Smith v. Sneed

• Decision Date: 27 January 1994
• Docket Number: No. 91-CA-0180,91-CA-0180
• Parties: Albert Ray SMITH v. William L. SNEED.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 1252

638 So.2d 1252

Albert Ray SMITH v. William L. SNEED.

No. 91-CA-0180.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

Jan. 27, 1994.

Rehearing Denied June 23, 1994.

Opinion Dissenting From Denial

of Rehearing June 23, 1994.

Jim Waide, Waide Law Office, Tupelo, J. Dudley Williams, Aberdeen, for appellant.

L.F. Sams, Jr., Thomas D. Murry, Michael D. Chase, Tacey Clark Humphrey, Mitchell McNutt Threadgill Smith & Sams, Tupelo, for appellee.

Before DAN M. LEE, P.J., and SULLIVAN and PITTMAN, JJ.

DAN M. LEE, Presiding Justice, for the Court:

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

On June 1, 1988, Albert Ray Smith ("Smith") filed suit against attorney William L. Sneed ("Sneed"), alleging that Sneed had committed legal malpractice during his representation of Smith some years earlier. Sneed had represented Smith against a charge of murder for the killing of Jimmy Lamons ("Lamons"). Smith pled guilty to manslaughter on July 10, 1979, and was sentenced to spend twenty (20) years in the state penitentiary on July 13, 1979. On June 1, 1982, through new counsel, Smith obtained a copy of the autopsy of his alleged victim which revealed that the victim had died of natural causes. Due to this newly discovered evidence, Smith's conviction for manslaughter was set aside on October 26, 1982, and a new trial was ordered. Pursuant to a release Several years later, on June 1, 1988, Smith initiated the present suit claiming that Sneed was negligent in failing to obtain a copy of the victim's autopsy report before advising him to enter a guilty plea to the charge of manslaughter. Sneed moved for summary judgment on the grounds that any action for legal malpractice was barred by the six-year statute of limitations of Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-49 as it ran from the date of Smith's sentencing. Alternatively, Sneed claimed that the release executed by Smith released Sneed and others from any and all claims arising out of the case. The trial judge agreed with the position of Sneed and entered summary judgment in his favor. From this adverse decision, Smith appeals, assigning as error the following:

signed by Smith on November 8, 1982, the charge of manslaughter was dismissed and Smith was released from prison.

I. The Circuit Judge erred in ruling that the statute of limitations ran from the time Smith entered his guilty plea.

II. Whether the "Release" signed by Smith was freely and voluntarily executed was a question of fact, not of law. Thus, the Circuit Judge erred in granting summary judgment on this issue. Additionally, the Release contravenes public policy.

Today, we hold that the statute of limitations in a legal malpractice action properly begins to run on the date the client learns or through the exercise of reasonable diligence should learn of the negligence of his lawyer. Questions of material fact exist related to the application of this standard. Furthermore, questions of material fact, sufficient to preclude summary judgment, existed with regard to the voluntariness of the waiver executed by Smith. Accordingly, we reverse and remand for further proceedings as if the motion for summary judgment had been denied.

STATEMENT OF THE FACTS

Smith's relationship with Sneed began on March 9, 1979, when Sneed was appointed by the Pontotoc County Circuit Court to defend Smith against a charge of aggravated assault. (Cause No. 8684, styled "State of Mississippi v. Albert Ray Smith, Defendant"). The charge resulted from Smith's shooting of Jimmy Lamons with a shotgun on November 26, 1978.

After the shooting on November 26, 1978, Lamons was first treated at the Pontotoc County Hospital. However, he was subsequently transferred to the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, on November 27, 1978. Approximately two months later, on January 14, 1979, Lamons died while still at the VA Hospital in Memphis. The charge was subsequently changed to murder on January 15, 1979, when the State learned of the victim's death.

On March 8, 1979, Smith was indicted for the murder of Jimmy Lamons of Pontotoc. As the result of a plea bargain, Smith pled guilty to manslaughter on July 10, 1979. Prior to entry of this guilty plea, Sneed purportedly requested an autopsy report on the victim from the district attorney's office. However, Sneed stated that he was informed that no autopsy report was in the file and that the district attorney's office did not know anything about an autopsy report. Despite lacking a copy of the autopsy, Sneed advised Smith to plead guilty to the reduced charge of manslaughter which he did in fact do, as noted above. On July 13, 1979, Smith was sentenced to twenty (20) years in the custody of the Department of Corrections.

