Ray v. North Carolina Department of Transportation

Although the Tort Claims Act represents “a limited waiver of [the State’s] sovereign immunity,” Myers v. McGrady, 360 N.C. 460, 464, 628 S.E.2d 761, 764 (2006), its enactment in 1951 did not abrogate the public duty doctrine. Stone v. N.C. Dep’t of Labor, 347 N.C. 473, 479, 495 S.E.2d 711, 714 (holding that “the plain words of the statute indicate an intent that the [public duty] doctrine apply to claims brought under the Tort Claims Act”), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 1016, 142 L. Ed. 2d 449 (1998). Rather, “the Tort Claims Act... incoiporat[ed] the existing common law rules of negligence,…