Wrongful Death Claims Against the Government and Police in Ohio

Some of the hardest losses involve institutions we are taught to rely on: a police cruiser or city truck that causes a fatal crash, a person who dies in a county jail, a death at a public pool. Families often feel they are up against the whole system. We are sorry for your loss. The law does provide paths, even though they are narrower than in other cases.

I spent 19 years as a Dayton police officer and sergeant before practicing law. I respect the work officers, firefighters, and medics do, and I know what records agencies keep after a death. This page explains the three legal systems that apply: Ohio's political subdivision immunity law, the Ohio Court of Claims, and federal civil rights law.

How these deaths happen

• Crashes involving government vehicles, including police cruisers, fire apparatus, ambulances, snowplows, buses, and other city or county vehicles.
• Deaths in police custody or in jail, including uses of force, suicides, overdoses, and medical emergencies that go untreated.
• Deaths at public facilities, such as pools, parks, and government buildings.
• Deaths involving state agencies or state-run institutions.

What the investigation must capture

• Video: dash camera, body camera, jail cell and booking cameras, and nearby private cameras.
• Dispatch recordings and logs, computer-aided dispatch data, and radio traffic.
• Use-of-force reports, internal investigations, and policies in effect at the time.
• Jail records: booking and intake screening, medical requests, medication logs, observation and cell-check logs, and contracts with private jail medical providers.
• Vehicle data, including event data recorders and maintenance records.
• The criminal investigation, if there is one. Our guide chapter on criminal and civil cases explains how a prosecution and a civil claim relate.

Claims against cities, counties, townships, and school districts

The three-step immunity analysis

Ohio's Political Subdivision Tort Liability Act, R.C. Chapter 2744, covers municipal corporations, townships, counties, school districts, and other local public bodies. R.C. 2744.01(F). The analysis has three steps:

1. General immunity. A political subdivision is generally not liable in damages for injury or death caused by its acts or omissions, or those of its employees, in connection with a governmental or proprietary function. R.C. 2744.02(A)(1).
2. Exceptions. Immunity is lifted only in five situations: negligent operation of a motor vehicle by an employee within the scope of employment; negligent performance of proprietary functions, such as operating a hospital, a utility, or a bus line; negligent failure to keep public roads in repair or remove obstructions; negligence causing injury due to physical defects in or on the grounds of government buildings; and liability expressly imposed by another statute. R.C. 2744.02(B)(1) to (5); R.C. 2744.01(G)(2).
3. Defenses. Even within an exception, the subdivision may avoid liability through defenses such as discretionary policy-making or the good-faith use of resources. R.C. 2744.03(A).

Police, fire, and emergency medical services, jails and detention facilities, and public pools and recreational facilities are all classified as governmental functions. R.C. 2744.01(C)(2)(a), (h), and (u). The building-defect exception expressly does not include jails, places of juvenile detention, workhouses, or other detention facilities. R.C. 2744.02(B)(4). Our page on child wrongful death discusses how these rules apply to school districts.

Emergency vehicles and the "willful or wanton" standard

When a police officer is responding to an emergency call, a firefighter is answering an alarm, or an EMS crew is on an emergency run, the subdivision has a full defense to a vehicle claim unless the driving amounted to "willful or wanton misconduct." R.C. 2744.02(B)(1)(a) to (c). An "emergency call" is defined broadly as "a call to duty." R.C. 2744.01(A).

In Anderson v. Massillon, 2012-Ohio-5711, a woman's husband and grandson died when a city fire engine collided with their vehicle, and she brought a wrongful death action against the city and the firefighters. The Supreme Court of Ohio held that "willful," "wanton," and "reckless" are different standards. It explained that "if the conduct is only reckless, the political subdivision has a full defense to liability," while individual employees lose their own immunity for wanton or reckless conduct. R.C. 2744.03(A)(6)(b). The court also held that violating a statute, ordinance, or department policy is not automatically willful, wanton, or reckless, but may be relevant. Speed data, video, and the department's own driving policies decide these cases; see also our page on car crash deaths.

More generally, employees of a political subdivision are immune unless they acted manifestly outside the scope of employment, with malicious purpose, in bad faith, or in a wanton or reckless manner, or a statute expressly imposes liability. R.C. 2744.03(A)(6).

