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Brock v. Sumter County Sch. Bd.

The school district and its employees were immune from liability for the death of a 7-year-old girl who arrived at her bus stop several minutes early and ran into the road in front of a passing truck.

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Wendy Brock and Jimmy Yoemans hereinafter “Brock” sued the Sumter County School Board and several individual employees of the County after their seven-year-old daughter was killed in an unfortunate accident while she was waiting for the morning school bus. The Sumter County School District was substituted as a party in place of the school board. The trial court granted summary judgment for the school district on the ground of sovereign immunity and granted summary judgment for the individual defendants. This appeal raises the familiar questions of whether the school district waived its sovereign immunity by purchasing motor vehicle liability insurance, and whether certain duties of the school district employees were ministerial, meaning that their actions were not protected by official immunity.

Construed in favor of Brock, the facts show that the family lived in a mobile home park located on a privately-owned, dirt driveway that intersects Brady Road, a paved, county-owned roadway. Seven-year-old, second grader Elizabeth and the other children were supposed to wait for the bus 10 to 20 feet from Brady Road. Only when the bus arrived were the children to cross Brady Road in order to board the bus. The children were instructed to arrive at the bus stop no earlier than five minutes before the scheduled pick-up time of 6:55 a.m.

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