Case Name: Tim PARKER and Denise Parker, Individually, and Danieka Parker, By and Through Her Next Friend and Natural Mother, Denise Parker v. The CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1998-05-14
Citations: 725 So. 2d 782
Docket Number: No. 94-CA-00289-SCT
Parties: Tim PARKER and Denise Parker, Individually, and Danieka Parker, By and Through Her Next Friend and Natural Mother, Denise Parker v. The CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi.
Judges: PRATHER, C.J., PITTMAN, P.J., and JAMES L. ROBERTS, Jr. and SMITH, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 725
Pages: 782–788

Head Matter:
Tim PARKER and Denise Parker, Individually, and Danieka Parker, By and Through Her Next Friend and Natural Mother, Denise Parker v. The CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi.
No. 94-CA-00289-SCT.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
May 14, 1998.
Rehearing Denied Aug. 20, 1998.
David Earl Rozier, Jr., Jackson, for Appellants.
Thomas R. Jones, J. Richard Barry, Michael D. Herrin, Bourdeaux & Jones, Meridian, for Appellee.

Opinion:
MILLS, Justice,
for the Court:
STATEMENT OF THE CASE
¶ 1. The Circuit Court of Neshoba County granted the City of Philadelphia summary judgment in this personal injury action by finding that the claims against the city were barred under the doctrine of sovereign immunity. Aggrieved, the appellants have timely appealed.
FACTS
¶ 2. On November 4,1989, Danieka Parker, then four years old, was returning from a friend's house across Evergreen Avenue in Philadelphia, Mississippi. An adult neighbor, Mack Coleman, was escorting his daughter, Kristi Coleman, then six years old, and Da-nieka across the street. Coleman was holding his daughter's hand, and she was holding Danieka's hand. Coleman looked both ways before crossing the street, and then began to advance. After taking about three or four steps into the street, Coleman said that he again looked up the street, but did not see an approaching vehicle. He testified that overhanging limbs were present which obstructed his view of the road. When Coleman finally saw-the car, he stepped back and pulled his own daughter out of the path of the oncoming vehicle. However, he could not get Da-nieka out of the way of the car's path. The vehicle struck Danieka, paralyzing her from the waist down.
¶ 3. Alice Nunn, driver of the vehicle which hit Danieka, testified that she was traveling at about thirty miles per hour at the time of the accident. She also testified that as she drove down Evergreen Avenue, she saw Coleman and the two children on the side of the street. Just as she came parallel with their position, she saw a little dash out of the corner of her eye and heard a noise. Nunn's daughter, who was traveling with her at the time of the accident remarked, "You hit that child."
¶ 4. On February 19,1991, Tim Parker and Denise Parker, Danieka's parents, filed a lawsuit individually and on behalf of Danieka, against Mississippi Farm Bureau Insurance Company and the City of Philadelphia, Mississippi. The Parkers settled with Mississippi Farm Bureau Insurance Company and proceeded with the present suit against the City of Philadelphia.
¶ 5. The Parkers argued that their injuries occurred due to the City of Philadelphia's "unsafe and unreasonable maintenance of the street." The city responded by pleading the defense of sovereign immunity. The city later added the defense of contributory negligence of a third party non-defendant, Alice Nunn. On September 11,1992, the city filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming that sovereign immunity barred the lawsuit from proceeding. After oral argument on November 20, 1992, the trial court granted the defendant's motion for summary judgment. The following issue is now before us.
THE LAW
DOES SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY EXEMPT THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA
FROM LIABILITY.
¶ 6. Our recent decision in Hord v. City of Yazoo City, 702 So.2d 121 (Miss.1997) controls the disposition of this case. We said in Hord:
In 1982, this Court abolished judicially-created sovereign immunity in Pruett v. City of Rosedale, 421 So.2d 1046 (Miss.1982), ruling that determining the existence and extent of sovereign immunity is the province of the Legislature, not the Court. In 1984, the Legislature responded by enacting a comprehensive tort claims act, providing for a limited waiver of sovereign immunity. Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-1 et seq. (Supp.1996). However, § 11-46-6 provided that the Act's provisions were not yet effective, and that until such time as they became effective, the law of sovereign immunity would be governed by the common law doctrine as it existed in 1982 before the Pruett decision.
On August 31, 1992, we decided Presley v. Mississippi State Highway Com'n, 608 So.2d 1288 (Miss.1992), wherein we held § 11-46-6 to be unconstitutional because it intended to revive law by reference. Then, in Robinson v. Stewart, 655 So.2d 866 (Miss.1995), we held that Presley was to be applied prospectively only. The Legislature responded to Presley by reaffirming sovereign immunity in Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-3, but then waived said immunity to a large degree in Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-5. "Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-5 provides for a waiver of sovereign immunity as to the State from and after July 1, 1993 and for political subdivisions of the state from and after October 1, 1993, subject to a number of substantive and procedural limitations set forth in later sections of said chapter." Gressett v. Newton Separate Municipal School District, 697 So.2d 444, 445 (Miss.1997).
In Gressett, we decided that a cause of action that arose on August 26, 1993, over four months after § 11-46-3 went into effect, was surely governed by the statutory immunity annunciated in that statute. We reasoned that the Presley holding was not controlling because § 11 — 46—3 does not contain the constitutionally offensive language present in § 11-46-6.
§ 11-46-6, however, still applies to post-Pruett, pre-Presley causes of action. In the case sub judice, [the plaintiffs'] cause of action arose on [November 4, 1989], before Presley, so under Robinson, we apply § 11-46-6, which directs us to apply pr e-Pruett common law. Morgan v. City of Ruleville, 627 So.2d 275, 278-79 (Miss.1993) (holding that since cause of action arose in 1987, before Presley, the trial court erred in applying the tort claims act, but instead should have applied pr e-Pruett common law).
Under pr e-Pruett common law, whether a city "enjoys the defense of sovereign immunity depends upon whether the alleged conduct occurred in the exercise of a governmental function or in the exercise of a proprietary function." Morgan, 627 So.2d at 279; Webb v. Jackson, 583 So.2d 946, 952 (Miss.1991). A city performing a governmental function is immune from a negligence suit, whereas a city performing a proprietary function is not immune from a negligence suit. Morgan, 627 So.2d at 279; Webb, 583 So.2d at 952.
The classifications of those functions which are governmental and those which are proprietary are very general, and are often difficult to define. We have described governmental functions applicable to cities as "activities or services which a municipality is required by state law to engage in and to perform." Anderson v. Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, 419 So.2d 1010, 1014 (Miss.1982). Conversely, proprietary functions are "activities in which a municipal corporation engages, not required or imposed upon it by law, about which it is free to perform or not." Anderson, 419 So.2d at 1014. "Proprietary activities are those which, while beneficial to the community and very important, are not vital to a City's functioning." Morgan, 627 So.2d at 279.
Hord, 702 So.2d 121, 123.
¶ 7. The placing of warning signs is within the purview of a city's governmental functions. Therefore, the city is immune from liability under the facts established in this case. Accordingly, we affirm the decision of the trial court.
¶ 8. AFFIRMED.
PRATHER, C.J., PITTMAN, P.J., and JAMES L. ROBERTS, Jr. and SMITH, JJ., concur.
McRAE, J., dissents with separate written opinion joined by SULLIVAN, P.J., and BANKS and WALLER, JJ.