Martinez v. Wake Cty. Bd. of Educ.Â

IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF NORTH CAROLINA
No. COA17-475
Filed: 20 March 2018
North Carolina Industrial Commission, I.C. No. TA-24791
JAMIE1 FERNANDEZ MARTINEZ, Administrator of the Estate of MARIA J.
FERNANDEZ JIMENEZ, Plaintiff
v.
WAKE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant.
North Carolina Industrial Commission, I.C. No. TA-24792
EDUARDO FERNANDEZ JIMENEZ, Plaintiff
v.
WAKE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant.
North Carolina Industrial Commission, I.C. No TA-24793
JAMIE FERNANDEZ MARTINEZ, Plaintiff
v.
WAKE COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION, Defendant.
Appeal by defendant from order entered 20 January 2017 by the North
Carolina Industrial Commission. Heard in the Court of Appeals 15 November 2017.
Smith Moore Leatherwood LLP, by Matthew Nis Leerberg, and Law Offices of
James Scott Farrin, by Marie D. Lang, for plaintiffs-appellees.
Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Special Deputy Attorney General Olga E.
Vysotskaya de Brito, Assistant Attorney General Alexander G. Walton, and
Special Deputy Attorney General Christina S. Hayes, for defendant-appellant.
1 Although the first name of Mr. Martinez is listed as “Jamie” in the caption of the 20 January
2017 order from which this appeal is being taken, we observe that the record contains a 26 May 2016
affidavit in which he identifies his name as “Jaime.”
MARTINEZ V. WAKE CTY. BD. OF EDUC.
Opinion of the Court
Tin Fulton Walker & Owen, PLLC, by Sam McGee, and Maginnis Law, PLLC,
by T. Shawn Howard, for North Carolina Advocates for Justice, amicus curiae.
DAVIS, Judge.
In this appeal from an action brought under North Carolina’s Tort Claims Act,
we consider the scope of the Industrial Commission’s jurisdiction over negligence
claims related to the operation of school buses. The Wake County Board of Education
(the “Board”) appeals from an order entered by the Commission denying their motion
to dismiss various claims arising from the death of Maria J. Fernandez Jimenez, a
14-year-old girl who was struck by an oncoming vehicle while crossing the street to
board her school bus.
In its 20 January 2017 order, the Industrial Commission concluded that it
possessed jurisdiction under the Tort Claims Act to hear not only (1) the plaintiffs’
claims for negligence on the part of the school bus driver and maintenance personnel
but also (2) their claims against various administrators within the Wake County
Public School System alleging negligence in the development and design of school bus
routes as well as in making various hiring, training, and staffing decisions. Because
we conclude that the Industrial Commission lacks jurisdiction over this latter
category of claims, we reverse the Commission’s 20 January 2017 order and remand
for further proceedings.
Factual and Procedural Background
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Opinion of the Court
On 25 March 2013, Maria lived with her parents and her brother Eduardo in
Garner, North Carolina. Their home was located on North Carolina Highway 50, a
divided two-lane road with a posted speed limit of 55 miles per hour. Maria and
Eduardo both attended Garner Magnet High School, a Wake County public school.
The two siblings were transported to and from school each day on a school bus.
The bus stop for Maria was located across the street from her home and
required her to cross Highway 50 prior to boarding the bus. Upon picking up Maria
and Eduardo, the school bus would then travel southbound on Highway 50 for about
a quarter of a mile before turning around and passing directly in front of their house
while traveling northbound.
On 25 March 2013, Gloria Smith was the school bus driver assigned to Maria’s
route. That morning, Smith stopped at the designated school bus stop across from
Maria’s house at approximately 6:32 a.m. Maria began crossing the street as Smith
stopped the school bus. Around the same time, a vehicle driving along Highway 50
at a speed of approximately 50 miles per hour failed to stop for the school bus and
fatally struck Maria as she was crossing the road.
Pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1, several of Maria’s family members
and her estate brought an action under the Tort Claims Act in the Industrial
Commission against the Board. In accordance with N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-297, they
filed in conjunction with their complaint affidavits naming various Board employees
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Opinion of the Court
whose alleged negligent acts formed the basis for their claims against the Board. In
addition to Smith, the individuals listed in the affidavits as having allegedly
committed negligent acts and omissions contributing to Maria’s death included
Anthony Tata, Superintendent of the Wake County Public School System (“WCPSS”);
Stephen Gainey, Interim Superintendent of WCPSS; Drew Cook, Principal of Garner
Magnet High School; Donald Haydon, Jr., Chief Facilities and Operations Officer of
WCPSS; Robert E. Snidemiller, Jr., Senior Director of Transportation for WCPSS;
and unnamed maintenance personnel employed to maintain WCPSS school buses.
With regard to Smith, Plaintiffs asserted that she was negligent in (1) failing
to report to her supervisor that the assigned bus stop was dangerous and that a safer
alternate stop existed; (2) instructing Maria and Eduardo to cross the street prior to
her arrival at the bus stop; (3) failing to activate her flashers upon arriving at the bus
stop; (4) failing to warn Maria of the oncoming vehicle that struck her; and (5) failing
to conduct a prior inspection of the bus she was operating. Plaintiffs further alleged
that unnamed maintenance workers were negligent in failing to ensure regular
maintenance, inspection, and repair of the bus being operated by Smith, including its
warning lights, signs, and safety signals.
With respect to the WCPSS administrators named in the affidavits, Plaintiffs
alleged that they had been negligent regarding (1) the development and design of the
bus route and bus stop to which Maria was assigned; (2) the organization and staffing
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Opinion of the Court
of the WCPSS transportation department; (3) the failure to ensure the proper
working order of school buses and their warning systems; (4) the failure to sufficiently
instruct and train school bus drivers; (5) the failure to adequately instruct Maria’s
family members regarding the safest way in which to reach their assigned bus stop;
and (6) the failure to ensure a safe means for Maria to board the school bus.2
On 1 May 2015, the Board filed a motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ administrative
negligence claims pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1), 12(b)(2), and 12(b)(6) of the North
Carolina Rules of Civil Procedure on the ground that “a tort claim cannot be filed in
the North Carolina Industrial Commission against individuals who are not the
driver, transportation safety assistant, or monitor of a public school bus.” The Board
did not move to dismiss the negligence claims premised upon the conduct of Smith or
the unnamed maintenance personnel. On 18 May 2015, Deputy Commissioner J.
Brad Donovan entered an order granting the Board’s motion to dismiss, stating in
pertinent part as follows:
In the instant case, plaintiffs allege sufficient facts
regarding negligence on the part of the bus driver to
survive a motion to dismiss these claims. In fact, [the
Board] has not moved to dismiss any more than the claims
of negligent route planning and design. Accordingly, the
ruling of the undersigned allowing [the Board’s] Motion to
Dismiss is limited to the alleged negligence on the part of
members of the school board in the development, design,
establishment, implementation, designation and
assignment of routes and school bus stops and instruction,
2Throughout this opinion, we refer collectively to this category of claims against the WCPSS
administrators as the “administrative negligence claims.”
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Opinion of the Court
training and education of bus drivers and others.
Plaintiff appealed the deputy commissioner’s decision to the Full Commission.
On 20 January 2017, the Full Commission issued an order vacating Deputy
Commissioner Donovan’s order and denying the Board’s motion to dismiss. The
Board filed a timely notice of appeal to this Court.
Analysis
The Board’s sole argument on appeal is that the Commission erred in denying
its motion to dismiss Plaintiffs’ administrative negligence claims. It contends that
the Industrial Commission possesses jurisdiction under the Tort Claims Act only for
claims arising from the negligence of school bus drivers, bus monitors, transportation
safety assistants, and maintenance personnel.
I. Appellate Jurisdiction
As an initial matter, we must determine whether this Court possesses
jurisdiction over the Board’s interlocutory appeal. The Board’s appeal is based on the
denial of their motions under Rules 12(b)(1) and (2) in which they asserted the lack
of both personal jurisdiction and subject matter jurisdiction with respect to the
administrative negligence claims. In this appeal, the Rule 12(b)(1) and Rule 12(b)(2)
motions raise a common question — that is, whether the Board is subject to suit in
the Industrial Commission with regard to Plaintiffs’ administrative negligence
claims.
