Speed v. Scott, No. 1998-CT-01520-SCT.

• Decision Date: 26 April 2001
• Docket Number: No. 1998-CT-01520-SCT.
• Citation: 787 So.2d 626
• Parties: Harold SPEED v. Robert E. SCOTT.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

787 So.2d 626

Harold SPEED v. Robert E. SCOTT.

No. 1998-CT-01520-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 26, 2001.

Walter William Dukes, Gulfport, Attorney for Appellant.

T. Mack Brabham, McComb, Attorney for Appellee.

EN BANC.

PITTMAN, Chief Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. Presiding Judge Leslie H. South-wick of the Court of Appeals has written an extensive and well-researched opinion which we hereby largely incorporate as the opinion of this Court.

¶ 2. Robert E. Scott was called a "liar and thief" by Harold Speed. The assertions occurred over a thirty-day period at four meetings of the volunteer fire department in which both men served. Scott brought suit, though he took the position throughout that no one believed Speed and that Scott's reputation was undamaged. A jury awarded Scott $50,000 in actual and punitive damages, and judgment was entered accordingly. On appeal a divided Court of Appeals agreed with Speed's argument that the absence of evidence of damage to reputation was fatal to Scott's suit, and it reversed and rendered judgment for Speed. We granted certiorari and now affirm the Court of Appeals.

FACTS

¶ 3. Harold Speed has served as chief of the Smyrna Volunteer Fire Department since it was formed in 1989. Robert Scott moved to Copiah County in 1992 and built a home about four miles from the Smyrna fire station. The two men became friends at that time. Chief Speed invited the newcomer to become a volunteer with the fire department, and Scott did so.

¶ 4. One dispute that arose between the two men in 1997 centered on the fire department's share of insurance rebate money. Apparently this is the money paid to the State Tax Commission annually as a tax on insurance premiums, by them distributed to counties, and then allocated by boards of supervisors. Miss.Code Ann. §§ 83-1-37 & -39 (1999). Chief Speed, Scott, and other Smyrna firemen believed that more of the money should be made available by the county for the volunteer fire departments. In March 1997 Smyrna firemen voted to seek publication of a letter on the subject in the county newspaper. Scott prepared it.

¶ 5. Speed at some stage became less enamored with that idea, testifying at trial that he feared that publishing the letter would harm the fire department's relations with the board of supervisors. At a meeting on May 18, Chief Speed and Scott informed the other firemen about a conversation that they both had with the president of the board of supervisors. Speed said that the president had warned them that the fire department should not be overly combative about the money. Scott on the other hand stated that the president told them to do whatever they thought was necessary. At that meeting, Chief Speed said that Scott was lying about what they had been told. A vote was taken, by which it was decided not to authorize publication. Some members objected to the propriety of the vote and abstained. Scott also argues that the vote was invalid, though whether fire department procedural rules were bent or broken has no importance to our issues.

¶ 6. In the local May 21 newspaper, the letter was published as an article by Scott. It stated that the Smyrna fire department had voted in favor of the distribution of funds that was suggested in Scott's article. Speed testified that he asked Scott why it was published despite the May 18 vote and was told that it was too late after the vote to withdraw it. Speed did not believe the assertion as he said that someone else had assured him that it was not too late to halt publication. At two meetings in June, Speed said to other firemen that Scott was lying about the publication issue.

¶ 7. While animosity was growing over the letter, Chief Speed and Scott became antagonists over a different matter. Chief Speed had earlier placed Scott in charge of an important training program that could favorably affect the department's evaluation by the State Fire Rating Board. Since the department served rural areas, connecting a hose to a fire hydrant was often impossible. The program on which Scott worked was to assure delivery of water from such sources as natural reservoirs. Information needed to be acquired on the location of these water sources. An exhibit was introduced at trial that apparently was the principal document in question. It was a two-page hand-written list containing notations made by Scott when he, Chief Speed, and another man took measurements one day in the field on the distances from ponds or other reservoirs to the closest location where the tanker could be maneuvered during a fire at any one of about thirty sites. The measurements were of distances of 50 feet to 300 feet to a reservoir.

