Case Name: Patrick LIPPINCOTT, Appellant, v. MISSISSIPPI BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, Appellee
Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 2003-04-08
Citations: 856 So. 2d 465
Docket Number: No. 2001-CA-01702-COA
Parties: Patrick LIPPINCOTT, Appellant, v. MISSISSIPPI BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, Appellee.
Judges: McMILLIN, C.J., IRVING AND GRIFFIS, JJ., CONCUR. MYERS, J., DISSENTS WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION JOINED BY KING, P.J., BRIDGES AND THOMAS, JJ. LEE AND CHANDLER, JJ., NOT PARTICIPATING.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 856
Pages: 465–474

Head Matter:
Patrick LIPPINCOTT, Appellant, v. MISSISSIPPI BUREAU OF NARCOTICS, Appellee.
No. 2001-CA-01702-COA.
Court of Appeals of Mississippi.
April 8, 2003.
Rehearing Denied July 22, 2003.
Jim Waide, Tupelo, attorney for appellant.
Katherine S. Kerby, Columbus, attorney for appellee.

Opinion:
SOUTHWICK, J"
for the court.
¶ 1. Patrick Lippincott brought suit against the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics for injuries suffered while assisting in an undercover drug buy. Summary judgment was granted to the Bureau. On appeal, Lippincott argues that disputes of material fact remain on his claims. We affirm.
FACTS
¶ 2. In furtherance of undercover operations of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, Patrick Lippincott purchased narcotics from street dealers and then assisted in resulting prosecutions. Before becoming so engaged, Lippincott and the Bureau entered into a written agreement.
¶ B. On March 16, 1999, Lippincott was accompanied by Agent Devon Younger in order to purchase drugs. During the course of one such buy, the dealer displayed a firearm. Agent Younger produced his weapon and the two exchanged shots. Lippincott, caught in the crossfire, was wounded in the upper left arm. He suffered nerve damage.
¶ 4. Lippincott filed suit against the Bureau on March 7, 2000, alleging a breach of contract and negligence. Specifically, he claimed that the Bureau was negligent in placing a poorly trained agent in the vehicle with him, who negligently alerted the neighborhood to the police presence, and who thereby placed him in unreasonable danger. This was alleged to have been a breach of the Bureau's duty to provide a safe work environment. The Bureau's motion for summary judgment was granted. The trial court found no contract term which had been breached, and the Bureau was shielded from liability by the discretionary function exemption of the Mississippi Tort Claims Act.
DISCUSSION
1. Contract claim
¶ 5. Lippincott argues that his written agreement with the Bureau contained two implied clauses: (1) to act pursuant to the implied duty of good faith and fair dealing; and (2) to provide a safe work environment. He contends that the Bureau's negligence breached these implied terms. That, in turn, was a breach of the contract itself. The dissent speaks of an issue of fact of whether an oral contract existed. We do not find the pleadings, briefs or record present that issue. Instead, the matter raised for resolution concerns implied terms in a written contract.
¶ 6. On appeal, neither party disputes that a written agreement exists. There is a dispute about the effect of the agreement. The agreement itself states that only written terms between the parties are enforceable except for Lippincott's right to receive payments. Central to this issue is the question of whether any implied terms to this apparently complete agreement exist.
¶7. Mississippi statutorily implies the duty of good faith and fair dealing into contracts affected by the Uniform Commercial Code. Miss.Code Ann. § 75-1-203 (Rev.2002). Certain other kinds of contracts have been found to have such a covenant, such as insurance contracts. Hartford Accident and Indem. Co. v. Foster, 528 So.2d 255, 281 (Miss.1988). Occasionally it has been stated that all contracts contain the covenant. UHS-Qualicare v. Gulf Coast Community Hospital 525 So.2d 746, 757 n. 8 (Miss.1987). The Supreme Court has receded from that view, though. For example, this implied duty has been said not to apply to employment contracts. Hartle v. Packard Electric, 626 So.2d 106, 110 (Miss.1993). In Hartle, the court may only have been addressing the question of whether an implied duty was relevant to wrongful discharge. To require good faith in the discharge of an at-will employee would essentially repeal the at-will doctrine. An explanation of that problem was later made by the Supreme Court.
There are numerous Mississippi contract cases that state that all contracts contain an implied duty of good faith and fair dealing, but this Court has never recognized a cause of action based on such a duty arising from an employment at-will relationship. This Court has specifically held that at-will employment relationships are not governed by a covenant of good faith and fair dealing which gives rise to a cause of action for wrongful termination.
Young v. North Mississippi Medical Center, 788 So.2d 661, 663 (Miss.2001).
¶ 8. We do not further examine Hartle or whether Lippincott was an employee or an independent contractor. That is because even presuming a good faith duty is applicable to the Lippincott-Bureau agreement, we cannot find that the duty was breached. "The breach of good faith is bad faith characterized by some conduct which violates standards of decency, fairness or reasonableness." Cenac v. Murry, 609 So.2d 1257, 1272 (Miss.1992). Bad faith, in turn, requires a showing of more than bad judgment or negligence; rather, "bad faith" implies some conscious wrongdoing "because of dishonest purpose or moral obliquity." Bailey v. Bailey, 724 So.2d 335, 338 (Miss.1998). Where Lippin-cott fails on this claim is in the absence of any evidence of bad faith.
