Opinion ID: 1133541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: whether the plaintiffs' claims are barred by the mississippi tort claims act because leflore county is immune for discretionary, governmental acts.

Text: ¶ 3. The plaintiffs allege that the curve was designed and maintained in a dangerous and defective manner, that the county knew of the dangerous condition, but failed to take steps to correct such a condition despite the fact that they knew or should have known of numerous accidents occurring at this curve, and that the county had failed to place adequate warning signs before the curve. The plaintiffs further argue that Miss.Code Ann. § 63-3-305 (1996) places a statutory duty on the county to place and maintain traffic control devices as are deemed necessary: Local authorities in their respective jurisdictions shall place and maintain such traffic control devices upon highways under their jurisdiction as they may deem necessary to indicate and to carry out the provisions of this chapter or provisions of local traffic ordinances or to regulate, warn, or guide traffic. All such traffic-control devices hereafter erected shall conform to the state manual and specifications. Local authorities in exercising those functions referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be subject to the direction and control of the state highway commission. . . . . . Miss.Code Ann. § 63-3-305 (1996). ¶ 4. The plaintiffs contend that the wording of Miss.Code Ann. § 63-3-305 mandates the placement of such warnings, that this statutory duty requires the exercise of ordinary care, and that the county did not use due care in the exercise of its discretion to warn of a known dangerous condition. The plaintiffs argue that Leflore County should have posted a warning sign to advise motorists to limit their speed through the curve and should have placed chevrons (reflectors) and or guard rails along the curve. ¶ 5. The county argues that it is immune from suit based on several provisions of § 11-46-9 of the Mississippi Tort Claims Act (MTCA) because the county's decision whether to place warning signs in proximity to a curve is a discretionary function for which the county is immune under the MTCA. The county asserts that the decision whether to place traffic warning signs before a curve is a discretionary government function within the meaning of Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-9(1)(d) (Supp. 1999) which states: (1) A governmental entity and its employees acting within the course and scope of their employment or duties shall not be liable for any claim: (d) Based upon the exercise or performance or the failure to exercise or perform a discretionary function or duty on the part of a governmental entity or employee thereof, whether or not the discretion be abused; Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-9(1)(d) (Supp. 1999). ¶ 6. In order to determine whether government employees are entitled to qualified immunity under the common law this Court has used a discretionary/ministerial test. If the conduct is a discretionary act governmental employees are entitled to qualified immunity. Mohundro v. Alcorn County, 675 So.2d 848, 853 (Miss. 1996) Under the test put forth in Mohundro, conduct is ministerial, and not discretionary, if it is imposed by law and the performance of the duty is not dependent on the employee's judgment. Id. See also L.W. v. McComb Separate Mun. Sch. Dist., 754 So.2d 1136 (Miss.1999). ¶ 7. The county cites several cases which have characterized the placement of traffic control devices or road signs as a governmental decision: Wall v. City of Gulfport, 252 So.2d 891, 893 (Miss.1971) (decision whether to replace a stop sign blown away by a hurricane a governmental function); Nathaniel v. City of Moss Point, 385 So.2d 599 (Miss.1980) (decision whether to place traffic control devices at an intersection is governmental); Webb v. County of Lincoln, 536 So.2d 1356, 1358-59 (Miss.1988) (re-erecting a stop sign held to be a discretionary act). These cases were decided prior to the enactment of the MTCA. Though they are still valid precedent in determining whether an act is governmental/discretionary, they do not address the issues raised by the plaintiffs in this case, and by the language of the MTCA itself, regarding the government entity's exercise of ordinary care, upon which sovereign immunity is contingent. One post-MTCA case is cited with facts similar to the current case. In King v. City of Jackson, 667 So.2d 1315 (Miss. 1995), this Court held that the City of Jackson could not be held liable for failing to provide adequate warning at a dangerous curve where a vehicle left the roadway and ran into an open concrete ditch, killing one of the occupants. Because the placement of warning signs on this portion of the street was a governmental function, and because earlier decisions of this Court had declared this to be so as a matter of public policy, the city was found to be entitled to sovereign immunity, and summary judgment in favor of the city was affirmed. Id. at 1316. Justice Banks wrote a dissenting opinion (joined by Sullivan, Pittman and McRae, JJ.) which criticized the majority for misconstruing the nature of the claim against the city, writing: In short, this is not a claim about traffic devices at all. It is a