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Massengill v. Yuma County7/1/1969
o reduce his speed or allow John Whaley to pass him while traveling with both of the aforesaid cars abreast on a curve and hill.
"All of the foregoing violations were committed in the presence of and were obvious and apparent to Keenum, who by virtue of his obligations as deputy sheriff thereupon had the duty to immediately arrest John Whaley and David Wood. Keenum knew or should have known that the driving of John Whaley and David Wood at that time created an extremely dangerous hazard to other motorists on River Road.
"If Keenum had acted with reasonable diligence, he could have arrested John Whaley and David Wood before they reached the point where the aforesaid accident occurred. In spite of his duty to apprehend and arrest John Whaley and David Wood and in spite of having sufficient opportunity to do so, Keenum failed to turn on his overhead light to signal John Whaley and David Wood to stop and failed to make any or adequate attempt to apprehend and arrest John Whaley and David Wood.
"As a direct and proximate result of the foregoing negligence and disregard of duty by Keenum, John Whaley and David Wood were allowed to drive further north on River Road, whereupon a few minutes later the accident occurred in the manner hereinbefore described."
The defendants argue that there was no duty owed to the plaintiffs upon which liability can be based, and that, if there was a duty, the breach of it was not the proximate cause of the injuries to the plaintiffs. The latter issue is one for the triers of the facts, but we need not discuss it here because of our disposition of this matter on the first question.
There has been much discussion, by the plaintiffs, of the doctrine of sovereign immunity, and the impact thereon of our decisions in Stone v. Arizona Highway Commission, 93 Ariz. 384, 381 P.2d 107; Veach v. City of Phoenix, 102 Ariz. 195, 427 P.2d 335; and Patterson v. City of Phoenix, 103 Ariz. 64, 436 P.2d 613. But nowhere in the record can we find any attempt by the defendants to envelop themselves
in the cloak of immunity. Nor can they do so since this Court in the most unquestionable terms relegated that archaic doctrine to the dustheap of history.
"We are of the opinion that when the reason for a certain rule no longer exists, the rule itself should be abandoned. After a thorough reexamination of the rule of governmental immunity from tort liability, we now hold that it must be discarded as a rule of law in Arizona and all prior decisions to the contrary are hereby overruled * * *." Stone, supra, 93 Ariz. at 387, 381 P.2d at 109.
Veach v. City of Phoenix, supra, and Patterson v. City of Phoenix, supra, re-affirmed that decision. But we did not, by those decisions, change the basic elements of actionable negligence the components of which are a duty owed to the plaintiff, a breach thereof and injury proximately caused by such breach. Morris v. Ortiz, 103 Ariz. 119, 437 P.2d 652.
It is the first of these elements that concerns us here. The general rule pertaining to governmental agencies and public officers is that
"* * * if the duty which the official authority imposes upon an officer is a duty to the public, a failure to perform it, or an inadequate or erroneous performance, must be a public, not an individual injury, and must be redressed, if at all, in some form of public prosecution."
Cooley, Torts, § 300, p
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