Rivera v. Washington

This Court granted certiorari to the Court of Appeals in these cases to consider its decisions to dismiss the direct appeals that defendants filed from the trial courts’ denials of their motions to dismiss that were based on claims of quasi-judicial and sovereign immunity. Finding that the Court of Appeals reached the correct results in both cases, but did so under flawed analyses, we affirm its judgments.

Although these two cases arose separately, they pose a singular legal issue for this Court’s determination, and thus can be addressed in the same opinion. In S15G0887, Akeem Washington, who was on probation for speeding, sued Shannon R. Rivera, a probation officer, and her administrative assistant, alleging that they failed to perform their ministerial duties when they swore out a warrant for Washington’s arrest for failure to pay a fine that Washington already had paid in fulfillment of the conditions of his probation. Rivera moved to dismiss the complaint under OCGA § 9-11-12 b 6,1 asserting that she was immune from liability in Washington’s suit because her alleged actions were protected by either quasi judicial immunity or sovereign immunity. The trial court denied the motion, ruling that it was possible that facts could be shown in discovery that would establish that neither quasi judicial immunity nor sovereign immunity applied. Even though the order denying the motion to dismiss meant that the case remained pending in the trial court, Rivera did not attempt to file an application for interlocutory appeal from that order, see OCGA § 5-6-34 b,2 but filed a notice of appeal, asserting that she had authority to file a direct appeal under the collateral order doctrine, as that doctrine has been applied in Board of Regents c. of Ga. v. Canas, 295 Ga. App. 505, 506-507 1 672 SE2d 471 2009. The Court of Appeals, though accepting the collateral order doctrine embraced in Canas, nonetheless dismissed the direct appeal, finding that the doctrine did not apply, as the trial court failed “to make any conclusive determination” on the claims of immunity. Rivera applied to this Court for a writ of certiorari, which was granted.