Triplett v. S. Hens, Inc.

• Decision Date: 15 March 2018
• Docket Number: NO. 2016–CA–01157–SCT,2016–CA–01157–SCT
• Citation: 238 So.3d 1128
• Parties: Stacy TRIPLETT v. SOUTHERN HENS, INC.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

238 So.3d 1128

Stacy TRIPLETT

v.SOUTHERN HENS, INC.

NO. 2016–CA–01157–SCT

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

March 15, 2018

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLANT: ADAM FRAZIER THRASH, GARY DALE THRASH

ATTORNEYS FOR APPELLEE: STEPHEN J. CARMODY, CHRISTOPHER RAY FONTAN

BEFORE KITCHENS, P.J., MAXWELL AND ISHEE, JJ.

ISHEE, JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT:

¶ 1. Stacy Triplett filed three lawsuits against her former employer, Southern Hens—all stemming from an incident in which Triplett, while working, witnessed the gruesome death of a coworker. This incident caused Triplett mental anguish leading to an award of workers' compensation benefits. After Triplett allegedly incurred some trouble in collecting her award of workers' compensation benefits, Triplett sued Southern Hens and Southern Hens's carrier, Liberty Mutual. Triplett's first lawsuit against Southern Hens, for failure to pay, ultimately was dismissed. Triplett then filed a second lawsuit against Southern Hens in the Jones County Circuit Court, this time for failure to report. But for whatever reason, Triplett failed to serve Southern Hens within 120 days, as required under Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 4(h).

¶ 2. With no official court action on her second suit, and admittedly knowing that she could not show good cause for failure to serve in the second suit, Triplett filed a third suit against Southern Hens in the Jones County Circuit Court. This suit, like Triplett's second one, was for failure to report. Aware of the second suit, the circuit court dismissed Triplett's third suit as an impermissible duplicative suit. Triplett appeals. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 3. In early September 2012, Triplett, an employee at Southern Hens working the night shift, witnessed the gruesome death of a coworker. The incident caused Triplett emotional trauma—for which she sought the medical treatment of a physician. The treating physician released Triplett from work and prescribed her medication coupled with counseling sessions.

¶ 4. While these facts are disputed, Triplett claims that Southern Hens received notice that her injury was work-related on several occasions between September 9, 2012, and October 10, 2012. Triplett claims that Southern Hens failed to timely report the claim to the insurer, Liberty Mutual—which led to an inexcusable delay of Triplett receiving her benefits. And so, in July 2013, Triplett filed a petition to controvert her claim with the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission (the Commission), alleging that she had suffered a compensable injury in the course of her employment and she had suffered a disability as a result. Then in August 2013, Triplett filed a motion to compel medical benefits and weekly compensation against the employer and carrier. On October 17, 2013, the judge for the Commission entered an order in which the judge found no medical evidence to dispute Triplett's total-disability claim and also awarded Triplett a ten-percent penalty for untimely paid benefits. After the award, however, Triplett had trouble collecting the scheduled benefit payments from the insurer. Triplett's trouble in receiving timely payments led to three different lawsuits.

¶ 5. First, on April 9, 2014, Triplett filed suit against Southern Hens and Liberty Mutual in the Jones County Circuit Court (Triplett I ). In this suit, Triplett sued Southern Hens and Liberty Mutual for alleged bad faith and gross negligence relating to their alleged failure to pay her workers' compensation benefits in a timely manner. On May 13, 2014, Southern Hens and Liberty Mutual jointly removed the case to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. On August 27, 2014, the United States District Court granted Southern Hens's Rule 12(b)(6) motion and dismissed Triplett's failure-to-pay lawsuit against Southern Hens. Specifically, the district court ruled that Triplett had failed to state a claim for relief against Southern Hens for alleged bad faith or gross negligence.

¶ 6. Nearly ten months after filing her first suit, on June 9, 2015, Triplett filed a second suit against Southern Hens, again in the Jones County Circuit Court (Triplett II ). This time, Triplett sued only Southern Hens, and did so under a new theory of liability—alleged bad faith and gross negligence in failing to report her claim to Liberty Mutual in a timely manner. Even though she filed the claim, Triplett failed to serve Southern Hens with process within the mandatory 120–day period prescribed under the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure.