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Opinion of the Court
It is well settled that “[a] county or city board of education is a governmental
agency, and therefore is not liable in a tort or negligence action except to the extent
that it has waived its governmental immunity pursuant to statutory authority.”
Beatty v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 99 N.C. App. 753, 755, 394 S.E.2d 242,
244 (1990) (citation omitted), disc. review improvidently allowed, 329 N.C. 691, 406
S.E.2d 579 (1991). “According to well-established North Carolina law, governmental
immunity is an immunity from suit rather than a mere defense to liability. For that
reason, this Court has held that denial of dispositive motions such as motions to
dismiss that are grounded on governmental immunity affect a substantial right and
are immediately appealable.” Doe v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 222 N.C.
App. 359, 363, 731 S.E.2d 245, 248 (2012) (internal citations, quotation marks,
brackets, and ellipsis omitted). Therefore, we possess jurisdiction to hear the Board’s
appeal.
II. Jurisdiction of Industrial Commission under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1
In order to analyze the Board’s arguments, it is helpful to first review the basic
principles surrounding a local school board’s potential waiver of its immunity. As
noted above, due to their status as governmental entities, local boards of education
are immune from tort liability absent a waiver of their governmental immunity. The
North Carolina General Assembly has provided for the waiver of their immunity in
two ways.
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First, the Tort Claims Act waives the governmental immunity of school boards
for certain types of negligence claims specified therein. The relevant portion of the
Tort Claims Act dealing with claims arising from the operation of school buses is N.C.
Gen. Stat. §143-300.1. This statute states, in pertinent part, as follows:
(a) The North Carolina Industrial Commission shall
have jurisdiction to hear and determine tort claims against
any county board of education or any city board of
education, which claims arise as a result of any alleged
mechanical defects or other defects which may affect the
safe operation of a public school bus or school
transportation service vehicle resulting from an alleged
negligent act of maintenance personnel or as a result of any
alleged negligent act or omission of the driver,
transportation safety assistant, or monitor of a public
school bus or school transportation service vehicle. . . .
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1(a) (2017).
Second, the General Assembly has authorized local boards of education to
waive their governmental immunity from other types of tort claims through the
purchase of liability insurance. Pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115C-242, local boards
can elect to waive their governmental immunity from tort actions in North Carolina’s
superior courts by purchasing liability insurance. That statute provides, in relevant
part, as follows:
Any local board of education, by securing liability
insurance as hereinafter provided, is hereby authorized
and empowered to waive its governmental immunity from
liability for damage by reason of death or injury to person
or property caused by the negligence or tort of any agent or
employee of such board of education when acting within the
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scope of his authority or within the course of his
employment. Such immunity shall be deemed to have been
waived by the act of obtaining such insurance, but such
immunity is waived only to the extent that said board of
education is indemnified by insurance for such negligence
or tort.
....
Provided, that this section shall not apply to claims for
damages caused by the negligent acts or torts of public
school bus, or school transportation service vehicle drivers,
while driving school buses and school transportation
service vehicles when the operation of such school buses
and service vehicles is paid from the State Public School
Fund.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115C-42 (2017).
We have held that — per the statute’s concluding proviso — N.C. Gen. Stat.
§ 115C-42 “by its own terms, apparently does not apply to the type of claims which
are covered by G.S. 143-300.1[.]” Smith v. McDowell Cty. Bd. of Educ., 68 N.C. App.
541, 543 n.1, 316 S.E.2d 108, 110 n.1 (1984). Therefore, the statutory framework
erected by the General Assembly does not provide for concurrent jurisdiction between
the Industrial Commission and North Carolina’s superior courts. See Stein v.
Asheville City Bd. of Educ., 168 N.C. App. 243, 251, 608 S.E.2d 80, 86 (2005) (“[I]f a
plaintiff’s claim against a Board of Education falls within the scope of N.C. Gen. Stat.
