Negligence : Police Pursuit – Official Immunity – Proximate Cause

Where a plaintiff whose sister was killed during a police pursuit sued the state highway department and the trooper, summary judgment for the defendants is affirmed because the doctrines of official immunity and public duty shielded the trooper from liability, and sovereign immunity protected the highway department from liability for the claims of recklessness and negligent failure to train, and summary judgment was also proper in favor of the highway department on the plaintiff’s claims of negligence, negligence per se and respondeat superior because the trooper’s conduct was not the proximate cause of the victim’s death.

Judgment is affirmed.

Throneberry v. Missouri State Highway Patrol (MLW No. 70536/Case No. WD79995 – 28 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Martin, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Platte County, Van Amburg, J. (Kenneth McClain and Nichelle L. Oxley, Independence, for appellant) (Diane Peters and Lynette Nefertiti Lockhart, Kansas City, Missouri, for respondent).

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