Cade v. Walker

771 So. 2d 403, 2000 WL 1694413
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedNovember 14, 2000
Docket1999-CA-01984-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 771 So. 2d 403 (Cade v. Walker) 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
Cade v. Walker, 771 So. 2d 403, 2000 WL 1694413 (Mich. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

771 So.2d 403 (2000)

Richard C. CADE and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Appellants,
v.
Linda Faye WALKER, Appellee.

No. 1999-CA-01984-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

November 14, 2000.

*405 John S. Hill, Attorney for Appellants.

W. Howard Gunn, Attorney for Appellee.

BEFORE McMILLIN, C.J., LEE, AND PAYNE, JJ.

LEE, J., for the Court:

¶ 1. This appeal is from the judgment of the Circuit Court of Monroe County which ordered the appellants and defendants below, Raymond C. Cade and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., to pay $29,099 plus all assessed court costs to Linda Faye Walker, appellee and plaintiff below, for damages incurred in a car accident. The appellant asserts three issues on appeal, all of which we will encompass in one: that the trial court erred in failing to grant a remittitur of the judgment or, in the alternative, denying the defendant's motion for a new trial on the issue of damages because the amount of the judgment was excessive and contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence. After a thorough review of the record, we find no reversible error and affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2. According to the appellee, Linda Faye Walker, she was in a vehicular accident on February 1, 1993 when her red 1988 Grand Am was struck on the driver's door by a Wal-Mart truck driven by Raymond C. Cade. In the car with Walker were her two children, two nieces, a nephew, and Walker's sister. The accident occurred around 6:30 in the evening as Walker was stopped in the exit lane of the Wal-Mart parking lot which intersects with Highway 45. While she was waiting for traffic to clear so that she could make a right turn into the southbound lane of the highway, Walker said a Wal-Mart truck entered the middle exit lane for traffic desiring to enter the northbound lane of Highway 45. She said that the driver of the truck attempted to turn south, or make a right turn onto the highway, when the truck struck the driver's door of her car while she was at a complete stop. She said her foot was on the brake but the impact knocked it to the accelerator. The impact dragged Walker's car onto a concrete curb adjacent to the exit, and Walker was propelled from the driver's side of the car and was knocked into the gearshift, which was on the floorboard, toward the passenger's seat. She testified that she was not knocked completely into the passenger's seat where her six year old son was sitting. Though there were six other people in the car with Walker, she was the only person injured in the accident. The pictures admitted into evidence showed that the car door on the driver's side was severely dented all the way to the edge but that the damage was confined to the door.

¶ 3. After Walker was hit, the truck continued down the highway. A family acquaintance happened to witness the accident from the parking lot and came to Walker's aid. He took the children with him while Walker and her sister went to a convenience store across the street to call Wal-Mart. The manager of Wal-Mart told Walker that the truck was on its way to the Best Western. Walker also called the police. Officer Johnny Buster of the Aberdeen Police Department testified that he went to the Best Western where he found Cade in his Wal-Mart uniform eating in the dining room. Cade was not aware that he had hit anyone. Officer Buster inspected the truck in the parking lot and said that he saw no damage, scuff, or gouge marks on the rear trailer or the wheels. Buster said he looked along the whole edge of the trailer, around the wheel wells, and towards the rear of the trailer, and on the rubber on the side of the *406 rubber wheels and the rims, and that he saw no paint transfers.

¶ 4. Walker said she did not feel any pain immediately after the accident. She said that one or two weeks after the accident she felt a nagging pain in her neck and lower back for which she took Tylenol and aspirin. Walker testified that she did not miss any time from her work as a seamstress after the accident. She saw a physician, Dr. Coughlin, on March 10, 1993, more than seven weeks after the accident. Dr. Coughlin took x-rays of her neck. He told her to take Tylenol for the pain and that if the pain continued to come back and see him. Walker said the pain continued. Instead of returning to Dr. Coughlin, she saw Dr. John McFadden on April 2, 1993, taking with her payment of $75 made by Walker's attorney for services to be rendered. Dr. McFadden took an x-ray, which was normal. He said her complaints of pain were consistent with a diagnosis of lumbar sprain or lumbar disk injury and prescribed an anti-inflammatory medication. Walker saw Dr. McFadden again on April 23, 1993, when he released her from his care because she was responding well to treatment. The record does not show that she has since been treated.

¶ 5. Walker claims that as a result of the accident that she suffered emotional trauma and mental distress which continued to exist at the time of trial. She said that she is nervous every time she sees a big transport truck and when an eighteen-wheeler passes her. She also testified that she still had back pain off and on at the time of trial and that she still had problems bending and lifting heavy objects. In addition, she said she continued to perform her job in pain. As a result of the accident, Walker claims she incurred medical bills of $569, property damage for $550, as well as past, present, and future pain and suffering and mental anguish. She asked for and was awarded $29,099 in total damages.

¶ 6. At trial, Cade and Wal-Mart denied that the accident happened. During closing argument defense counsel claimed that the accident could not have happened the way Walker described, damaging the door on the driver's side of the car without having affected the mirror on that side. The defense, however, offered no expert witness regarding accident reconstruction.

ISSUE AND DISCUSSION

DID THE TRIAL COURT ERR IN FAILING TO GRANT A REMITTITUR OF THE JUDGMENT OR, IN THE ALTERNATIVE, DENYING THE DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A NEW TRIAL ON THE ISSUE OF DAMAGES BECAUSE THE AMOUNT OF THE JUDGMENT WAS EXCESSIVE AND CONTRARY TO THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE?

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 7. Once the jury has returned a verdict in a civil case, we are not at liberty to direct that judgment be entered contrary to that verdict 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 found. Bell v. City of Bay St. Louis, 467 So.2d 657, 660 (Miss.1985). The jury's verdict in a civil case is a finding of fact. Edwards v. Ellis, 478 So.2d 282, 289 (Miss.1985). Even if we think the amount awarded in the verdict is liberal, we are not allowed to supplant our judgment for that of the jury unless we conclude that there was insufficient evidence to support the award of damages or that the verdict was the product of bias, passion, or prejudice. South Cent. Bell Tel. Co., Inc. v. Parker, 491 So.2d 212, 217 (Miss.1986).

¶ 8. The analysis begins with the basic rule that Walker, as the injured party, has the burden of going forward with sufficient evidence to prove her damages by a preponderance of the evidence. TXG Intrastate Pipeline Co. v. Grossnickle, 716 *407 So.2d 991, 1016 (Miss.1997); Boling v. A-1 Detective & Patrol Serv., Inc., 659 So.2d 586, 590 (Miss.1995).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
771 So. 2d 403, 2000 WL 1694413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cade-v-walker-missctapp-2000.