§ 143-300.1, then N.C. Gen. Stat. § 115C-42 excludes the claim from the waiver of
immunity. Without a waiver of immunity, the Board of Education cannot be sued in
superior court.”), rev’d on other grounds, 360 N.C. 321, 626 S.E.2d 263 (2006).
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Opinion of the Court
As a result of these statutes, two principles are apparent: (1) the governmental
immunity of local school boards no longer exists for claims falling within N.C. Gen.
Stat. § 143-300.1 and such claims must be brought in the Industrial Commission; and
(2) all other tort claims against school boards not similarly covered by the Tort Claims
Act are barred unless the school board has opted to purchase liability insurance that
provides coverage for the specific claim being asserted and in such cases the claim
must be brought in superior court.
Based on the statutory language of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1(a), it is evident
that the Industrial Commission possesses jurisdiction over claims alleging negligence
by school bus drivers, monitors, transportation safety assistants, or maintenance
personnel. The question in this appeal, however, is whether the Industrial
Commission also possesses jurisdiction over claims brought pursuant to § 143-300.1
that arise from the negligent acts of administrators. If so, then the Industrial
Commission properly denied the Board’s motion to dismiss in the present case. If
not, then the Board’s motion to dismiss should have been granted.
Our Supreme Court has made clear that “[t]he state and its governmental
units cannot be deprived of the sovereign attributes of immunity except by a plain,
unmistakable mandate of the General Assembly. In addition, State statutes waiving
this immunity, being in derogation of the sovereign right to immunity, must be
strictly construed.” Irving v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 368 N.C. 609, 611,
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781 S.E.2d 282, 284 (2016) (internal citations, quotation marks, and brackets
omitted). “When we review a statute that operates to waive governmental immunity,
the statute must not only be strictly construed, but also be given its plain meaning
and enforced as written, so long as its language is clear and unambiguous.” Id. at
615, 781 S.E.2d at 286 (internal citations omitted).
In analyzing the parties’ respective arguments in this appeal, we recognize at
the outset that we are not writing on a clean slate. The seminal case from our
Supreme Court addressing the scope of the Industrial Commission’s jurisdiction to
hear claims related to the operation of school buses pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-
300.1 is Huff v. Northampton County Board of Education, 259 N.C. 75, 130 S.E.2d 26
(1963). In Huff, two high school students riding a school bus operated by the
Northampton County Board of Education were involved in a fight that was broken
up by the bus driver. Although the driver had been instructed to report any
misconduct on the school bus to the principal of the high school, he failed to report
this incident. Id. at 76, 130 S.E.2d at 27. Seven months later, the same two students
got into another altercation, and one of the students seriously wounded the other with
a knife. On that day, a substitute bus driver with no knowledge of the prior
altercation was driving the bus. Id. at 77, 130 S.E.2d at 27.
The victim filed claims in the Industrial Commission pursuant to N.C. Gen.
Stat. § 143-300.1 alleging negligence on the part of the two bus drivers as well as by
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the school principal for failing to have a bus monitor present on the date of the
stabbing. Id. at 79-80, 130 S.E.2d at 29. The Commission determined that “the
plaintiff did not suffer any damages by any negligent act or omission of the defendant
County Board of Education, nor were the damages suffered by the plaintiff reasonably
foreseeable by the said Board of Education.” Id. at 77, 130 S.E.2d at 27.
On appeal, our Supreme Court affirmed the Commission’s decision. In ruling
that the plaintiff could not prevail on her claims arising from the alleged negligence
of the school principal, the Court stated as follows:
An award against a county board of education under the
provisions of the Tort Claims Act may not be predicated on
the negligent act or omission of a school principal or the
county board of education, but if an award is made it must
be based on the negligent act or omission of the driver of a
public school bus who was employed at the time by the
county or city administrative unit of which such board was
the governing body.
Id. at 77, 130 S.E.2d at 28 (emphasis added).
