Estate of Brown v. Pearl River Valley

627 So. 2d 308, 1993 WL 374230
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 23, 1993
Docket91-CA-159
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 627 So. 2d 308 (Estate of Brown v. Pearl River Valley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Brown v. Pearl River Valley, 627 So. 2d 308, 1993 WL 374230 (Mich. 1993).

Opinion

627 So.2d 308 (1993)

The ESTATE OF Shelby BROWN, Jr., By and Through its Administrator, Shelby BROWN, Sr., Rosie Brown, Individually, and Shelby Brown, Sr., Individually
v.
PEARL RIVER VALLEY OPPORTUNITY, INC. and Sophia Sutton Mission Assembly.

No. 91-CA-159.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

September 23, 1993.
Rehearing Denied December 23, 1993.

Lance L. Stevens, Stevens & Ward, Jackson, for appellant.

Michael Adelman, Dorrance Aultman, Aultman Tyner McNeese & Ruffin, Hattiesburg, for appellee.

PRATHER, P.J., and BANKS and SMITH, JJ.

BANKS, Justice, for the Court:

Here we are asked to reverse a summary judgment granted in favor of the Pearl River Valley Opportunity, Inc. on grounds that the action is barred by the exclusive remedy provisions of the workers' compensation act. Resolution turns on the question of whether the deceased was acting within the scope of his employment, a question previously answered in the negative in workers' compensation proceedings. The circuit court answered affirmatively. We reverse.

I

On June 30, 1987, Shelby Brown drowned in the swimming pool at the Sophia Sutton Mission Assembly (Sophia Sutton) in Prentiss, Jefferson Davis County, Mississippi, where he worked as a summer employee. Shelby Brown was sixteen at the time. He had been hired through the Summer Youth Employment Training Program (hereinafter "SYETP") administered by Pearl River Valley Opportunity, Inc. (hereinafter "PRVO"). Brown and two other youths had been placed at Sophia Sutton that summer as aids to the *309 groundskeeper. Brown died during his working hours at the mission.

A claim for workers' compensation benefits was filed on behalf of Shelby Brown's estate with PRVO's insurance carrier. The carrier ultimately denied benefits, claiming that Shelby Brown was acting outside the scope of his employment at the time he died. Brown's estate subsequently contested the denial of benefits to the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission. The parties made stipulations on the facts. The stipulations included an agreement that an accurate presentation of the facts surrounding Shelby Brown's drowning was contained in the deposition of Frank Armstrong, Shelby Brown's immediate supervisor at Sophia Sutton. Through an Order dated June 8, 1989, an administrative law judge ruled that the case was controlled by Collier v. Texas Construction Company, 228 Miss. 824, 90 So.2d 390 (1956). He also said, "decedent, in entering the fenced-in pool area and jumping into the pool did so for his own benefit, turning aside from business of his employer and engaging in `activity wholly unrelated to the employment and not in any manner incidental to it.'" citing Collier v. Texas Construction Company, 228 Miss. at 829, 90 So.2d at 391. The administrative law judge ruled that Shelby Brown's drowning was excluded from coverage under the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Act.

Without appealing the administrative law judge's decision to the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission, Shelby Brown's parents and his estate filed a wrongful death action in the Jefferson Davis County Circuit Court. They named PRVO, Sophia Sutton Mission Assembly, and John Does 1 and 2 as defendants. Plaintiffs alleged that Sophia Sutton Mission Assembly had been negligent in: 1) failing to reasonably exclude Shelby Brown from the swimming pool area; 2) failing to warn Shelby Brown of imminent dangers associated with his entry into the pool area and the pool itself; 3) failing to keep the Assembly pool reasonably clean and clear; 4) failing to reasonably and adequately train the Assembly employees at the scene in the areas of emergency life-saving procedures; 5) failing to take reasonable measures to resuscitate Brown; and 6) failing to otherwise act in a reasonable manner. They claimed PRVO had been negligent in: 1) placing Shelby Brown at a worksite with an ultrahazardous condition without any inspection; 2) failing to warn Shelby Brown of that condition; 3) failing to remove Shelby Brown from the Assembly premises; and 4) failing to demand immediate remedy of the alleged ultrahazardous condition. They also contended that PRVO was vicariously liable for the actions of Sophia Sutton, because PRVO acted as an agent, representative, or indemnitor of Sophia Sutton. Additionally, Plaintiffs contended the omissions they attributed to PRVO and Sophia Sutton made both defendants grossly negligent and therefore suitable for punitive damages.

PRVO and Sophia Sutton were each served with notice of the institution of the action on September 13, 1990. Both defendants answered by denying all allegations of negligence and claiming that Shelby Brown's actions were the sole and proximate cause of his death. Sophia Sutton filed a motion for summary judgment on December 12, 1990. For purposes of the motion, they argued that Shelby Brown had been within the scope of his employment when he drowned, contrary to their posture before the Workers' Compensation Commission. Because the decedent was within the scope of his employment, contended Sophia Sutton, the decedent's estate and the decedent's parents were barred by the exclusivity provisions of the Workers' Compensation Act from bringing a common law wrongful death suit. The Jefferson Davis County Circuit Court agreed. The court issued a Memorandum Opinion and Order to this effect on February 5, 1993. Plaintiffs filed timely notice of appeal to this Court.

II

During the summer of 1987, PRVO administered a federally-funded Summer Youth Employment Training Program in the Prentiss, Mississippi, area. PRVO received applications for positions in the program, selected the participants, and selected the worksites where the program participants would be placed.

*310 Shelby Brown, then a sixteen-year-old junior at Prentiss High School, was selected and assigned to work at the Sophia Sutton Mission Assembly. Sophia Sutton's activities included operating a Head Start Program. Participants in the Summer Youth Employment Program were generally assigned to the site nearest their homes. Once Shelby was placed at Sophia Sutton, Sophia Sutton assigned Shelby his duties and supervised his work. Shelby was paid through PRVO.

Shelby and two other youths, Tommy Newsome and Alfred Gholar, were assigned to work under the supervision of Frank Armstrong, who was responsible for groundskeeping at Sophia Sutton. Armstrong was approximately 71 years of age at that time. On the afternoon of June 30, 1987, Armstrong assigned the three boys to the task of hoeing grass away from the sidewalk outside the fence surrounding the Sophia Sutton swimming pool. Pursuant to orders from Rev. J.E. Wells, the General Administrator for the Sophia Sutton Mission Assembly, Armstrong went into the pool area to pull grass from between the cracks of the concrete around the swimming pool. The gate to the swimming pool was generally locked during that summer. The pool had not been open since August of the preceding year.

While Armstrong was pulling grass from the pool area, the boys stopped their hoeing work and entered the open gate to the pool area. On the boys' first day at work, each of them had responded to questioning from Rev. Wells that they could not swim, and Rev. Wells claims to have told them to stay away from the pool area. Shortly after the boys entered the pool area, Shelby Brown took off his shirt, hat, and shoes, and began playing in the shallow end of the pool. Subsequently, he got out of the shallow end and walked around and dove into the deep end of the pool, which measured twelve feet in depth.

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Bluebook (online)
627 So. 2d 308, 1993 WL 374230, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-brown-v-pearl-river-valley-miss-1993.