JASON LAIBLE, Executor of the estates of Raymond Laible and Gayle Laible; STEVEN KLEIN; MARIBETH KLEIN v. TIMOTHY LANTER; BRETT THOMAS; DONALD SCALF - Articles

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JASON LAIBLE, Executor of the estates of Raymond Laible and Gayle Laible; STEVEN KLEIN; MARIBETH KLEIN v. TIMOTHY LANTER; BRETT THOMAS; DONALD SCALF

Posted by: Karen Belcher on Jan 23, 2024

Court: 6th Circuit Court (Published Opinions)

Attorneys 1: ARGUED: Aaron M. Herzig, TAFT, STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER LLP, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellants.

Attorneys 2: ARGUED: Catherine Padhi, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Federal Appellee.

Attorneys 3: ON BRIEF: Aaron M. Herzig, Spencer S. Cowan, TAFT, STETTINIUS & HOLLISTER LLP, Cincinnati, Ohio, for Appellants.

Attorneys 4: ON BRIEF: Catherine Padhi, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Washington, D.C., for Federal Appellee.

Attorneys 5: ON BRIEF: Jacqueline Greene, Alphonse Gerhardstein, M. Caroline Hyatt, Rebecca Salley, FRIEDMAN GILBERT + GERHARDSTEIN, Cincinnati, Ohio for Appellee Laible.

Attorneys 6: ON BRIEF: J. Stephen Smith, Roula Allouch, GRAYDON HEAD & RITCHEY LLP, Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, for the Klein Appellees.

Judge(s): COLE, GIBBONS, and READLER, Circuit Judges

Court Appealed: United States District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky at Covington

COLE, Circuit Judge. In August 2020, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) and the Cincinnati Police Department (CPD) participated in a joint federal task force to arrest Mason Meyer. While fleeing from CPD officers, Meyer lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a restaurant, killing Gayle and Raymond Laible and severely injuring Steven and Maribeth Klein. The Laibles’ estate and the Kleins brought this lawsuit alleging that three CPD officers were negligent in their execution of the high-speed car chase.

The CPD defendants in this action—Sergeant Donald Scalf, Sergeant Timothy Lanter, and Officer Brett Thomas—allege that they were federal employees immune from common-law tort actions due to their participation in the federal task force to arrest Meyer. The district court denied the officers’ motion for immunity under the Westfall Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 2679(b)(1), (d)(1), (d)(3). We reverse the district court’s denial of immunity for Scalf because he was a federal employee acting within the scope of his employment during the chase. We affirm the district court’s denial of immunity as to Lanter and Thomas because neither were federal employees at the time of the incident.

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