American Nat. Ins. Co. v. Hogue

749 So. 2d 1254, 2000 WL 32034
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJanuary 18, 2000
Docket1998-CA-01273-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 749 So. 2d 1254 (American Nat. Ins. Co. v. Hogue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Nat. Ins. Co. v. Hogue, 749 So. 2d 1254, 2000 WL 32034 (Mich. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

749 So.2d 1254 (2000)

AMERICAN NATIONAL INSURANCE COMPANY d/b/a Edgewater Mall, Appellant,
v.
Karen L. HOGUE and Fred Hogue, Appellees.

No. 1998-CA-01273-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

January 18, 2000.

*1257 Scott Derrick Smith, Jackson, Attorney for Appellant.

Albert Lionel Necaise, Gulfport, Attorney for Appellees.

BEFORE SOUTHWICK, P.J., LEE, AND PAYNE, JJ.

SOUTHWICK, P.J., for the Court:

¶ 1. Karen and Fred Hogue sought damages arising from injuries Mrs. Hogue suffered while a business invitee on premises owned by American National Insurance Company. After a jury verdict for Mrs. Hogue and an additur for Mr. Hogue, American National appeals. It is alleged that the evidence does not support the verdict, that compilations of police records should not have been admitted into evidence, and that the additur to Fred Hogue was erroneous. The Hogues also appeal, saying that each is entitled to additional compensation. We affirm on both direct and cross appeal.

FACTS

¶ 2. Karen Hogue and her daughter were shopping at Edgewater Mall in Biloxi, Mississippi on December 2, 1992. Edgewater Mall is owned by the appellant, American National Insurance Company. The parking lot was crowded when Mrs. Hogue parked her van, as one of the stores was holding a promotional sale for the Christmas season.

¶ 3. Shortly before noon, Mrs. Hogue went alone to her vehicle to drop off some packages. While at the van, she was accosted by an unidentified male. The assailant, who was never identified nor apprehended for this crime, grabbed Mrs. Hogue around the neck and began choking her. Mrs. Hogue screamed until the man covered her mouth and threw her to the ground. She continued to resist. Her assailant eventually forced her into her van where he continued beating and choking her. She began to bleed from the nose and mouth and apparently briefly lost consciousness.

¶ 4. The attack was reported to Mall security. Mall security guard Robert Wren received a report about a "domestic disturbance" in the parking lot by means of his pager. Wren was one of three security guards on duty at the time and the only guard in the parking lot. Wren was patrolling the parking lot in the security vehicle, which had a light bar attached to the roof.

¶ 5. The heavy holiday traffic around the mall hindered Wren's response to the call, and it took approximately five minutes for him to arrive at the proper section of the parking lot. Once there, Wren was told by a shopper that "a man was beating on a woman in the parking lot" and that the altercation was taking place near a brown or tan colored van. Wren drove down one of the parking lot rows and located a van matching the description given to him by the shopper.

¶ 6. Wren testified that he could not see into the van clearly, but he saw a man kneeling on the floor of the van. Wren parked the security vehicle behind the van and attempted to determine what was happening. After confronting the man, Wren testified that the man held a knife out the van door and told him to get away. Wren then called for assistance from the other security guards, got into the security vehicle and left the scene to find his back-up.

*1258 ¶ 7. After Wren left the scene, the assailant forced Mrs. Hogue into the driver's seat of the van, threatened her with the knife and ordered her to drive away from the mall. Mrs. Hogue began to resist again and eventually was able to leap from the moving vehicle before it left the mall area. Mrs. Hogue suffered injuries to her head, face and mouth as well as bruises around her neck. She was treated and released from the emergency room the same day. She also was treated by her family physician for these injuries and by a psychologist for emotional trauma.

¶ 8. Mrs. Hogue filed suit against American National seeking damages for the injuries caused by this attack. Mr. Hogue joined in the complaint seeking damages for loss of consortium. After a five day trial, the jury returned a verdict in favor of the Hogues, assessing the wife's damages at $30,000 and the husband's damages at zero. The Hogues filed post-trial motions for additurs. The court granted the husband's motion and awarded $10,000. Mrs. Hogue's motion was denied. The Hogues appeal the amount of one additur and the denial of the other. American National also appeals.

DISCUSSION

I. A verdict in favor of American National should have been granted

¶ 9. American National's separate issues attacking the sufficiency of evidence will be considered together. A jury's verdict based on proper evidence and instruction occupies an especially exalted position in our court system. We will not render a verdict contrary to it short of a conclusion on our part that, given the evidence as a whole, taken in the light most favorable to the verdict, no reasonable, hypothetical juror could have found as the jury did. Starcher v. Byrne, 687 So.2d 737, 739 (Miss.1997). Such action on our part removes the case from the previous and any future jury. It does not matter on appeal whether the trial court action that forms the complaint is the denial of a motion for a directed verdict, for a peremptory instruction, or for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The required appellate showing is the same.

¶ 10. In order to ascertain the liability of American National, it is necessary to determine the status of the injured party, the duty owed by American National based on Mrs. Hogue's particular status, and whether American National breached its duty of care to Mrs. Hogue. See Little v. Bell, 719 So.2d 757, 760 (Miss.1998).

¶ 11. Mrs. Hogue was an invitee of American National as she "went upon the premises of another in answer to the express or implied invitation of the owner or occupant for their mutual advantage." Hoffman, 358 So.2d at 1011. A landowner owes an invitee the duty to keep the premises reasonably safe and when not reasonably safe to warn only where there is hidden danger or peril that is not plain and open to view. Caruso v. Picayune Pizza Hut, Inc., 598 So.2d 770, 778 (Miss.1992). Included in that duty is the exercise of reasonable care to protect invitees from criminal attacks. Lyle v. Mladinich, 584 So.2d 397, 399 (Miss.1991).

¶ 12. American National argues that security functions had been delegated to an independent company known as AREM. However, a landowner cannot "delegate this responsibility to a third person in such a manner as to be relieved of liability for a violation of its duty...." D.L. Fair Lumber Co. v. Weems, 196 Miss. 201, 218, 16 So.2d 770, 772 (1944). American National cannot escape liability because of its contract with ANREM.

¶ 13. Next, if the dangerous "situation was created by someone not associated with the operation of the [mall], the plaintiff must produce evidence demonstrating that the operator had actual or constructive knowledge of the condition." Downs v. Choo, 656 So.2d 84, 86 (Miss. 1995). The Hogues introduced a compilation of calls received by the Biloxi Police *1259 Department from the mall for the years 1990, 1991 and 1992. The supreme court has relied on the pre-tort overall pattern of criminal activity that occurred in the general vicinity of the defendant's business premises, as well as the frequency of criminal activity on the premises. Lyle, 584 So.2d at 399; Crain v. Cleveland Lodge 1532, Order of Moose, Inc., 641 So.2d 1186, 1189-90 (Miss.1994).

¶ 14. The compilations were limited to crimes against persons and certain property crimes, but did not include such offenses as shoplifting.

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Bluebook (online)
749 So. 2d 1254, 2000 WL 32034, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-nat-ins-co-v-hogue-missctapp-2000.