Court Opinion

ID: 9563323
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:38:39.018957+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:47.900792
License: Public Domain

TYSON, Judge,
concurring in part, dissenting in part.
I agree that defendant’s appeal, although interlocutory, asserts a substantial right and is properly before this Court. Smith v. Jackson County Bd. of Educ., 168 N.C. App. 452, 608 S.E.2d 398 (2005).
The majority’s opinion then affirms the Industrial Commission’s denial of DHHS’ motion to dismiss and holds the public duty doctrine does not apply to the facts at bar. In the alternative, the majority’s opinion holds DHHS had a “special relationship” to plaintiffs to except plaintiff’s claims from the public duty doctrine. Precedents construing and applying the public duty doctrine clearly control and require dismissal of this case. No “special relationship” exists between plaintiffs and DHHS to except DHHS from the public duty doctrine. I respectfully dissent.
I. Public Duty Doctrine
The public duty doctrine “provides that governmental entities and their agents owe duties only to the general public, not to individuals, absent a ‘special relationship’ or ‘special duty’ between the entity and the injured party.” Stone v. N.C. Dept. of Labor, 347 N.C. *298473, 477-78, 495 S.E.2d 711, 714 (1998) (emphasis supplied); see also Wood v. Guilford Cty., 355 N.C. 161, 167, 558 S.E.2d 490, 495 (2002) (“. . . this Court has extended the public duty doctrine to state agencies required by statute to conduct inspections for the public’s general protection...”).
Our Supreme Court recognized the common law public duty doctrine as an exception to the Tort Claims Act for municipalities, political subdivisions, and their agents in Braswell v. Braswell, 330 N.C. 363, 370-71, 410 S.E.2d 897, 901 (1991) (involving a county sheriff’s alleged negligence in protecting a citizen). In Stone, our Supreme Court extended the scope of the public duty doctrine to “state agencies” and “governmental functions other than law enforcement.” 347 N.C. at 481, 495 S.E.2d at 716.
Our Supreme Court also stated exceptions to the application of the public duty doctrine: (1) where the plaintiff shows a “special relationship” between the injured party and the governmental entity; or, (2) when the governmental entity creates a “special duty” by promising protection to an individual, the protection is not forthcoming, and the individual’s reliance on the promise of protection is causally related to the injury suffered. Braswell, 330 N.C. at 371, 410 S.E.2d at 902. These exceptions are to be narrowly applied. Id. at 372, 410 S.E.2d at 902.
In Braswell, our Supreme Court held the public duty doctrine was necessary to prevent “an overwhelming burden of liability” on governmental agencies with “limited resources.” Id. at 370-71, 410 S.E.2d at 901. The Court stated:
The amount of protection that may be provided is limited by the resources of the community and by a considered legislative-executive decision as to how those resources may be deployed. For the courts to proclaim a new and general duty of protection in the law of tort. . . would inevitably determine how the limited [public] resources . . . should be allocated and without predictable limits.
Id. at 371, 410 S.E.2d at 901-02 (quoting Riss v. City of New York, 22 N.Y.2d 579, 581-82, 240 N.E.2d 860, 860-61, 293 N.Y.S.2d 897, 898 (1968)).
In Myers v. McGrady, 170 N.C. App. 501, 507, 613 S.E.2d 334, 339 (2005), this Court recently held “that the public duty doctrine applies where plaintiffs allege negligence through (a) failure of law *299enforcement to provide protection from the misconduct of others, and (b) failure of state departments or agencies to detect and prevent misconduct of others through improper inspections.” (Emphasis supplied). The facts before us clearly fall into the second category.
II. Controlling Precedents
This case cannot be distinguished from controlling Supreme Court decisions in Stone and Hunt v. N.C. Dept. of Labor, 348 N.C. 192, 499 S.E.2d 747 (1998). We are bound by the decisions of our Supreme Court. Eaves v. Universal Underwriters Group, 107 N.C. App. 595, 600, 421 S.E.2d 191, 194 (1992), disc. review denied, 333 N.C. 167, 424 S.E.2d 908 (1992).
The result here is also controlled by this Court’s prior precedents in Myers; Lassiter v. Cohn, 168 N.C. App. 310, 607 S.E.2d 688 (2005) (the public duty doctrine barred the plaintiffs claims against the city when, after a traffic accident, a city police officer asked the plaintiff to walk to the rear of his vehicle and the plaintiff was struck by a car); Little v. Atkinson, 136 N.C. App. 430, 433-34, 524 S.E.2d 378, 381 (the public duty doctrine barred claims against the city and its police officers who failed to adequately inspect a crime scene before allowing relatives of the victim to visit the site), disc. rev. denied, 351 N.C. 474, 543 S.E.2d 492 (2000); Vanasek v. Duke Power Co., 132 N.C. App. 335, 340-41, 511 S.E.2d 41, 45 (the public duty doctrine barred claims against the city and its police officers who failed to warn the public of broken power lines that caused decedent’s death), cert. denied, 350 N.C. 851, 539 S.E.2d 13 (1999); Simmons v. City of Hickory, 126 N.C. App. 821, 823-25, 487 S.E.2d 583, 586 (1997) (the public duty doctrine barred a claim against the city for negligently inspecting homes and issuing building permits); Humphries v. N.C. Dept. of Correction, 124 N.C. App. 545, 547-48, 479 S.E.2d 27, 28 (1996) (the public duty doctrine barred claim against the Department of Correction for alleged negligence in the supervision of a probationer), disc. rev. improvidently allowed, 346 N.C. 269, 485 S.E.2d 293 (1997); Tise v. Yates Construction Co., 122 N.C. App. 582, 588-89, 471 S.E.2d 102, 107 (1996) (the public duty doctrine shielded city from liability for its failure to inform construction company of potential tampering of construction equipment by trespassers where decedent died after construction equipment crushed him); Sinning v. Clark, 119 N.C. App. 515, 518-20, 459 S.E.2d 71, 73-74 (the public duty doctrine applied to bar a claim against the city, the city building inspector, and *300the city code administrator for gross negligence in an inspection of a home), disc. rev. denied, 342 N.C. 194, 463 S.E.2d 242 (1995); Clark v. Red Bird Cab Co., 114 N.C. App. 400, 406, 442 S.E.2d 75, 78 (1994) (the public duty doctrine protected the municipality and its police officers who negligently issued a taxicab permit to a driver who subsequently murdered a customer); Prevette v. Forsyth County, 110 N.C. App. 754, 758, 431 S.E.2d 216, 218 (the public duty doctrine barred a wrongful death claim against the county and against the director and an employee of the county animal control shelter for failing to protect plaintiff from dogs which defendants knew were dangerous), disc. review denied, 334 N.C. 622, 435 S.E.2d 338 (1993). We are also bound by this Court’s prior precedents. In re Civil Penalty, 324 N.C. 373, 384, 379 S.E.2d 30, 37 (1989). Nothing in Thompson or Lovelace, cited in the majority’s opinion, expressly overrules the precedents cited above.
A. Stone v. N.C. Dept. of Labor
In Stone, the plaintiffs sued the North Carolina Department of Labor and its Occupational Safety and Health Division (“DOL") under the Tort Claims Act seeking damages for injuries or deaths resulting from a fire at the Imperial Foods Products plant in Hamlet, North Carolina. 347 N.C. at 476, 495 S.E.2d at 713. Subsequent to the fire, DOL conducted an inspection of the plant. This was the only inspection DOL had conducted during the plant’s eleven-year history of operation. Id. at 477, 495 S.E.2d at 713. As a result of the inspection, DOL discovered inadequate and blocked exits and an inadequate fire suppression system. Id.
As here, the Industrial Commission in Stone denied the State’s Rule 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) motions. The Court of Appeals in Stone unanimously affirmed the Commission. Id. at 476, 495 S.E.2d at 713. Our Supreme Court granted discretionary review and reversed and remanded. Justice Whichard wrote:
Just as we recognized the limited resources of law enforcement in Braswell, we recognize the limited resources of defendants here. Just as we there refused to judicially impose an overwhelming burden of liability on law enforcement for failure to prevent every criminal act, we now refuse to judicially impose an overwhelming burden of liability on defendants for failure to prevent every employer’s negligence that results in injuries or deaths to employees. A government ought to be free to enact laws for the public protection without thereby exposing its supporting tax*301payers ... to liability for failures of omission in its attempt to enforce them. It is better to have such laws, even haphazardly enforced, than not to have them at all.
Stone, 347 N.C. at 481, 495 S.E.2d at 716 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted) (emphasis in original).
Similar to plaintiffs’ claims here, the plaintiffs in Stone argued the state agency owed them an individualized duty under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 95-4(5) to inspect the plant. Id. at 483, 495 S.E.2d at 717. “This statute provides that the Commissioner of Labor is ‘charged with the duty’ to visit and inspect ‘at reasonable hours, as often as practicable,’ all of the ‘factories, mercantile establishments, mills, workshops, public eating places, and commercial institutions in the State.’ Id. (quoting N.C. Gen. Stat. § 95-4(5)). The Court held the individual claimants could not recover against the State because the duty imposed by this statute is for the benefit of the general public and not for the benefit of an individual. Id. The Court stated:
[W]e do not believe the legislature, in establishing the Occupational Safety and Health Division of the Department of Labor in 1973, intended to impose a duty upon this agency to each individual worker in North Carolina. Nowhere in chapter 95 of our General Statutes does the legislature authorize a private, individual right of action against the State to assure compliance with OSHANC standards. Rather, the most the legislature intended was that the Division prescribe safety standards and secure some reasonable compliance through spqt-check inspections made “as often as practicable.” N.C.G.S. § 95-4(5) (1996). “In this way the safety conditions for workers in general would be improved.” Nerbun v. State, 8 Wash. App. 370, 376, 506 P.2d 873, 877.
Id. at 482, 495 S.E.2d at 716 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted).
B. Huntv. N.C. Dept. of Labor
In Hunt, decided a year after Stone, the plaintiff also sued DOL under the Tort Claims Act for injuries resulting from an accident at an amusement park. Id. The plaintiff argued DOL “had a duty under the Amusement Device Safety Act, chapter 95, article 14B of the North Carolina General Statutes, and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder in the Administrative Code,” and the DOL breached this duty by failing to inform the amusement park’s manager that, pursuant to Rule .0429(a)(3)(B) of the Administrative Code, shoulder *302straps and seat belts must be mounted on go-karts. Id. at 195, 499 S.E.2d at 748-49. The Commission again denied the State’s Rule 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) motions and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Id. at 194, 499 S.E.2d at 748.
Our Supreme court reviewed the Amusement Device Safety Act and again reversed the Court of Appeal’s affirmance and remanded. Justice (now Chief Justice) Parker wrote, “nowhere in the Act did the legislature impose a duty upon defendant to each go-kart customer.” Id. at 197, 499 S.E.2d at 750. The Court further stated, “Pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 95-111.4, the Commissioner of Labor has promulgated rules governing the inspection of go-karts. 13 NCAC 15 .0400 (June 1992). These rules similarly do not impose any such duty.” Id. The Court held that the rules promulgated under the Amusement Device Safety Act “are for the ‘[protection of the public from exposure to such unsafe conditions’ and do not create a duty to a specific individual.” Id. at 198, 499 S.E.2d at 751. “To hold contrary to our holding in Stone, in which we held that the defendants’ failure to inspect did not create liability, would be tantamount to imposing liability on defendant in this case solely for inspecting the go-karts and not discovering them to be in violation of the Code.” Id. at 198-99, 499 S.E.2d at 751.