Damages and procedure

Several special rules apply in claims against political subdivisions:

• Two-year deadline. R.C. 2744.04(A).
• No dollar amount may be stated in the complaint. R.C. 2744.04(B).
• No punitive damages against the subdivision. R.C. 2744.05(A).
• Collateral benefits, such as health insurance payments, are deducted from the award, but the statute does not limit the rights of a beneficiary under a life insurance policy. R.C. 2744.05(B).
• No $250,000 cap in wrongful death actions. The statute's $250,000 limit on damages that do not represent actual loss expressly excepts wrongful death actions brought under Chapter 2125. R.C. 2744.05(C)(1).

Claims against the State of Ohio

Claims against the State and its agencies go to the Ohio Court of Claims, where the State has consented to be sued under the rules that apply between private parties, subject to Chapter 2743. R.C. 2743.02(A)(1). Key differences:

• No jury. A claimant in the Court of Claims is not entitled to a jury trial against the State. R.C. 2743.11.
• Two-year deadline, or any shorter period that would apply between private parties. R.C. 2743.16(A).
• Collateral recoveries reduce the award. R.C. 2743.02(D).
• Public duty immunity. The State is generally immune for performing or failing to perform a public duty, unless a "special relationship" with the injured person is shown through specific elements set out in the statute. R.C. 2743.02(A)(3).
• Filing waives claims against state employees. Filing in the Court of Claims results in a complete waiver of claims against state officers and employees based on the same act or omission, unless the court finds the employee acted manifestly outside the scope of employment or with malicious purpose, in bad faith, or in a wanton or reckless manner. R.C. 2743.02(A)(1). The Sixth Circuit held in Leaman v. Ohio Dept. of Mental Retardation & Dev. Disabilities, 825 F.2d 946 (6th Cir. 1987) (en banc), that this waiver reaches federal civil rights claims too.

Federal civil rights claims for deaths in custody

When a death results from excessive force or neglect by someone acting under government authority, federal law may provide a claim. Under 42 U.S.C. 1983, a person who, under color of state law, deprives someone of rights secured by the Constitution "shall be liable to the party injured." These claims follow their own federal rules.

• Who can be sued. Individual officers and jail staff can be sued. A city or county is liable only when its own policy or custom caused the violation; it is not liable simply because it employed the officer. Monell v. Dept. of Social Servs., 436 U.S. 658 (1978).
• Excessive force against a pretrial detainee. A person held in jail before trial need only show that force purposely or knowingly used against him or her was objectively unreasonable. Kingsley v. Hendrickson, 576 U.S. 389 (2015).
• Qualified immunity. Individual officials are shielded from damages unless their conduct violated clearly established rights "of which a reasonable person would have known." Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223 (2009). It is often decided before trial.
• Attorney's fees. A court may award a prevailing plaintiff a reasonable attorney's fee. 42 U.S.C. 1988(b).
• Deadline. In Ohio, the federal courts apply a two-year limitations period to these claims. Browning v. Pendleton, 869 F.2d 989 (6th Cir. 1989) (en banc).
• Medical care for pretrial detainees. In the federal courts that hear Ohio cases, a detainee's family must show a serious medical need and that staff acted intentionally to ignore it, or recklessly failed to act reasonably even though a reasonable official in their position would have known of the excessive risk. "Mere negligence is insufficient." Brawner v. Scott Cnty., 14 F.4th 585 (6th Cir. 2021).

Who may be responsible

Depending on the facts: individual officers, deputies, corrections officers, and medics; the city, county, or township; private jail medical contractors; private drivers or property owners whose conduct combined with the government's; and the State, in the Court of Claims.

What insurance or funds may pay

Local governments typically carry liability coverage through commercial insurers or pooled risk-sharing programs. Ohio law generally requires a political subdivision to defend its employees and to pay judgments against them, other than punitive damages, unless the employee acted in bad faith or outside the scope of employment. R.C. 2744.07. Private jail medical providers carry their own coverage.

What your family may recover

Wrongful death damages include loss of support, services, and society, mental anguish, and funeral and burial expenses. R.C. 2125.02(C) and (D). Our page on wrongful death compensation explains each category.

Deadlines

The wrongful death deadline is two years after the death, R.C. 2125.02(F)(1), and claims against local governments, the State, and federal civil rights claims each carry two-year limits as described above. Video and records can be lost much sooner. See our page on Ohio wrongful death deadlines.

Common questions