Breaux v. GRAND CASINOS OF MISSISSIPPI

854 So. 2d 1093, 2003 WL 22176659
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedSeptember 23, 2003
Docket2002-CA-01066-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 854 So. 2d 1093 (Breaux v. GRAND CASINOS OF MISSISSIPPI) 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
Breaux v. GRAND CASINOS OF MISSISSIPPI, 854 So. 2d 1093, 2003 WL 22176659 (Mich. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

854 So.2d 1093 (2003)

Sandra and Andrew BREAUX, Appellants,
v.
GRAND CASINOS OF MISSISSIPPI, INC.-GULFPORT, Appellee.

No. 2002-CA-01066-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

September 23, 2003.

*1095 John B. Perry, Booneville, attorney for appellant.

Steven Alfred Kohnke, and Fred Mannino, Biloxi, attorneys for appellee.

Before KING, P.J., LEE and GRIFFIS, JJ.

GRIFFIS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Sandra Breaux was injured when she tripped over an expansion joint in the parking garage of the Grand Casino in Gulfport. She claimed to have sustained permanent injuries to her arm and, together with her husband, filed suit for damages against the casino. The jury returned a verdict in favor of the casino. Finding no error, we affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2. On June 19, 1999, Sandra Breaux accompanied a friend to the Grand Casino in Gulfport. They parked in the casino parking garage on the third level. They were walking toward the casino when Mrs. Breaux tripped over an expansion joint in the garage. She fell forward and landed on her right arm. After the fall, Mrs. Breaux and her friend reported the incident to the appropriate casino personnel. An incident report was completed, which included a voluntary statement by Mrs. Breaux. The incident report documented a "minor abrasion to right elbow" and stated that Mrs. Breaux's injury was cleaned and gauze was applied. No ambulance was called, and Mrs. Breaux decided to stay at the casino and gamble with her friend.

¶ 3. Approximately three days later, Mrs. Breaux went to see her physician, Dr. Sharp, who referred her to Dr. Butler, a board certified orthopaedic surgeon. Mrs. Breaux complained of pain. In the summer of 2000, Mrs. Breaux underwent surgery to her shoulder. Thereafter, she had rotator cuff surgery in September of 2001.

¶ 4. On October 2, 2000, Mr. and Mrs. Breaux filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Harrison County alleging that the casino was liable and responsible for her fall and injury to her shoulder. In March of 2002, this case was heard by a jury, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of the casino.

¶ 5. Mr. and Mrs. Breaux have appealed asserting that the trial court erred in granting the casino's jury instructions D-1A and D-2 and that the jury verdict was clearly erroneous or against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

ANALYSIS

I. WHETHER THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN GRANTING THE CASINO JURY INSTRUCTIONS D-1A AND D-2.

¶ 6. Mr. and Mrs. Breaux argue the trial court erred by granting jury instructions D-1A and D-2 offered by the casino. They contend that these instructions were a misstatement of applicable law. Jury instruction D-1A read:

*1096 The court instructs the jury that the burden of proof rests upon the Plaintiffs, SANDRA BREAUX and ANDREW BREAUX, to prove their cases by a preponderance of the evidence. Before you may return a verdict in favor of the Plaintiffs against Defendant, GRAND CASINOS OF MISSISSIPPI, INC.-GULFPORT, you must believe by a preponderance of the evidence:
(1) that an expansion joint constituted a part of the third level of the upramp of the Grand Casino parking garage; and
(2) that the expansion joint constituted a dangerous or hazardous condition on the third level upramp of the garage; and
(3) that such condition constituted an unreasonable risk of harm to a person walking on the third level of the driving portion of the upramp while exercising ordinary and reasonable care for her own safety; and
(4) that such condition, if any, was one that Defendant, GRAND CASINOS, in the exercise of ordinary and reasonable care, could reasonably have foreseen would result in injury to a person walking upon the third level of the driving portion of the upramp of the parking garage of the Casino while exercising ordinary and reasonable care for her own safety; and
(5) that such failure on the part of Defendant, GRAND CASINOS, if any, was the proximate cause or a contributing proximate cause of the fall and injuries, if any, sustained by Plaintiff, SANDRA BREAUX; and
if Plaintiffs have failed to prove any one of the above elements by a preponderance of the evidence, then it is your duty to return a verdict for Defendant, GRAND CASINOS OF MISSISSIPPI, INC.-GULFPORT.

Jury instruction D-2 read:

The owner or operator of business premises owes a duty to his customers to exercise ordinary care to keep the premises in a reasonably safe condition, and if the owner or operator is aware of a dangerous condition which is not readily apparent to his customers, he is under a duty to warn the customers of such condition. However, the owner or operator of the premises does not guarantee the safety of the customers, and he is not required to keep his premises in an absolutely safe condition or in a condition in which no accident could possible [possibly] happen.
If you find from a preponderance of the evidence in this case
(1) that the presence of the expansion joint on the third level of the parking garage was not a hazard and that Defendant, GRAND CASINOS, provided a reasonably safe place for its patrons, such as the Plaintiff, or
(2) that the presence of the expansion joint was a hazard but that it was a usual, expected, and necessary structure in a multistory parking garage, that it was readily apparent and open and obvious under the conditions then existing, and was not a hazard to one exercising reasonable care for her own safety while walking upon the premises, then it shall be your duty to return a verdict for Defendant, GRAND CASINOS OF MISSISSIPPI, INC.-GULFPORT, even though you find that the accident happened and that the Plaintiff, SANDRA BREAUX, was injured.

¶ 7. Mr. and Mrs. Breaux argue that these instructions were improper on two grounds. First, the instructions, especially D-1A, discuss how "foreseeable" it was *1097 for someone to have been injured by the expansion joint, rather than if the casino knew or should have known about its unsafe nature. Second, with regard to D-2, they contend that it was improper because it specifically addresses the open and obvious defense, which they argue is no longer a viable defense in Mississippi.

¶ 8. On appeal, we do not review jury instructions in isolation; rather, they are read as a whole to determine if the jury was properly instructed. Payne v. Rain Forest Nurseries, Inc., 540 So.2d 35, 40 (Miss.1989). Defects in specific instructions do not require reversal "where all instructions taken as a whole fairly—although not perfectly—announce the applicable primary rules of law." Id. However, if those instructions do not fairly or adequately instruct the jury, reversal is appropriate. Id.

¶ 9. Keeping this standard in mind, we review the applicable legal principles to determine if the jury instructions contained a misstatement of law. This case is, of course, one sounding in negligence. The law regarding negligence in this State is well settled. Mr. and Mrs. Breaux had the burden to show, by a preponderance of the evidence, (a) a definable duty on the casino's part, (b) a breach of that duty, (c) an injury to Mrs. Breaux proximately caused by that breach, and (d) actual loss or damage arising out of the injury. Carpenter v. Nobile, 620 So.2d 961, 964 (Miss.1993).

¶ 10. The duty owed by the casino to Mrs. Breaux is found in this State's laws relating to premises liability.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
854 So. 2d 1093, 2003 WL 22176659, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/breaux-v-grand-casinos-of-mississippi-missctapp-2003.