claim concerning the failure to warn of a dangerous condition created and maintained by the city in the exercise of its governmental function. Id. at 1317. The dissenters emphasized that the presence or absence of traffic control devices was but one part of the entire allegations of negligence. ¶ 8. The decision whether to place traffic control devices in accordance with § 63-3-305 is discretionary. However, this provision must also be read in conjunction with Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-9(1)(b) of the MTCA which requires ordinary care in the discharge of such discretionary duties. The county characterizes the decision on whether to warn motorists of the curve at issue as purely discretionary, and therefore within the ambit of Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-9(1)(d), and argues that the trial court was therefore in error in refusing to grant summary judgment in favor of the county. However, § 11-46-9(1)(b) of the MTCA states that a government entity and its employees shall not be liable for any claim: (b) Arising out of any act or omission 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, whether or not the statute, ordinance or regulation be valid; Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-9(1)(b) (Supp. 1999) (emphasis added). ¶ 9. This Court recently considered the question of whether the failure of the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) and a county to place traffic control devices on a road is a discretionary act under the MTCA. In Jones v. Mississippi Dep't. of Transp., 744 So.2d 256 (Miss. 1999), this Court adopted the public policy function test under the Federal Tort Claims Act as set out by the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Gaubert, 499 U.S. 315, 322, 111 S.Ct. 1267, 113 L.Ed.2d 335 (1991), to determine whether governmental conduct is discretionary so as to afford the government entity immunity. Application of the public policy test requires that we determine: (1) whether the placement of traffic control devices involves an element of choice or judgment; and if so (2) whether the choice or judgment involve social, economic or political policy. Jones, 744 So.2d at 262. This Court concluded in Jones that, although the failure to place the traffic control devices was a discretionary act, the MDOT and the county had a duty to warn motorists of a dangerous condition of which they had knowledge. Therefore, the fact that the placement of traffic control devices was found to be discretionary did not absolve the MDOT and the county in that case from using ordinary care in the exercise of their discretion. Where the state actor fails to use ordinary care there is no shield of immunity. Id. at 264. The position taken by this Court in Jones is further reinforced by the fact that § 11-46-9 of the MTCA has been further amended to include the following provision which states that a government entity and its employees shall not be liable for any claim: (w) Arising out of the absence, condition, malfunction or removal by third parties of any sign, signal, warning device, illumination device, guardrail or median barrier, unless the absence, condition, malfunction or removal is not corrected by the governmental entity responsible for its maintenance within a reasonable time after actual or constructive notice; Miss Code Ann § 11-46-9(1)(w) (Supp. 1999) (emphasis added). ¶ 10. The county insists that it is immune because the placement of traffic signs is a discretionary function. The plaintiffs concede that the placement of traffic signs is a discretionary function, but maintain that there is a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the county exercised the requisite ordinary care in the design and maintenance of the curve, and the placement or non-placement of warning signs and chevrons before the allegedly hazardous curve. The plaintiffs have offered evidence which creates an issue of fact as to whether the county had exercised the requisite ordinary care in the performance of it's discretionary duties. The plaintiffs offered an expert in the field of engineering who produced an affidavit stating that the curve should have been posted with a 40 mph sign on the curve, and that the need for such could be established by a simple drive through the curve with a ball bank indicator, something that is standard procedure in maintenance inspections. The county anticipated calling its own witnesses to testify that the road at issue complies with the relevant engineering standards and that the curve at issue could be comfortably negotiated at speeds in excess of 40 mph. The county also anticipated calling experts in the field of accident reconstruction to show that the car left the road before the curve rather than as a result of the curve. There remain genuine issues of material fact which have yet to be fully fleshed out. If the county wishes to rebut the testimony of the plaintiffs' expert it should do so under cross-examination during the course of a trial. In light of the plain language of Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-9(1)(b) which makes qualified sovereign immunity contingent on the exercise of ordinary care, and in light of Jones, it cannot be said that the circuit court was in error to deny the summary judgment and to set this matter for a trial.