With regard to the victim’s claims of bus driver negligence, the Court
determined that the evidence was “insufficient to support a finding that the negligent
acts or omissions of . . . the drivers of the school bus involved, on the occasions
complained of, were the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries.” Id. at 80, 130
S.E.2d at 29. The Court then reiterated that allegations of negligence on the part of
other employees cannot be brought in the Industrial Commission:
[A]s heretofore pointed out, the Tort Claims Act does not
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authorize a recovery against a county board of education
for the negligent act or omissions of its agents, servants
and employees except for a claim based upon a negligent act
or omission of a driver of a school bus employed by the
board from which recovery is sought.
A county board of education, unless it has duly waived
immunity from tort liability . . . , is not liable in a tort
action or proceeding involving a tort except such liability
as may be established under our Tort Claims Act.
Id. at 79, 130 S.E.2d at 29 (emphasis added and citation and quotation marks
omitted).
Thus, the only logical reading of Huff is that the types of administrative
negligence claims at issue in the present appeal cannot be brought in the Industrial
Commission under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1. To the contrary, Huff makes clear
that only the limited types of claims expressly referenced in the statutory text may
be brought under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1.
Plaintiffs contend, however, that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Huff was
modified by its later decision in Newgent v. Buncombe County Board of Education,
114 N.C. App. 407, 442 S.E.2d 158 (1994) (Orr, J., dissenting), rev’d per curiam for
reasons stated in dissent, 340 N.C. 100, 455 S.E.2d 157 (1995). In Newgent, an
elementary school student was struck and killed by an automobile while crossing a
busy highway in order to reach his bus stop. Id. at 410, 442 S.E.2d at 160. Prior to
the accident, the school bus driver assigned to the child’s route would “drive by . . . the
side on which the deceased child lived, traveling in a southerly direction. She would
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turn the school bus around and travel the same route in a [n]ortherly direction” before
picking up the child on the side of the highway opposite where he lived. Id.
The administrator of the child’s estate filed a claim under the Tort Claims Act
against the local school board in the Industrial Commission alleging that the bus
driver had been negligent in “failing to inform the principal and decedent’s parents
of facts [she] observed and alternative routes [she] should have taken while operating
the bus in the course of her employment.” Id. No theory of negligence was asserted
against any school board employee other than the driver. The panel majority in this
Court held that the Commission lacked jurisdiction over this claim because the bus
driver could not “be considered to have been operating the bus at the time of the
negligent acts complained of[.]” Id. at 409, 442 S.E.2d at 159.
In a dissenting opinion ultimately adopted by our Supreme Court, however,
then-Judge Orr determined that the Commission did possess jurisdiction. Id. Judge
Orr explained his reasoning as follows:
[A]t the time [the bus driver] was operating the bus in the
course of her employment, she saw the decedent, an
elementary aged child, cross the busy road twice on his
own, and she could allegedly see that the bus stop was in
an area of limited visibility for a pedestrian. Further, while
she was operating the bus in the course of her employment,
every morning [she] would drive by Frisbee Road in a
southerly direction. If [she] had picked up decedent while
she was traveling in a southerly direction instead of
turning the bus around and picking him up while she was
driving the bus in a northerly direction, decedent would not
have had to cross the highway and thus be exposed to the
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danger of crossing the highway.
The alleged acts and omissions of failing to inform the
principal and decedent’s parents arose out of events that
occurred while [the bus driver] was operating the bus in
the course of her employment. . . . While the majority
relies on the language of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1
requiring that the driver be operating the public school bus
“at the time of the alleged negligent act or omission” to
defeat plaintiff’s claim based on a lack of jurisdiction, I find
the affidavit sufficient to set out facts arising from the
actual operation of the school bus[.]
Id. at 411-12, 442 S.E.2d at 160-61. Judge Orr further stated his belief that the
legislature did not intend for N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1 “to preclude the Industrial
Commission from hearing tort claims wherein certain alleged negligent acts or
omissions arose out of, and were inseparably connected to, events occurring at the
time a school bus driver was operating the bus in the course of her employment.” Id.
at 409, 442 S.E.2d at 159.
