Sequeiro v. Torrington

Syllabus

The plaintiff appealed from the trial court's judgment granting the defen- dants' motion for summary judgment on the ground of governmental immu- nity. The plaintiff had been detained in the defendant town of Winchester by the defendant W, a police officer with the Winchester Police Department, at the request of a neighboring police department. The plaintiff was thereafter transferred to the custody of police officers from the neighboring police department and placed in a jail cell, where he was later injured when he attempted suicide. He claimed, inter alia, that genuine issues of material fact existed that precluded summary judgment. Held: The plaintiff's claim that genuine issues of material fact existed concern- ing whether he was under the influence of drugs and whether he told the police officers at the time of the transfer that he was suicidal was unavail- ing, as these issues were immaterial to whether policies of the Winchester Police Department gave rise to discretionary duties to which governmental immunity applied. The trial court properly rendered summary judgment on the defendants' claims of governmental immunity, as the police department policies that the plaintiff claimed gave rise to ministerial duties were discretionary, W's actions were not actionable because they bore no demonstrable relation to the plaintiff's injuries, and the court correctly determined that the plaintiff had failed to prove that the imminent harm to identifiable persons exception to governmental immunity applied. Argued October 8, 2025—officially released March 17, 2026