Empire Abrasive Equipment Corp. v. Morgan

87 So. 3d 455, 2012 WL 1538300
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 3, 2012
DocketNos. 2010-IA-00247-SCT, 2010-IA-00250-SCT, 2010-IA-00255-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 87 So. 3d 455 (Empire Abrasive Equipment Corp. v. Morgan) 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
Empire Abrasive Equipment Corp. v. Morgan, 87 So. 3d 455, 2012 WL 1538300 (Mich. 2012).

Opinions

CARLSON, PRESIDING Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. Henry Morgan, Sr., filed a personal-injury suit against eighty-eight defendants, claiming injuries related to silicosis. Morgan, Sr., died while the personal-injury case was pending, and the case eventually was dismissed. More than three years after Morgan, Sr.’s death, his son, Henry Morgan, Jr., filed a wrongful-death suit individually and on behalf of all wrongful-death beneficiaries of Morgan, Sr. The defendants filed a motion for summary judgment based on the running of the statute of limitations. The trial court denied the motion. Because the wrongful-death suit was filed more than three years after the death of Morgan, Sr., the statute of limitations bars any wrongful-death and survival claims. Accordingly, we reverse the trial court’s judgment and render judgment in favor of the defendants.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN THE TRIAL COURT

¶ 2. Henry Morgan, Sr., was diagnosed with silicosis on June 2, 2002. On September 9, 2002, Morgan, Sr., along with 141 other plaintiffs, filed a personal-injury suit against eighty-eight defendants in the Circuit Court for the Second Judicial District of Jones County, claiming silica-related injuries. The case was styled: Ellzey R. Arthur, et al. v. Pulmosan Safety Equip., et al, No.2002-227-CV9. Morgan, Sr., died five days later, on September 14, 2002. Despite Morgan, Sr.’s death, no suggestion of death was ever filed, nor was any amendment asserting a survival or wrongful-death action ever sought. As the trial court in the instant case stated in its order denying the defendants’ motions for summary judgment, “both plaintiffs and defendants in the multi-plaintiff Jones County action treated that case as if Henry Morgan, Sr.[,] had not died.... ”

¶ 3. More than a year later, on December 8, 2003, the defendants in Arthur filed a notice of removal to federal court. The case eventually was transferred to a multi-district litigation court in Texas. A little less than two years later, on September 30, 2005, Arthur was remanded back to state court. On May 23, 2006, all Arthur plaintiffs were dismissed based on this Court’s holding in Canadian National v. Smith, 926 So.2d 839, 845 (Miss.2006). This Court has summarized Smith as holding that:

all claims previously filed en masse for silicosis damages that were not filed in the proper venue should be severed as misjoined pursuant to Janssen Pharmaceutica v. Armond, 866 So.2d 1092 (Miss.2004), which requires each claim joined in a single lawsuit to arise from a “distinct, litigable event.” Smith, 926 So.2d at 845 (citing Armond, 866 So.2d at 1099). The Smith Court stated that such a dismissal would be “[as to] a matter of form,” for purposes of the savings statute, Mississippi Code Section 15-1-69. Smith, 926 So.2d at 845.

Clark Sand Co., Inc. v. Kelly, 60 So.3d 149, 153 (Miss.2011). The dismissal in Arthur was styled: “Agreed Order of Dismissal Without Prejudice.” No attempt was made to substitute the wrongful-death beneficiaries of Morgan, Sr., as real parties in interest in Arthur.

¶ 4. On May 23, 2007, exactly one year after Arthur was dismissed, Henry Morgan, Jr., filed a wrongful-death claim against thirty-two defendants in the Circuit Court of Adams County, claiming that Morgan, Sr.’s silica-related injuries had caused his death. Morgan, Jr., filed the wrongful-death complaint individually and on behalf of all wrongful-death beneficiaries of Morgan, Sr. Morgan, Jr.’s complaint did not provide Morgan, Sr.’s social security number, address, or other identi[458]*458fying information; nor did it mention either the date that he discovered his injury or the date of his death. At the hearing on the motion for summary judgment, defense counsel asserted that, until the plaintiffs had responded to discovery requests, the defendants had not been aware of the deceased’s identity. Indeed, the attorney for defendant Pangborn Corporation stated at the hearing that “[tjhere are 501 Henry Morgans in the social security death index. We had ten Henry Morgans just in our data base alone, four of which have confirmed social security numbers different from the decedent.”

¶ 5. On November 4, 2009, the defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming that the statute of limitations for the wrongful-death suit had run on September 14, 2005, three years after Morgan, Sr.’s death. On January 21, 2010, the trial court entered an order denying the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, essentially finding that the one-year savings statute allowed for Morgan, Jr., to file the wrongful-death suit one year after the dismissal of Morgan, Sr.’s personal-injury suit. See Miss.Code Ann. § 15 — 1— 69 (Rev.2003). The defendants then filed a petition for an interlocutory appeal with this Court, which was granted.

DISCUSSION

¶ 6. This Court reviews a trial court’s grant or denial of summary judgment under a de novo standard. Clark Sand Co., 60 So.3d at 154 (citing Monsanto v. Hall, 912 So.2d 134,136 (Miss.2005)).

¶ 7. The defendants present one issue on appeal: Whether Henry Morgan, Jr.’s wrongful-death suit is barred by the statute of limitations. In response to the defendants’ argument, Morgan, Jr., contends that the defendants waived the statute-of-limitations defense.

I. Whether the defendants waived the statute-of-limitations defense.

¶ 8. Morgan, Jr., claims that the defendants waived the statute-of-limitations defense because they waited more than two years before pursuing them defense that the statute of limitations applied, and because they substantially participated in the litigation prior to asserting the defense. The defendants respond by claiming that, because Morgan, Jr., did not file a cross-appeal on this issue, he is precluded from raising it in his appellate brief. In the alternative, they argue that the defense was not waived. In its order denying the defendants’ motion for summary judgment, the trial court specifically held that the defendants had not waived the statute-of-limitations defense.

¶ 9. In MS Credit Center, Inc. v. Horton, 926 So.2d 167, 179-81 (Miss.2006), this Court held that the defendants waived their right to compel arbitration when they delayed in pursuing this right for eight months and substantially participated in the litigation. Although the facts of Horton related to waiver of the right to compel arbitration, this Court held that Horton’s waiver rule applied to all affirmative defenses:

Our holding today is not limited to assertion of the right to compel arbitration. A defendant’s failure to timely and reasonably raise and pursue the enforcement of any affirmative defense or other affirmative matter or right which would terminate or stay the litigation, coupled with active participation in the litigation process, will ordinarily serve as a waiver.

Id. at 180. Horton also held that prejudice to the party resisting the motion is a factor to be considered. Id. at n. 7 (citations omitted).

[459]*459¶ 10. The defendants in Horton asserted their right to compel arbitration in their answers. Id. at 180.

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Bluebook (online)
87 So. 3d 455, 2012 WL 1538300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/empire-abrasive-equipment-corp-v-morgan-miss-2012.