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

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On October 26, 2010 a Hancock County jury awarded $1,170,000 to Coastal Hardware Store in a bad faith case against Lloyds of London. Coastal Hardware was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Lloyds refused to pay the claim despite accepting premiums for the insurance. The verdict is one of the largest—if not the largest—in the history of Hancock County.

Coastal Hardware is located in “the” Kiln. An earlier trial in August resulted in a mistrial due to the acoustically challenged Hancock County courtroom. I am not sure if the retrial was moved to Gulfport or relocated to a different courtroom in Hancock County.

The case involved an interesting twist. Two days before Katrina, Lloyds mailed the policy to the Kiln post office. Being the U.S. Postal Service, the policy did not arrive before Katrina. The Kiln post office was destroyed in Katrina, so Coastal Hardware never received the policy.

Circuit Judge Lisa Dodson ruled that the governing contract consisted of quote sheets provided before Katrina.

Coastal Hardware thought that it had a strong punitive damages case, but the jury voted to not award punitives by a 9–3 margin. Hancock County is very conservative. My guess is that the jury thought that over a million in damages was enough.

Former U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott of Pigott Reeves & Johnson in Jackson represented Coastal Hardware. Whit Johnson of Currie Johnson in Flowood represented Lloyds.

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On Thursday Hancock County Circuit Court Judge Lisa Dodson declared a mistrial in a Hurricane Katrina wind vs. water trial between Coastal Hardware and Lloyd's of London. The reason for the mistrial was that the jury could not hear the witnesses due to acoustic problems in the courtroom in the recently renovated Hancock County courthouse. I discussed the problems in this post last year.

It's my understanding that in the trial last week Judge Dodson questioned jurors after a juror complained of not being able to hear the witnesses. Several other jurors admitted to having trouble hearing the witnesses. One juror said that they could hear every few words. As a result, Judge Dodson ordered a mistrial.

Former Southern District U.S. Attorney Brad Pigott represents the plaintiff. Whit Johnson of Currie Johnson in Flowood and Atlanta lawyers represent Lloyd's.

The trial will be re-set in October with a Hancock County jury. But the trial will take place at the Harrison County Courthouse in Gulfport.

It is reported that of the four Circuit Judges who cover Hancock County, three already refused to hold trials in the courtroom because of the acoustic problems. But after this latest mistrial, I would be surprised if any of the judges will hold jury trials in the courtroom until the problems are fixed.

More importantly, this raises due process questions about prior trials in the courtroom—particularly prior criminal trials. I hear that there have been two criminal convictions in trials held in the courtroom.  There is nothing to suggest that the experience with the jury last week was unique. This means that juries in the previous criminal trials likely also had trouble hearing witnesses. How would you like to be sitting in Parchman based on a conviction where jurors could not hear due to acoustic issues? This could create some interesting issues for the Mississippi Supreme Court to grapple with.