Franklin Collection Service, Inc. v. Gwenlyn M. Collins

206 So. 3d 1282, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 803
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedDecember 13, 2016
DocketNO. 2015-CA-01154-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 206 So. 3d 1282 (Franklin Collection Service, Inc. v. Gwenlyn M. Collins) 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
Franklin Collection Service, Inc. v. Gwenlyn M. Collins, 206 So. 3d 1282, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 803 (Mich. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinions

WILSON, J.,

FOR THE COURT:

¶ 1. In this action to collect on a hospital bill, the jury awarded Franklin Collection Service Inc. (“FCS”) $233, and the circuit court entered judgment in favor of FCS on the jury’s verdict. FCS now attempts to appeal the circuit court’s pretrial denial of its motion for summary judgment, in which it sought a judgment for a greater amount ($950) plus attorneys’ fees. However, under this Court’s precedent, the pretrial ruling on FCS’s summary judgment motion was rendered moot and unappealable once the case proceeded to a jury trial and verdict. Because the only issue raised by FCS on appeal is not reviewable on appeal, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On October 11, 2012, Gwenlyn Collins was admitted to the emergency roofn at Magee General Hospital with pain in her' left rib area. Collins received treatment at the ER and was discharged. She received a bill from the hospital for $1,030, and she paid $70 on the bill.

¶3, The $960 balance was assigned to FCS for collection, and Collins later made an additional payment of $10, reducing her indebtedness to $950. FCS subsequently filed a complaint in the Smith County Justice Court seeking recovery of the balance due. Collins filed an answer denying all allegations against her and arguing that some of the services billed to her were not administered by the hospital. On April 14, 2014, the justice court found for Collins and dismissed the case with prejudice.

¶ 4. FCS appealed to the Circuit Court of Smith County. Collins then amended her answer to assert a counterclaim against FCS for “harassing and threatening telephone calls.” Collins claimed that the phone calls had caused her embarrass[1284]*1284ment, worry, and loss of sleep, and she demanded actual and punitive damages.

¶ 5. FCS then propounded discovery and eventually filed a motion for summary judgment addressing both its claim against Collins and Collins’s counterclaim. In its motion, FCS argued, inter alia, that it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law for the $950 in medical bills plus court costs and attorneys’ fees. Specifically, FCS argued that Collins’s discovery responses effectively admitted liability on the hospital bill.

¶ 6. FCS filed its motion for summary judgment on May 11, 2015, and noticed it for a hearing on the morning of May 14, 2015, which was the day set for trial. That morning, the trial judge asked counsel for FCS, “Why wasn’t this motion for summary judgment brought up before today? .., We’ve got a jury out there waiting to hear this trial, and all of a sudden I’m hit with a motion for summary judgment.” Counsel for FCS responded, “Judge, I can’t give any insight on that. I’m sorry.” (A different lawyer had filed the summary judgment motion.) Collins’s attorney argued that the motion should be denied because Collins would testify that she never received some of the treatments for which she was billed. The judge then denied the motion, stating, “I think we ought to go in here and try this case, let the witnesses testify, and let the jury make a decision.” The judge told counsel that in the future he should not “wait until the morning of trial to bring [a] motion for summary judgment up.”

¶ 7. The morning of trial, Collins did agree to withdraw her counterclaim. Thus, the case proceeded to trial on FCS’s claim only. At trial, Collins testified that most of the services on her hospital bill were not actually performed. The jury returned a verdict in favor of FCS for $233, the approximate charges for treatments that Collins acknowledged receiving at the hospital, less the payments she had already made on her bill. Final judgment was entered on the verdict, and FCS appealed.

DISCUSSION

¶ 8. On appeal, FCS challenges only the pretrial denial of its motion for summary judgment. Collins responds that the denial of summary judgment is unre-viewable once the case proceeds to a jury trial and verdict. Under our precedent, she is correct:

This Court has held that appeals from the denial of a motion for summary judgment are interlocutory in nature and are rendered moot by a trial on the merits. Gibson v. Wright, 870 So.2d 1250, 1254 (¶ 8) (Miss. Ct. App. 2004) (citing Black v. J.I. Case Co., 22 F.3d 568, 569-70 (5th Cir. 1994)). “[Ojnce trial begins, summary judgment motions effectively become moot.” Id. (quoting Daigle v. Liberty Life Ins. Co., 70 F.3d 394, 397 (5th Cir. 1995)).

Britton v. Am. Legion Post 058, 19 So.3d 83, 85 (¶ 7) (Miss. Ct. App. 2008); accord Gibson, 870 So.2d at 1254 (¶ 8).

¶ 9. In Black, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit observed:

[PJrudential concerns argue against reviewing such motions. To review the pretrial denial of a motion for summary judgment, we would have to review two different sets of evidence: the “evidence” before the district court at pretrial when it denied the motion, and the evidence presented at trial. Of course, the “evidence” presented at pretrial may well be different from the evidence presented at trial. It makes no sense whatever to reverse a judgment on the verdict where the trial evidence was sufficient merely because at summary judgment it was not. ... “The saving of time and expense is the purpose to be attained by a summary judgment in a [1285]*1285proper case. When in due course the final trial is had on the merits it becomes the best test of the. rights of the movant. If he wins on trial he has his judgment. If he loses on a fair trial it shows that he ought not to have any judgment.”

Black, 22 F.3d at 572 (quoting Woods v. Robb, 171 F.2d 539, 541 (5th Cir. 1948)).

¶ 10. Based on our holdings in Britton and Gibson, supra, the pretrial ruling on FCS’s motion for summary judgment was rendered moot by the trial on the merits. It is not reviewable on appeal and therefore is not a basis for reversal.

¶ 11. In its reply brief, FCS cites two cases in which the denial of summary judgment was affirmed on appeal following a jury trial and suggests that these cases support its argument that we may review the summary judgment ruling in this case. In one of these cases, this Court affirmed the judgment below after rejecting arguments that the circuit court erred by denying a summary judgment motion, a motion for a directed verdict, and a motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV). Piggly Wiggly of Greenwood, Inc. v. Fipps, 809 So.2d 722, 724 (¶ 1) (Miss. Ct. App. 2001). Although this Court mentioned and discussed the standards of review applicable to each of the challenged rulings, the Court affirmed the final judgment without discussing whether all three rulings were reviewable on appeal. See generally id. In addition, the opinion simply discusses “the evidence” and “conflicting testimony” presented without specifying whether such evidence was presented at the summary judgment stage or at trial. See id. at 726 (¶ 13). Thus, the reviewability of the pretrial summary judgment ruling was never discussed and made no difference to the outcome of the appeal.

¶ 12.

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206 So. 3d 1282, 2016 Miss. App. LEXIS 803, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/franklin-collection-service-inc-v-gwenlyn-m-collins-missctapp-2016.