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Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 1-39-103

Definitions

Known as the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act

The act spans §§ 1-39-101 to 1-39-124 (24 sections).

Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Charles Leonhardt v. Big Horn County Sheriff's Office; Big Horn County Jail; Sheriff Ken Blackburn; and Captain Debbie Cook (2024)

Most recently applied in Clifford C. Bain v. City of Cheyenne, a Municipality; and Edward Brookman, an Individual (June 2025)

How often courts cite this section

2022202530
citing decisions per year

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.

(a) As used in this act:

(i) "Governmental entity" means the state, University of Wyoming or any local government;

(ii) "Local government" means cities and towns, counties, school districts, joint powers boards, airport boards, public corporations, entities formed by a county memorial hospital, special hospital district, rural health care district or senior health care district that are wholly owned by one (1) or more governmental entities, community college districts, special districts and their governing bodies, all political subdivisions of the state, and their agencies, instrumentalities and institutions, and governmental entities of another state but only while physically present in the state of Wyoming and while in the course of operating a cooperative public transportation program as defined by W.S. 16-1-104(f);

(iii) "Peace officer" means as defined by W.S. 7-2-101, but does not include those officers defined by W.S. 7-2-101(a)(iv)(K) or those officers defined by W.S. 7-2-101(a)(iv)(M) unless otherwise provided in the applicable mutual aid agreement;

(iv) "Public employee":

(A) Means any officer, employee or servant of a governmental entity, including elected or appointed officials, peace officers and persons acting on behalf or in service of a governmental entity in any official capacity, whether with or without compensation;

(B) Does not include an independent contractor, except as provided in subparagraphs (C) and (F) of this paragraph, or a judicial officer exercising the authority vested in him;

(C) Includes contract physicians, physician assistants, nurses, optometrists and dentists in the course of providing contract services for state institutions or county jails;

(D) Includes individuals engaged in search and rescue operations under the coordination of a county sheriff pursuant to W.S. 18-3-609(a)(iii);

(E) Includes any volunteer physician providing medical services under W.S. 9-2-103(a)(i)(C);

(F) Includes contract attorneys in the course of providing contract services for the office of guardian ad litem as provided in W.S. 14-12-104;

(G) Includes any health care provider, as defined by W.S. 35-31-101(a)(iii), and any individual included in the definition of medical facility in W.S. 35-31-101(a)(v), under a contract with the state to deliver volunteer health care services to low income persons under W.S. 35-31-101 through 35-31-103 while providing the contracted services. Nothing in this subparagraph alters the requirement that any action for damages shall be brought against the state of Wyoming as provided by W.S. 35-31-102(g);

(H) Includes volunteers and school district employees acting as a roadway crossing guard on behalf of or in service of a public school district legally organized as a body corporate pursuant to W.S. 21-3-101, et seq.;

(J) Includes persons employed by or contracted with facilities as defined by W.S. 7-11-301(a)(ii) that provide security, examination or treatment of accused persons housed in county detention facilities under W.S. 7-11-308.

(v) "Scope of duties" means performing any duties which a governmental entity requests, requires or authorizes a public employee to perform regardless of the time and place of performance;

(vi) "State" or "state agency" means the state of Wyoming or any of its branches, agencies, departments, boards, instrumentalities or institutions;

(vii) Repealed by Laws 2017, ch. 41, § 2.

(viii) "Governmental entity of another state" means any state and its political subdivisions, agencies, instrumentalities and institutions and any local government entity within another state;

(ix) "This act" means W.S. 1-39-101 through 1-39-124.

Official source: Wyoming Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Wyoming statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.