Narney V. Daniels

Plaintiffs appeal the district court's order granting summary judgment in favor of defendants City of Roswell (City), the Roswell Police Commissioners (Commissioners), and Steve Wisniewski (Wisniewski), in his capacity as chief of the Roswell Police Department (Department) (collectively referred to as defendants), on plaintiffs' claims of respondeat superior and direct negligence. Defendant David Daniels (Daniels), a police officer with the Department, is not a party to this appeal. The issues raised are whether the district court erred in (1) granting  summary judgment when plaintiffs had not completed discovery, (2) ruling that there was no material issue of fact concerning whether Daniels acted in the course and scope of employment during his encounter with plaintiffs, (3) determining that defendants owed no duty to plaintiffs to exercise ordinary care in the hiring, training, and retention of Daniels, and (4) determining that, even if there was such a duty, defendants' actions did not proximately cause plaintiffs' injuries. We conclude that the district court did not abuse its discretion by granting summary judgment for defendants, despite plaintiffs' desire for additional discovery (Issue 1), and that summary judgment on the respondeat superior claim (Issue 2) was proper, but hold that genuine issues of material fact existed concerning plaintiffs' claims of negligence under Issues 3 and 4. We thus affirm in part and reverse in part.