Opinion ID: 1128151
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sovereignty of the City

Text: ¶ 12. The accident between Mosby and Jeffries occurred on December 24, 1992. In his order granting summary judgment to the City and to the police officers in the first case, the trial judge stated: Upon re-hearing of the motion of the Defendant City of Oxford, et al., the Court holds that the allegations involving the Defendants (on December 24, 1992) were of a governmental nature and thus the City of Oxford is entitled to sovereign immunity under the laws of the 1992 Extraordinary Session, Ch. 3 §§ 1 and 2 (effective September 16, 1992). The individual police officers were not sued individually and therefore the suit is against the entity only. Hafer v. Melo, 502 U.S. 21, 112 S.Ct. 358, 361 n. 1, 116 L.Ed.2d 301 (1991). The Court finds that under MCA § 11-46-3 participation in the Mississippi Municipal Liability Plan does not waive sovereign immunity under said statute. Morgan v. City of Ruleville, 627 So.2d 275, 279 (Miss. 1993). Therefore, the Defendants are entitled to a dismissal with prejudice. WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, the Court holds that the City of Oxford is entitled to sovereign immunity for the actions of the police officers and this cause is dismissed with prejudice. ¶ 13. The claims against the City of Oxford made by Mosby are barred, as the judge ruled, by the special legislation passed by the Mississippi Legislature in September of 1992. During that special session, the Legislature repealed Miss. Code Ann. § 11-46-6 (Laws of the 1992 Extraordinary Session, Ch. 3 § 2, September 1992), which this Court had held unconstitutional in Presley v. Mississippi State Highway Commission, 608 So.2d 1288 (Miss. 1992). It also amended Miss. Code Ann. § 11-46-3 to provide: (1) The Legislature of the State of Mississippi finds and determines as a matter of public policy and does hereby declare that, except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, from and after the passage of House Bill No.2, 1992 First Extraordinary Session, the state and its political subdivisions, as such terms are defined in Section 11-46-1, shall not be liable and shall be immune from suit at law or in equity on account of any wrongful or tortious act or omission, including but not limited to libel, slander or defamation, by the state or its political subdivisions, or any such act or omission by any employee of the state or its political subdivisions, notwithstanding that any such act or omission constitutes or may be considered as the exercise or failure to exercise any duty, obligation, or function of a governmental, proprietary, discretionary, or ministerial nature and notwithstanding that such act or omission may or may not arise out of any activity, transaction or service for which any fee, charge, cost or other consideration was received or expected to be received in exchange therefor. (2) The immunity granted under subsection (1) of this section shall not be applicable to an incorporated municipality for any wrongful or tortious act or omission by such municipality or any employee of such municipality that arises out of the exercise or failure to exercise any duty, obligation or function of a proprietary nature. Laws of the 1992 Extraordinary Session, ch.3 § 1 (September 1992). ¶ 14. The City of Oxford argues and we find that under Subsection (2) of Section 1 of Chapter 3, codified as Miss. Code Ann. § 11-46-3 (Supp. 1992), only acts of an incorporated municipality which are proprietary in nature are excepted from sovereign immunity. In Jackson v. Smith, 309 So.2d 520 (Miss. 1975), this Court said, [i]t has long been the rule in this state that the establishment of and maintenance of the police department is a governmental function. Id. at 523 (citing City of Hattiesburg v. Geigor, 118 Miss. 676, 79 So. 846 (1918)); See also, Anderson v. Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, 419 So.2d 1010, 1014 n. 1 (Miss. 1982) (The following are `governmental' functions: . . establishment and regulation of schools, hospitals, poorhouses, fire departments, police departments, jails, workhouses, and police stations ...) (citing Jackson v. Smith, 309 So.2d 520 (Miss. 1975) (police department)). Based on the case law and the statute, the City asserts that the maintenance of its police department was a governmental function, and therefore protected by sovereign immunity. ¶ 15. It is clear from a reading of Miss. Code Ann. § 11-46-3 as amended and enacted during the Extraordinary Session, that Mosby's claim was governed by the statute. That statute took effect on September 16, 1992, three months before the accident. The Legislature intended to grant sovereign immunity to the state and its political subdivisions with the exception of municipalities engaged in proprietary functions. It did so in a special session in order that it would take effect immediately and in order to give themselves time to draft the Mississippi Tort Claims Act which became effective on April 1, 1993. ¶ 16. The City of Oxford was protected by sovereign immunity due to the Extraordinary Session legislation of September 1992. Furthermore, the establishment and maintenance of a police department is a governmental function and not a proprietary function. The City of Oxford was entitled to the protection of sovereign immunity in December 1992, and the trial court did not err in granting summary judgment to the City.