Tag: Wrongful Death

Mississippi Court of Appeals Decisions of November 22, 2022

The Mississippi Court of Appeals handed down six opinions before making a break for the turkey this week. There is a custody case reviewing a contempt order related to visitation rights, a civil asset forfeiture case, a previously-decided MTCA wrongful death case with a substituted opinion, a real property contract case with a claim by the would-be purchaser for specific performance or damages, and a couple of PCR cases.

Kay v. Kay, 2021-CA-01377-COA (Civil – Domestic Relations)
Affirming in part and reversing in part the chancery court’s contempt ruling, holding that there was substantial credible evidence supporting the finding of the father willfully failed to comply with visitation guidelines and denied the mother visitation rights but reversing the part of the order directing the children to report to jail if they chose not participate in future scheduled visitation with their mother.
(10-0)

McDonald v. State, 2021-CP-01040-COA (Civil – PCR)
Affirming the denial of a PCR motion, holding that the circuit court had jurisdiction to resentence the plaintiff and that there was no merit to the claims that the guilty plea was not voluntary or for ineffective assistance of counsel.
(1o-0)

Parker v. State, 2021-CP-01102-COA (Civil – PCR)
Affirming denial of a PCR motion, holding that the plaintiff did not overcome the time bar, there was no merit to his claims that he was wrongly sentenced as a habitual offender, and the illegal-sentence claim was waived by meritless anyway.
(9-1-0: Judge Emfinger concurred in part and in the result without separate written opinion.)

Forty-One Thousand Eighty Dollars v. State, 2021-CA-00692-COA (Civil – Other/Civil Asset Forfeiture)
Affirming seizure of case, holding that the funds were subject to forfeiture, the argument that the K-9 alerted to the cash because the case was contaminated was unpersuasive, and that the forfeiture was not grossly disproportionate.
(8-1-0: Judge Westbrooks concurred in the result only without separate written opinion; Judge Emfinger did not participate.)

Simmons v. Jackson County, Mississippi, 2020-CA-01014-COA (Civil – Wrongful Death)
Denying a motion for rehearing but substituting a new opinion, but still affirming circuit court’s ruling that the county bore no responsibility for a driver’s fatal accident that occurred when his vehicle left the road and struck a culvert, holding that there was sufficient evidence to support the circuit court’s finding that the driver’s negligence in failing to exercise vigilant caution as he drove through a work zone was the sole proximate cause of the accident.
(7-3: Judge Westbrooks dissented, joined by Judge Carlton and Judge McDonald.)

NOTE – Since the old opinion is no longer available, I am not sure what changed. Apparently what I took away as the core holding did not change because my prior summary still seems to fairly characterize the opinion.

Haidar v. Margetta, 2021-CA-00683-COA (Civil – Contract)
Reversing the chancery court’s dismissal of a purchaser’s claim for specific performance or damages after the seller refused to honor the contract after the initial closing date passed, holding that time is not automatically of the essence in real estate transactions and there was no evidence in the record to establish that time was of the essence here.
(6-1-3: Judge Westbrooks concurred in part and in the result without separate written opinion; Judge Greenlee dissented, joined by Chief Judge Barnes and Judge Carlton, and joined in part by Judge Westbrooks)

Other Orders

Murry v. State, 2020-KA-01363-COA (denying rehearing)

Wilson v. Lexington Manner Senior Care, LLC, 2021-CA-00072-COA (denying rehearing)

Wilson v. City of Greenville, 2021-CA-00316-COA (denying rehearing)

White v. White, 2021-CP-00333-COA (denying rehearing)

Beasley v. State, 2021-CA-00653-COA (denying rehearing)

Mitchell v. MDES, 2021-CC-00795-COA (denying pro se motion for rehearing as untimely)

Norwood v. State, 2021-CA-00802-COA (denying rehearing)

Patrick v. State, 2022-TS-00683-COA (dismissing appeal as moot)

Hand Down List

Mississippi Supreme Court Decisions of August 18, 2022

The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down one opinion today along with a passel of orders denying various post-conviction petitions as frivolous. The opinion is noteworthy because the Supreme Court granted cert and then reversed the Court of Appeals and the chancery court on issues that do not appear to have been argued at any point in the appeal briefing and were not addressed by the Court of Appeals.

Randle v. Randle, 2020-CT-00433-SCT (Civil – Wills, Trusts, and Estates)
Reversing the Court of Appeals and the chancellor on cert, holding that the lower courts incorrectly considered settlement proceeds from a wrongful-death claim as an asset of the estate and incorrectly adjudicated the decedent’s heirs-at-law instead of making a determination of wrongful-death beneficiaries.
(9-0)

ADDENDUM – The Supreme Court’s decision hinged on issues that were not addressed by the parties’ briefs, the Court of Appeals’ opinion, or the cert petition. The parties were focused on issues related to the use of DNA evidence to determine heirs and the chancellor’s order requiring a supersedeas bond which are the issues the Court of Appeals decided. But the Supreme Court addressed a more fundamental issue of whether the wrongful-death proceeds were part of the decedent’s estate. Since it held they were not, the Supreme Court then held that the chancellor should have determined wrongful-death beneficiaries rather than heirs-at-law. This case was remanded back to the chancery court for a determination of wrongful-death beneficiaries.

