Judge denies judgement in grocery store wrongful death lawsuit

A Houston County judge has denied a summary judgement request by a Dothan grocery store in a wrongful death lawsuit filed against the business.

Circuit Court Judge Larry Anderson also made a partial ruling on a request for summary judgement, or dismissal, made by the City of Dothan, which is also a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the grocery store, Southern Family Markets.

Mary Downing filed a wrongful death lawsuit in February 2007, alleging Dothan police officers should have arrested Tabitha Farmer on a driving under the influence charge on the evening of Jan. 13, 2007. She was released and later in the same evening her vehicle struck and killed Mary Downing’s husband, Larry, in the grocery store’s parking lot. Mary Downing filed the lawsuit against the grocery, contending one of their employees, who was a friend of Farmer’s, knew she may have been under the influence and was on her way to the grocery.

Earlier this year, Farmer pleaded guilty to murder in the fatality and was sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. Farmer was charged with murder because she was under the influence of an inhalant after she’d apparently been “huffing” in the car.

According to the court order, while some of the facts are in dispute, there was evidence Gayle Rothrock, a supervisor at the grocery and good friend of Farmer’s, knew Farmer had recently taken another “hit of the duster” shortly before the fatal crash.

In the summary judgement request made by the City of Dothan, Anderson delayed a final ruling for at least two weeks.

According to the court order, Anderson said there were two issues in the request made by the city, which included whether the police officers had a duty to arrest Farmer and whether the police had immunity.

The lawsuit filed by attorney Adam Jones, on behalf of Mary Downing, contends Farmer should have been arrested earlier in the evening during a police traffic stop near downtown Dothan. Instead, police let her go.

Court records show Dothan City Attorney Len White said the police officers at the traffic stop would have abused their police authority had they arrested Farmer because they did not believe her to be under the influence. The request for summary judgement also said the police officers were immune from civil liability.

Anderson said in his ruling several disputed facts existed as to whether or not an officer’s duty was breached during the initial traffic stop. The record said several officers gave conflicting statements as to whether Farmer should’ve been arrested for DUI.

According to the court file, Anderson called the issue of police immunity the city’s strongest argument for a summary judgement. Anderson gave the parties involved in the lawsuit two weeks to submit more case law to support their positions on the police immunity issue before his final ruling. If no other case law was submitted within two weeks, the City of Dothan would be dismissed from the lawsuit.