Celeste Sellers and Richard K. Sellers, Individually and as Administrators of the Estate of Joshua David Sellers, Deceased, v. Township of Abington and Abington Township Police Department, 2013 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 180 (Pa. Cmwlth. 6/5/13)

Police owe no duty of care to occupants of fleeing vehicle to terminate high-speed chase. Duty of care owed by police to innocent third parties unconnected with wrongdoer or pursued vehicle does not extend to passengers within fleeing vehicle itself.

The plaintiffs' decedent was a passenger in a vehicle that was fleeing from a police vehicle. During the course of the pursuit, the operator of the fleeing vehicle lost control, left the road and struck a house, resulting in injuries causing the decedent's death. The decedent's estate filed suit, claiming the decedent—as a backseat passenger with no ability to control the actions of the driver of the vehicle—was an innocent bystander and that the defendant police officer negligently initiated his pursuit of the vehicle for the purpose of harassing a driver under the pretext that he had committed a relatively minor traffic offense—speeding—and that he negligently failed to terminate the pursuit once it became obvious that it was "fruitless" and that he would not be capable of catching the vehicle. The court determined that the plaintiffs' claims failed as there was no underlying duty owed by the police officer to passengers of vehicles fleeing from the police. While officers in this situation owe no duty of care to the wrongdoers they pursue, they do owe a duty of care to innocent third parties who are injured as a result of a negligently conducted police pursuit. In cases previously decided, those third parties were not passengers in the vehicle fleeing from the police. The court refused to impose a duty on the police to such passengers due to the public's interest in ensuring that roadways remain safe from dangerous drivers and criminals. That interest—protected by police empowered to enforce the law—would be unduly chilled by imposing a duty to passengers within fleeing vehicles, whose existence, or whose connection to the driver and the conduct for which he is being pursued, is unknown to the officer.

Case Law Alerts, 3rd Quarter 2013