Illinois Cent. Gulf R. Co. v. Gibbs

Citation600 So.2d 944
Decision Date13 May 1992
Docket NumberNo. 89-CA-0264,89-CA-0264
PartiesILLINOIS CENTRAL GULF RAILROAD COMPANY v. Willie Mae GIBBS.
CourtMississippi Supreme Court

Burkett H. Martin, Teller Martin Chaney & Hassell, Vicksburg, for appellant.

Wren C. Way, Way Field & Bodron, Vicksburg, for appellee.

Before HAWKINS, P.J., and PRATHER and ROBERTSON, JJ.

ROBERTSON, Justice, for the Court:

I.

This case makes its second appearance before this Court. Today's appellant asks that we consider whether the Circuit Court observed faithfully limitations upon damages recoverable by the survivors of a railroad worker suing under the Federal Employers Liability Act (FELA). We answer in the affirmative.

II.

A.

Nathaniel Gibbs was born June 12, 1952, one of eight children of Albert and Willie Mae Gibbs. In July of 1974, Nathaniel became employed by the Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Company (ICG) and for the next five years worked as a common laborer. On July 18, 1979, as a result of the neglect and carelessness of other ICG employees, Nathaniel was caught between two railroad cars and was killed instantly. All of this happened in ICG's Vicksburg, Mississippi, yard.

Immediately prior to his death, Nathaniel Gibbs was twenty-seven years of age and a bachelor. He lived with his mother and father at 2901 East Main Street in Vicksburg. Also residing in that home were Nathaniel's grandmother, Georgia Miles, age eighty-one, and his younger brother, Alfred, then age seventeen, and his younger sister, Malinda, then age fifteen. On the date of Nathaniel's death, his father, Albert Gibbs, was a retired former employee of the Anderson Tully Company. Albert Gibbs died some three years and eight plus months thereafter--on March 27, 1983, to be exact. Nathaniel's mother, Willie Mae Gibbs, was at the time employed by the Merchants National Bank in Vicksburg. At the time of Nathaniel's death, his mother had a life expectancy of 24.2 additional years.

B.

On June 15, 1981, Willie Mae Gibbs, as administratrix of the estate of Nathaniel Gibbs, commenced the present civil action by filing her complaint in the Circuit Court of Warren County, Mississippi. Administratrix Gibbs asserted a claim under the FELA, 45 U.S.C. Secs. 51, 59, and named the ICG as defendant.

The matter originally appeared before this Court on the claim of one Andrea Denise Allen, a minor, that she was the natural daughter of Nathaniel Gibbs and hence a statutory beneficiary. This Court affirmed the decision of the Circuit Court dismissing Allen's claim and holding on the facts that the FELA wrongful death beneficiaries in the premises were Nathaniel's parents, Albert Gibbs (prior to his death) and Willie Mae Gibbs. See Ivy v. Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co., 510 So.2d 520 (Miss.1987).

On remand, and prior to trial on the merits, ICG moved in limine that administratrix Gibbs' claim for damages be limited

to the pecuniary loss that Albert Gibbs, father of Nathaniel Gibbs, sustained up to the date of his death and the pecuniary loss that Willie Mae Gibbs, the mother of Nathaniel Gibbs, has and will sustain during her life expectancy as result of the death of Nathaniel Gibbs.

The Circuit Court granted the motion, and the matter proceeded to trial on the merits on October 4, 1988. The following day, the jury returned a verdict in favor of administratrix Gibbs against ICG in the amount of $140,000.00.

ICG timely filed a motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, for a new trial or, in the alternative, for a remittitur. The thrust of the motion was ICG's complaint that the jury had before it evidence of pecuniary losses to persons other than Albert Gibbs and Willie Mae Gibbs and that the instructions the Circuit Court had given the jury did not adequately preclude its considering this impermissible proof in assessing damages. On February 1, 1989, the Circuit Court rejected the premises and denied the alternative motions.

ICG now appeals to this Court.

III.

We are concerned this day solely with the damages points adjudged in the post-trial motions, but at the outset a few preliminaries need be noted.

The right administratrix Gibbs asserts this day is a creation of the federal sovereign. In 1908 the Congress enacted the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) and prescribed a regime of concurrent federal and state jurisdiction. 45 U.S.C. Sec. 56. The plaintiff--an injured railroad worker or his or her personal representative--has been empowered at his or her election to proceed in federal or state court of otherwise competent jurisdiction. Administratrix Gibbs has chosen the courts of this state. See Missouri Pacific Railroad Co. v. Tircuit, 554 So.2d 878, 880 (Miss.1989). What this means is that we are duty-bound to enforce the federal law as the Congress has provided it and as the federal courts have read it. 1 See, e.g., Illinois Central Railroad Co. v. Coussens, 223 Miss. 103, 113, 77 So.2d 818, 821 (1955).

The FELA provides an action for wrongful death, and to the point of who may recover and how those damages should be measured, the act reads:

Every common carrier by railroad ... shall be liable in damages to any person suffering injury while he is employed by such employee, to his or her personal representative, for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children of such employee; and, if none, then of such employee's parents; and, if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee for such injury or death....

45 U.S.C. Sec. 51.

The Act thereafter provides that, in the event the injured employee should die, his action

shall survive to his or her personal representative, for the benefit of the surviving widow or husband and children of such employee, and, if none, then of such employee's parents; and, if none, then of the next of kin dependent upon such employee, but in such cases there shall be only one recovery for the same injury.