III. Analysis
The facts at bar fit squarely within the law set forth in Stone and Hunt and other, binding precedents cited above. Stone and Hunt mandate that the public duty doctrine bars negligence claims against the State where the State legislatively imposes a duty to inspect to protect the public generally. Here, none of the applicable statutes before us impose any duty on or require the State to protect any individual claimant, nor do the statutes establish any special relationship between plaintiffs and DHHS.
A. Public. Not Private. Duty
The North Carolina General Assembly authorized Mitchell County to establish and maintain a county confinement facility. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-218 (2003) (“A county may establish, acquire, erect, repair, maintain, and operate local confinement facilities and may for these purposes appropriate funds not otherwise limited as to use by law.”). The General Assembly also recognized the Sheriff of Mitchell County bears the responsibility for the care and custody of the jail and its inmates. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 162-22 (2003) (“The sheriff shall *303have the care and custody of the jail in his county; and shall be, or appoint, the keeper thereof.”) These statutes clearly show the Legislature’s intent to place the responsibility of and liability for the care and custody of detainees housed in local jails on Mitchell County and its sheriff, not the State. Id.
Further, under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-216, “Legislative Policy”, the General Assembly provided:
The policy of the General Assembly with respect to local confinement facilities is:
(1) Local confinement facilities should provide secure custody of persons confined therein in order to protect the community and should be operated so as to protect the health and welfare of prisoners and provide for their humane treatment.
(2) Minimum statewide standards should be provided to guide and assist local governments in planning, constructing, and maintaining confinement facilities and in developing programs that provide for humane treatment of prisoners and contribute to the rehabilitation of offenders.
(3) The State should provide services to local governments to help improve the quality of administration and local confinement facilities. These services should include inspection, consultation, technical assistance, and other appropriate services.
(4) Adequate qualifications and training of the personnel of local confinement facilities are essential to improving the quality of these facilities. The State shall establish entry level employment standards for jailers and supervisory and administrative personnel of local confinement facilities to include training as a condition of employment in a local confinement facility pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 17C and Chapter 17E and the rules promulgated thereunder.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-216 (2003) (emphasis supplied).
Under this statute, the General Assembly’s expressed intent is that defendant’s public duty is clearly for the benefit of the public. Id. (“Local confinement facilities should provide secure custody of persons confined therein in order to protect the community”). Also, under this statute, the State “should provide services to local governments to help improve the quality of administration and local confinement facilities. These services should include inspection, consul*304tation, technical assistance, and other appropriate services.” This language reinforces the legislative intent that defendant’s role in providing statewide minimum standards and bi-annual inspections of local jails is for the benefit of the public and not for these individual claimants. This statute clearly does not impose either the categorical or derivative responsibility on the State to ensure county jail facilities comply with certain regulations or to create any liability to any individual for its failure to do so. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-221 required DHHS to “develop and publish minimum standards for the operation of local confinement facilities.” The standards must provide:
(1) Secure and safe physical facilities;
(2) Jail design;
(3) Adequacy of space per prisoner;
(4) Heat, light, and ventilation;
(5) Supervision of prisoners;
(6) Personal hygiene and comfort of prisoners;
(7) Medical care for prisoners, including mental health, mental retardation, and substance abuse services;
(8) Sanitation;
(9) Food allowances, food preparation, and food handling;
(10) Any other provisions that may be necessary for the safekeeping, privacy, care, protection, and welfare of prisoners.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-221(a) (2003). This statute imposes no affirmative duty on the State to ensure the safety of individual detainees housed in county jails.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-222, “Inspections of local confinement facilities” provides in pertinent part:
Department personnel shall visit and inspect each local confinement facility at least semiannually. The purpose of the inspections is to investigate the conditions of confinement, the treatment of prisoners, the maintenance of entry level employment standards for jailers and supervisory and administrative personnel of local confinement facilities as provided for in G.S. 153A-216(4), and to determine whether the facilities meet the minimum standards published pursuant to G.S. 153A-221. The *305inspector shall make a written report of each inspection and submit it within 30 days after the day the inspection is completed to the governing body and other local officials responsible for the facility. The report shall specify each way in which the facility does not meet the minimum standards. The governing body shall consider the report at its first regular meeting after receipt of the report and shall promptly initiate any action necessary to bring the facility into conformity with the standards.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-222 (2003) (emphasis supplied). In the Tort Claims Act, the legislature clearly did not intend to impose liability on the State for injuries or deaths sustained by detainees in local confinement facilities with allegedly inadequate safety measures. Under the statute, the local governing body, and not the State, is charged with the duty to bring the facility into conformity with and maintain the standards. This statute also demonstrates the Legislature’s intent that the State’s role in county jails is limited to inspect and report on county correctional facilities to the county governing authorities for the benefit of the public generally. Id.
