SALT LAKE CITY — A lawsuit filed against the Salt Lake City Police Department by the mother of a woman who was murdered has been thrown out. She claimed police could have prevented her daughter's death.

On Thursday, 3rd District Judge Laura Scott dismissed the civil lawsuit filed by Shauna Mayne, whose daughter Amanda Mayne was killed by her ex-husband in 2022. The suit was dismissed, in part, because of arguments made by Mayne and her attorneys themselves, according to court records.

In 2022, police say Taylor Martin, 26, of West Jordan, shot and killed Amanda Mayne, 34, of Taylorsville, before shooting and killing himself. The two had not been with each other for more than a year at the time of the shooting.

Even though the homicide occurred in Taylorsville, Shauna Mayne contended in her lawsuit filed a year ago that Martin made death threats in the months leading up to her daughter's death and that Salt Lake police should have better investigated or turned the case over to Taylorsville police.

"Despite the clarity and frequency of the threats against Amanda's life and Amanda's status as a person with diminished capacity, (the police department) did not properly investigate the situation and assess its lethality or take appropriate steps to protect Amanda. If it had, she would still be alive today," the lawsuit claims.

In their motion for the case to be dismissed, the city argued that "governmental entities are not civilly liable for an alleged failure to carry out a duty that is owed to the public generally. Police protection is one of the quintessential public duties recognized by the Utah Supreme Court as falling within this public duty doctrine," according to the city's motion. "Second, and alternatively, the Utah Legislature has determined not to waive governmental immunity when the asserted injury is caused by a battery."

In 1965, the Utah Legislature created a law giving the state immunity from wrongful death cases. The law was upheld by a Utah Supreme Court ruling in 1996 in Tiede vs. State.

Mayne and her attorneys, in court documents, argued that they were "prepared to demonstrate that the case in question must be overturned because it relied on an incorrect assessment of the history of Utah's wrongful death actions. The Utah Constitution prohibits the Legislature from abrogating the right of action for wrongful death."

Related:

Woman sues Salt Lake police, claiming they could have prevented her daughter's murder

Amanda Mayne's mother said her daughter's murder could have been prevented in a new lawsuit that seeks to upend Utah Supreme Court precedent.

Then in February, Mayne asked the judge to hold off making a decision on the motion to dismiss until the Utah Supreme Court made a decision regarding a similar case involving the family of Gabby Petito. Petito's parents had filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Moab Police Department, but a judge in Utah's 7th District Court dismissed the case in November saying government agencies are immune from wrongful death suits. The family has appealed the decision to the Utah Supreme Court.

"If Tiede v. State is binding precedent, it should be limited or overturned," Mayne's attorneys argued in their motion for a stay pending the Petito decision, while also noting that "though this court is bound to follow Tiede if it applies — which it does not — plaintiff still brief these arguments to preserve them for appeal."

In her ruling on Thursday, Scott notes that a hearing on Salt Lake City's motion to dismiss was scheduled for April 14.

"However, given plaintiff's admission in the complaint and concession in her opposition to the motion to stay that 'this court is obligated to dismiss this case under the binding precedent of Tiede v. State,' the court strikes the hearing because the issue has been authoritatively decided.

"For this same reason, the court grants the motion to dismiss on the ground that plaintiff's claims are barred by the Utah Governmental Immunity Act," the judge continued. "Because dismissal is required under Tiede, the court declines to reach defendant's public duty doctrine argument."

Because of that, the judge also ruled that the motion to stay the proceedings is now moot.

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