State High Court Upholds Liability Claim

The Washington state Supreme Court has issued a ruling that agrees with two lower courts which said the Skagit Emergency Communications Center is not immune from civil liability for its handling of a 911 call in 2005 reporting a man with a gun. Bill Munich was shot and killed by a neighbor after he had dialed 911 to report a dispute, and that the neighbor was chasing him with a rifle. The neighbor eventually got into a vehicle, chased Munich down a rural road and fatally shot him. The handling dispatcher classified the incident as Priority 2, and a sheriff’s deputy arrived 14 minutes after the first 911 call. When Munich’s family sued Skagit County, county officials claimed immunity from lawsuit under the state’s “special duty” law. However, the original trial court, a state appellate court and now the Supreme Court ruled that because the dispatcher told Munich that help was on the way, and gave him specific safety advice, that the county can be sued. The case now goes to trial, where the issue of the county liability will ultimately be decided. Download (pdf) the Supreme Court’s opinion, and read more about the decision here.