September 25, 2019

Tim Buckley and Taylor Hensel secured dismissal of all claims in a lawsuit alleging a sheriff’s deputy was negligent in operating his cruiser when he ran over the Plaintiff, who was sleeping in the middle of a seldom-used county road.  The injuries sustained resulted in approximately $175,000 in medical bills.  The Court found in favor of the Sheriff and his deputy, concluding that the deputy did not breach any duty owed to the plaintiff as the deputy was maintaining a proper lookout, traveling slowly, and using all precautions while the plaintiff was wearing dark clothes and lying on a tarp in an unlit area at approximately 2:00 a.m.  The Court also held that the deputy’s actions did not proximately cause Plaintiff’s injuries because the deputy could not have anticipated a person lying on the ground in the path of the patrol car.  The dismissal was not appealed.

August 30, 2019

            A wrecker company filed a writ of mandamus and complaint seeking declaratory judgment against three county employees in an action to undo the county’s decision to place the wrecker company on a permanent suspension from an approved wrecker company rotation list.  The government employee defendants, represented by Tim Buckley, Eva Hill, and the county’s attorney, filed a motion to dismiss asserting that neither the plaintiff wrecker company nor any other had an established legal right to remain on the rotation list and that the wrecker company had stated no clear legal duty on the part of the individuals named.  Though the wrecker company denied any wrongdoing, the wrecker company conceded it had no established legal right to remain on a rotation list.  The court granted the motion to dismiss finding the writ and the declaratory judgment were unsupported and improper.