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

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In what is becoming a regular occurrence Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Swan Yerger rendered a $375,000 bench verdict against the City of Jackson in a case involving a police pursuit. Here is the Clarion-Ledger article on the verdict. This is the fourth similar verdict in the last year.

The article states:

The latest ruling comes from a lawsuit filed by a former Richland police officer over injuries he suffered in 2004 when a car being chased by Jackson police struck his personal vehicle.

Thornton, 44, alleged he was forced to resign from the Richland Police Department, where he had been a patrol sergeant, because of the injuries, including a fractured vertebra, a broken foot, ankle trauma, a concussion, lacerated facial muscles and other facial lacerations that left extensive scarring of his face and forehead.

 

The court found reckless conduct by the Police:

The court finds, from a preponderance of the evidence, that the proximate cause of the subject accident and the plaintiff's injuries, ... resulted from the aforesaid reckless conduct of the Jackson Police Department officers," Yerger wrote.

The City wants the court to apportion fault to the other two parties involved:

City Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen said his office filed a motion Friday in response, asking Yerger to "follow his statutory obligation and apportion the liability to the two other parties."

Those parties are Robertson and another driver, Keiwana Lewis, who pulled her car in front of Robertson's before he crashed into Thornton.

"It's not fair to place all the liability on the city when evidence shows clearly at least those two parties bear responsibility, if not all of it," Teeuwissen said. "The cause of the accident was the individual who would not yield to the police and Ms. Lewis, who was changing her CD, not paying attention and pulled in front of that individual."

Teeuwissen seems to have a point about apportionment of fault to other individuals.

It will be interesting to see what happens to these cases if and when they reach the appellate court. Is Jackson the only place where police pursuit accidents occur? Why is it always the police department’s fault? I don’t know the answers to these questions. 

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On Saturday Jimmie Gates and the Clarion-Ledger reported on Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Swan Yerger throwing out a racial discrimination suit against the City of Jackson by fireman Ricky Haggard.

According to the article:

Ricky Haggard had alleged he was discriminated against after he was removed from overseeing a federal grant's position in 2006 and replaced by a white male when Todd Chandler was interim fire chief.

In dismissing the case:

Yerger said Haggard had to show the city maintained a widespread, persistent practice of racial discrimination of city officials or employees.

"Acts of alleged discrimination that take place in a three-year period in one city department, all under the tenure of one supervisor hardly shows that there existed a persistent, widespread practice that fairly represents municipal policy," Yerger wrote.

Further, Yerger said even Haggard swears that Chandler was demoted as a result of discriminatory remarks Chandler made in the video. "This goes to show that Chandler's alleged conduct was hardly the expected, accepted practice of city employees," Yerger wrote.

 

Haggard apparently rejected a settlement offer from the City:

[City Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen] said the city offered a settlement, but an agreement was never reached.

My guess is that it was not a big offer. The City has been trying a lot of cases in the last few years, which suggests that it has not been making large settlement offers.

There will be an appeal:

Haggard's attorneys, Louis Watson Jr. and Nick Norris, said Yerger's dismissal will be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Who knows what will happen on appeal. But since Hinds County judges seem to have a tendency to rule against the City, you would think that the dismissal has a good chance to be affirmed on appeal.  

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Thursday’s Clarion-Ledger reports on a $700,000 verdict entered by Hinds County Circuit Court Judge Winston Kidd on February 5 in a bench trial against the City of Jackson.

The case involved a fatal car wreck in Jackson involving a suspect who was running from Jackson police officers. The suspect crashed into the plaintiffs. One person was killed and the other two injured. Judge Kidd awarded $500,000 to the estate of the deceased and $100,000 to each of the survivors. The city argued that the officer stopped the pursuit before the crash. The case was tried in April 2008. Warren Martin represented the plaintiffs.

Jackson City Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen stated that the city will appeal because the Tort Claims Act caps the total possible recovery at $500,000:

City Attorney Pieter Teeuwissen said the city will appeal, in part because the judgment appears to exceed the amount of damages that can be levied against a Mississippi city. State law states that "damages against a governmental entity .... arising out of a single occurrence" are capped at $500,000.

I have not researched the law to analyze this issue. I suspect that Teeuwissen is right, since the Tort Claims Act stacks the deck in favor of governmental entities. That being said, I agree that the way Judge Kidd applied the cap should be the law.

Other recent verdicts in pursuit cases against the city include:

• In September, Hinds County Circuit Judge Swan Yerger handed down a $500,000 verdict against the city in the case of WLBT Channel 3 meteorologist Eric Law and his wife, Kristina, both of whom were seriously injured when struck by a suspect fleeing police in 2006.

• In May, Special Hinds County Circuit Judge William Coleman order the city to pay $400,000 in damages for its part in a chase that began in Raymond and ended when Alice Marie Wilson struck a vehicle driven by Alice Faye Clausell, killing her and injuring her two daughters.

The city’s response to these verdicts may be to stop chasing suspected criminals:

Teeuwissen said he is concerned about the way judges have been treating these cases. Such large awards against the city may force the Jackson Police Department to abandon pursuits because the city cannot afford it, he said.

And that could hamper the city's ability to fight crime, he said.

"If these cases are upheld we are heading to a point where you can't have a pursuit in an urban area. If that is the case you can imagine the effect it will have on crime," he said. "You may have to tell your officers, 'We don't want you thinking in the field and making split-second decisions on whether this suspect is worth pursuing.' "

 

I don’t have the answer to this dilemma. The police need to be able to pursue suspects, but pursuits need to be carried out in a way where innocent bystanders are not injured. 

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Over the past few months several people asked me if I thought that Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson would name Pieter Teeuwissen City Attorney. My response was probably not, since the City of Jackson is not known for making the smartest decisions and Mayor Johnson is the person who allowed the Braves to go to Pearl instead of downtown Jackson. But Jackson got one right yesterday when the City Council unanimously approved Teeuwissen as City Attorney, as reported by the Clarion-Ledger.  

Teeuwissen spent the last several years running the City's litigation department. He inherited a department in disarray with a reputation for losing lawsuits filed against the City. Teeuwissen installed a motivated team of lawyers who reduced the backlog of cases against the City and significantly improved the results in cases against the City. 

From a political standpoint Teeuwissen's most impressive feat was his ability to effectively serve in the City's legal department during the Melton administration. In addition to being the subject of state and federal criminal prosecutions, Melton was a wing-nut who did not get along with several members of the City Council. Melton's personality could have easily bled into the legal department and resulted in the exodus of Teeuwissen. Instead, he stayed and was trusted by the Council.   

Teeuwissen will now supervise approximately fifteen lawyers in the Office of the City Attorney.