Court weighs damage limitations query

State News

May 10, 2011

By JACK ELLIOTT JR./Associated Press Writer Associated Press Tue May 10, 2011, 09:03 AM CDT

JACKSON — During a marathon 83-day special session in 2002, Mississippi legislators made significant changes in the civil justice system. They tinkered with those changes in 2004 to further limit awards in lawsuits. Those alterations to state law go under a judicial microscope next month.

The Mississippi Supreme Court will hold oral arguments June 14 on the question of whether a state law that limits non-economic damages in civil cases is constitutional.

What started out as a procedural question asked of the Mississippi Supreme Court by a federal appeals panel has grabbed the attention of various business groups, trade associations and Gov. Haley Barbour.

The lawsuit between Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Lisa Learmonth is pending before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

The 5th Circuit has withheld a decision in the case awaiting the Mississippi court. In January, the 5th Circuit asked if a state law that limits non-economic damages to $1 million in civil cases is constitutional.

How the Mississippi court answers the question could renew the debate over whether the Magnolia State goes back to the “judicial hellhole” label bestowed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 2003 because of large jury verdicts.

Mississippi law puts a $1 million limit on what juries can award someone for such things as pain and suffering. The limits on non-economic damages were adopted by Mississippi lawmakers after years of contentious wrangling over lawsuit awards.

In the case, Learmonth sued Sears after she was involved in a collision with one of the company’s vans near Philadelphia, Miss.

A U.S. District Court jury in Mississippi found Sears liable for her injuries and awarded Learmonth $4 million in damages, of which the parties agreed $2.2 million was for non-economic damages. The federal judge reduced the non-economic damages to $1 million.

Sears asked the 5th Circuit for a new trial, which the appeals court panel denied. Learmonth appealed the judge’s reduction of the non-economic damages, which prompted the 5th Circuit’s query to the Mississippi court.

In February, Republican Gov. Haley Barbour told the Mississippi court that the civil justice reforms have resulted in lower insurance premiums for doctors and helped attract new business to the state.

“The non-economic damage caps and other tort reform measures leveled the playing field for all litigants, ensured fair and predictable results, averted a health care crisis and attracted new businesses to the state,” Barbour said in court documents.

Barbour said his concern was that “any judicial repeal of the non-economic damage caps or other tort reform measures would destroy the positive progress made in recent years, crush current economic development and drive away desperately needed jobs during one of the most uncertain economic times in the nation’s history.”

The initial limits on lawsuit awards came in 2002 during Democratic Gov. Ronnie Musgrove’s administration. Barbour defeated Musgrove in 2003. The law was amended in 2004 amid complaints that the initial reforms didn’t go far enough.

Doctors, businesses and medical groups argued for years that the legal climate in Mississippi was untenable due to excessive awards. Plaintiffs’ attorneys and others claimed caps on damages further victimized people who had been wronged by negligence and denied them the compensation they deserved.

Last September, the Supreme Court overturned a $1.67 million verdict awarded to Richard Lee Lymas against the owners of a Belzoni convenience store who were sued after Lymas was shot and wounded in its parking lot.

Trade groups believed the case was a chance for the court to affirm the constitutionality of Mississippi’s non-economic damage caps, which were challenged by Lymas.

The Supreme Court did not address the issue. The court said its decision that Lymas failed to prove the store was liable for his injuries made Lymas’ challenge to the tort reform statute moot.

Text Only

State News

MHP on patrol for holiday
Even though there has been a remarkable reduction in the number of fatalities in Mississippi over the past seven years, last year’s Memorial Day Weekend was particularly deadly.

May 26, 2012
Forecasters: 9 to 15 storms this hurricane season
U.S. forecasters predicted Thursday that this year’s Atlantic hurricane season would produce a normal number of about nine to 15 tropical storms.
As many as four to eight of those storms could strengthen into hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s initial outlook for the six-month storm season that officially begins June 1. One to three of those could become major hurricanes with top winds of 111 mph or higher.

May 25, 2012
Miss. court sets execution dates for 2 of 3 men
Mississippi will not execute three men on three consecutive days in June, after the state Supreme Court set execution dates a week apart for two men and declined to set a date for a third.

May 25, 2012
New, old law makers tout legislative successes
Four state law makers held a legislative review for members of the Greater Picayune Area Chamber of Commerce at the newly opened Southern Char restaurant Tuesday night to share with business owners information about new bills and laws that have been passed.

May 24, 2012 1 Photo
Prosecutors: Delay sentencing in hate crime case
Federal prosecutors want to delay the sentencing of three white men who pleaded guilty to hate crime charges stemming from a months-long pattern of harassing blacks that culminated in the fatal rundown of James Craig Anderson.

May 24, 2012
Bryant signs laws affecting students and veterans
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill Wednesday that requires kindergarteners or first-graders to be tested for dyslexia, a reading disorder that can sometimes go undiagnosed for years and leave children struggling to learn.

May 24, 2012
Losing bidder sues over revised bid at state port
A contract dispute has put on hold elevation work at the state port in Gulfport.
The port’s West Pier is being expanded, elevated and updated to house a modern containerized cargo operation. When completed, the pier will include 180 acres elevated for storm-surge protection by 15 feet, to 25 feet above sea level.

May 23, 2012
Mom of man in sisters abduction gets new charge
Prosecutors have increased the severity of charges against the mother of a man who abducted two young Tennessee girls after he killed their mother and oldest sister.

May 23, 2012
Sheriff: Gang started prison riot in Mississippi
A gang fight in a prison for illegal immigrants quickly escalated into a riot involving as many as 300 inmates, some lashing out with sticks or homemade knives as the uprising spread through the sprawling prison, a sheriff said.

May 22, 2012
Miss. voter ID bill signed, awaits feds’ scrutiny
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant on Thursday signed a bill requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls, but it’s unclear whether it will become law.

May 18, 2012
More State News Headlines

State News

Search Results

Court weighs damage limitations query

Site Map

Contact Us