¶ 7. On December 22, 2015, with Triplett II still pending in the same court, Triplett filed a third lawsuit against Southern Hens in the Jones County Circuit Court (Triplett III ). The legal theory on which Triplett sued on in this suit was the same as it was in Triplett II —bad faith failure to report. Then on March 7, 2016, Southern Hens moved to dismiss Triplett III. At the time it filed its motion, Southern Hens was unaware that Triplett II even existed—because the company never had been served with process in that suit. Oral argument on Southern Hens' motion was heard, and during the hearing, Triplett's counsel notified Southern Hens and the circuit court of the existence of Triplett II —including the fact that Triplett never had served Southern Hens with process in that case. Following the hearing, the circuit court ordered both parties to provide supplemental briefing on the issue of whether Triplett II tolled the statute of limitations for purposes of Triplett III.

¶ 8. On May 23, 2016, the circuit court dismissed Triplett II. And then finally, after reviewing the supplemental briefing, the circuit court dismissed Triplett III on July 13, 2016. The basis for the circuit court's dismissal was that—by filing Triplett III —Triplett had violated Mississippi's rule prohibiting duplicative litigation (claim-splitting). The circuit court, however, declined to address the statute-of-limitations issue—as it was not dispositive.

¶ 9. On August 8, 2016, Triplett appealed the circuit court's dismissal of Triplett III.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 10. A motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure presents an issue of law, and it is reviewed de novo. Cook v. Brown , 909 So.2d 1075, 1077–78 (Miss. 2005). Indeed, a Rule 12(b)(6) motion for failure to state a claim "tests the legal sufficiency of the complaint." Lang v. Bay St. Louis/Waveland Sch. Dist. , 764 So.2d 1234, 1243 (Miss. 1999). This Court must affirm the grant of the circuit court's motion to dismiss if, taking the allegations in the complaint as true, there is no set of facts that would allow the plaintiff to prevail. Poindexter v. Southern United Fire Ins. Co. , 838 So.2d 964, 966–67 (Miss. 2003).

DISCUSSION

¶ 11. On appeal, Triplett argues that the circuit court erred in finding that, by filing her third lawsuit against Southern Hens while her second lawsuit was still pending, she violated Mississippi's prohibition on duplicative actions.

¶ 12. Under Mississippi law, plaintiffs are prohibited from bringing duplicative actions. See Carpenter v. Kenneth Thompson Builder Inc. , 186 So.3d 820, 824–827 (Miss. 2014).¹ This rule finds its roots in the policy rationale of judicial economy: it works to prevent the waste of scarce judicial resources and to foster "the efficient and comprehensive disposition of cases." Id. at 824 (citing Katz v. Gerardi , 655 F.3d 1212, 1217 (10th Cir. 2011) ). Indeed, we have held "[p]laintiffs have no right to maintain two actions on the same subject in the same court, against the same defendant at the same time." Id. (quoting Curtis v. Citibank , 226 F.3d 133, 139 (2d Cir. 2000) ). And "[u]nlike the doctrine of res judicata, a final judgment is not required in order to apply a claim-splitting analysis; rather, the test is ‘whether the first suit, assuming it were final, would preclude the second suit.’ " Id. at 825 (quoting Katz , 655 F.3d at 1218–19 ).

¶ 13. Here, Triplett meets the test for duplicative actions as set forth in Carpenter . First, Triplett was maintaining two actions (Triplett II and III ), on the same subject (bad-faith failure to report), against the same defendant (Southern Hens), at the same time. See Carpenter , 186 So.3d at 824. And if this Court were to assume that Triplett's second suit against Southern Hens, for bad-faith failure to report, was final, it certainly would have precluded her third suit against Southern Hens, which also was for bad-faith failure to report. See id. at 825.

¶ 14. But Triplett contends that her case fails to meet this test. In fact, Triplett argues that she was not maintaining two actions at the same time. In making this assertion, Triplett argues that when she filed her third case, the second suit already was nullified due to her failure to serve process under Rule 4(h). Triplett's argument, simply put, is that there was no duplicative action here because her second suit was dismissed by operation of Rule 4(h).

¶ 15. Rule 4(h) requires service of the summons and complaint within 120 days of filing of the complaint, or the action shall be dismissed without prejudice unless "good cause" can be shown as to why service was not made within that period. M.R.C.P. 4(h). Triplett admits that she did not possess "good cause" as required under Rule 4(h). Instead, what Triplett argues is that, once the 120–day period had passed, her second case (Triplett II ) was dismissed by operation of Rule 4(h). In other words, Triplett's position is that the circuit court need not dispose of the action for it to be dismissed. But this argument runs counter to this Court's holding that, even after the 120–day period for service of process lapses, the trial court must formally dismiss the complaint before it becomes a nullity. Crumpton v. Hegwood , 740 So.2d 292, 294 (Miss. 1999) (holding that, at the end of the 120 days provided for under Rule 4(h), the statute-of-limitations period begins to run again, but...