Ex parte City of Muscle Shoals, [Ms. SC-2024-0524, Mar. 28, 2025] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. 2025). The Court (Bryan, J.; Stewart, C.J., and Shaw, Wise, Mendheim, Mitchell, Cook, and McCool, JJ., concur; Sellers, J., concurs in the result) grants a petition for writ of mandamus, holding that municipal immunity under § 11-47-190, Ala. Code 1975, barred claims of negligence and trespass brought by homeowners against the City of Muscle Shoals. The plaintiffs, residents of the Nathan Estates neighborhood, sought damages after a 2019 flood allegedly caused by the City’s failure to adequately design or maintain a stormwater retention pond. Ms. **30-31.
The Court emphasizes that § 11-47-190 limits municipal liability to either (1) wrongful acts by municipal employees in the line of duty or (2) failure to remedy known defects in public infrastructure. Because the City had not breached any duty by failing to plan for rarer 100-year events, and because the City’s design decisions aligned with common engineering standards and FEMA guidelines, the Court found no substantial evidence of a design defect or employee neglect that would remove the City from the protection of municipal immunity. Ms. **28, 30-31. The Court further explains that even if the 2019 flooding caused substantial property damage, design choices regarding stormwater infrastructure are protected policy decisions and are not actionable under § 11-47-190. Ms. *30.