Harvey v. STONE COUNTY SCHOOL DIST.

982 So. 2d 463, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 20, 2008 WL 73301
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 8, 2008
Docket2006-CP-01789-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 982 So. 2d 463 (Harvey v. STONE COUNTY SCHOOL DIST.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harvey v. STONE COUNTY SCHOOL DIST., 982 So. 2d 463, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 20, 2008 WL 73301 (Mich. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

982 So.2d 463 (2008)

Bonnie HARVEY, Appellant
v.
STONE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Appellee.

No. 2006-CP-01789-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

January 8, 2008.

*464 Bonnie Harvey, Appellant, pro se.

Trace D. McRaney, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, C.J., BARNES and ISHEE, JJ.

BARNES, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Bonnie Harvey, proceeding pro se, appeals the Circuit Court of Stone County's denial of her motion to vacate the court's award of summary judgment to the Stone County School District on Harvey's personal injury claim under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act. Harvey contends that the circuit court (1) improperly decided the disputed facts of the case and thus was deprived of subject matter jurisdiction, (2) accepted as fact the unsworn, unverified, and undocumented theories and conclusions of the school district's counsel, (3) *465 totally ignored Harvey's unrebutted, sworn testimony, (4) disregarded Harvey's repeated notices that the school district's counsel had acted in utmost bad faith by refusing to comply with Harvey's requests for production of documents, (5) refused to enforce Harvey's discovery requests, and (6) permitted defense counsel to bully and harass Harvey. Harvey asserts that, as a result of such errors, she was denied due process of law. Finding no reversible error, we affirm the circuit court's denial of Harvey's motion to vacate.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On April 11, 2001, Harvey filed a complaint in the Stone County Circuit Court asserting claims against the Stone County School District. The complaint alleged that Harvey, while a student at Stone County High School, suffered an injury to her back during cheerleading practice as a result of the school district's negligence. On August 17, 2001, Harvey's attorney filed a motion for leave to withdraw as counsel, and on February 27, 2002, the trial court issued an order allowing the attorney to withdraw and granting Harvey thirty days to obtain new counsel. On April 2, 2002, Harvey filed a motion for enlargement of time to obtain new counsel, which the trial court granted; however, Harvey later filed an entry of appearance notifying the trial court that she would be proceeding pro se.

¶ 3. On July 3, 2002, the school district filed a motion to compel seeking an order compelling Harvey to respond to its interrogatories and requests for production. The motion was noticed for hearing on July 15, 2002, and Harvey was noticed accordingly.[1] Harvey, however, failed to appear for the hearing, and the circuit court entered an order compelling Harvey to provide the requested discovery by no later than July 29, 2002, and notifying her that failure to so provide could result in dismissal of her claim. On August 7, 2002, the school district filed a motion to dismiss pursuant to Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 37 and for failure to prosecute, claiming that Harvey had not provided the discovery responses within the time period set forth by the circuit court.[2] Harvey did not file a response to the school district's motion to dismiss, nor did she appear at the hearing on such motion.[3] On September 24, 2002, the trial court granted the school district's motion to dismiss, thereby dismissing Harvey's claims with prejudice. Harvey appealed the dismissal, and this Court reversed and remanded, finding that dismissal with prejudice was too harsh and extreme a remedy for a discovery violation under the circumstances. Harvey v. Stone County Sch. Dist., 862 So.2d 545 (Miss.Ct. App.2003).

¶ 4. After the case was remanded, the school district filed a motion for summary judgment based on the contention that it was immune from liability under Mississippi Code Annotated section 11-46-9(1)(d), *466 which provides that a governmental entity and its employees acting within the course and scope of their employment are not liable for a claim based on the performance of a discretionary function. Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-9(1)(d) (Rev.2002). The school district argued that the cheerleading sponsor's decision with respect to the supervision of the cheerleading practice in question was clearly discretionary. In her response to the motion for summary judgment, Harvey argued that the court was not permitted to accept as fact defense counsel's statements that the cheerleading sponsor was a qualified and certified employee of the school district and that the decisions of the cheerleading sponsor acting in the course and scope of her employment with the school district were discretionary. Harvey further argued that whether the supervision of cheerleading is a discretionary act was in dispute.

¶ 5. Along with her brief in opposition to the summary judgment motion, Harvey filed a cross motion for partial summary judgment, arguing that she was injured in a school cheerleading accident while under the care and guidance of personnel apparently employed by the Stone County School Board and that the school board had failed or refused to verify that any person was present at the cheerleading function who was properly trained, certified as required by law, and properly supervised. Harvey also attached an affidavit stating as follows: (1) "I have repeatedly requested documentation verifying that a person representing the Stone County School Board on the day that I was injured was certified, trained, and attentive to their [sic] duties as would be evidenced by supervisory procedures in place" and (2) "I am not in receipt of any document which verifies that the Stone County School Board has on record certification, training manuals, supervisory records, or any other materials relative to the training and supervision of personnel who teach, instruct, or supervise cheerleaders." The school district responded by noting that Harvey had alluded to no set of instructions, statutory or otherwise, to the school district relating to training, supervision, or teaching of cheerleading, and that she pointed to nothing that would require the cheerleading sponsor to have some type of certification or training.[4] After conducting a hearing on the motion for summary judgment, at which Harvey failed to appear, the trial court granted the school district's motion based on the discretionary function exception of Mississippi Code Annotated section 11-46-9(1)(d).

¶ 6. Subsequently, Harvey filed a notice of appeal to the Mississippi Supreme Court and a motion to proceed in forma pauperis, the latter of which the circuit court denied. Following the denial of her in forma pauperis motion, Harvey filed a motion to vacate the circuit court's award of summary judgment to the school pursuant to Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b), arguing that (1) the complaint alleged injuries sustained as a cheerleader at a school district sanctioned event which was unsupervised, (2) in granting summary judgment, the circuit court relied on unverified and undocumented theories and conclusions of the school district's attorney that this case was about an incident supervised *467

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
982 So. 2d 463, 2008 Miss. App. LEXIS 20, 2008 WL 73301, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harvey-v-stone-county-school-dist-missctapp-2008.