On Friday afternoon a Hinds County medical malpractice trial took one of the weirdest turns imaginable. First, the the non-weird part. Dr. Paul Bracey treated Patrina Reynolds at the St. D emergency room in 2007. Dr. Bracey ordered an antibiotic and sent Ms. Reynolds home. Ms. Reynolds ended up getting very sick and going … Continue Reading
On April 25, 2013, Hinds County Circuit Judge Winston Kidd rendered a bench verdict of $194,154.95 in W&G Properties, LLC v. Hinds County Economic Development District. Here is the Court’s opinion and order. The trial was in June 2011. The case facts would be great for a contracts class in law school. HCEDD sold land … Continue Reading
On Friday a Hinds County jury rendered a $3.5 million verdict in Glover v. MBMC et al. Plaintiff was a 15 year old treated at the emergency room for a rash. The ER doctor prescribed medication that caused second degree chemical burns all over the boy’s body. Plaintiff is permanently scarred. The medication is supposed … Continue Reading
On Thursday a Hinds County Circuit Court jury returned a 12–0 defense verdict in a nursing home negligence case against Lakeland Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, which is in the Tara Cares system. The plaintiff alleged that the nursing home’s negligence resulted in dehydration, fecal impaction and death. The decedent was a resident of Lakeland for … Continue Reading
On Friday a Hinds County jury rendered a $100,000 verdict Friday in Marble v. Deviney Construction. This was the retrial of a personal injury case involving an electrical contact. The jury apportioned 30% fault to the plaintiff and 70% to Deviney. This will presumably lower the judgment to $70,000. The award was broken down as follows: $20,000 … Continue Reading
There was a $2.3 million verdict on Friday in a silica trial in Hinds County Circuit Court. The jury rendered a verdict of $1.7 million in compensatory damages and $500,000 in punitive damages. I do not know yet if the jury apportioned fault to any non-parties. Patrick Malouf and Allen Smith of Jackson represented the … Continue Reading
Judge Weill’s opinion last week in Eaton v. Frisby was a doozy. Listed below are some of the key findings, followed by my commentary. p. 14: An overwhelming majority of the documents discussed herein are documents that were clearly subject to one or more discovery requests made by Frisby. My Take: Read here if you … Continue Reading
From page 83 of Judge Weill’s September 19, 2012 opinion and order: This document contains the January 15, 2008 handwritten notes of Sharon O’Flaherty, former Eaton senior litigation attorney of her telephone conference with Schaalman. The notes stated: "Ed P. said DeLaughter’s opinions may not be respected by Yerger. He’s lazy…" Additionally, the notes say "MS seems so … Continue Reading
Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Jeff Weill has issued a 123-page opinion citing extensive new evidence that Eaton Corp. and its lawyers knew that Ed Peters was improperly influencing Judge Bobby DeLaughter and then tried to cover it up. Allison Grant of the Cleveland Plain Dealer has the story, which allows viewing of the order. … Continue Reading
The second trial in the Rebelwood Apartments premises case took place in Hinds County last week. I’ve heard that the trial resulted in a mistrial because the jury could not reach a verdict. Here is my post on the Supreme Court’s decision reversing Rebelwood I. Ashley Ogden represented the plaintiff. Judge Winston Kidd presided in … Continue Reading
On June 29 a Hinds County jury returned a $2.5 million verdict in Cheeks v. AutoZone. The plaintiff was hit by a car while walking on a sidewalk in front of an AutoZone store. Plaintiff sued the driver and AutoZone, which argued that it could not be held liable. Here is the trial court’s order … Continue Reading
Last week a Hinds County jury returned a defense verdict in Malouf v. Fredericks. The case involved medical malpractice allegations against two Jackson physicians. Mike Malouf, Sr. of Jackson represented the plaintiff. Carl Hagwood and Diane Pradat Pumphrey of Wilkins Tipton in Jackson represented one of the physician doctors and Whit Johnson of Currie Johnson in Jackson … Continue Reading