Thus, Newgent broadened the circumstances under which a school bus driver
could be held liable under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1. However, the fatal flaw in
Plaintiffs’ argument is that Newgent did not involve claims premised upon a theory
of negligence against any school board employee other than the bus driver herself.
Accordingly, it did not authorize — or, for that matter, even address — the type of
administrative negligence claims foreclosed by Huff and at issue in the present
appeal.
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This Court has applied the principles set out in Newgent in two published
decisions. Stein involved the failure of a school bus driver and bus monitor to report
a conversation the bus monitor overheard on a school bus in which two juveniles with
behavioral disabilities discussed a plan to commit armed robbery and murder. Stein,
168 N.C. App. at 245, 608 S.E.2d at 82. Although the bus monitor informed the bus
driver of the conversation, neither the driver nor the monitor informed anyone else
associated with the school system of the juveniles’ statements. One week later, the
two juveniles participated in a crime in which two persons were robbed and shot. Id.
at 245-46, 608 S.E.2d at 82.
The victims filed suit in superior court against the Asheville City Board of
Education alleging that the bus driver and monitor were negligent in failing to report
the conversation they had overheard. Id. at 251, 608 S.E.2d at 86. The trial court
dismissed the claims, holding that they were required to have been brought in the
Industrial Commission. In affirming the trial court’s ruling, we stated as follows:
Plaintiffs argue that the statute does not apply because
their claims do not arise as a result of any mechanical or
other defect in the bus caused by a negligent act or
omission of the driver.
The plain language of the statute, however, makes it
applicable not only to mechanical defects affecting the bus,
but also claims arising “as a result of any alleged negligent
act or omission” of a driver or monitor.
....
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Huff, Newgent, and our review of other cases involving N.C.
Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1 establish that the Industrial
Commission possesses jurisdiction over plaintiffs’ claims
against the Asheville Board.
Id. at 250, 608 S.E.2d at 85 (citation omitted). Notably, no administrative negligence
claims were asserted by the plaintiffs in Stein.
The second published case from this Court applying Newgent is Stacy v.
Merrill, 191 N.C. App. 131, 664 S.E.2d 565 (2008). In Stacy, an elementary school
student riding his bicycle home from school lost control and fell into the path of a
moving school bus, resulting in his death. Id. at 132, 664 S.E.2d at 566. The child’s
father filed a civil action against the Alamance-Burlington Board of Education and
several of its administrators in superior court. The complaint alleged, in pertinent
part, the following negligent acts:
(1) designing a pedestrian, bicycle and vehicular traffic
plan with no clearly marked pedestrian or bicycle lanes,
with no fence, sidewalk, curb or other structure to separate
pedestrian and bicycle traffic and vehicular traffic; (2)
failing to supervise the elementary school children leaving
the school campus; (3) failing to supervise or provide
adequate training of bus drivers . . . ; (4) failing to provide
a reasonably safe exit route for the students at Andrews
Elementary; (5) failing to ensure a safe, alternate means of
travel between home and school for students who were not
provided transportation by defendants; and (6) failing to
teach children who were not provided transportation the
safe manner in which to walk, ride, and travel in order to
avoid injury and/or death.
Id. at 133, 664 S.E.2d at 566.
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On the same day that the plaintiff filed the lawsuit in superior court, he also
filed an action under the Tort Claims Act in the Industrial Commission. Id. at 133,
664 S.E.2d at 566-67. In that proceeding, he alleged that the child’s death was the
result of negligence on the part of the school bus driver. Id. at 133, 664 S.E.2d at 567.
