Negligence: Personal Injury-Entitlement to Official Immunity

Petitioner sought a writ prohibiting the trial court from taking any action other than granting him summary judgment in a student’s personal injury action against him. The student alleged that petitioner, an in-school suspension teacher, was negligent in physically restraining the student and injuring his arm. Petitioner moved for summary judgment, arguing that he was acting within the district’s policy for physically restraining students and therefore was entitled to official immunity.

Where the school district’s policy authorized petitioner to select a physical-restraint method and use such method with the amount of force he deemed necessary, petitioner’s physical restraint of the student was not a ministerial act and petitioner therefore was entitled to official immunity.

Preliminary writ made permanent.

State ex rel. Alsup v. Kanatzar (MLW No. 74279/Case No. Sc97427 – 12 pages) (Supreme Court of Missouri, Wilson, J.) Original proceeding in prohibition (J. Andrew Marriott and Ryan VanFleet, Independence, for appellant) (Timothy H. Bosler and Timothy H. Bosler, Jr., Liberty, for appellee)