Further, N.C. Gen. ■ Stat. § 153A-223 (2003), “Enforcement of Minimum Standards,” shows the State is not liable for claims of detainees in local jails. The statute provides:
If an inspection conducted pursuant to G.S. 153A-222 discloses . . . that a local confinement facility does not meet the minimum standards published pursuant to G.S. 153A-221 and, in addition, if the Secretary determines that conditions in the facility jeopardize the safe custody, safety, health, or welfare of persons confined in the facility, the Secretary may order corrective action or close the facility, as provided in this section ...[.]
Id. (emphasis supplied). The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit considered this statute in Reid v. Kayye, 885 F. 2d 129, 131 (4th Cir. 1989). The Court stated, “We must conclude . . . that use of the word ‘may’ in § 153A-223 is purposeful and that DHR officials are not vested with the mandatory duty to remedy substandard jail conditions.” Id. Any enforcement action by defendant is couched in the discretionary language of “may” or “should.” Id. The statute and the decisions interpreting the statute show the Legislature’s clear intent for the State and its agencies to have a limited role inspecting and reporting on local jail facilities to prompt remedial action by the local governing body Id.
*306In Braswell and reiterated in Stone and Hunt, our Supreme Court recognized the limited resources and duty of the State. “For the courts to proclaim a new and general duty of protection in the law of tort . . . would inevitably determine how the limited [public] resources . . . should be allocated and without predictable limits.” Braswell, 330 N.C. at 371, 410 S.E.2d at 901-02. Past precedents bind us to “refuse to judicially impose an overwhelming burden of liability on defendants” for DHHS’s alleged failure to prevent Mitchell County and its sheriffs alleged negligence in the care, custody, and maintenance of its confinement facility. Stone, 347 N.C. at 481, 495 S.E.2d at 716. Mitchell County and its sheriff, not the State, bore the duty and responsibility to ensure the safety of the detainees in the county jail. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 162-22. Mitchell County recognized that duty and settled all of plaintiffs’ claims.
Clear and controlling precedents show the state is not liable for the tragic injuries or deaths that occurred in the Mitchell County jail. The public duty doctrine shields the State from liability for negligence claims from “the alleged failure of a state agency to detect and prevent misconduct of a third party through improper inspections.” Myers, 170 N.C. App. at 503, 613 S.E.2d at 337.
The regulatory powers of the state government are extensive and, in one way or another, reach virtually every aspect of our lives. The natural extension of the majority’s unprecedented and unwarranted interpretation has far reaching implications. Under the majority’s holding, a citizen who becomes ill from eating spoiled food at a restaurant could hold the State liable because DHHS has a statutory duty to inspect food establishments. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 130A-249 (2003) (“The Secretary may enter any establishment that is subject to the provisions of G.S. 130A-248 for the purpose of making inspections. The Secretary shall inspect each restaurant at least quarterly . . .”). These inspections are twice as frequent than what the statute requires of defendants here. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-222 (“Department personnel shall visit and inspect each local confinement facility at least semiannually”).
