AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
Court documents indicate a judge will deny the city of Raleigh’s motion to be dismissed from a lawsuit filed by the family of Hailey Brooks, the 11-year-old girl struck and killed by a truck in the 2022 Raleigh Christmas Parade.
Read more Bella Hadid Tears Up as She Details Chronic Illness From Lyme Disease
A “memorandum of decision,” which is not a final, signed order by the judge, was included in court documents released Wednesday.
It instructs the attorneys representing Brooks’ family to draft a final order that would deny Raleigh’s request to be dismissed from the suit.
The city’s attorneys had previously argued that Raleigh had “governmental immunity” while planning for safety and crowd control at the parade.
“The Court finds that the City was engaging in a proprietary function with regard to the Christmas parade at issue and therefore does not have governmental immunity,” Wake County Superior Court Judge Bryan Collins wrote in the memorandum sent on May 26.
Proprietary functions are “activities that could just as easily be performed by a private entity, generally benefit a specific group of users, or charge fees,” according to the UNC School of Government. Governmental activities like police and fire protection are done for the public good on behalf of the state.
Collins’ memorandum also found the city can’t be dismissed from the suit because it “had extensive operational control over every aspect of the parade” and “directly and indirectly benefitted financially from the parade in sum significantly higher than its expenditures.”
Landen Glass, who was driving the pickup truck that struck Brooks, pleaded guilty last year to charges in her death. In November, he was sentenced to eight months in prison.
Brooks’ family targeted Glass, parade organizer Shop Local Raleigh, the city and others in a wrongful death lawsuit. Since filing the lawsuit, the family has settled with several parties, including Glass and a parade float company.
Read more New NC law tightens campus DEI bans, placing new limits on ‘divisive concepts’
The Brooks family is also suing Whitney Schoenfeld, the city’s senior manager in its Office of Special Events, and Kirk Archer II, a special events planner with the city in 2022 who now works for the city of Durham. Attorneys for both are asking Collins to dismiss them from the lawsuit, arguing they were only acting in their capacity as city employees, not at their own discretion.
Both the city of Raleigh and attorneys representing the Brooks family declined to comment Thursday.
First, Collins has to sign the order denying the city’s request to be let out of the lawsuit.
Collins also hasn’t ruled yet on the requests to dismiss Schoenfeld and Archer from the suit.
A jury trial is currently scheduled for Nov. 9, according to online court information, but that date could change.
The city and the other parties involved in the lawsuit could also decide to settle.
The lawsuit, first filed around three years ago, called for compensatory damages “in an amount to be determined at trial, in excess of $25,000.00.”
Read more Raleigh held its first Pride parade in 1988. Take a look back at photos from that day.
This story was originally published June 25, 2026 at 12:47 PM.