Marilyn Lee Summerlin sued Georgia Pines Community Service Board for the wrongful death of her 18-year-old son, George Clayton Summerlin. The trial court granted Georgia Pines’s motion for summary judgment on the basis of insufficiency of service of process, and we reversed in Summerlin v. Georgia Pines Community Service Board .1 Upon remittitur, Georgia Pines moved to dismiss on grounds of sovereign immunity, and the trial court denied the motion. Following our grant of its application for interlocutory appeal, Georgia Pines appeals from the trial court’s order denying its motion to dismiss and argues that the trial court erred in determining that torts committed by borrowed servants of the State during the course of their employment are subject to a waiver of sovereign immunity. For the reasons set forth below, we agree that the trial court’s conclusion was erroneous and reverse. The record shows that in July 2001, the decedent was admitted to an intensive treatment residence owned and operated by Georgia Pines. Before his admission, the decedent was diagnosed with mild mental retardation and a schizoaffective disorder. He was found dead in his room at the residential facility on the morning of August 27, 2001, having passed away during the night. According to the autopsy report, the decedent was “discovered lying partially on his bed and partially pressed up against a nearby wall.” The medical examiner found the cause of death to be asphyxiation and the manner of death to be accidental.
At the time of the decedent’s death, ATC Health Care Services, Inc., “ATC” had contracted with Georgia Pines to provide persons to fill positions at the residential facility. Carlos Hernandez and Charlie Whiddon were included among the persons provided by ATC to Georgia Pines under the professional services agreement and placed at the residential facility. Summerlin maintained that Whiddon failed to ensure that the decedent ingested his anti-seizure medication and that Hernandez failed to perform visual bed checks, thus contributing to the decedent’s death.
