Opinion ID: 2561837
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: facts

Text: [¶ 3] Ms. Watts was a contract nurse who worked at the Wyoming Honor Farm. She usually arrived for work around 6:00 a.m. each day. Ms. Watts was typically alone in the medical offices until the other nurse arrived between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. The medical offices were located in the basement of the administration building, and inmates could access them from the east door without being observed. Sometime before 7:00 a.m. on April 15, 2004, Floyd Grady, an inmate at the Honor Farm, murdered Ms. Watts in the medical offices. [¶ 4] As personal representative of Ms. Watts' estate, Mr. Watts brought a wrongful death suit on behalf of her heirs. He claimed the State was negligent by:  releasing Mr. Grady from the Wyoming State Penitentiary and transferring him to the Honor Farm;  failing to provide for Ms. Watts' safety and security;  failing to provide the security and reasonably safe conditions necessary to protect contract workers from persons known to be extremely dangerous such as Mr. Grady;  failing to imprison and guard Mr. Grady and other dangerous inmates in a reasonable manner;  failing to operate the administration building in a safe and secure manner;  providing an insufficient number of detention officers at the Honor Farm;  improperly training, supervising and managing the detention officers at the Honor Farm;  failing to provide Ms. Watts with security from dangerous inmates;  failing to prevent Mr. Grady from attacking and killing Ms. Watts. [¶ 5] The State filed a motion for summary judgment, asserting it was immune from suit under the WGCA, Wyo. Stat. Ann. §§ 1-39-101, et seq. (LexisNexis 2003). Mr. Watts argued that § 1-39-106, which waives immunity for the negligence of public employees while acting within the scope of their duties in the operation or maintenance of any building, applied to his claims. Mr. Watts argues that the lack of sufficient guards, surveillance over the stairs and area where Tammy Watts traveled to the medical offices and locating and operating the medical offices in the Administration Building in a fashion that permitted the inmates direct, unobserved access to the medical offices between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. when Tammy Watts was there by herself' fell within the waiver of immunity in § 1-39-106. [¶ 6] The district court denied the State's motion for a summary judgment, stating: 1. The State asserts no exception of the Wyoming Governmental Claims Act (Wyo. Stat. §§ 1-39-101 through 1-39-117) that permits the estate of Tammy Watts to bring this lawsuit. . . . . 3. Plaintiff asserts that Defendants are liable pursuant to Wyo. Stat. § 1-39-106[,] i.e. Tammy Watts' death was caused by the negligence in Defendants' operation or maintenance of the Wyoming Honor Farm. 4. Genuine issues of material fact exist as to the negligence, if any, of Defendants in the operation and maintenance of the Wyoming State Honor Farm, including but not limited to the number of security officers on duty the morning of Tammy Watt's murder, the lack of security cameras in certain areas of the facility, Tammy Watts' duties as a nurse at the Honor Farm, and inherent risks, if any, of such employment. [¶ 7] The State filed a notice of appeal or, in the alternative, a petition for writ of review, seeking appellate review of the district court's ruling on its claim it was immune from suit. We granted a writ of review.