From November 26, 1978, until his transfer to the State Penitentiary at Parchman on January 12, 1982, Smith was incarcerated in the Pontotoc County Jail. While in the Pontotoc County Jail, Smith was told by Constable Bobby King of Pontotoc County that Mrs. Linda Lamons, widow of the victim, had informed King that she hoped Smith would be moved to Parchman before he discovered the results of the Shelby County autopsy report. This conversation took place on or about August 1, 1980.

Upon learning of this fact, the plaintiff asked Sneed to try to obtain a copy of the autopsy report, which Sneed agreed to do. Sneed wrote to the VA Hospital in Memphis on September 24, 1980, and received a reply Subsequent to his transfer to Parchman on January 12, 1982, Smith secured a copy of the autopsy report through new counsel then representing him, Attorney John Johnson. The autopsy report revealed that the victim, Lamons, had died of natural causes and not necessarily from the gunshot wounds allegedly inflicted by Smith on November 26, 1978. In view of this newly discovered evidence, on September 8, 1982, Smith filed a Petition for Writ of Error Coram Nobis. This petition was granted on October 26, 1982 and a new trial was ordered.

from the VA on October 8, 1980. The VA informed Sneed that it required a consent form signed by the victim's next of kin before it would release the victim's autopsy report. Sneed made no further efforts to obtain a copy of the autopsy report.

On November 8, 1982, Smith executed a release in which he fully and completely released all claims and causes of action against all defense counsel (including Sneed), all state's attorneys, all law enforcement officers and all prosecuting witnesses in consideration for a dismissal of the manslaughter charge against him. That same date, Smith was released from prison.

This release also purportedly resolved the jail break sentencing that was pending against Smith. The jail break charge arose as the result of Smith's escape from jail in October, 1980. He was recaptured less than a month later and was charged with the offense of jail break on October 18, 1980. He pled guilty to this offense on July 13, 1981. At the time he signed the release he was still awaiting sentencing on this charge. While it is not entirely clear from the record, it appears that Smith served approximately two years for this offense despite the release.

On June 1, 1988, Smith initiated the present action, alleging that Sneed was negligent in advising him to plead guilty to manslaughter before obtaining a copy of the victim's autopsy report. The Circuit Judge dismissed the action on the grounds that the statute of limitations began to run when Smith first pled guilty in 1979. Alternatively, the trial judge ruled that Smith had no cause of action because he had "freely and voluntarily" signed a release, relieving defense counsel Sneed of any responsibility. This appeal followed.

I. The Circuit Judge erred in ruling that the statute of limitations ran from the time Smith entered his guilty plea.

"Legal negligence actions are governed by Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-49 which, at the time the instant suit was commenced, prescribed a limitations period of six years." Steven v. Lake, 615 So.2d 1177, 1181 (Miss.1993). At the time Smith filed his suit in June, 1988, Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-49 provided:

§ 15-1-49. Limitations applicable to actions not otherwise specifically provided for. All actions for which no other period of limitation is prescribed shall be commenced within six years next after the cause of such action accrued, and not after.

Both parties agree that this action is governed by Miss.Code Ann. § 15-1-49. However, they disagree as to what date this statute began to run. Sneed claims that the six-year period began to run either on July 10, 1979, when Smith pled guilty to manslaughter, or on July 13, 1979, when Smith was sentenced. Alternatively, Sneed contends that the limitations period began to run, at the latest, in August, 1980, when Smith was told by Constable King about the existence of an autopsy report which possibly exonerated Smith. This is so, according to Sneed, because at that point Smith knew, or should have known, of Sneed's negligence.

Smith argues that the limitations period did not begin to run until November 8, 1982, when he was released from prison, in that the full extent of his damages was not ascertainable until that date. Alternatively, Smith argues that the limitations period began to run, at the earliest, on June 1, 1982, when he obtained a copy of the autopsy report of Lamons which did, in fact, exonerate Smith, indicating that Lamons had died of natural causes.

In determining when the limitations period began to run, the trial judge stated:

It is the court's opinion that a cause of action accrues as soon as an injury is sustained Under this principle, plaintiff's cause of action accrued when he sustained injury as result of the alleged negligence of defendant--that is, when he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to a term of imprisonment on July 13, 1979. Accordingly, this action, brought more than six years after that date, is barred by the statute of limitations.

as a result of a defendant's alleged culpable conduct. See Ford Motor Co. v....