In the lawsuit filed in superior court, the trial court dismissed the plaintiff’s
claims for lack of jurisdiction. On appeal, this Court upheld that ruling. Id. at 134,
664 S.E.2d at 567. Citing Newgent, we summarily stated — without any mention of
Huff or any explanation of how administrative negligence claims could be
encompassed within the narrow language of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1 — that
“[u]nder the facts alleged in their amended complaint, plaintiffs’ claims are
inseparably connected to events occurring at the time a school bus driver was
operating the bus in the course of his employment, and thus fall within the scope of
N.C. Gen. Stat. 143-300.1.” Id. at 136, 664 S.E.2d at 568 (citation, quotation marks,
and brackets omitted).3
Having reviewed the relevant case law, we now apply the principles contained
therein to the present case. All of the parties to this appeal submit that confusion
exists within the bench and bar as to the proper scope of the Industrial Commission’s
jurisdiction over administrative negligence claims in connection with the operation
3 We further held in the alternative that even assuming arguendo the Industrial Commission
did not have exclusive jurisdiction, the board had not purchased liability insurance covering the
plaintiff’s claims and, therefore, the board’s governmental immunity had not been waived.
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of school buses. We believe the source of this confusion is that our decision in Stacy
cannot be reconciled with the Supreme Court’s ruling in Huff. Quite simply, Huff
makes clear that the Industrial Commission lacks jurisdiction over any claims other
than those falling within the express language of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1,
meaning that the types of administrative claims asserted by Plaintiffs here cannot be
brought in the Industrial Commission under the Tort Claims Act. Stacy, however,
reaches the opposite result.
As a general proposition, “[w]here a panel of the Court of Appeals has decided
the same issue, albeit in a different case, a subsequent panel of the same court is
bound by that precedent, unless it has been overturned by a higher court.” In re Civil
Penalty, 324 N.C. 373, 384, 379 S.E.2d 30, 37 (1989); see also State v. Jones, 358 N.C.
473, 487, 598 S.E.2d 125, 134 (2004) (“While . . . a panel of the Court of Appeals may
disagree with, or even find error in, an opinion by a prior panel and may duly note its
disagreement or point out that error in its opinion, the panel is bound by that prior
decision until it is overturned by a higher court.”).
However, it is equally clear that “this Court has no authority to reverse
existing Supreme Court precedent.” Respess v. Respess, 232 N.C. App. 611, 625, 754
S.E.2d 691, 701 (2014); see also Mahoney v. Ronnie’s Rd. Serv., 122 N.C. App. 150,
153, 468 S.E.2d 279, 281 (1996) (“[I]t is elementary that we are bound by the rulings
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of our Supreme Court[.]” (citation omitted)), aff’d per curiam, 345 N.C. 631, 481
S.E.2d 85 (1997).
In Respess, we declined to follow a prior decision of this Court where the
decision “directly conflicts with prior holdings of . . . our Supreme Court and therefore
does not control our decision in the instant case.” Respess, 232 N.C. App. at 625, 754
S.E.2d at 700-01; see State v. Jones, __ N.C. App. __, __, 802 S.E.2d 518, 523 (2017)
(“We have examined [two Court of Appeals decisions] and conclude that these cases
fail to follow the binding precedent established by [our Supreme Court], and as a
result, do not control the outcome in the present case.”); see also Cannon v. Miller,
313 N.C. 324, 327 S.E.2d 888 (1985) (holding that this Court lacks authority to
overrule decisions of our Supreme Court and possesses a “responsibility to follow
those decisions, until otherwise ordered by the Supreme Court”). Based on those
cases, it is clear that where a prior ruling of this Court is in conflict with binding
Supreme Court precedent, we must follow the decision of the Supreme Court rather
than that of our own Court.
Accordingly, we are compelled to follow Huff instead of Stacy because Huff is
a decision from our Supreme Court that has never been overruled. The only way that
the holding in Huff would not be binding upon us would be if Newgent constituted a
change in the law on this issue by the Supreme Court, thereby expressly or implicitly
overruling Huff. However, that is not the case. As discussed above, Newgent dealt
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Opinion of the Court
solely with the issue of bus driver negligence. The alleged negligent acts or omissions
in Newgent that arose out of and were inseparably connected to the operation of the
bus at the time of the accident were on the part of the driver herself. Administrative
negligence claims simply were not at issue in Newgent.
Thus, while Newgent had the effect of broadening the extent to which a school
board may be found liable in the Industrial Commission under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-
300.1 based on a theory of bus driver negligence, it had no effect on the entirely
separate question of where administrative negligence claims filed in conjunction with
the operation of a school bus must be brought. Based on Huff, these claims can only
be asserted in superior court — assuming that the board has waived its governmental
immunity through the purchase of liability insurance.
