Sharpe Ex Rel. Estate of Sharpe v. South Carolina Dept. of Mental Health

Lewis, Chief Justice:

This is an appeal from an order overruling a demurrer to the complaint of respondent.

The South Carolina Department of Mental Health (a State agency) and four licensed physicians on its staff have been sued in this action to recover damages for the alleged wrongful death of a person shot and killed by a mental incompetent who had been treated and released from a facility of the Department about two months before. It is alleged that the Department and the physicians were negligent in at least three particulars in the handling of the incompetent’s case, to wit; (1) in his…