Mississippi Litigation Review & Commentary : Mississippi Personal Injury Lawyer & Attorney : Phillip W. Thomas Law Firm : MS Litigation Review & Commentary

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Gannett ran the same article on Mississippi jury verdicts in two newspapers on Sunday. The headline of the article in the Hattiesburg American was “Jury Awards Running Rampant.” Meanwhile, the headline for the same article in the Clarion-Ledger was “Jackpot awards still occur.”

The actual article opens with a softer tone:

Large verdicts still are being won here and there in Mississippi nearly 10 years after the state passed legislation capping damages jurors can award in civil cases.

I guess that is sort of true. Highly misleading. But sort of true. The key words being “here and there” with an asterisk to denote that jury verdicts don't reflect actual recoveries, if any.

The article cites a grand total of two cases. First, the Cole v. Ford Motor Co. verdict that I discussed a lot on this blog. The case involved the death of professional baseball player Brian Cole. The general manager for the New York Mets testified at trial that Cole was going to play in the majors. There was a $131 million verdict in the third trial and the case settled. A comment to one of my posts cites a rumor that the case settled for $12 million. Far south of $131 million and a reasonable figure for a pro baseball player.

Second, the $322 million Smith County asbestos drilling mud verdict that I discussed here and here. The article quotes Raleigh lawyer Gene Tullos, who represented the plaintiffs at trial. I have heard that the plaintiffs asked for far less in damages than was actually awarded. The verdict is being chalked up to the Gene Tullos Smith County phenomenon.   

The article goes on to state that the defendant does not expect the verdict to stand on appeal:

Union Carbide has confidence in the Mississippi appellate courts and believes - without hesitation - That this verdict will be completely set aside by post-trial motions or through the appellate process," company spokesman Scot Wheeler said.

"While the case lacks any merit, by just applying the applicable damage limitations, the total award against Union Carbide should be reduced to substantially less than $1 million."

Union Carbide's confidence is well placed. The chances of that verdict getting affirmed on appeal are less than zero.  

As I have discussed previously, plaintiffs are getting crushed in trials in Mississippi. Jury awards are not “running rampant” and any verdicts that are out of line get reversed by the Mississippi Supreme Court. The fact of the matter is that anyone who gets a verdict out of a Mississippi jury and then gets that verdict paid or affirmed on appeal has earned it and deserves it.

The thing that bothers me about this newspaper article is that it sends a message that is wrong. Perhaps intentionally. Perhaps not. Lawyers and judges know that juries are not running rampant, but the general public doesn't.  

The article misses the real story. Why is there a $322 million verdict coming out of Smith County, which looks ultra-conservative on paper? Why are there so many large verdicts coming out of Judge Billy Joe Landrum's courtroom? Those are interesting questions that would make for a good story. But the Gannett article misses those questions on its way to a shallow article with misleading hysteric headlines.  

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The Clarion-Ledger ran this article on Saturday about Jackson lawyer Wayne Farrell's lawsuit against Arkansas lawyer Tab Turner. The case is a fee dispute among lawyers over the presumed multi-million dollar settlement in the Jasper County Cole v. Ford Motor lawsuit that resulted in a $132 million jury verdict. The case settled shortly after the verdict.

Now the plaintiffs' lawyers are fighting over the attorney's fees:

Jackson lawyer Wayne Ferrell Jr. is suing Arkansas lawyer C. Tab Turner and others in Jasper County Chancery Court, seeking to force Turner to abide by a 2006 attorney-fee sharing agreement.

 The attorneys agreed legal fees and expenses would be split 28 percent for Ferrell, 23 percent for Turner and other attorneys would share the rest. In early 2005, a new contingency fee was worked out with attorneys to receive 50 percent of the total amount awarded to the family. 

Ferrell said in court papers Turner shut out other attorneys from the decision-making process during settlement negotiations.

After a second mistrial in February, Turner requested Ferrell and other attorneys pay about $600,000 in expenses. He said he had incurred more than $832,000 in expenses from the start of his involvement in the case. From the September trial that resulted in the jury verdict, Ferrell said Turner requested payment in advance for expenses incurred for expert witnesses and trial expenses.

But Ferrell said in court papers that Turner hadn't provided any proof by way of invoices from expert witnesses.

"Turner has threatened to pay Ferrell nothing from the fee proceeds even though Ferrell procured the case and even though Ferrell has thousands of hours in the case," Ferrell said in court papers.

This has the potential to be the biggest lawyer fee dispute case since the 1999 Dockins v. Allred decision in which the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled on a fee dispute between Hal Dockins and Mike Allred over the attorney's fees in the Loewen case.

That case resulted in a $500 million dollar verdict in the mid-1990's. Ironically, most people credit Florida attorney Willie Gary for that verdict even though he avoided the fee dispute. Here is a link to a video of Gary re-enacting his closing argument from the Loewen trial. Here is a link to a law review article that examines the controversial Loewen verdict.

