Many Des Moines personal injury cases involve claims against a local government employee or agency. For example, if an employee of the City of Des Moines is traveling on official business and causes a car accident in a city-owned vehicle, the victims have the right to file a personal injury lawsuit against the City the same as they would any private employer. That said, there are special rules that apply in these types of personal injury cases.
Specifically, the Iowa Municipal Tort Claims Act (IMTCA) governs such lawsuits. Normally, you cannot sue the State of Iowa, or any of its municipalities, unless the Iowa General Assembly passes a law waiving this “sovereign immunity.” The IMTCA does just that–it waives the immunity of any city, county, township, or school district in the state with respect to “liability for its torts and those of its officers and employees, acting within the scope of their employment or duties.” This covers most common personal injury claims, such as car accidents or medical malpractice by a publicly owned hospital.
Parents Sue After School Officials Failed to Seek Prompt Medical Care for Child with Brain Injury
Earlier this year, the Iowa Supreme Court addressed a case involving the use of the IMTCA to sue a school district for its alleged negligence in failing to protect one of its students from a physical attack committed by another student. In examining this case, the Supreme Court rejected a lower court’s finding that the lawsuit itself was barred by a statutory exception to the IMTCA.
The case, Doe v. Western Dubuque Community School District, involved an eighth grade student identified in court filings as “Jane Doe.” According to the lawsuit, Jane Doe was in class at Drexler Middle School in Farley when “another student assaulted her over the head with a board.” Jane Doe was then taken to the school principal’s office in a “semiconscious” state with “blurred vision and a headache.” After a brief examination by the school nurse, the principal returned Jane Doe to her class without contacting medical personnel or the child’s parents.
Jane Doe, however, contacted her father. A short time later, the child’s mother arrived at the school and took her daughter to the hospital. A subsequent medical examination determined the child sustained a traumatic brain injury.
The parents subsequently sued the school district and various school officials in their official capacities under the IMTCA. The parents also identified themselves as “DOE” in the complaint and asked the court to withhold any personal identifying information from the public and the defendants.
The school district moved to dismiss the lawsuit on several grounds. The trial court agreed with the defense that there were three reasons justifying dismissal. First, the judge held there was no “credible” reason for the parents and their child to proceed with their case anonymously. Second, the parents alleged the school breached a “fiduciary duty” owed to their daughter, but no such relationship existed under Iowa law. Finally, the parents’ claims failed to meet the “heightened pleading standards” required by Iowa’s qualified immunity law.
Iowa Supreme Court: “Qualified Immunity” Does Not Apply to Common-Law Personal Injury Claims
It was the qualified immunity ruling that occupied most of the Iowa Supreme Court’s attention when the parents appealed the trial judge’s dismissal order. You may have heard the phrase “qualified immunity” used in connection with lawsuits alleging excessive force by police officers. So what exactly is qualified immunity and how does it apply to a case involving a student attacked at a public school?
Qualified immunity was originally a rule created by the United States Supreme Court to limit the ability of people to sue government officials who allegedly violated their civil rights. Essentially, qualified immunity holds that you can only bring such a lawsuit if you allege the government official’s conduct “violates clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known” at the time. Put differently, it is not enough to accuse a government official of violating your rights. You also need to show that the law protecting you was “sufficiently clear that every reasonable employee” would understand their conduct violated the law.
In 2021, the Iowa General Assembly added a qualified immunity exception to the IMTCA. As the Supreme Court explained, the legislature “followed the well-trodden path of federal qualified immunity law.” So when qualified immunity applies, the plaintiff must meet the “heightened” pleading standard discussed above.
The question the Iowa Supreme Court addressed in this case, however, was whether qualified immunity applied to this sort of claim. Qualified immunity deals with lawsuits where the plaintiff alleges a violation of a “right, privilege, or immunity” they enjoy under the Constitution or statutory law. But the parents in this case alleged their child’s injuries occurred due to the common-law negligence of school officials. Their complaint never alleged a violation of Jane Doe’s civil rights.
For that reason, the Supreme Court agreed with the parents that it made no sense to dismiss their personal injury lawsuit under the IMTCA due to qualified immunity. Indeed, the Court said it would be ridiculous to apply the “clearly established right” rule to personal injury cases. As the Court observed in its opinion:
Do the people have a clearly established right, privilege, or immunity to be free from being rear-ended? T-boned? Side-swiped?
Separately, the Court held the parents could not proceed with their lawsuit using pseudonyms. For future guidance, the justices said “there is a presumption against allowing a party to proceed under a fictitious name,” and such action was only permissible “in those limited circumstances where the party’s need for anonymity outweighs countervailing interests in full disclosure.”
Contact a Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer Today
If you, your child, or anyone you care about has been seriously hurt due to the negligence of another, it is important to speak with an experienced Des Moines personal injury lawyer right away. Contact Ball, Kirk & Holm, P.C., today at 319-419-4279 to schedule a free consultation. We have offices in Waterloo and Iowa City. We are available 24/7 and can travel to meet our clients when circumstances require.