Opinion ID: 4584254
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: Terry L. Berry, Jr., was incarcerated at the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution (TSCI), an institution under the control of the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (DCS). On April 10, 2017, Berry was moved into a cell with Patrick W. Schroeder, another inmate at TSCI. Five days later, Schroeder strangled Berry, who died of his injuries on April 19. - 20 - Nebraska Supreme Court Advance Sheets 307 Nebraska Reports MOSER v. STATE Cite as 307 Neb. 18 Telena Moser, the personal representative of Berry’s estate, filed a claim with the State of Nebraska under the State Tort Claims Act (STCA). After the statutory time for the State to respond to her claim had passed, Moser filed this suit on behalf of Berry’s estate. The suit alleges negligence and wrongful death on the part of DCS. The district court dismissed Moser’s complaint. Moser appeals. We granted the State’s motion to bypass the Nebraska Court of Appeals due to the public interest involved in this case and, as asserted in the State’s petition to bypass, to address an apparent “inconsistency in this Court’s opinions in applying the strict construction legal principles of the STCA exceptions to sovereign immunity as those legal principles have been explained and applied by this Court’s more recent decisions,” specifically in the context of the intentional tort exception. We find that the State has immunity under the intentional tort exception to the STCA, and accordingly, we affirm the order dismissing Moser’s suit, albeit under different grounds for immunity than those relied upon by the district court.