¶ 9. Each factual allegation made by Lippincott to support his claim of breach of contract amounts to mere negligence. He does not claim the Bureau acted with "dishonest purpose or moral obliquity," or any variation thereof. Rather, he claims the agency made a series of bad choices. This is insufficient on its face to constitute a breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.
¶ 10. In addition, we imply into contracts only those terms as may be expected to fulfill the parties' reasonable expectations. UHS-Qualicare, 525 So.2d at 755. Lippincott states repeatedly that the display of weapons during drug buys was common and even noted that acting as a confidential informant was work which routinely placed him in mortal danger. Having acknowledged the danger of the work that he undertook to perform, Lippincott's claim that he had a reasonable expectation of a safe work environment is untenable. Such an environment cannot be made safe. It is true that Lippincott's arguments could be recast as being that this workplace was more dangerous than it should have been. Yet that just places us back under an argument that the Bureau was negligent. That still does not show a violation of a good faith obligation.
¶ 11. Finally, each instance of negligence cited by Lippincott is a tort. Indeed, the claim of breach of the covenant of good faith itself asserts a tort, one flowing from tortious breach of contract. Braidfoot v. William Carey College, 793 So.2d 642, 651 (Miss.Ct.App.2000). Without the requisite showing of some form of bad faith, the torts Lippincott alleges cannot violate the implied- covenant. Their consideration properly belongs under the tort analysis, to which we now turn.
2. Tort claim
¶ 12. The Mississippi Tort Claims Act is a limited waiver of governmental immunity from civil tort suits. Miss.Code Ann. § 11^46-5(1) (Rev.2002). Partial immunity is retained, such as for governmental employees who are performing a discretionary function. Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46—9(d) (Rev.2002). The Supreme Court has not allowed "discretionary function" to override a different and tautological exemption that no liability for negligence exists for the acts "of an employee of a governmental entity exercising ordinary care in reliance upon, or in the execution or performance of, or in the failure to execute or perform, a statute, ordinance or regulation-" Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-9(b). That would mean that the immunity to a negligence suit provided under section ll-46-9(b) would apply only when there is no negligence, i.e., when "ordinary care" is exercised. See Brewer v. Burdette, 768 So.2d 920, 923 (Miss.2000); Robert F. Walker, Cmt., "Mississippi Torts Claims Act: Is Discretionary Immunity Useless?," 71 Miss. L.J. 695, 704-10 (2001). It is not necessary to resolve these issues to determine the outcome of this case.
¶ 13. The trial court's reliance on the discretionary function exemption was understandable. It was the only one argued at the hearing on the motion for summary judgment. It was not, however, the only one advanced in the pleadings. The Bureau also raised this exemption:
A governmental entity and its employees . shall not be liable for any claim arising out of any act or omission of an employee of a governmental entity engaged in the performance or execution of duties or activities relating to police or fire protection unless the employee acted in reckless disregard of the safety and well-being of any person not engaged in criminal activity at the time the injury occurred.
Miss.Code Ann. § 11 — 46—9(c) (Rev.2002). Reckless disregard has been defined under this exemption as willful or wanton conduct, i.e., a wrongful act that is knowing and intentional. Turner v. City of Ruleville, 735 So.2d 226, 230 (Miss.1999). This is a much higher bar for the plaintiff to meet than mere negligence.
¶ 14. Having a dedicated exemption with a higher standard protects law enforcement from lawsuits which arise out of the performance of their duties. Maldonado v. Kelly, 768 So.2d 906, 909 (Miss.2000). Law enforcement and firefighters occupy important and unusual positions in the universe of state actors. Because they are far more likely to face dangerous situations, they are also far more likely to face claims of liability. Id. Public policy as expressed in the immunity provision indicates the legislature's decision that such personnel are immune from negligence actions. They are to be held civilly accountable only for those acts amounting to recklessness as has been defined specifically under this exemption. Id. A legislative choice has been made that law enforcement officers need not prove that they first cooly considered all areas of possible negligence before responding. That this might cause more harm than it prevented was a possible conclusion.
¶ 15. Since a special standard exists for law enforcement, we believe it is the proper standard to be applied in this case under our de novo review. If the reckless disregard standard is not applied to tort claims against law enforcement officers, then it becomes meaningless.
¶ 16. Taking as true all of Lippin-eott's assertions of negligence, it is apparent that he cannot establish that the Bureau acted with reckless disregard for his safety. As with the claim of breach of the duty of good faith, he cannot prove knowingly or intentionally wrongful acts. All he is able to show is that the Bureau and its agents made a series of challengeable choices, from the level of training before sending an officer on a drug buy, to the directions given that officer, and to the care in using a weapon at this buy. Bad judgment is insufficient for liability. Lip-pincott has offered no evidence to meet the evidentiary burden of the reckless disregard standard.
¶ 17. THE JUDGMENT OF THE CIRCUIT COURT OF CLAY COUNTY GRANTING SUMMARY JUDGMENT TO THE MISSISSIPPI BUREAU OF NARCOTICS IS AFFIRMED. COSTS OF THIS APPEAL ARE ASSESSED TO THE APPELLANT.
McMILLIN, C.J., IRVING AND GRIFFIS, JJ., CONCUR. MYERS, J., DISSENTS WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION JOINED BY KING, P.J., BRIDGES AND THOMAS, JJ. LEE AND CHANDLER, JJ., NOT PARTICIPATING.