You’re Covered! By: Karla Engle, DOT Legal office
DOT accomplishes a lot of important work because of the hard work of its employees. What
happens if someone sues a DOT employee for work they’ve done as part of their job?
The short answer is you can’t be sued for some types of claims and you have liability coverage for other types of claims.
Liability Coverage for Ministerial Work
State employees have liability coverage for work that is considered “ministerial.” This means work
that must be done according to a clear standard, in contrast to work that requires the exercise of
judgment and discretion. For example, suppose I am driving for work and I accidentally fail to stop at
a stop sign, causing a crash with another vehicle properly going through the intersection. I’ve
violated a clear standard – the requirement to stop at a stop sign and resume driving only when it is
safe. I can be sued if others are injured by my actions, but there is liability coverage for this type of
accident. Under this coverage, the State can pay for lawyer fees and other court costs. A settlement
or final money judgment can also be covered by the State, up to the coverage limit of $1,000,000
per occurrence. As a state employee, I will be protected from paying anything above this coverage
limit.
There are rare circumstances when an employee can be disqualified from receiving this liability coverage. This can happen when an employee is doing something clearly outside of the employee’s job duties. For example, suppose I didn’t accidentally fail to stop at the intersection, but I crashed into another vehicle on purpose with the intent to hurt the other driver. I didn’t just make a mistake while trying to do my job -- I was doing something with an evil intent that wasn’t in any way furthering DOT’s interests. In an extreme case like this, I can’t expect liability coverage from the State, because I’m no longer doing my job.
Protection from Lawsuits for Discretionary Work
In South Dakota, state employees are protected from being sued
when they are performing work that is considered “discretionary.”
Discretionary work requires the exercise of judgment, with no clear
standard saying how the work should be done. Courts have
repeatedly thrown out lawsuits where state employees have been
sued for discretionary work. The cases didn’t get to trial, because
the courts decided the employees couldn’t be sued at all.
Suppose I work in the Road Design Office and I am designing a curve in a state highway. Although
there are engineering principles and guidance to help with my design, there is no exact standard
that I can simply apply to arrive at my final design. Now suppose someone is injured driving along
the highway curve I designed, and that person sues me over the design. The State will defend me
against this lawsuit on the grounds I can’t be sued for work that required the exercise of judgment
and discretion. If the court agrees, the case will be thrown out and there will never be any trial.
Now suppose instead of designing the highway curve, I was responsible for preparing the signing
plans. And suppose DOT has a policy that requires certain warning signs along this type of
highway, but I neglect to include those signs in the construction plans. Now suppose someone is
injured on that highway and sues me, claiming the lack of required warning signs caused the
person’s injuries. Because there was a clear standard that applied to my work, my work was
ministerial and not discretionary, and I probably can be sued. However, there would be liability
coverage from the State for this ministerial work. That means the State will pay an attorney to
defend me and the State would cover any settlement or money judgments up to the limits of
coverage. As a state employee, if a money judgment is more than the coverage limit, I would not be
required to pay any part of that excess judgment.
So, when you’re working hard for DOT, keep in mind that you have legal protections.
Tips from Finance:
By: Brandy Hansen
Batch Load – Do you know how to update an employees address? If the person who handles travel vouchers notices an employee’s address on their travel detail does not match with the voucher they need to update the batch load system with the employees new address. You can do that by going into your travel template for the employee, right click, edit employee, then click Get Vendor Information. This will bring in the most current address in Employee Space. If the employee hasn’t updated Employee Space then you will not be able to update it in batch load. This step should help avoid a returned voucher.
For any questions, please contact Brandy @ 773-5615
In the Field and Classroom South Dakota: Where you can have high blue skies one day, and the next be hit with a blizzard. That’s
exactly what happened this spring. Not one or twice– but multiple times. Thanks to the perfect mix of
heavy snowfall and 50 mph winds, Dean VanDeWiele, Pierre area engineer, finds himself standing on
top of a snow drift 25 miles SE of Fort Pierre on March 16—yes that is the top of a road sign. Fast
forward to May 15, there is no snow & now Dean can stand next to the same sign like normal. There
were four of these 12-17 foot
drifts that took a contractor in
a loader 7-plus hours to clear!
Dean standing
next to the
same road
sign on May 15
Dean stands on
top of road sign 25
miles SE of Ft.
Pierre on March 16
Koch Elementary school in Milbank
participated in the Associated General
Contractor’s art contest to promote ‘Work
Zone Awareness’. Students created
posters to demonstrate the dangers in a
construction work zone.
One of this years winner is Mason Allen, a
fourth grader. Jared Gusso awarded him
with a prize of $25 and the class received
a $100 prize. He came up with this clever
poster by illustrating the dangers of
distracted driving in a construction zone.
His winning poster will also be featured on
a billboard near the Highway 12 project in
Milbank. Sponsor Journey/SFC Civil
Left to Right: Elliott Furman (HMW SD DOT, Milbank), Jared Gusso (Vice President of SFC Civil Constructors), Mason Allen, and James Loup (LHMW SD DOT, Milbank)
Richard Reichling Clear Lake 39 yrs.
Randy Lekness Sisseton 15 yrs.
Daris Ormesher Pierre 31 yrs.
Timothy Huffman Kadoka 29 yrs.
