Summary 2008 WY 19

Summary of Decision issued February 22, 2008

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: State, Dep’t of Corrections v. Watts; State, Dep’t of Corrections v. Watts

Citation: 2008 WY 19

Docket Number: S-07-0050; S-07-0095

Appeal from the District Court of Fremont County, the Honorable Nancy J. Guthrie, Judge

Representing Appellants: Patrick J. Crank, Wyoming Attorney General; John W. Renneisen, DeputyAttorny General; Misha Westby, Senior Assistant Attorney General; C. Levi Martin, Senior Assistant Attorney General.

Representing Appellee: David B. Hooper and Tom A. Glassberg of Hooper Law Offices, PC, Riverton, Wyoming.

Facts/Discussion: Watts brought a wrongful death suit after his wife, who was a contract nurse at the Wyoming Honor Farm, was murdered by an inmate. The State moved for summary judgment claiming they were immune from suit pursuant to the WGCA.

Jurisdiction: Generally, the denial of a motion for summary judgment is not an appealable final order. The Court has recognized an exception to the general rule when a district court refused to dismiss a case on the basis of qualified immunity. The Court has jurisdiction to consider the appeal of the district court’s order denying the State’s motion for summary judgment therefore the writ of review was superfluous and was dismissed as unnecessarily granted.
Section 1-39-106: Questions of statutory interpretation are matters of law. The Act is considered a close-ended tort claims act. The Court reviewed previous cases noting that there are two groups of cases which construe the act in terms of strict or liberal construction of the WGCA. More recent cases state the principle that it is a close-ended act in which immunity is the rule and liability is the exception. The Court concluded the general rule in Wyoming is that the government is immune from liability and unless a claim falls within one of the statutory exceptions, it will be barred. The Court used their standard rules of statutory construction to determine whether the legislature intended that immunity be waived for a particular claim. The Court stated that the statute waived immunity for the State’s negligence in making the building functional. The Court reviewed cases from New Mexico and Maine. They concluded that the clear and unambiguous language of § 1-39-106 within the context of the WGCA indicated that the legislature intended to limit the waiver of immunity to negligence associated with the function of the building structure and did not intend to extend the waiver to negligence associated with operation of the penal institution within the building. Because Watts did not argue that any particular physical defect in the building resulted in his wife’s death, his claim does not fall within the parameters of § 1-39-106.

Holding: Section 1-39-106 did not waive the State’s immunity for negligence in the operation of the corrections system. Instead, it specifically limits the exception to matters associated with the physical building itself. Because Mr. Watts’ claims did not pertain to the physical condition of a building at the Wyoming Honor Farm, the State was entitled to judgment as a matter of law.
Case No, S-07-0050, writ of review, was dismissed. Case No. S-07-0095, appeal, was reversed and remanded to the district court.

Reversed.

J. Kite delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/yuz6fy .

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