Edwards v. Ellis

478 So. 2d 282
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 2, 1985
Docket55119
StatusPublished
Cited by39 cases

This text of 478 So. 2d 282 (Edwards v. Ellis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Edwards v. Ellis, 478 So. 2d 282 (Mich. 1985).

Opinion

478 So.2d 282 (1985)

Lonnie B. EDWARDS
v.
William C. ELLIS.

No. 55119.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

October 2, 1985.

*283 William A. Brown, Walker, Brown & Brown, William L. Rone, Hernando, for appellant.

Richard T. Phillips, Smith & Phillips, Batesville, for appellee.

Before WALKER, HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, JJ.

DAN M. LEE, Justice, for the Court:

This appeal is made from a jury verdict and judgment rendered in the Circuit Court of Tate County, where the appellee, Bill Ellis, was awarded $80,000 for personal injuries sustained in an automobile accident. We affirm.

On June 14, 1980, Bill Ellis, a Mississippi Highway Patrolman, was traveling on U.S. Highway 51 near the town of Como in Panola County, Mississippi. At approximately 1:00 o'clock p.m., Ellis clocked an *284 approaching northbound vehicle on radar at 75 miles per hour in a 55 miles per hour zone. When Ellis turned in pursuit of the vehicle, the driver fled onto a county gravel road. Eventually the chase led onto a north-south section of gravel road where the collision which gave rise to this case occurred.

As the vehicle driven by Ellis and the vehicle he was following were proceeding in a southerly direction, the appellant, Lonnie Edwards, was driving a 1979 Ford pickup truck in a northerly direction on the same road. The fleeing vehicle, stirring up a cloud of dust and gravel, passed Edwards's pickup. The pickup and Ellis's patrol car then collided headon on the gravel road.

Both Edwards and Ellis were injured in the accident. Edwards suffered a broken neck and was unconscious for several weeks. Ellis sustained a laceration and fracture just below the left knee, two fractured ribs and other contusions and abrasions.

Edwards subsequently filed a declaration against Ellis and the Mississippi Highway Patrol for damages sustained in the collision. The Highway Patrol was dismissed as a defendant and the cause was transferred to the Circuit Court of Tate County. Edwards's claim was eventually settled and dismissed with prejudice.

Bill Ellis filed a counterclaim against Edwards, charging him with negligence in (a) operating the pickup truck while under the influence of alcohol; (b) failing to drive on the right side of the road; (c) failing to pass on the right half of the road; (d) turning his truck from a direct course when that movement could not be done with reasonable safety; (e) failure to maintain proper control; (f) failing to keep a proper lookout; (g) allowing his vehicle to crash headon on the wrong side of the road; and (h) other ways. Ellis demanded judgment against Edwards in the amount of $500,000 actual and punitive damages, together with costs.

Edwards answered the counterclaim denying any negligence on his part and charged negligence on the part of Ellis in operating his patrol vehicle at a high rate of speed on a narrow, dusty, gravel road, without just cause. Edwards further asserted that Ellis's negligence was the sole proximate cause of the collision and damages to both parties, and affirmatively pled assumption of risk and contributory negligence on the part of Bill Ellis.

The appellant, Lonnie Edwards, makes six assignments of error. They are:

I. The court erred in admitting blood alcohol test results: (a) in violation of § 63-11-7 of the Mississippi Code; and, (b) in violation of the appellant's medical privilege, which was not waived.
II. The court erred in allowing the appellee to appear throughout the trial in the uniform of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
III. The court erred in allowing expert testimony on the effects of alcohol.
IV. The court erred in allowing testimony to "reconstruct" the accident.
V. The court erred in refusing Instruction D-3 on assumption of risk.
VI. The jury's verdict was grossly excessive.

I. Did the court err in admitting the results of blood alcohol tests performed on Lonnie Edwards?

This assignment of error is made in two distinct parts which must be considered separately. The first question is whether the admitted evidence resulted from tests performed pursuant to § 63-11-7 Miss. Code Ann. (1972). The alternative question is whether the test results were admitted in violation of Edwards's medical privilege, which is alleged to have not been waived.

Miss. Code Ann. § 63-11-7 (1972) states:

If any person be unconscious or dead as a result of an accident, or unconscious at the time of arrest or apprehension or when the test is to be administered, or is otherwise in a condition rendering him incapable of refusal, such person shall be subjected to a blood test for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content of his blood ... if the arresting officer *285 has reasonable grounds to believe the person to have been driving ... while under the influence of intoxicating liquor. The results of such tests or test however, shall not be used in evidence against such person in any court or before any regulatory body without the consent of the person so tested.... [B]lood samples taken under this section shall be used exclusively for statistical evaluation of accident causes with safeguards established to protect the identity of such victims and to extend the rights of privileged communications to those engaged in taking, handling and evaluating such statistical evidence. (emphasis added).

As a result of the collision which is the basis of this suit, Lonnie Edwards was rendered unconscious. Although he apparently had a few conscious moments shortly after the accident, he remained essentially unconscious until the end of July. It is Edwards's contention on appeal that the admitted results were from tests presumably made at the request of the Highway Patrol and therefore were inadmissible under § 63-11-7.

The record clearly shows that two distinct blood alcohol tests were administered to Lonnie Edwards after the accident. The first was performed pursuant to § 63-11-7; its results indicated a .24% alcohol content in Lonnie Edwards's blood. The results of that blood test were properly ruled to be inadmissible. Stong v. Freeman Truck Line, 456 So.2d 698, 712-713 (Miss. 1984). The results which were admitted were those of later tests administered in Memphis, Tennessee, as part of Edwards's medical treatment. In Cutchens v. State, 310 So.2d 273 (Miss. 1975); cert. denied, 423 U.S. 1061, 96 S.Ct. 799, 46 L.Ed.2d 652 (1976) this Court held that the result of a hospital blood test, administered under circumstances substantially analogous to those in the instant case, was competent evidence bearing upon the question of a criminal defendant's state of intoxication. If such results were admissible against a criminal defendant, to whom the law affords greater protection, they would certainly be admissible against a civil litigant. This is especially true where, as in the present case, additional competent evidence was available which indicated the defendant's state of intoxication. Here, both Edwards and his wife testified that he had been drinking gin shortly before the accident. Ellis testified that while pulling Edwards from the wrecked pickup truck, he could smell liquor on Edwards.

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478 So. 2d 282, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/edwards-v-ellis-miss-1985.