Briggs

Billy Leo Briggs sued the Public Defender of Monterey County (Michael Lawrence) and a deputy public defender (Arthur Kaufmann) for attorney malpractice. The defendants’ general demurrers and motions for judgment on the pleadings were granted without leave to amend. Briggs appeals from the trial court’s order, which we shall treat as an appealable final judgment for defendants. (Cf., e.g., People ex rel. Rominger v. County of Trinity (1983) 147 Cal.App.3d 655, 658 [ 195 Cal.Rptr. 186 ].) Briggs did not plead that he had filed a claim against Monterey County under the California Tort Claims Act (Gov. Code, § 810 et seq.), and he has acknowledged that he did not file such a claim. The dispositive question is whether he was required to do so. The answer depends on whether Lawrence and Kaufmann, as salaried full-time public defenders engaged in representing an assigned client, were public employees acting in the scope of their employment or, instead, should be regarded as independent contractors: If they were public employees, Briggs was required to file a claim; if they were to be regarded as independent contractors, he was not. We shall conclude that salaried full-time…