Miss. Supreme Court Affirms Defense Verdict Against Meth Cook
On Thursday the Miss. Supreme Court affirmed a 2008 Bolivar County defense verdict in Utz v. Running and Rolling Trucking Inc. Here is the Court’s opinion.
The case is noteworthy for its facts. It involved the 2003 death of Preston Utz when he rear-ended an 18–wheeler on Highway 61 in Bolivar County. The decedent had been awake for days at the time of the collision from cooking and smoking crystal meth. Talk about a bad plaintiff. The jury determined that any negligence on the defendant’s part was not a proximate cause of the accident.
The plaintiff raised forty-two (42) issues on appeal. The result was a 58–page opinion even though the decision was unanimous.
Justice Chandler wrote the Court's opinion. Chief Justice Waller and Justice Dickinson did not participate. Jason Strong and Steve Hazzard with Daniel Coker represented the defendant. Ashley Ogden and Wendy Yuan of Jackson represented the plaintiff.
Some lawyers believe that an appeal should be limited to a few issues. Others believe in identifying as many issues as possible. In recent years, I have heard at least one Mississippi Supreme Court Justice encourage lawyers to raise all potential issues on appeal. But in this case, it didn’t help and the Court affirmed the verdict. It will be interesting to see if forty-two appeal issues is a trend in civil cases.