¶ 8. Scott also prepared a loose-leaf booklet or binder that would contain this information. There is no evidence that the booklet contained anything beyond the list of locations of reservoirs and measurements. The description of the booklets in the minutes of a fire department meeting said that they contain "the addresses of all locations and the field site to be used by each location. [Scott] will make a book listing each field site and the length of blue line needed at each site." That is exactly the information that is on the two-page hand-written list of measurements. Scott agreed with the minutes other than that he only prepared one booklet, not one for each vehicle. He apparently placed clear plastic sheets into one binder and slipped the two pages with measurements between the sheets.

¶ 9. Scott testified that Chief Speed at the meetings of firemen that were held on May 29, June 3 and June 17, called him a "thief" for keeping these materials and not giving them to the fire department. Speed did not remember using the word "thief," but said that he told the others that Scott had taken papers that did not belong to him. He said that Scott told him that "you're going to have to do it all over again. I'm going to take it with me." Speed acknowledged at least using the word "thief" when speaking privately to a couple who had attended one of the meetings.

¶ 10. Scott summarized the evidence that he presented this way:

1) May 18, 1997, Speed suggested Scott was lying at a meeting of firemen.

2) May 29, 1997, Speed called Scott a "thief" at a meeting.

3) June 3, 1997, Speed called a "liar and thief" at a meeting.

4) June 17, 1997, Speed repeated the phrase at a firemen's meeting.

5) June 17, 1997, Speed used the "liar and thief" phrase at the house of a married couple who had attended the fire department meeting earlier that day.

¶ 11. On June 26, 1997, Scott sued Speed in the Copiah County Circuit Court for slander and also for intentional infliction of emotional distress. He labeled the latter as "outrageous conduct" but acknowledges it is the same tort.¹ He sought actual and punitive damages. At trial Scott testified that the time between the incidents and the trial were "the worst fourteen months of my life." He says the allegation of lying and stealing the papers had "bothered him enormously," that he was shocked, mad, and felt insulted. He then talked about the value that he put on his reputation. He testified, "I don't sleep, I can't get it off my mind." He testified about no other damages. Scott also felt confident that no one believed that he was a liar or a thief, saying, "I don't know one" person who believed what Speed had stated.

¶ 12. Scott's wife also testified. She stated that Scott was not the same person. He had lost his sense of humor, was not as supportive of her emotionally, and was often up at night because he could not sleep. She used the phrase "I know I don't have my husband anymore. The man that I had a year and a half ago I don't have...."

¶ 13. No evidence was offered indicating harm to Scott's reputation, effect on his livelihood, or any other monetary damage from the statements.

¶ 14. After deliberations, the jury returned a verdict that awarded Scott $40,000 in compensatory damages and $10,000 in punitive. Judgment for those amounts was then entered.

DISCUSSION

¶ 15. Speed raises three issues. The first concerns the fact that Scott's attorney at trial asked Speed two allegedly inflammatory questions, persisting in the inquiry even after an objection to the first question was sustained. We find no reversible error in that. Because of our ruling on the two issues relating to the evidence in this case, we only identify this first issue and then proceed beyond it. The remaining two issues we consider together.

Issue I: Evidence to support $40,000 in actual damages and $10,000 in punitive damages

¶ 16. The parties agree on appeal that Scott's cause of action is either for intentional infliction of emotional distress or for defamation. Speed argues that no award of actual or at least punitive damages could be made under either theory.

¶ 17. The tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress can be dispensed with rather quickly as an arguable basis in this suit. To justify a finding that this tort has occurred, the defendant's conduct must be "wanton and wilful and it would evoke outrage or revulsion." Leaf River Forest Prods., Inc. v. Ferguson, 662 So.2d 648, 659 (Miss.1995). Among the kind of actions that have been found to evoke such outrage were a plot by a girlfriend and her parents to hide the child of an unwed father, arranging for the baby to be adopted by strangers while the father pursued a custody suit. Smith v. Malouf 722 So.2d 490, 498 (Miss.1998). In another suit a car dealership forged a customer's name on a sales contract and sold the contract to a finance company, resulting in the customer's credit being damaged. T.G. Blackwell Chevrolet Co. v. Eshee, 261 So.2d 481, 486 (Miss.1972).

¶ 18. Contrarily, what is not sufficient have been such actions as a law firm breaching an employment contract with an attorney, locking him out, refusing him secretarial support and dropping his name from the firm sign. Fuselier, Ott & McKee, P.A. v....