Grantham v. Mississippi Dept. of Corrections, No. 57500

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Mississippi
• Writing for the Court: Before ROY NOBLE LEE; ROBERTSON; Learned Hand; ROY NOBLE LEE
• Citation: 522 So.2d 219
• Docket Number: No. 57500
• Decision Date: 02 March 1988
• Parties: Linda GRANTHAM v. MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et al.

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522 So.2d 219 Linda GRANTHAM
v.
MISSISSIPPI DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, et al. No. 57500. Supreme Court of Mississippi. March 2, 1988.

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Alvin M. Binder and Lisa B. Milner, Binder, Milner & Milner, Jackson, for appellant.

Edwin Lloyd Pittman and Mike Moore, Attys. Gen. by Robert L. Gibbs, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jackson, for appellees.

Before ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and ROBERTSON and ANDERSON, JJ.

ROBERTSON, Justice, for the Court:

I.

Today's appeal arises from a tragedy that touches the heart and sears the soul of our parole system, yet we confront the reality that the system may not be sued. We know that possibility of parole is an indispensable part of a correctional policy with any hope of doing more good than harm. To the prisoner possibility of parole is hope itself. As well, we know the painful lesson of recidivism: that among those paroled it is a statistical certainty that some will strike again, if only we could know which ones.

Our state corrections and parole officials function within the tension of these polar realities. Their jobs in part are guided by statutes. Our law has long afforded substantial immunities to these officials in the face of plaintiffs' pleadings, and with good reason. Only where they act with gross disregard for the safety of society or in clear violation of statutory directive may they be charged to answer at the bar of civil justice.

II.

Clem V. Jimpson served twelve years and three months of a life sentence for murdering a convenience store clerk. On January 9, 1985, he was paroled. Approximately five weeks later, on February 12, 1985, Linda Grantham was returning from lunch to her job as Assistant Vice President of Deposit Guaranty National Bank in Jackson. Jimpson approached Grantham in the parking lot of the Raymond-Terry Road Branch Bank and attacked, assaulted and attempted to kidnap Grantham. When Grantham screamed for help, Jimpson shot her. Grantham is now permanently paralyzed from the neck down.

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Grantham has an action in tort against Jimpson but one of little worth as he no doubt is impecunious.

On March 25, 1985, Grantham commenced the present civil action by filing her complaint in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi. That complaint, which has since been amended, names as Defendants the Mississippi Department of Corrections; the Mississippi Parole Board; and, in their individual and official capacities, the members of the Parole Board, B.C. Ruth, Ollie Sykes, Joann Kaelin, James R. Figgs, and Paul Carter; and Morris Thigpen, individually and in his former official capacity as Commissioner of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Grantham charges that by paroling and releasing Jimpson the Defendants acted arbitrarily, negligently and with reckless disregard for the safety of society in general, and herself in particular.

Each Defendant filed a motion to dismiss, urging that the complaint fails to state a claim upon which relief may be granted, Rule 12(b)(6), Miss.R.Civ.P., and asserting a variety of immunities to suit. Discovery has been held in abeyance.

On July 31, 1985, the Circuit Court filed an opinion and entered an order dismissing the complaint on immunity grounds. Grantham was allowed to amend her complaint. On June 13, 1986, the Circuit Court finally dismissed the amended complaint, again on immunity grounds.

Grantham presents the instant appeal.

III.

Our procedural posture is important. All Defendants have been held immune to suit. Grantham's amended complaint has been finally dismissed without benefit of trial or even pretrial discovery.

When a complaint is tested via a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, its sufficiency in substantial part is determined by reference to Rules 8(a) and (e), Miss.R.Civ.P. Rule 8(a)(1) by and large pretermits any notion of fact pleading and requires only that in her complaint a plaintiff provide "a short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief, ...."

Rule 8(e) then provides

(1) each averment of a plea shall be simple, concise and direct. No technical forms of pleading or motions are required.

We have by reason of these rules held repeatedly that a motion to dismiss made under Rule 12(b)(6) should not be granted unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of her claim which would entitle her to relief. Lester Engineering Co., Inc. v. Richland Water & Sewer District, 504 So.2d 1185, 1187 (Miss.1987); Canton Farm Equipment, Inc. v. Richardson, 501 So.2d 1098, 1103 (Miss.1987); Bias v. Bias, 493 So.2d 342, 343-44 (Miss.1986); Busching v. Griffin, 465 So.2d 1037, 1039 (Miss.1985); and Stanton & Associates, Inc. v. Bryant Construction Co., 464 So.2d 499, 505 (Miss.1985).

