OCTOBER TERM, 1997
Syllabus
certiorari to the supreme court of alabama
No. 96-957. Argued November 4, 1997—Decided December 9, 1997
Petitioners commenced this action in Alabama state court to recover damages for the death of their decedent, Alberta Jefferson, an African-American woman who perished in a fire at her home in respondent city of Tarrant (City). They alleged that City firefighters failed to rescue Ms. Jefferson promptly after arriving on the scene and to revive her upon carrying her from her house. These omissions, they charged, resulted from the selective denial of fire protection to disfavored minorities and proximately caused Ms. Jefferson's death. The City maintains that the firefighters responded to the alarm call as quickly as possible and that Ms. Jefferson was already dead when they arrived. Petitioners asserted state-law wrongful-death and outrage claims. They also asserted claims under 42 U. S. C. § 1983 that Ms. Jefferson's death resulted from (1) the deliberate indifference of the City and its agents, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, and (2) a practice of invidious racial discrimination, in violation of that Amend-ment's Equal Protection Clause. In its motion for judgment on the pleadings on the § 1983 claims, the City argued that, under Robertson v. Wegmann, 436 U. S. 584, 588-590, the survival remedy provided by Alabama's Wrongful Death Act governed petitioners' potential recovery on the constitutional tort claims. The Alabama Supreme Court has interpreted the state Act as providing a punitive damages remedy only, but this Court has ruled that § 1983 plaintiffs may not recover punitive damages against a municipality, see Newport v. Fact Concerts, Inc., 453 U. S. 247. Accordingly, the City argued that it could not be held liable for damages under § 1983. The trial court denied the City's motion in part and ruled that petitioners could recover compensatory damages against the City under § 1983. It certified the damages question for immediate review. The Alabama Supreme Court reversed on interlocutory appeal, holding that the state Act, including its allowance of punitive damages only, governed petitioners' potential recovery on their § 1983 claims. The court remanded "for further proceedings consistent with [its] opinion." After this Court granted certiorari to resolve whether the state Act governed the § 1983 claims, the City asserted for
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