Hays v. Lafayette County School Dist., 1998-CA-01256-SCT.

• Decision Date: 09 December 1999
• Docket Number: No. 1998-CA-01256-SCT.,1998-CA-01256-SCT.
• Citation: 759 So.2d 1144
• Parties: Ella Mae HAYS, as Mother and Next Best Friend of Kawanza Hays, a Minor v. LAFAYETTE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT and John Doe.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

759 So.2d 1144

Ella Mae HAYS, as Mother and Next Best Friend of Kawanza Hays, a Minor v. LAFAYETTE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT and John Doe.

No. 1998-CA-01256-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

December 9, 1999.

Lawrence J. Hakim, Batesville, Attorney for Appellant.

David D. O'Donnell, Oxford, Attorney for Appellees.

EN BANC.

MILLS, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. This case arose out of a negligence action brought against the Lafayette County School District and "John Doe" for injuries allegedly sustained on March 30, 1994, by Kawanza Hays, a student who was riding on a Lafayette County school bus. Hays complained that she suffered injuries when the bus driver, suddenly and without warning, accelerated the school bus before Hays could take a seat.

¶ 2. Hays, then a minor, filed suit against the District by and through her mother, Ella Mae Hays. The complaint was filed in the Circuit Court of Lafayette County, Mississippi, on September 6, 1996, approximately two (2) years and six (6) months after the alleged accident. In response, the District filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to M.R.C.P. 12(b)(6). The District argued that the suit against it was barred by the one (1) year statute of limitations contained in the Mississippi Tort Claims Act found in Miss.Code Ann. §§ 11-46-1 to -23 et seq. (Supp.1999) (hereinafter "MTCA"), which governs claims brought against the State of Mississippi and its political subdivisions. Hays asserted that the statute of limitations was tolled due to her disability of infancy as prescribed by the minor savings clause of Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-59 (1995).

¶ 3. On July 20, 1998, the circuit court granted the District's motion to dismiss holding that the lawsuit was barred by the one (1) year statute of limitations. It is from that order that Hays appeals to this Court. The following issues are pertinent to this appeal:

ISSUES

I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR AS A MATTER OF LAW AND FACT WHEN IT GRANTED THE DISTRICT'S MOTION TO DISMISS.

II. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT ABUSED ITS DISCRETION IN GRANTING THE DISTRICT'S MOTION TO DISMISS.

FACTS

¶ 4. Hays was a student of the Lafayette County School District on March 30, 1994, when she boarded a District school bus. Hays claims that she was attempting to find a seat when the bus driver, suddenly and without warning, "took off", causing Hays to fall and injure herself. At the time of the accident and when the complaint was filed, Hays was a minor.

¶ 5. Due to the continued infancy of Hays, her mother brought a negligence action on her behalf on September 6, 1996, to recover damages during the alleged accident. The District filed a motion to dismiss arguing that the applicable one (1) year statute of limitations had expired. Hays countered that the statute of limitations was tolled due to her disability of infancy.

¶ 6. The circuit court granted the District's motion to dismiss, holding that the statute of limitations contained in Miss. Code Ann. § 11-46-11 superseded the infancy tolling provision in Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-59. From that ruling, Hays brings her appeal before this Court.

DISCUSSION

I. WHETHER THE CIRCUIT COURT COMMITTED REVERSIBLE ERROR AS A MATTER OF LAW AND FACT WHEN IT GRANTED THE DISTRICT'S MOTION TO DISMISS.

¶ 7. Most of the issues set forth by Hays as reasons for reversal can be considered together, as the crux of her argument is that the Mississippi Tort Claims Act's one (1) year statute of limitations expressed in Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-11 (Supp.1999), is tolled by the "minor savings clause" of Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-59 (1995), until the minor achieves majority status. This is not a case of first impression, as our Court has very recently considered the exact same issue of law under virtually identical facts. See, e.g., Reaves ex rel. Rouse v. Randall, 729 So.2d 1237 (Miss.1999); State v. Dampeer, 744 So.2d 754 (Miss.1999); Marcum v. Hancock County School Dist., 741 So.2d 234 (Miss. 1999). Both parties agree that this claim is subject to the MTCA as the District is a political subdivision of the State of Mississippi.

¶ 8. Political subdivisions enjoy immunity for specific claims within a definite period of time, placing a substantial limitation on the amount of damages that can be recovered. See Miss.Code Ann. §§ 11-46-1 to -23 (Supp.1998). In the City of Jackson v. Lumpkin, 697 So.2d 1179,1181 (Miss.1997)(overruled on other grounds), Carr v. Town of Shubuta, 733 So.2d 261, 263 (Miss.1999), this Court found that "[t]he Legislature elected to waive sovereign immunity to a large extent in the Tort Claims Act statutes, but it saw fit to qualify this waiver with a number of procedural requirements which, it is logical to conclude, must be complied with for this waiver to take effect."

