SEATTLE — A $4.6 million jury award to a honeymooning Chehalis couple who were severely injured during a police chase in Seattle has been reinstated by a unanimous three-judge panel of the Washington state Court of Appeals.
The decision issued last Monday cannot be used as a precedent but poses a dilemma for law enforcement agencies across the state, potentially opening the door to lawsuits anytime damage occurs in a police chase, lawyers for the city and the police force say.
The case arose after a car pursued by police and driven by Ronisha Kelley, 21, a nanny who had her employers’ 2-year-old daughter in the back seat but did not have permission to use the vehicle, hit Ronald and Jeanette Ashley at a downtown intersection on June 11, 2003.
Jeannette Ashley, now 51, said her knee was shattered and she has to wear a brace, while her husband, 56, had a crushed pelvis and still has a constant headache from his head hitting the curb.
“We’ll never be the same,” she said.
Kelley was convicted of two counts of vehicular assault and evading a police officer.
The Ashleys sued her, her employers and the city, then settled with the nanny and her employers’ insurance company for $2.75 million, agreeing that the money would be applied toward whatever verdict was returned in King County Superior Court. The jury returned a verdict of $4.57 million and held the city liable for the remaining $1.7 million.
After the verdict, the city asked and Judge William L. Downing agreed that the city should not be liable for the $1.7 million.
Lawyers for the city argued that a police officer should be considered negligent only for failing to end a chase that becomes too dangerous, not for deciding to initiate a chase.
However, case law and the Seattle police policies both make it “clear that the initial decision to pursue a law violator is a part of the officer’s duty to drive with reasonable care and due regard for the safety of others,” appellate Judge Ann Schindler wrote.
The appellate ruling was issued as non-published, meaning it cannot be cited as a precedent in other legal cases.
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