45 U.S.C. Sec. 59.

FELA wrongful death plaintiffs may recover for pecuniary loss only. Settled readings preclude recovery for "damages by way of recompense for grief or wounded feelings" or "losses which result from the deprivation of society and companionship" of the deceased. See Michigan Central Railroad Co. v. Vreeland, 227 U.S. 59, 70-71, 33 S.Ct. 192, 196, 57 L.Ed. 417, 422 (1913), and progeny, e.g., Petition of M/V Elaine Jones, 480 F.2d 11, 32 (5th Cir.1973). Pecuniary loss, of course, may not be measured with precision and is necessarily a function of foresight beyond the day of trial, and so the courts have elaborated the pecuniary loss rule to provide a recovery measured by the statutory beneficiary's reasonable expectation of pecuniary benefit from the continued life of the deceased had he lived, calculated according to present values. Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Co. v. Kelly, 241 U.S. 485, 489, 36 S.Ct. 630, 631-32, 60 L.Ed. 1117 (1916); Southern Railway Co. v. Neese, 216 F.2d 772, 775 (4th Cir.1954); Stark v. Chicago, North Shore and Milwaukee Railway Co., 203 F.2d 786, 788 (7th Cir.1953); Ivy v. Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co., 510 So.2d at 529.

Unlike many wrongful deaths acts, the FELA creates alternative classes of beneficiaries, three in number, and provides a hierarchical ranking, leaving no doubt that second or third class beneficiaries may recover only if there is no person fitting the description of a higher class. To be specific, the FELA prefers "the surviving widow or husband and children of such employees." Class II beneficiaries are "such employee's parents." Finally, the Act says, in the event there is no surviving spouse, child, or parent, dependent next of kin may recover. What is important--and what the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear--is:

There are, thus, three classes of possible beneficiaries. But the liability is in the alternative. It is to one of the three; not to the several classes collectively.

Chicago B. & Q.R. Co. v. Wells-Dickey Trust Co., 275 U.S. 161, 163, 48 S.Ct. 73, 73, 72 L.Ed. 216, 217 (1927). The Court has reaffirmed this view repeatedly. See, e.g., Gillespie v. U.S. Steel Corp., 379 U.S. 148, 85 S.Ct. 308, 13 L.Ed.2d 199, 205 (1964). And when the action accrues,

there is an immediate, final and absolute vesting; and the vesting is in that one of the several possible beneficiaries who, according to the express provisions in the statute, is declared entitled to be compensated.

Chicago B. & Q.R. Co. v. Wells-Dickey Trust Co., 275 U.S. at 163, 48 S.Ct. at 74, 72 L.Ed. at 217.

Applying these views to today's case, we find, first, that there are no Class I beneficiaries. Nathaniel Gibbs was never married, and the first appeal in this case settled that he left no surviving children. Ivy v. Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co., 510 So.2d at 525, 530. At the time of his death, however, both of Nathaniel's parents, Albert Gibbs and Willie Mae Gibbs, were living. Under the law, effective July 18, 1979, Albert Gibbs and Willie Mae Gibbs became vested with a right to recover such pecuniary losses as they may have sustained as result of the wrongful death of their son. This excludes any Class III beneficiaries such as Nathaniel's seventeen-year-old brother, Alfred, or his fifteen-year-old sister, Malinda, or his eighty-one-year-old grandmother, Georgia Miles.

We do not inquire whether Nathaniel's parents were dependent upon him for their support and maintenance. See Moffett v. Baltimore & Ohio R. Co., 220 F. 39 (4th Cir.1914); Raines v. Southern Ry. Co., 169 N.C. 189, 85 S.E. 294 (1915); Veron v. Veron, 228 Ky. 56, 14 S.W.2d 185 (1929); Tobin v. Bruce, 39 S.D. 64, 162 N.W. 933 (1917). Dependency becomes important only for those persons who are Class III beneficiaries.

We thus have firm grounding in the law for the Circuit Court's unequivocal and continuous holding that administratrix Gibbs was of right entitled to recover the present value of her and her husband's reasonable expectation of pecuniary...

To continue reading

Request your trial
5 cases
  • Ill. Cent. R.R. Co. v. Brent
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • March 27, 2014
    ...Court is bound to enforce the federal law as Congress has provided and as the federal courts have read it. Illinois Cent. Gulf. R.R. Co. v. Gibbs, 600 So.2d 944, 946 (Miss.1992). However, FELA cases adjudicated in state courts are subject to state procedural rules. St. Louis Southwestern Ry......
  • Ill. Cent. R.R. Co. v. Brent
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • November 21, 2013
    ...Court is bound to enforce the federal law as Congress has provided and as the federal courts have read it. Illinois Cent. Gulf. R.R. Co. v. Gibbs, 600 So. 2d 944, 946 (Miss. 1992). However, FELA cases adjudicated in state courts are subject to state procedural rules. St. Louis Southwestern ......
  • Southern Pacific Transp. Co. v. Fox
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • July 22, 1992
    ...of a state of otherwise competent jurisdiction and may thereupon fully litigate his claims. See, e.g., Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co. v. Willie Mae Gibbs, 600 So.2d 944 (Miss.1992); Lambert v. Illinois Central Gulf Railroad Co., 547 So.2d 50 (Miss.1989); Illinois Central Railroad Co. v.......
  • Downtown Grill, Inc. v. Connell
    • United States
    • Mississippi Supreme Court
    • September 17, 1998
    ...and that, where an ambiguity in one is clarified in (as many as five) others, reversal is not required." Illinois Cent. Gulf R.R. v. Gibbs, 600 So.2d 944, 951 (Miss.1992) citing Purina Mills, Inc. v. Moak, 575 So.2d 993, 996 (Miss.1990); Payne v. Rain Forest Nurseries, Inc., 540 So.2d 35, 4......
  • Request a trial to view additional results

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT