eNotes: Liability – February 2025 – Virginia

SIGNIFICANT CASE SUMMARIES

Virginia Case Summary

Jolley v. Ellis
Virginia Court of Appeals
No. 0870-23-1

Decided: October 1, 2024

When determining if a government employee is entitled to sovereign immunity following a motor vehicle accident in their government vehicle, Courts must evaluate the degree of discretion exercised at the moment of the accident and not the judgment required of the job as a whole.

Background

While driving a garbage truck for the City of Chesapeake, Jason Ellis ran a stop sign and collided with Taylor Jolley’s vehicle, resulting in Jolley sustaining serious injuries. Ellis was charged and convicted for failing to obey the stop sign. At the time of the accident, Ellis was driving the garbage truck to a dump to unload the truck before continuing with trash collection. Jolley sued Ellis and the City of Chesapeake for negligence, and Ellis and the City responded with a special plea of sovereign immunity. At an ore tenus hearing, the Court found that Ellis’ actions on the job constituted the exercise of judgment and discretion, notwithstanding the ordinary driving that his job entailed. The Trial Court sustained the special plea with prejudice, granting Ellis and the City immunity from suit. Jolley appealed.

Holding

The Court reversed and held that Ellis and the City were not entitled to sovereign immunity. The Court reasoned that sovereign immunity only applies to acts of judgment and discretion which are necessary to the performance of the governmental function itself. Driving between places where a government function is performed is just ordinary driving. Although Ellis was performing the government function of garbage collecting on the date of the accident, at the time he ran the stop sign he was not doing anything differently than if he was normally driving down the street in his own vehicle. The Court found that, at the time of the accident, Ellis was operating the garbage truck as a means of transport and not as a function of collecting trash. Ellis was merely driving to the next location where he would then perform his garbage collection function. Notably, the Court was careful to distinguish Ellis’ driving the garbage truck to the dump from an emergency response vehicle driving to the scene of an emergency, or from a snowplow driving to disperse salt on the street, as those are scenarios where the driving itself is carrying out the governmental function. The Court likened Ellis’ situation to a school bus driver who drove the school bus to work in the morning prior to picking up any students; the vehicle was only being used as transportation and not for its government function. The Court’s Opinion was also narrowly tailored to clarify that this holding does not imply that sovereign immunity starts and stops with every house along a garbage route, but merely that the evidence here showed Ellis was not doing anything other than driving to the place where he would next perform his garbage collection function. The Court focused its holding on the degree of discretion exercised at the moment of the accident in order to avoid providing blanket immunity to all government jobs that involve operating a vehicle.

Questions about this case can be directed to Amanda Finney at (571) 470-0394 or afinney@tthlaw.com.