arrested on claims that she assaulted a student there. The June 16 opinion by a unanimous Supreme Court reversed a ruling by a divided Court of Appeals that gave the officers at the private women's college the same sort of immunity afforded state police officers.

Atlanta lawyer Lloyd Bell, who made the winning argument for the plaintiff, said it was the first case he knew of in which the Court of Appeals found that private employees of a private corporation were entitled to governmental immunity under the Georgia Tort Claims Act. "The Supreme Court reversed the decision and found that these private employee campus police are not government officials," said Bell.

Bell said his goal was straightforward: "My client just wants to get her day in court."

The state of Georgia generally is not aligned with plaintiffs in false arrest cases, but it filed an amicus brief siding with Bell's position in the Supreme Court. Attorney General Sam Olens' office declined to comment on the Supreme Court ruling, but his lawyers had argued in a brief that, under the Court of Appeals ruling, private employees certified under the state's police licensing law might expect the AG's office to represent them. Such defendants might also request the state to cover claims made against them, the AG's office argued.

The suit was brought by Amanda Hartley, who was a student at the University of Tennessee when she was arrested based on accusations of sexual assault that were shown to be false. The allegations were made by Haley Maxwell, a student at Agnes Scott who had befriended Hartley on Facebook.

In April 2009, Maxwell told Agnes Scott police that Hartley had been in Decatur and beaten and sexually assaulted her in her dormitory room, according to Justice David Nahmias' opinion for the Supreme Court, which recounted the plaintiff's claims. Agnes Scott police obtained warrants for Hartley's arrest and contacted the Knoxville police department, which arrested Hartley the following month. Agnes Scott police instigated extradition proceedings that resulted in Hartley being brought to the DeKalb County jail.

She was held for more than three weeks, but DeKalb prosecutors dropped the case after an investigation showed Hartley was not in Georgia when the alleged attack happened, according to Nahmias' opinion.

Then represented by Parks, Chesin & Walbert, Hartley in 2011 sued Agnes Scott and three campus police officers. The lawsuit included claims for false arrest, false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress. As recounted in Nahmias' opinion, the complaint contended that a reasonable investigation would have revealed that Maxwell's allegations were false: The sign-in logs at Maxwell's dorm indicated Hartley had never been there; no one who lived in the dorm could confirm that Hartley had ever been there; and several witnesses could verify that Hartley was in Knoxville at the time of the alleged attack in Decatur.

According to Bell, the plaintiff has made a settlement demand of $10 million.

Although the officers were employed privately by Agnes Scott, the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the complaint on the argument that the officers were entitled to immunity under the Georgia Tort Claims Act. They argued that a private employer cannot be vicariously liable for the actions of "special policemen" acting within their official duties.

The Georgia Tort Claims Act prohibits lawsuits against any "state officer or employee" for a tort committed within the scope of his or her official duties or employment, providing that such a lawsuit is brought against the state government entity for which the officer or employee was acting. DeKalb State Court Judge Johnny Panos denied the motion to dismiss but was reversed by the state Court of Appeals.

Judges Gary Andrews, Michael Boggs, William Ray II and Elizabeth Branch made the majority to reverse, with Ray writing that Agnes Scott police were acting in the service of the state and thus had immunity. Ray cited the state Campus Policeman Act, which gives campus police the same law enforcement powers as a local government police officer if the campus officer is certified pursuant to the state police licensing law. Ray's opinion--which Boggs did not join, even though he agreed with the result--also said Agnes Scott could not be liable because there was no allegation in the complaint that the college itself had directed the officers' actions in the Hartley matter.

Joined by now-Chief Judge Herbert Phipps and Judge Sara Doyle, Judge M. Yvette Miller dissented as to the officers' immunity, noting the Georgia Tort Claims Act expressly excluded private entities from the definition of "state officer or employee."

The Supreme Court agreed to review the portion of the appeals court ruling giving the officers immunity. At oral arguments in November, the court heard from Bell and Agnes Scott's lawyer, Laurie Webb Daniel of Holland & Knight, as well as Senior Assistant Attorney General Loretta Pinkston.

In his opinion for the unanimous court, Nahmias said a view of the Georgia Tort Claims Act as a whole showed that the officers were not entitled to immunity under that law. Under that law, Nahmias wrote, the state government entity for which the state officer or employee was acting when he allegedly committed a tort is supposed to be sued, and certain steps, such as providing pre-suit notice to the state, must be taken by the plaintiff. The system set up by the Tort Claims Act cannot work if the person alleged to have committed the tort wasn't working for a state government entity, and Agnes Scott isn't such an entity, Nahmias said.

Nahmias rejected the officers' argument that certification and general oversight of them by the state's police licensing body makes them state officers under the Georgia Tort Claims Act. County and municipal officers are subject to that certification and oversight, said Nahmias, but are not given immunity under the Tort Claims Act. Nahmias also noted that the state licenses dozens of professionals, from accountants to used car dealers.

Nahmias said the court was not taking a position on the defendants' claim that they had official immunity under the state constitution, which he said was not ruled on by the trial court or the Court of Appeals.

Daniel, who represents Agnes Scott and the campus officers, said the state's argument didn't have any basis, particularly in a case such as Hartley's, which brought the sort of claims for which the state has not waived its sovereign immunity. She also pointed to the potential consequences of not offering immunity to police on private campuses, as noted in Ray's Court of Appeals opinion, such as schools opting to not maintain a police force or officers feeling inhibited in their decision-making. "These officers face the same dangers and have the same responsibility to the public at large who are at or near these institutions as policemen at public universities," said Daniel, "and yet they don't have this protection." She added the defense was considering filing a motion for reconsideration.

Bell, the plaintiff's lawyer, said he doesn't want to lose sight of what the case is really about. He said that although his client's record has been expunged, the incident has hurt Hartley's employment prospects. He said she was arrested during final exam time and expelled for failing her classes. He said she's now assistant teaching in North Carolina.

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