City of Tarrant v. Jefferson

Pursuant to Rule 5, Ala.R.App.P., we permitted the defendant City of Tarrant to appeal from an interlocutory order in which the trial court held that the question of the survivability of Alberta K. Jefferson's cause of action for compensatory damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 was governed by federal common law rather than by Alabama's Wrongful Death Act, § 6-5-410, Ala. Code 1975. The plaintiff Melvin Jefferson, Alberta's son, sues individually and as a personal representative for the estate of the decedent. He alleges that Tarrant firefighters, based upon a policy of selectively denying fire…