Eaton Corp. has found religion. As I discussed 2 weeks ago, Eaton got into more trouble with Hinds County Circuit Judge Jeff Weill in the Frisby litigation over not producing emails. The emails contained reports from Ed Peters—who had not appeared in the case—on his efforts to influence Judge Bobby DeLaughter to help Eaton. Judge Weill ordered Eaton CEO … Continue Reading
In 1999 American Home Products Corporation, the manufacturer of the diet drug fen-phen, agreed to pay $3.75 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits by the drug’s users. The drug was linked to heart valve disease. It was a stunning settlement that included payments of hundreds of thousands of dollars to plaintiffs who took the drug with no apparent ill-effects. Some plaintiffs recovered in … Continue Reading
Alison Grant with the Plain Dealer in Cleveland wrote an article on Eaton Corp.’s latest trouble in its Hinds County litigation against Frisby Aerospace. Here is the article. The article covers Hinds Circuit Judge Jeff Weills’ Order requiring multiple Eaton employees—including CEO Alexander Cutler—to explain why Eaton did not previously produce emails from Ed Peters … Continue Reading
Hinds Circuit Judge Jeff Weill petitioned the Mississippi Supreme Court to stop Senior Judge Tommie Green’s plan to assign only civil cases to Judge Weill and Judge Kidd with all criminal cases assigned to Judge Green and Judge Gowan. Here is Judge Weill’s petition, minus the cover page (I don’t have it). Here is my … Continue Reading
As reported earlier this week on Jackson Jambalaya, Hinds County Senior Judge Tomie Green entered an Order Establishing Criminal and Civil Divisions in Hinds County. You can read the Order at the JJ link above. The Order tabs Judges Kidd and Weill to primarily preside over civil cases. Judges Green and Gowan will primarily preside over criminal cases. … Continue Reading
The post last week about the Court of Appeals decision in the Hinds County Wackenhut-McDonald’s premises liability case generated a lot of discussion. Posted below are the two videos from inside the McDonald’s. The first video shows the Wackenhut security guard shoving the plaintiff with a lot of force. The second video from the back … Continue Reading
On Tuesday a unanimous Mississippi Court of Appeals reversed and remanded a 2009 $1 million Hinds County premises liability verdict in Wackenhut v. Fortune. Here is my December 2009 post on the verdict. This was the case where the plaintiff was a homeless man who got into it with the manager and security guard at the McDonald’s on Highway … Continue Reading
The March edition of the Mississippi Jury Verdict Reporter is out. The March edition covers ten recent verdicts, including eight verdicts rendered in 2012. The covered verdicts include: the $12 million Toyota Roll-over verdict (reduced to $7.3 million by fault apportioned to plaintiff) in federal court in Hattiesburg; a $302,000 verdict in February in a Hinds … Continue Reading
Lots of interesting court proceedings in Jackson today. The Mississippi Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today at 9:00 a.m. in the Barbour Pardon-gate case. As always, you can watch the video of the arguments live here at the Supreme Court’s website. It’s an en banc hearing, so you can bet that there will be some … Continue Reading
Last week the Miss. Court of Appeals affirmed a 2008 Hinds County defense verdict in Clark v. Toyota Motor Sales. Here is the Court’s opinion. The basis of the case was a 2001 auto-accident in DeSoto County involving a Toyota truck. Part of the appeal centered on Toyota’s exemplar truck that Judge Winston Kidd allowed jurors to view in front of … Continue Reading
On Thursday the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed and rendered a $3.72 million jury verdict in Trustmark National Bank v. Roxco Ltd. Here is the Court’s opinion. Facts: Roxco was the general contractor on several state construction contracts. State law requires 3% of the cost of construction to be retained to ensure completion, but allows the … Continue Reading
Jones Walker announced today that its merger with Watkins Ludlam (“WLS”) was effective on Friday. That will not stop the endless local speculation about the lawsuit filed against WLS and the seven WLS partners who led the negotiations with Jones Walker. When talking about this lawsuit, many people talk about the unusual nature the Jones Walker– WLS merger. … Continue Reading
