To the extent that any public entity, other than the state, participates in a risk sharing pool or purchases liability insurance and to the extent that coverage is afforded thereunder, the public entity shall be deemed to have waived the common law doctrine of sovereign immunity and shall be deemed to have consented to suit in the same manner that any other party may be sued. The waiver contained in this section and §§ 21-32A-2 and 21-32A-3 is subject to the provisions of § 3-22-17.
S.D. Codified Laws § 21-32A-1
Waiver of sovereign immunity to extent of risk sharing pool or insurance coverage
Applied in 25 court decisions — leading case Rupert v. City of Rapid City (2013)
Most recently applied in Mahmoudi v. City of Spearfish (August 2025)
Source: SL 1986, ch 175, § 1; SL 1987, ch 163, § 1.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: South Dakota Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain South Dakota statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.