Here is the Supreme Court emphatically explaining that wrongful-death proceeds are not part of the decedent’s estate:

Other Orders

Pinkston v. State, 2012-M-00306 (denying application for leave to proceed in the trial court, finding the claims in the successive petitions are frivolous, and warning that future frivolous filings could result in sanctions)

Daniels v. State, 2017-M-00423 (denying petition for PCR, finding that it was frivolous, and restricting the petitioner from filing further applications in forma pauperis)

Brunson v. State, 2018-M-01113 (denying petition for PCR, finding that it was frivolous, and restricting the petitioner from filing further applications in forma pauperis)

Hill v. State, 2019-M-01221 (denying denying pro se petition for en banc habeas corpus, finding the claims in the successive petitions are frivolous, and warning that future frivolous filings could result in sanctions)

Wright v. State, 2019-M-01883 (denying petition for PCR, finding that it was frivolous, and restricting the petitioner from filing further applications in forma pauperis)

Brown v. State, 2020-M-00630 (denying motion to proceed with habeas corpus petition, finding that the application was frivolous, and restricting the petitioner from filing applications in forma pauperis)

Hand Down List

Mississippi Supreme Court decisions of April 28, 2022

After some sort of technical hiccup with the State’s web domain that knocked the Mississippi Supreme Court’s website offline for a spell, they are back in business. The Court handed down one hearty opinion in a wrongful death case that involves § 1983, qualified immunity, the MTCA, the appealability of summary judgment denials, and hearsay.

City of Jackson v. Johnson, 2020-CA-00318-SCT (Civil – Tort/Wrongful Death/1983/MTCA)
Reversing and rendering a jury verdict holding the City liable under § 1983 and affirming the trial court’s judgment finding the City liable under the MTCA for the decedent’s wrongful death. The victim was murdered shortly after calling 911 to report a prowler. The dispatcher did not tell the victim to remain on the line, in violation of the City’s policies and procedure. Two JPD officers went to the victim’s house, did not detect that the prowler had entered a window, did not make contact with the victim, and left. The victim was found dead the next day. The victim’s family filed suit under § 1983 and under the MTCA.

The 911 operator and officers got out via qualified immunity on summary judgment. The § 1983 case was tried by a jury and the MTCA case was tried “simultaneously” before the bench. The jury found that the City violated the victim’s constitutional rights to due process and awarded $1M in damages. The trial court awarded $500,000 (i.e. the statutory maximum) under the MTCA.

On appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court held that the City was entitled to a directed verdict on the § 1983 claim, reasoning that our constitutional due process rights do not include the right to be protected by the state from acts of private violence. Regarding the MTCA claim, the Supreme Court held that the 911 dispatcher’s conduct in responding to the victim’s call did not involve an element of choice or judgment and the City was therefore not protected by discretionary function immunity from liability under the MTCA.

There was a hearsay issue involving the defendant’s statement contained in the police report that warrants a brief discussion. The trial court admitted the police report, but with the assailant’s statement to police redacted, finding that the assailant could not be compelled to testify against himself and that hearsay exception in Rule 804(b)(3) did not apply because the statement was not being used against the assailant/declarant. Later in the trial, the court allowed the plaintiff’s expert to reply on the assailant’s statement in forming his opinions over the City’s objection that the expert had relied on inadmissible hearsay. The Mississippi Supreme Court did not have to address the argument that the expert’s testimony was a “conduit for otherwise inadmissible hearsay” because it held that that the assailant’s statement to police was admissible under the Rule 804(b)(3) exception after all, so there was no error in admitting the expert testimony that relied upon it.

(Chief Justice Randolph wrote a special concurrence, joined in part by Justice Maxwell, Justice Chamberlin, Justice Ishee, and Justice Griffis. Justice Griffis also wrote a special concurrence.)

Practice Point – I found it remarkable that the Mississippi Supreme Court heretofore had not addressed the issue of whether the denial of a motion for summary judgment can be appealed after a trial. They did here, and now we know:

One More Thing – We were this close (maybe) to the Mississippi Supreme Court addressing one of my pet issues: When a case involves an MTCA defendant and a non-MTCA defendant how, exactly, should a hybrid bench/jury trial proceed?

resolving-the-conflictDownload

Other Orders

Hutto v. State, 2017-DR-01207-SCT (granting the plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File Rebuttal to Opposition to Motion for Appointment of Counsel for Representation for Successive Petition for Post-Conviction Relief and the State’s Motion for Leave to File Surrebuttal in Opposition to Motion for Appointment of Counsel for Representation for Successive Petition for Post-Conviction Relief)

Randle v. Randle, 2020-CT-0033-SCT (granting cert)

McPhail v. McPhail, 2020-CA-00739-SCT (denying Motion Pursuant to Rule 8 and Rule 27 of the Rules of Appellate Procedure is hereby denied and remanding to the chancery court of Grenada County for an adjudication of a request for release on bond pending appeal in light of his child support payment subsequent to the February 24, 2022 denial of his prior motion)

HL&C Marion, LLC v. DIMA Homes, Inc., 2020-CT-00750-SCT (CORRECTION: granting cert 6-0)

Williams v. State, 2020-KA-772-SCT (denying rehearing)

Morningstar v. Perkins Law Firm, 2020-CT-1203-SCT (denying cert)

Embrey v. Young, 2021-CT-91-SCT (denying cert)

Hand Down Page