Our ground rules well in mind, we turn to Grantham's Amended Complaint where we find that she has alleged that:

(1) Defendants arbitrarily, negligently, and with reckless disregard for the safety of society in general, and Grantham in particular, paroled and released Jimpson;

(2) Jimpson and seventy-two other inmates were approved for parole and release on the same day;

(3) Defendants approved Jimpson's release without reviewing all pertinent information as required by Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 47-7-17 (1972), a statute Grantham believes mandates that the Parole Board secure and consider all pertinent information regarding each offender being considered for parole "including the circumstances of his offense, his previous social history and criminal record, his conduct, employment and attitude while in the custody of the Department, and the reports of such physical and mental examinations as have been made";

(4) The Parole Board and its members had a ministerial duty to consider the information set forth in Section 47-7-17 and to

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make arrangements for Jimpson's proper employment or for his maintenance and care, and that they failed to perform these duties;

(5) The Parole Board and its members were grossly negligent in that they devoted less than five minutes to consideration of Jimpson's parole;

(6) The Parole Board and its members' decision to parole Jimpson was entirely outside the scope of their authority as they neglected or intentionally failed to follow the statute;

(7) Defendant Morris L. Thigpen and the Mississippi Department of Corrections negligently or intentionally failed to provide the Parole Board with information, which by statute, it should have considered before releasing Jimpson;

(8) The Parole Board and its members intentionally or negligently failed to ask for the same;

(9) All Defendants, collectively, acted negligently, in excess of their legal authority, and in complete disregard for the safety of society in general, and Plaintiff in particular, by releasing Jimpson.

Considering separately Grantham's claim against each Defendant (or group of Defendants), can it be said with reasonable certainty that there is no set of facts consistent with her allegations upon which she would be entitled to any relief against any Defendant?

IV.

The Parole Board and the Department of Corrections

We consider first Grantham's claims against the Parole Board and the Department of Corrections as legal creatures and entities of the state of Mississippi. The Circuit Court dismissed these claims on sovereign immunity grounds.

The judicially created doctrine of sovereign immunity was abolished by this Court in Pruett v. City of Rosedale, 421 So.2d 1046 (Miss.1982). The Court set July 1, 1984, as the effective date for recognition of state tort liability. In 1984, the legislature enacted a statute waiving the sovereign immunity of the state and its political subdivisions. See Laws, 1984, ch.495, Secs. 1, et seq., pp. 640-66. However, the act also provided that it would:

apply only to claims that accrue on or after July 1, 1985, as to the state, and on or after October 1, 1985, as to political subdivisions. Claims that accrue prior to July 1, 1985, as to the state or, prior to October 1, 1985, as to political subdivisions, shall not be affected by this act but shall continue to be governed by the case law governing sovereign immunity as it existed immediately prior to the decision in the case of Pruett v. City of Rosedale, 421 So.2d 1046, and by the statutory law governing sovereign immunity existing prior to July 1, 1985.

Laws, 1984, ch. 495, Sec. 4, p. 642. This act is codified at Miss.Code Ann. Sec. 11-46-1, et seq. ¹ Jimpson was paroled January 9, 1985. The shooting, upon which the claims in this case are based, occurred on February 12, 1985. Therefore, the sovereign immunity assertions of the Parole Board and the Mississippi Department of Corrections are controlled by pre-Pruett case law and statutory law in effect prior to July 1, 1985.

Pre-Pruett case law immunized the state and its subdivisions and agencies from suit unless otherwise directed by statute, and where such a statute exists it is the measure of the power to sue such board or agency. Jagnandan v. Mississippi State University, 373 So.2d 252, 253 (Miss.1979); Horne v. State Building Comm'n., 233 Miss. 810, 103 So.2d 373, 380 (1958); Smith v. Doehler Metal Furniture, 195 Miss. 538, 15 So.2d 421 (1943); and Mississippi Centennial Exposition Co. v. Luderbach, 123 Miss. 828, 86 So. 517, 519 (1920). The Parole Board and the Department of Corrections are state agencies. They are creatures of law charged to perform state functions.

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As such, each is immune from suit for a January/February 1985 tort arising from performance of governmental functions such as those here charged, except as may be allowed by statute.

The...