¶ 9. The Legislature contemplated the procedural limitation of a one (1) year statute of limitations under the MTCA as set forth in § 11-46-11, which reads in relevant part:

(3) All actions brought under the provisions of this chapter shall be commenced within one (1) year next after the date of the tortious, wrongful or otherwise actionable conduct on which the liability phase of the action is based, and not after; provided, however, that the filing of a notice of claim as required by subsection (1) of this section shall serve to toll the statute of limitations for a period of ninety-five (95) days. The limitations period provided herein shall control and shall be exclusive in all actions subject to and brought under provisions of this chapter, notwithstanding the nature of the claim, the label or other characterization the claimant may use to describe it, or the provisions of any other statute of limitations which would otherwise govern the type of claim or legal theory if it were not subject to or brought under the provisions of this chapter.

Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-11 (Supp.1998).

¶ 10. In Marcum, we understood that the Legislature obviously intended the MTCA's one (1) year statute of limitations to be the controlling measure of time applied to any actions brought under the Act. 741 So.2d 234, 237 (Miss.1999). The statute's use of the word "shall" represents a firm mandate and unambiguously closes the door of interpretation concerning which statutes of limitation applies to the MTCA. Id.

¶ 11. Hays contends that the MCTA's one (1) year statute of limitations is superseded by the minor savings clause of § 15-1-59, which states the following:

If any person entitled to bring any of the personal actions mentioned shall, at the time at which the cause of action accrued, be under disability of infancy or unsoundness of mind, he may bring the actions within the times in this chapter respectively limited, after his disability shall be removed as provided by law.... Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-59 (1995). (Emphasis added).

¶ 12. In Cole v. State, 608 So.2d 1313 (Miss.1992), a prison inmate argued that his alleged incompetence tolled the three (3) year statute of limitations under the Mississippi Uniform Post-Conviction Collateral Relief Act. This Court held that "[t]he savings clause in § 15-1-59 applies only to actions mentioned in Chapter 1, Title 15 of the Mississippi Code...." Cole, 608 So.2d at 1316. This Court has clearly held so on at least three occasions. See, e.g., Foster v. Yazoo & Miss. Valley R.R., 72 Miss. 886, 18 So. 380 (1895); Wolcott v. Wolcott, 184 So.2d 381 (Miss.1966); Arender v. Smith County Hosp., 431 So.2d 491 (Miss.1983).

¶ 13. In Foster v. Yazoo & Miss. Valley R.R., 72 Miss. 886, 889-91, 18 So. 380, 381 (1895), a plaintiff brought a wrongful death claim for his father, and the statute of limitations was raised as a defense. We held that the saving statute did not apply to the wrongful death statute as it was not included in the Code chapter on "limitations of actions." Id. Also, in Wolcott v. Wolcott, 184 So.2d 381, 382 (Miss.1966), a widow sued for the right to renounce her husband's will, and the statute of limitations was raised as a defense. We held that the general saving statute for those under a disability does not apply to the statute allowing renunciation as the general savings statute was contained in a separate chapter on limitations of actions. Id. Additionally, in Arender v. Smith County Hosp., 431 So.2d 491, 492-94 (Miss.1983), we unanimously dismissed the assertion that the time limit for bringing a wrongful death action was subject to § 15-1-59, holding that:

The above statute § 15-1-59 specifically reserves the tolling of the limitation period to those personal actions mentioned within the chapter of which the wrongful death act is not one. The statute of limitations does not look to the character of the plaintiff, but to the nature of the action. This is not so as to a savings clause. It contemplates the person, and not the action. The claim to exemption is against the current of the law, and is not co-extensive with its effective provisions. In case of doubt, therefore, the presumption is against the one claiming the exemption. The savings of the statute are not to be as liberally construed as its effective provisions, because they are designed to put an end to strife and litigation, and tend to the security of all men.

¶ 14. In both Arender and Cole, we emphasized that where a statute or Act does not provide for a savings clause, the courts are without the right to engraft such an exception to the limitations period. Arender, 431 So.2d at 493; Cole, 608 So.2d at 1318. That is within the exclusive province of the Legislature. Id. In Chamberlin v. City of Hernando, 716 So.2d 596 (Miss.1998), Justice Pittman noted that the MTCA, under § 11-46-11, directs that all actions against political subdivisions shall be filed within one year of accrual and that the only way the statute allows the extension of the one year statute is to file the required notice of claim. Id., at 601.

¶ 15. The principles of law set forth in the above cases were applied to the MTCA context by the United...