Steve Baxter Yankton 44 yrs.
Danny Hook Britton 9 yrs.
Del Marshall Mobridge 30 yrs.
A Farewell to the Folks who Helped Pave the Way
Bryan Parks Transportation Specialist 1 20 yrs.
Brad Horstman Project Technician 30 yrs.
Robert Ward Engineering Manager II 20 yrs.
Kimberly Herrman CAD Technician 20 yrs.
Drew Ruedebusch Survey Crew Chief/Chief Driller 35 yrs.
Paul Knofczynski Engineer IV 30 yrs.
John Villbrandt Exempt Engineer Manager III 30 yrs.
Ryan Johnson Engineer III 20 yrs.
Brian Huber Project Technician 20 yrs.
Steven Weisz Engineer IV 20 yrs.
Douglas Leland Lead HWY Maintenance Worker 20 yrs.
Tracy Fuerst Secretary 20 yrs.
Jay Larson Engineer IV 25 yrs.
2019 Retirees
Longevity
Rick Reichling (left), receives a
plaque honoring his 39+ years with
the department.
Celebrating a New Life
Like many things in life, there comes new beginnings. For some within the South
Dakota DOT, they celebrated a new beginning with the welcoming of a newborn
child, or in a couple of cases, twins! Congratulations to the parents of these future
SDDOT employees!!
Grayden Dean Geigle
Son of Terri Boyle (Finance) & Zach Geigle and grandson
of Susan Geigle (Finance)
DOB: 12/10/2018
8.6 lbs. 21.5 Inches
Aubrey Lynn Miller
Daughter of Nicki (Pierre Re-
gion) & Brandon Miller
DOB: 01/04/2019
7.1 lbs. 21 Inches
Lukas Jeffery Meier
Son of Kyle (Pierre Region
Bridge Crew) & Mallory
Meier
DOB: 04/29/2019
6.14 lbs. 19.75 inches
Pete Longman (Sioux Falls Road Design) is a proud grandpa! Daughter, Brenna, gave birth to
twin girls, Harper Lynn & Brynlee Kennedy
DOB: 05/13/2019
Austin Berry (HMW in Presho) & Rebecca Franks gave birth to twins in April.
Raelynn: 4 lbs. 5 oz. - 17 ¼ in.
Waylon: 4 lbs. 5 oz. - 17 ¾ in.
Edom Mandefrot
Daughter of Yija Madefrot (Sioux
Falls ROW)
DOB: 10/20/2018
7 lbs. 7 oz.
Graydon Border
Son of Michael Border (Engineer,
Sioux Falls)
DOB: 09/20/2018
7 lbs. 10 oz.
Leighton Lynn Pfaff
Daughter of Jared Pfaff
(Engineer, Sioux Falls)
DOB: 09/19/2019
7 lbs. 13 oz.
On September 15, 2018, Lana Lambert and her swimming partner, Steven Salverson, participated in the “Swim to Alligator Light”. In Islamorada, Florida in the Florida Keys This is her story:
“I was on a two-person coed team with my fellow swimming friend, Steven Salverson, from Pierre. The “Swim to Alligator Light” swim is 8 miles. We had to swim out to the Alligator Reef Lighthouse, go around it, and swim back. We took turns swimming; while one swam, the other kayaked nearby with a cooler on top of the kayak with fluids and food for fuel. We rotated every hour for the most part.
For our training for this swim, we swam in the pool during the winter and spring and swam in Lake Oahe this past summer. On Labor Day, Sept. 4, we swam across Lake Oahe and back twice, taking turns every hour with one swimming and one kayaking, for a total of nine miles in 5:58.
Most swimmers were stung by jellyfish, I swam with my goggles just under the surface. I estimate I saw about 3-4 dozen of them but I swam around them carefully so as not to get stung. Steve was stung a lot! A dozen swimmers had to be pulled out by rescue personnel due to getting seasick and dehydrated; but Steve and I managed to not get seasick and stayed well-hydrated with 12 20-ounce bottles of fluids.
We also visited Florida City and took in the Everglades. We saw the entire Keys chain from Key Largo to Key West. We snorkeled in two locations and also went parasailing in Islamorada!
Lana provided several pictures showcasing this amazing experience.
Swimming with Gators!
Lana at the Starting line
for the race.
Lana in Key West, FL
Lana and her partner, Steve, pose
for a picture at the end of the race.
Snorkeling fun
Lana completing one of her legs of the swim
During some down time, going on an air-
boat ride in the Florida Everglades.
Alligator Reef Lighthouse
Alligator seen during the airboat
ride
“In front of Homestead Bayfront Park. We went swimming in the lake pictured behind me. We chose to swim in this little lake so that Steve, my teammate, could practice swimming in salt water (& warm water) before the Alligator Light Swim, as he never done that before but I’d swam in ocean before. We started swimming and suddenly were being nibbled on by fish! At first it was one nibble here, one nibble there, but later on several fish were nibbling non-stop on me. I just started screaming and got out of there as fast as I could! The lifeguards on duty knew I could swim but knew the fish were getting me! They said there are puffer fish, yellowtail, and jack fish with a family of jellyfish in there! I did see a pufferfish in 3 inches of water and a baby turtle.”
“Lizards on top of castle at Coral
Castle in Homestead, FL
(lizards scared me down there when they run around)”