I suspect that the Brian Cole settlement deeply discounted the jury's verdict. But even a 90% discount would leave the attorneys fighting over millions of dollars in fees. Lawsuits against and among lawyers are often knife fights. I doubt that this one will be any different.

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The Brian Cole verdict against Ford Motor Co. is on the front page of today's Clarion-Ledger. Here is the article. A Ford spokesperson is quoted in the article as saying that the trial was unfair.

Judge Billy Joe Landrum was the trial judge and he conducted the trial in Laurel with a Paulding jury. The article identifies Tab Turner from Arkansas as the lead plaintiff lawyer. Barry Ford and Bill Jones of Baker Donelson in Jackson defended the case with Ford's national roll-over counsel. I am not a fan of the national defense counsel model in Mississippi, but I'll save that discussion for another day.  

The verdict was $131 million for Cole (who died) and $1.5 for the passenger of the Ford Explorer (Cole's cousin who survived). The two were in a roll-over accident on I-10 in Florida. Yea, I know: what was the trial doing with a Paulding jury? There was a venue hook somehow.

Yesterday after the verdict came down I received  numerous reports on it that placed the verdict range from $130 million to $235 million. A Ridgeland attorney with absolutely no connection to the case or involved law firms was the only person to provide the exact correct breakdown of the verdict.

The case settled before entering the punitive damages phase. Ford is getting second guessed for settling the case, but I don't have a problem with it conceptually. Since I do not know the amount of the settlement, I can only comment in general terms.

First, a punitive verdict in the case could have easily been over $100 million in addition to the compensatory verdict.

Second, this was the third trial. Ford has probably already spent $30-$50 million in defense costs and expenses. The result of a winning appeal would likely be the chance to try the case again, presumably before the same judge and another Paulding jury. Ford's cost for the appeal and re-trying the case would likely be in the $5-$10 million range. 

So if the Plaintiffs discounted the verdict to settle the case,  Ford might have felt that settlement was the best business decision. 

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A Jasper County jury returned a $135 million verdict [I reported earlier that it was $130 million, then $235 million] today in the case against Ford Motor Co. involving the death of New York Mets prospect Brian Cole. I am not sure whether there were punitive damages.

Update: I am confident now that the verdict was in the $130's. See the comment by the plaintiff lawyer.

Update: reports are now that the verdict was all compensatory and the case settled before the punitive phase.

Two earlier trials in the case resulted in mistrials. I am not positive, but I think that this case is so old that the tort caps do not apply. Update: the case was filed in 2001. The caps do not apply.

For prior posts on the case see here, here, and here.

Read the Plaintiff attorney's blog on the verdict here. 

I will have more on this verdict in a future post.

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Last week I reported a hung jury in a Jones County Ford Motor Co. trial. The case was actually tried in the Paulding district of Jasper County. Jones County Circuit Judge Billy Joe Landrum presided over the trial because Judge Robert Evans recused himself from the case.

This was the second trial for this case. The first trial was in 2004 and resulted in a mistrial for one of the two plaintiffs and a hung jury for the other.

The basis for the case was the 2001 Ford Explorer accident that resulted in the death of professional baseball prospect Brian Cole of Meridian. Here is a New York Times article about Cole following the accident. Cole was considered the New York Mets’ third best major league prospect at the time of the accident and played for the club’s double-A minor league affiliate.

In the lawsuit, the plaintiff based Cole’s lost wages on the assumption that Cole would have been a regular all-star in the majors—a questionable assumption based on Cole’s minor league statistics. The plaintiffs asked for $140 million in damages.

The case was originally tried in 2004 for three weeks with Judge Evans presiding. Plaintiff lawyers included Wayne Ferrell, Jim Nobles and Texas lawyers.

For the 2010 re-trial, plaintiffs added Tab Turner to the attorney roster. Both sides had many attorneys in the courtroom. The second trial lasted two weeks and resulted in a hung jury for both of the two plaintiffs.

Barry Ford and other Baker Donelson lawyers were involved in both trials on the defense side. Ford typically also brings in out-of-state lawyers to try cases in Mississippi.

It would not be surprising to see this case tried for a third time. The plaintiffs probably have expenses in the case in the six-figure range, which will make settlement difficult. In addition, Ford is not afraid to try cases in tough jurisdictions like Paulding.

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On Thursday Circuit Judge Billy Joe Landrum declared a mistrial after a Jones County Circuit Court jury was unable to reach a verdict in a products liability trial against Ford Motor Co. The trial lasted for several weeks.

Baker Donelson and out-of-state lawyers represented Ford. I do not yet know who represented the plaintiffs or the alleged defect at issue.