Choctaw Maid Farms, Inc. v. Hailey

Decision Date30 May 2002
Docket NumberNo. 1998-CA-01215-SCT.,1998-CA-01215-SCT.
Citation822 So.2d 911
PartiesCHOCTAW MAID FARMS, INC. v. Elizabeth F. HAILEY, Individually and as Administratrix of the Estate of Thomas H. Hailey, Deceased On Motion for Rehearing.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

Fred Krutz, III, Mark C. Carlson, Walter H. Boone, Jackson, Byron Hansbro, Bloomington, IL, attorneys for appellant.

Eddie Briggs, DeKalb, Henry Palmer, Meridian, attorneys for appellees.

EN BANC.

McRAE, P.J., for the Court.

¶ 1. The motion for rehearing is granted. The original opinions are withdrawn, and these opinions are substituted therefor.

¶ 2. This is a wrongful death case in which there is no dispute that a motor vehicle crash occurred and caused the death of Thomas H. Hailey. Choctaw Maid Farms, Inc. ("CMF") appeals the circuit court's grant of a directed verdict against it on liability, the award of loss of enjoyment of life (hedonic damages) to Hailey and alleges other trial court errors, concerning evidentiary ruling on photos and videotape, failure to grant a continuance concerning the timely disclosure of expert, expert testimony on enjoyment of life and the, refusal to grant various instructions, all totaling eleven issues. The administratrix of Hailey's estate cross-appeals the court's refusal to allow an instruction regarding punitive damages to be submitted to the jury. We affirm both appeals and, therefore, affirm the judgment of the circuit court as to all issues.

¶ 3. In the pre-dawn hours of July 18, 1996, Tom Hailey was traveling in the southbound lane of Mississippi Highway 21, in heavy fog, from Philadelphia, Mississippi, to begin a day of work in Forest, Mississippi. Odell Frazier, a CMF employee, was hauling his last load of chickens from the McDill Farm to the processing plant in Carthage, Mississippi. Shortly after pulling out of a private drive onto Highway 21 and into the Hailey's lane of travel (a country turn), Frazier's trailer and Hailey's vehicle collided. While the tractor part of Frazier's rig was entirely in the northbound lane, the trailer angled across the foggy highway over 17 feet into Hailey's lane of traffic, at an angle of slightly less than 90 degrees from the center line. Frazier pulled onto the highway though his visibility was impaired due to the fog, and his trailer remained in Hailey's lane for over twenty seconds. The accident occurred entirely within Hailey's southbound lane of travel. Hailey died as a result of injuries sustained in the wreck.

¶ 4. The administratrix of Hailey's estate, Elizabeth F. Hailey ("Hailey"), filed this wrongful death action. The trial court granted a directed verdict against CMF on the issue of liability, and also granted CMF a comparative negligence instruction regarding any potential liability on the part of Hailey. The jury found that CMF's negligence was ninety percent (90%) and that of the deceased to be ten percent (10%). CMF and Hailey appealed.

STATEMENT OF THE ISSUES
I. Whether the trial court erred in granting a directed verdict against CMF and Odell Frazier based on negligence and proximate cause.
II. Whether the trial court erred by granting jury instruction C-4.
III. Whether the trial court erred in failing to grant a continuance or other relief due to the delay of disclosure of testimony by expert witnesses.
IV. Whether the trial court improperly allowed expert testimony about loss of income damage calculations.
V. Whether the trial court erred by granting jury instruction C-11.
VI. Whether the trial court erred in its refusal of CMF's proposed jury instruction D-16.
VII. Whether the trial court erred in its refusal of proposed jury instructions D-7, D-8, D-9, D-13 and D-15.
VIII. Whether the trial court properly admitted Hailey's videotape of photographs into evidence.
IX. Whether the trial court made proper inquiry into the issue of juror misconduct.
X. Whether the trial court properly permitted testimony regarding Hailey's enjoyment of life.
XI. Whether the trial court erred in submitting hedonic damages as recoverable damages.
XII. (Cross-appeal) Whether the trial court committed reversible error by refusing to permit Hailey to submit the issue of punitive damages to the jury.

DISCUSSION

I. Whether the trial court erred in granting a directed verdict against CMF and Odell Frazier based on negligence and proximate cause.

