Ex parte City of Birmingham, [Ms. SC-2024-0700, Sept. 19, 2025] __ So. 3d __ (Ala. 2025). The Court (McCool, J.; Stewart, C.J., and Shaw, Wise, Bryan, Cook, and Lewis, JJ., concur; Sellers and Mendheim, JJ., concur in the result) issues a writ of mandamus to the Jefferson Circuit Court directing the court to dismiss Nicholas Raynard Smith, Jr.’s negligence action against the City of Birmingham. Smith was injured when his motorcycle collided with a wrecked vehicle that had struck the concrete median. Smith alleged he was unable to see the vehicle in time because streetlights in the area were inoperable. He also alleged City “‘owed a duty to [him] … and all other motorists traveling on I-59 to ensure the interstate lights were maintained, repaired, and operable and to exercise reasonable care and due care maintaining the lights so [they] were working properly.’” Ms. *6.
The Court concludes Smith’s claim is barred by substantive immunity under Rich v. City of Mobile, 410 So. 2d 385 (1982) that holds “with respect to certain public services provided by a municipality …the municipality owes no legal duty to any individual and is therefore immune to any claim for damages that is based on the negligent performance of such services.” Ms. *11. Although the City had agreed with the State to maintain the lights on I-59, Rich precluded a finding that the City had assumed a duty to Smith upon which a negligence claim could be predicated. The Court holds “[w]hen a municipality chooses to provide for the public health, safety, and general welfare of its citizenry,… by voluntarily assuming the responsibility of maintaining the streetlights on an interstate highway, it does not impose upon itself a legal duty of care to an individual who is allegedly injured as the result of inoperable streetlights. Thus, in the absence of a legal duty to that individual, the municipality cannot be held liable for his or her injuries, which is simply another way of saying that the doctrine of substantive immunity bars any claim against the municipality that seeks compensation for those injuries.” Ms. *25, internal quotation marks and citations omitted.