Similarly, a patient who receives negligent medical care or a client who receives faulty legal advice or whose lawyer stole the client’s money could hold the State liable for negligent inspection, testing, and licensing of applicants. The State of North Carolina, through the North Carolina Medical Board, the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners, and the North Carolina State Bar licenses *307and regulates the practices of medicine and law, including theft of a client’s funds by an attorney. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 90-4 (2003); N.C. Gen. Stat. § 84-24 (2003); N.C. Gen. Stat. 84-23 (2003). State boards and agencies license and regulate a host of other professions and occupations. See e.g., real estate appraisers (N.C. Gen. Stat. Chapter 93E); cosmetic art (N.C. Gen. Stat. Chapter 88B); teachers (N.C. Gen. Stat. Chapter 115C).
Not content with their substantial settlements from Mitchell County, plaintiffs now seek to also cash out from the taxpayers of this State. Braswell and its progeny, Stone and Hunt, have stood as binding precedents under these facts for over fifteen years without any affecting amendment of the Tort Claims Act by the General Assembly. Blackmon v. N.C. Dept. of Correction, 118 N.C. App. 666, 673, 457 S.E.2d 306, 310 (1995) (“[I]t is appropriate to assume the legislature is aware of any judicial construction of a statute.”) The holdings in Spicer, Levin, and Shields, cited in the majority’s opinion, all reinforce the legislature’s intent that any individual duty owed to plaintiffs rests with the officials of the local governmental unit that own, operate, and maintain the jail, not the State.
B. “Special Relationship”'
After having cited no controlling precedents or binding authority to support its broad interpretation, the majority’s opinion states, “Even if we could conclude that the statutes and regulations imposed a duty to inspect for the benefit of the public, we would still hold that plaintiffs fall within the ‘special relationship’ exception to the public duty doctrine.”
For the “special relationship” exception to apply, it “must be specifically alleged, and is not created merely by a showing that the state undertook to perform certain duties.” Lane v. Kinston, 142 N.C. App. 622, 625, 544 S.E.2d 810, 813 (2001) (citation omitted). “In sum, the ‘special duty’ exception to the general rule against liability ... is a very narrow one; it should be applied only when the promise, reliance, and causation are manifestly present.” Braswell, 330 N.C. 372, 410 S.E.2d at 902. A “special relationship” may exist when plaintiffs are held in police custody. However, if that “special relationship” exists, it is between the detainees and Mitchell County and its sheriff, not the State.
The applicable statutes noted above clearly indicate that the Legislature intended the responsibility for the care and custody of *308local jails to be borne by the county and the sheriff. The State did not waive its sovereign immunity or place such activities outside the public duty doctrine. Mitchell County and the Sheriff of Mitchell County bore the responsibility to ensure the county’s confinement facilities were maintained in a safe condition for the detainees. Liability arising out of a “special relationship” is the liability of Mitchell County, which settled plaintiff’s claims.
IV. Conclusion
The Industrial Commission failed to follow clearly controlling precedents and erred as a matter of law in denying the State’s motions to dismiss plaintiff’s claims due to the public duty doctrine. The Commission and this Court are bound by clear Supreme Court precedents. None of the statutes before us expressly impose liability on the State to an individual for the negligence of a third party.
For over fifteen years after the Supreme Court’s decisions in Braswell and its progeny, the General Assembly has not amended the Tort Claims Act to alter or abolish the application of the public duty doctrine for alleged negligent inspections by state agencies to allow recovery for an individual’s alleged injury as a result of actions by a third party.
I completely agree with the statement in the majority’s opinion that “[t]his Court must... be ever vigilant not to act as a super-legislature that imposes its notion of public policy in the face of statutory determinations otherwise. It is for the General Assembly, and not judges, to decide questions of public policy regarding how and when the State may be sued.” The General Assembly has spoken through the absence of legislation to reduce, alter, or abolish the public duty doctrine in North Carolina. Its intent should control the result here.
Detainees in the Mitchell County jail were killed or injured as a result of a tragic fire. “This Court should not, however, permit these ‘bad facts’ to lure it into making ‘bad law.’ ” N.C. Baptist Hospitals, Inc. v. Mitchell, 323 N.C. 528, 539, 374 S.E.2d 844, 850 (1988). I respectfully dissent.