Indiana Business Lawyer Blog

Harness v. Schmitt, 924 N.E.2d 162 (Ind. Ct. App. 2010) – Governmental Immunity

In a recent Indiana Municipal law case, the presence of a police officer during the service of a wrongful eviction notice did not affect the police officer’s governmental employee immunity because the officer was present for the purpose of preventing a possible breach of the peace.

Mark Harness Jr. appealed from a grant of summary judgment in favor of the Town of Winona Lake and one of its police officers, Paul Schmitt. On January 12, 2007, Hunter Carlile went to the police station to enlist the help of Paul Schmitt to serve an eviction notice on Harness as well as to change the locks on Harness’s home. At the time, Harness was purchasing the house on contract from Carlile and had possession of the home. When Carlile and Schmitt arrived at the property, Harness was not present; however, Daniel Linton was. When Linton questioned the eviction, he noticed that Schmitt placed his hand on his gun. Linton decided not to resist or challenge the eviction because he felt threatened by Schmitt. So, Linton helped Carlile remove property from the house. Carlile also changed the locks.

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The health care reform package that went into law on Tuesday, March 23, 2010, most clearly will have substantial effects on the health care industry. However, the legislation will also have far reaching impact on employers. Although employers are not mandated under the health care reform package to provide insurance coverage to employees, the new legislation will penalize employers that do not offer coverage at all to the employees or do not offer coverage considered “good enough.” For example, employers with 50 or more full-time employees that do not offer insurance coverage will have to pay an assessment to the government to help offset the cost of health insurance if their employees are receiving help from the federal government to purchase their own insurance. Additionally, a tax will be assessed on employer sponsored, high-end “Cadillac” coverage, which is 40% of the “excess benefit” of plans that exceed the thresholds of $8,500 for individual coverage and $23,000 for family coverage under the original Senate bill. However, when the original Senate bill is combined with the reconciliation bill, the effective date of the tax provision will be changed from 2013 to 2018, and the original threshold will be raised to $10,200 for individual coverage and $27,500 for family coverage.

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