A Draper woman has lost her $6 million suit against Draper city over the 1988 shooting death of her husband by her boyfriend.
U.S. District Judge Dee Benson dismissed the suit Wednesday, saying it offended him. "It's turning the law on its head to file these types of lawsuits," Benson said in a ruling from the bench.Julia K. Peppmuller had asked for $3 million for herself and another $3 million for her dead husband's estate because she believes Garry G. Peppmuller was wrongfully killed.
But Benson said the premise of Peppmuller's suit "strains logic and common sense."
Garry Peppmuller was in violation of a restraining order when he was shot Oct. 22, 1988. Hours after being served with a court order ordering him to stay away from his wife, Garry Peppmuller confronted his wife at the couple's home. Julia Peppmuller and her friend, Eldon Ellis, had gone to the home to retrieve some of Julia Pepp-muller's belongings.
Julia Peppmuller expected trouble and asked Draper police to meet her at her home. Police were there but out of sight.
When Garry Peppmuller began shouting threats at his wife, Ellis shot him in the chest with a shotgun. Ellis served less than two months in jail for the crime.
Julia Peppmuller said Draper police could have prevented her husband's death by being in sight when she and Ellis went to her home. She also accused police of not calling an ambulance immediately.
If police had called an ambulance as soon as her husband was shot, he may have lived, she said.
But Benson said Julia Pepp-muller's assumption that Garry Peppmuller could sue the city because he was shot while breaking the law is preposterous.
In order to win a wrongful death suit in Utah, one must prove that the person who died would have had grounds to sue over the circumstances of their injury if they had lived.
"You are saying that if Mr. Peppmuller were alive, possibly a quadriplegic, he would be here in court saying his rights had been violated?" Benson asked.
"He's in violation of a restraining order, no doubt about that," the judge said. "He's there in violation of the law. And he does something at the premise to create a situation where he gets shot and killed and he's had his constitutional rights violated? That's your case?"
"I don't think Mr. Peppmuller anticipated that he would be shot and killed for violating that restraining order," replied David J. Hodgson, attorney for Julia Peppmuller and Garry Pepp- muller's estate.
The Governmental Immunity Act protects the state from being sued over an injury or death if the injury happened during an assault and battery.
Julia Peppmuller's suit is "an attempt to blame everything bad that happens in our lives on the state," Benson said. "That isn't the law."