Johnson v. Conner: Alabama Jailor Immunity Statute Not Retroatively Applicable

Johnson v. Conner, No. 12-15228, from MDAl

Senior District Judge Huck, joined by Chief Circuit Judge Carnes and Circuit Judge Wilson

Summary: The panel decided whether a new Alabama statute granting sovereign immunity to jailors, Ala. Code § 14-6-1, applied retroactively or prospectively.  The case arose in the context of an inmate’s suicide.  The plaintiff sued multiple corrections personnel as defendants, and the defendants moved to dismiss claiming that they were entitled to state law immunity under the new law.  In this case, the statute came into effect after the acts of which the plaintiff complained.

The issue was whether the statute applied retroactively.  Applying Alabama law, the panel concluded that it did not because there was no indication that the act expressly stated, or that the legislature otherwise intended, that the act would apply retroactively.

The district court’s order denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss was thus affirmed.