Desoto Cnty. v. Dennis
| Decision Date | 16 April 2015 |
| Docket Number | No. 2013–IA–01982–SCT.,2013–IA–01982–SCT. |
| Citation | 160 So.3d 1154 |
| Parties | DESOTO COUNTY, Mississippi v. T.D. and Aaron Dennis. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Daniel J. Griffith, Cleveland, Joseph D. Neyman, Jr., Hernando, attorneys for appellant.
Ronald W. Lewis, Oxford, attorney for appellees.
EN BANC.
¶ 1. The sole question presented in this interlocutory appeal is whether a DeSoto County justice court clerk's negligence in failing to cancel an arrest warrant subjects the county to a tort lawsuit. We hold that, for the negligent act complained of in this case, the county has immunity under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. So we reverse the trial court's failure to grant summary judgment, and we render a judgment in DeSoto County's favor.
¶ 2. The facts necessary to decide this case are undisputed. A domestic dispute led a justice court judge to issue an arrest warrant for T.D., and then cancel the warrant after she complied with the judge's order to attend an anger-management course. However, because the justice court clerk failed to send a cancellation notice to the local sheriff's office, DeSoto County deputies later arrested T.D. and held her in jail until they discovered the mistake.
¶ 3. The plaintiffs sued DeSoto County for the clerk's negligence. DeSoto County moved for summary judgment, claiming immunity under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. The circuit judge denied that motion. DeSoto County appealed.
¶ 4. “Sovereign immunity”—which refers to a “government's immunity from being sued in its own courts without its consent”1 —originated in the common law of England,2 and was carried over as the law in most states following the American Revolution.3 Some states have retained common-law sovereign immunity.4 Others, including Mississippi, have supplanted the common law with statutes that have established the legislative branch's views of the appropriate limits and protections of sovereign immunity.5
¶ 5. In 1984, the Mississippi Legislature enacted the Mississippi Tort Claims Act6 which, after declaring that the State and its political subdivisions enjoy common-law immunity, waives its immunity.7 Then, having generally waived common-law sovereign immunity, the Tort Claims Act grants statutory immunity to governmental entities and their employees for specifically defined conduct.8 One of those specific grants of statutory immunity states:
The circuit judge found that, under the undisputed facts of this case, DeSoto County did not enjoy immunity. We disagree.
¶ 6. We review matters of statutory interpretation de novo,10 and our function “is not to decide what a statute should provide, but to determine what it does provide.”11 Our constitutional duty is to “interpret statutes according to their clear meaning,”12 and we must “apply the plain meaning of unambiguous statutes.”13
¶ 7. Section 11–46–9 grants immunity to DeSoto County if: (1) its justice court clerk was “acting within the course and scope of [her] employment or duties” (there is no dispute that she was), and (2) the claim arises “out of a ... judicial action or inaction, or administrative action or inaction of a ... judicial nature....”14 We find that the Legislature could not have chosen language that more precisely and clearly provides immunity to the clerk. The statute uses no words of limitation. It provides immunity for all claims that arise from any “judicial action or inaction, or administrative ... inaction of a ... judicial nature ....”15
¶ 8. This claim arises from both a judicial action and an administrative inaction of a judicial nature. Once the parties appeared, the justice court judge should not have left the arrest warrant outstanding.
Then, after the parties complied with the judge's instructions and he remanded the charges, the clerk should have notified the local sheriff's office that the warrants were cancelled. So the authority to cancel the warrant lay with the judge. And the clerk had an administrative duty to issue notice of the cancelled warrant—clearly an act of a “judicial nature”—which related to and derived from the judge's decision. Black's Law Dictionary defines “judicial” as “[o]f, relating to, or by the court or a judge.”16 So, clearly, the clerk's administrative duty was judicial in nature and is within the purview of Section 11–46–9(1)(a).
¶ 9. The circuit judge found that other jurisdictions do not supply immunity to clerks under similar circumstances. But where our statutes are clear, we do not look to other states' interpretations of their own statutes.17 Nevertheless, we note that other jurisdictions that have found similar acts were not immune were applying law that is different from our Tort Claims Act.
¶ 10. For instance, in City of Bayou La Batre v. Robinson, the Alabama Supreme Court applied common-law judicial immunity, rather than statutory provisions similar to those found in our Tort Claims Act.18 The same is true of Mauro v. County of Kittitas,19 Connell v. Tooele City,20 Pierson v. Ray,21 Stine v. Shuttle,22 Calhoun v. City of Providence,23 and Dalton v. Hysell.24 In fact, in Blankenship v. Enright the Ohio Court of Appeals recognized that Dalton's holding that a clerk enjoyed no immunity had been superseded because Ohio had enacted an immunity statute.25
¶ 11. And in Franklin v. Dayton Probation Services Department, the Court of Appeals of Ohio found that a municipal clerk's action was not immune because it fell within a reckless and wanton exception to immunity, a provision that is not at issue here.26 In Pittman v. Lower Court Counseling, the Nevada Supreme Court applied a statute that granted immunity for discretionary acts, not judicial actions.27 In Smith v. Lewis, the Missouri Court of Appeals applied common-law immunity.28
¶ 12. Here, DeSoto County claims statutory judicial-action immunity under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act.29 It claims neither common-law nor discretionary- function immunity.30 Were we applying common-law immunity, we would be free to limit that immunity. But the Legislature removed our discretion with the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. And, under the plain language of Section 11–46–9(1)(a), DeSoto County enjoys immunity for the clerk's negligence in this case.
¶ 15. I would hold that the clerk's failure to forward the warrant cancellation notice did not “arise out of a legislative or judicial action or inaction, or administrative action or inaction of a legislative or judicial nature.” Miss.Code Ann. § 11–46–9(1)(a) (Rev.2012). Therefore it should not be afforded immunity under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act.
¶ 16. The clerk's deposition testimony reflects the following questions and answers:
¶ 17. The clerk was not in a position to exercise discretion or judgment in choosing whether or not to cancel the warrant. Rather, the clerk had a routine ministerial responsibility to cancel warrants for charges that had been remanded to the file.31 Mississippi Code Section 11–46–9(1)(a) extends immunity to claims arising out of “administrative action or inaction of a legislative or judicial nature,” in addition to “legislative or judicial action or inaction.”
Miss.Code Ann. § 11–46–9(1)(a) (Rev.2012). One commentator has recognized that this section's grant of immunity to claims arising out of “administrative action or inaction of a legislative or judicial nature” expands judicial immunity to the quasi-judicial and quasi-legislative acts of administrative agencies. Jim Fraiser, A Review of the Substantive Provisions of the Mississippi Governmental Immunity Act: Employees' Individual Liability, Exemptions to Waiver of Immunity, Non–Jury Trial, and Limitation of Liability, 68 Miss. L.J. 703, 751–57 (1999). The Court of Appeals has held that the “administrative action” language embraces the clerical tasks of court officials and that, if these clerical tasks are judicial in nature, then they are covered by immunity. Smith v. City of Saltillo, 44 So.3d 438, 441 (Miss.Ct.App.2010). We also recognized this in Collins v. Tallahatchie County, 876 So.2d 284, 288 (Miss.2004), where we indicated that the acts of court staff could be considered “administrative action or inaction of a ... judicial nature.” Regardless of whether the act involved is performed by an administrative agency or by someone in an administrative position, such as a member of judicial or legislative staff, for immunity to apply under Section 11–46–9(1)(a), the act at issue must be judicial or legislative in nature. Miss.Code Ann. § 11–46–9(1)(a) (Rev.2012).
¶ 18. The analysis of whether judicial immunity applies, that is, whether ...
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