Because it is clear that Huff mandates our reversal of the Industrial
Commission’s order denying the Board’s motion to dismiss, our analysis could end
there. However, we take this opportunity to explain why this result faithfully applies
the language actually used by the General Assembly in N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1.
As noted above, in construing a statute courts must look first to the plain
meaning of the statutory language. See Sharpe v. Worland, 137 N.C. App. 82, 85, 527
S.E.2d 75, 77 (“We preface our analysis by noting that statutory interpretation begins
with the plain meaning of the words of the statute. Where the plain meaning of the
statute is clear, no further analysis is required. Where the plain meaning is unclear,
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Opinion of the Court
legislative intent controls.” (internal citations omitted)), disc. review denied, 352 N.C.
150, 542 S.E.2d 228 (2000).
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1 sets out the exclusive circumstances under which
the Industrial Commission possesses jurisdiction to hear claims against local boards
of education arising from the operation of a school bus. Based on its clear text, the
statute confers jurisdiction upon the Industrial Commission over claims alleging two
discrete theories of negligence: (1) claims that arise as the result of a mechanical
defect based on the negligence of maintenance personnel; and (2) claims that arise
“as a result of any alleged negligent act or omission of the driver, transportation
safety assistant, or monitor of a public school bus[.]” N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1(a).
Nowhere in this statutory language is there any indication that claims based on
separate theories of negligence relating to administrative matters such as the design
of bus routes or staffing decisions within the school system are meant to be included
therein.
Reading N.C. Gen. Stat. § 143-300.1 to nevertheless encompass such claims
would require this Court to judicially rewrite the statute — a power that courts
clearly lack. See Orange Cty. ex rel. Byrd v. Byrd, 129 N.C. App. 818, 822, 501 S.E.2d
109, 112 (1998) (“Where there is no contention that the actions of the legislature
violate constitutional safeguards, we are not free to either ignore or amend legislative
enactments because when the language of a statute is clear and unambiguous, the
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Opinion of the Court
courts must give it its plain meaning.” (citation omitted)). Indeed, this Court has
previously stated that “the wording . . . in G.S. 143-300.1 particularly, is clear and
unambiguous.” Smith, 68 N.C. App. at 545, 316 S.E.2d at 111.
Plaintiffs and amicus curiae make various policy arguments in support of their
contention that the administrative negligence claims at issue should be adjudicated
in the Industrial Commission based primarily on their concerns about the potentially
preclusive effect of governmental immunity on their ability to bring such claims in
superior court. But such policy decisions are solely within the purview of the General
Assembly. See, e.g., Rhyne v. K-Mart Corp., 358 N.C. 160, 169, 594 S.E.2d 1, 8 (2004)
(“The General Assembly is the policy-making agency because it is a far more
appropriate forum than the courts for implementing policy-based changes to our
laws.” (quotation marks omitted)); Shera v. N.C. State Univ. Veterinary Teaching
Hosp., 219 N.C. App. 117, 126-27, 723 S.E.2d 352, 358 (2012) (holding that “this Court
is not in the position to expand the law” and that “the numerous policy considerations
presented by the issue raised in this case . . . [are] more appropriately addressed to
our Legislature”); see also Jones v. City of Durham, 183 N.C. App. 57, 64, 643 S.E.2d
631, 636 (2007) (“Any change in [the governmental immunity] doctrine should come
from the General Assembly.” (citation, quotation marks, and brackets omitted)).
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Opinion of the Court
Therefore, we conclude that the Industrial Commission lacked jurisdiction to
hear Plaintiffs’ administrative negligence claims. Accordingly, we hold that the
Commission erred in denying the Board’s motion to dismiss those claims.
Conclusion
For the reasons stated above, we reverse the 20 January 2017 order of the
Industrial Commission and remand for proceedings not inconsistent with this
opinion.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
Judges CALABRIA and TYSON concur.
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