Dismissal of Case Against County Over 911 Call Upheld on Appeal

Patterson Buchanan has prevailed on appeal in a wrongful death case brought against a Washington county over a 911 call. The Washington Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's summary judgment dismissal of the case, concluding that under the "public duty doctrine" the county's 911 dispatchers had no legal duty to inform a 911 caller about the missing/endangered status of the driver of a car the caller had reported for erratic driving.

The driver, who suffered from a seizure disorder, was reported missing by her husband in January 2007, and her information was entered into the National Crime Information Center database. Later that evening, a resident of Grays Harbor County called Grays Harbor 911 and advised them that he observed a car driving erratically. 911 transferred the call to the Washington State Patrol. Neither Grays Harbor 911 nor the State Patrol told the caller that the car was associated with a missing/endangered person. The caller later asserted that he would have continued to follow the vehicle if he had been so informed. Several days later, the driver's body was found locked outside of her vehicle on a remote forest service road in Grays Harbor County.

The deceased woman's estate sued the State of Washington, Grays Harbor County, and Grays Harbor 911, claiming the defendants were negligent in failing to notify the caller of the woman's missing/endangered person status. The defendants argued that the claim was barred by the public duty doctrine, which protects taxpayers from negligence lawsuits where a defendant government agency owed no special legal duty to an individual plaintiff but only a general duty to the public at large. The plaintiff argued that an exception to the public duty doctrine should be applied to allow this claim, or, in the alternative, that the public duty doctrine should be altogether abrogated in the State of Washington.

The Grays Harbor County Superior Court granted summary judgment to the defendants, and the plaintiff appealed. On November 8, 2011, Division II of the Washington Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal, in a published opinion holding that none of the recognized exceptions to the public duty doctrine applied to create a duty obligating the defendants to convey the driver's missing/endangered status to a third-party 911 caller. The Court of Appeals also declined the plaintiff's invitation to abrogate the public duty doctrine, declaring itself bound by Washington Supreme Court precedent.

Grays Harbor County was represented by Patterson Buchanan attorneys Duncan Fobes and Rhianna Fronapfel, who coordinated with separate defense counsel for the State of Washington and Grays Harbor 911.

The case is Johnson v. State.

Postscript: On December 8, 2011, the plaintiff in the case filed a petition asking the Washington Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision.