The court of appeals held that a police officer responding to an emergency can be sued for negligence. The court reconstructs and deconstructs Arizona history on governmental liability and immunities. The court rejects two fairly recent decisions, also from Division One, that recognized common law immunities. Spooner v. City of Phoenix, 246 Ariz. 119 (App. 2018), and Jennings v. Agne, 254 Ariz. 174 (App. 2022). This panel referred to Spooner as a wrong turn and Jennings as continuing along the errant course. “Recognizing that we are not bound by those cases, and because we are convinced that both Jennings and Spooner are based on ‘clearly erroneous principles,’ we do not follow them here.” The court cited a workers’ compensation case called Castillo v. Indus. Comm’n, 21 Ariz. App. 465 (1974), discussing the struggle between Division One and Division Two. Here, it’s the same division. To us, we think the Ninth Circuit’s standard may be more acceptable: “In the absence of intervening Supreme Court precedent one panel cannot overturn another panel, regardless of how wrong the earlier panel decision may seem to be.” Hart v. Massanari, 266 F.3d 1155 (9th Cir. 2021). We expect a petition for review.

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