¶ 5. When the trial court granted a directed verdict against CMF on the issue of liability, the court also granted CMF a comparative negligence instruction regarding any potential liability by Hailey. As a result, the judge informed the jury that CMF was not the sole proximate cause of the wreck. Jury instruction C-6 stated "[t]he Court instructs the jury that the actions of [CMF] by and through its employee, caused or contributed to the death of Thomas H. Hailey. Therefore, you shall return a verdict in favor of the plaintiff." The jury then had the right to assign a percentage of fault to both CMF and Hailey. The jury found that CMF's negligence was ninety percent (90%) and that of Hailey to be ten percent (10%).

¶ 6. In a case very similar to the facts presented before us, Anderson v. Eagle Motor Lines, Inc., 423 F.2d 81 (5th Cir. 1970), an employee of Eagle Motor Lines was operating a truck and trailer rig on a public highway in fog in the early morning hours. In an attempt to change directions, the driver pulled his truck into a private driveway on the south side of the highway and was re-entering the highway and blocking both lanes when he was struck by the plaintiffs vehicle. The Fifth Circuit applying Mississippi law in affirming the trial court's finding for the plaintiff held:1

The evidence was uncontradicted that Mississippi Highway 550 is a well-traveled road, that the tractor-trailer completely blocked both lanes of traffic and that this occurred prior to sunrise which was at 6:50 on the morning of the accident, and that visibility was at best limited. Prudence would have required Jones to have moved his rig on to the shoulder of the road either to await full daylight or to place the necessary flares, or to have continued in his own lane until he found an appropriate intersection for completing the maneuver. Instead, Jones risked the possibility of collision against the possibility of completing the dangerous turn within the few moments when the road appeared to be clear of traffic. He exercised bad judgment under the circumstances.

Anderson, 423 F.2d at 85.

¶ 7. In another similar case, U.S. Indus., Inc. v. McClure Furniture Co. of Eupora, 371 So.2d 391 (Miss.1979), we held that when the defendant backed his truck across a much traveled highway at a time when it was dark without making any attempt to flag or warn traffic on the highway and ultimately was struck by the plaintiff's vehicle, a verdict for the defendant would have been against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. "The decision to grant a directed verdict is one of law." McKinzie v. Coon, 656 So.2d 134, 137 (Miss.1995).

¶ 8. However, CMF incorrectly looks to McKinzie for support. In McKinzie, this Court actually held that the circuit court erred in not directing a verdict against the defendant on the issue of negligence. The plaintiff was traveling west on Highway 98 and collided with a car which had pulled into the intersection when the plaintiff's vehicle was 75 feet away. Considering that the plaintiff had the right-of-way, there were no traffic signals to hinder travel in a direct course and no fault was attributed by the investigating officer, we held that a directed verdict in favor of the plaintiff was proper.

¶ 9. In Walton v. Owens, 244 F.2d 383 (5th Cir.1957), the Fifth Circuit, applying Mississippi law, affirmed the trial court's grant of a peremptory instruction on negligence. In that case, the instruction was granted against the plaintiff for pulling from a private road onto U.S. Highway 61 and colliding with the defendant, who was traveling down Highway 61. The evidence at trial was contradictory as to whether the plaintiff stopped at the stop sign prior to entering the highway, but the court held that by entering the highway, the plaintiff was taking an obvious risk with regard to the safety of himself and others on the highway. As a result, a contributory negligence instruction was properly given in favor of the defendant. The court wrote:

Reasonable men could not conclude that safety on the highway, which is the object of the Mississippi Statutes and decisional law, would permit a person to take such chances in the optimistic expectation or hope that, while shaving it closely, speed, power, skill, or good fortune would let it succeed.

Id. at 387.

¶ 10. CMF relies heavily upon the argument that Hailey had a duty to yield to vehicles entering the roadway from an intersection. However, the evidence produced at trial showed that the accident occurred not at an intersection, but 100 feet north of a driveway to the Choctaw Maid premises. When the accident occurred, Frazier's tractor lights were in the proper lane of traffic facing Hailey's vehicle, but his trailer was in the other lane for over twenty seconds. Because of the dense fog, the fact that the reflectors had been painted over, and other factors, the trailer was understandably not visible to Hailey. The jury found that Frazier caused the accident by taking up two lanes of traffic when turning onto a highway during a time at which his visibility was almost nonexistent.2 The trial court's instructions were correct due to Frazier's indisputable negligence. The fact that the jury placed 90% of the fault upon Frazier is a strong indication that the jury found him to be the negligent party in this case.

¶ 11. The trial court did not err in granting a directed verdict as to negligence and also allowing a comparative negligence instruction.

II. Whether the trial court erred by granting jury instruction C-4.

¶ 12. This assignment of error is based on the presumption that the trial court also...

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