Opinion ID: 1591402
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: whether east mississippi is immune from liability under the mississippi tort claims act.

Text: ¶ 17. The parties do not contest that East Mississippi, as a state hospital, is a governmental entity for purposes of the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. Miss.Code Ann. §§ 11-46-1 through -23 (Rev.2002). The MTCA cloaks governmental entities and state employees with immunity 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) (Rev. 2002). A duty is ministerial and not discretionary if it is imposed by law and its performance is not dependent on the employee's judgment. Cargile, 847 So.2d at 267 (citing Mohundro v. Alcorn County, 675 So.2d 848, 853 (Miss.1996)). ¶ 18. Hall's expert witness testified at trial that East Mississippi's (1) failure to check the third-floor conference room door to see if it was locked; (2) failure to install a security screen on the third floor window; and (3) failure to monitor adequately its patients housed on a locked ward constituted violations of the applicable standard of care. East Mississippi argues that these failures to act were discretionary functions and dependent upon its employees' judgments, and therefore it is immune from liability under the MTCA. It states that there was no written policy, rule or standard which required the conference room to be locked when not in use, which required security screens to be placed on non-patient rooms, or which required the staff to monitor continuously the patients. Also, it contends that the monitoring and supervision on the third-floor unit required the use of judgment and discretion depending upon the individual patients, the staff's knowledge of the patients, and the activities of the patients and the staff at any given time. East Mississippi cites the definition of ministerial function from Black's Law Dictionary 996 (6th ed.1990): a function as to which there is no occasion to use judgment or discretion. ¶ 19. Hall responds that Mississippi case law has set out a two-part analysis in determining whether a governmental function is discretionary or ministerial: (1) whether the activity involves an element of choice or judgment (whether the act is discretionary in nature); and, if so, (2) whether the choice or judgment involves social, economic, or political policy alternatives (whether the act constituted a discretionary function). Doe v. State ex rel. Miss. Dep't of Corrs., 859 So.2d 350, 356 (Miss.2003) (citing Bridges v. Pearl River Valley Water Supply Dist., 793 So.2d 584, 588 (Miss.2001)). Doe also held that duties are ministerial if they are imposed by law, and performing them is not dependent on the employee's judgment. 859 So.2d at 356. Hall points out that the duties involved in this case (supervision of patients, locking doors to rooms where patients may be unsupervised, and installing security screens in rooms where patients may be unsupervised) are not matters of social, economic or political policy alternatives. Therefore, Hall concludes, these duties are not discretionary. ¶ 20. East Mississippi is required by statute to provide patients with mental health care and treatment in accord with contemporary professional standards. Miss.Code Ann. § 41-21-102(6) (Rev.2005). Adhering to the mandates of this statute is not discretionary, and, therefore, it is ministerial. Dr. Hiatt testified that contemporary professional standards dictate that: (1) the doors to rooms where a patient might be present and unsupervised should be locked; (2) security screens should be placed on windows in rooms where a patient might be present and unsupervised; and (3) patients should be monitored in a way so that any out-of-the-ordinary actions on the part of the patients might be detected. ¶ 21. We find that the duties East Mississippi owed to its patients were not discretionary and that the discretionary function immunity provisions of the Mississippi Tort Claims Act do not shield East Mississippi from liability in this matter.