Franklin Mem. Hosp. v. Ms. Farm Bureau Ins.

975 So. 2d 872, 2008 WL 518143
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 28, 2008
Docket2007-CA-00142-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 975 So. 2d 872 (Franklin Mem. Hosp. v. Ms. Farm Bureau Ins.) 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
Franklin Mem. Hosp. v. Ms. Farm Bureau Ins., 975 So. 2d 872, 2008 WL 518143 (Mich. 2008).

Opinion

975 So.2d 872 (2008)

FRANKLIN COUNTY MEMORIAL HOSPITAL
v.
MISSISSIPPI FARM BUREAU MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY.

No. 2007-CA-00142-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

February 28, 2008.

*873 Robert Lee Grant, Timothy Dale Crawley, Ridgeland, Lane B. Reed, Meadville, attorneys for appellant.

Sam Starnes Thomas, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 1. Boyce Dover filed suit against Franklin County Memorial Hospital ("FCMH") and Sydneye Marie Jordan ("Jordan"), an employee of FCMH, for personal injuries related to an automobile accident between Dover and Jordan.

¶ 2. At the time of the accident, Jordan was operating her personal vehicle. Dover alleged he was standing in a marked crosswalk when he was struck and injured by Jordan's vehicle. Jordan was on an errand on behalf of her employer, FCMH. In Dover's complaint, he alleged that Jordan was acting within the course and scope of her employment with FCMH. FCMH and Jordan stipulated she was acting in the course and scope of her employment at the time of the accident.

¶ 3. After the complaint was filed, Dover agreed to dismiss Jordan, in her individual capacity, as a defendant. The agreed order dismissed Jordan with prejudice as to all claims which were or could have been raised against her. The basis of the dismissal was as follows:

The parties agree and stipulate that on June 14, 2002 between the hours of 10:45 and 11:30 Sydneye Marie Jordan was in the course and scope of her employment with Franklin County Memorial Hospital when the incident involving the Plaintiff, Boyce Dover, and the vehicle driven by the Defendant, Sydneye Marie Jordan, occurred.

¶ 4. FCMH sought leave of court without objection from Dover to file a complaint for declaratory judgment against Mississippi Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company ("Farm Bureau"), the insurer of Jordan's vehicle. The trial court entered an agreed order to that effect.

¶ 5. In its complaint for declaratory judgment, FCMH alleged that Farm Bureau had a duty to defend FCMH as its insured; to reimburse FCMH its costs, expenses and attorneys' fees expended to defend Dover's lawsuit; and to indemnify FCMH as to any judgment against it. FCMH relied upon the language defining "insured" in Jordan's insurance policy with Farm Bureau, which provided:

[T]he unqualified word "Insured" means the named Insured and, if the named Insured is an individual, his spouse, and also any person while using the Automobile and any person or organization legally responsible for its use, provided the actual use of the Automobile is by the named insured or spouse or with permission of either. . . .

¶ 6. FCMH contended it clearly met the definition of "organization legally responsible" and thus, would qualify for coverage under the policy issued by Farm Bureau.

¶ 7. Farm Bureau responded to FCMH's complaint for declaratory judgment by asserting that FCMH lacked standing to maintain or attempt to maintain the claims alleged against Farm Bureau. Farm Bureau additionally asserted an affirmative defense that "liability, if any, of FCMH as to the matter or matters at issue arises from and flows through the Mississippi Tort Claims Act [MTCA]." Farm Bureau further asserted that Farm Bureau and Jordan were "immune from any liability on the claim or claims attempted to be stated *874 by FCMH," and that the MTCA prohibited FCMH's claim against Farm Bureau.

¶ 8. The trial court took under advisement FCMH's motion for partial summary judgment against Farm Bureau. The case was set for a bench trial as to Dover's claims against FCMH. At the conclusion of the bench trial, the trial court awarded Dover a judgment in the amount of $55,000, finding FCMH's employee, Jordan, to be ninety percent at fault and Dover ten percent at fault, resulting in a final judgment for Dover in the amount of $49,500 against FCMH.[1] FCMH argued that, based on the "Insured" language of the policy, Farm Bureau was responsible for paying the damages.

¶ 9. The trial court subsequently entered its final judgment addressing FCMH's claim against Farm Bureau for indemnification under FCMH's complaint for declaratory judgment. The trial court granted summary and final judgment for Farm Bureau on the claims of FCMH and dismissed FCMH's action against Farm Bureau with prejudice.

¶ 10. FCMH timely appealed to this Court. The issue before this Court is whether the trial court erred in granting summary and final judgment on behalf of Farm Bureau, as to the claims of FCMH.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 11. "We employ the de novo standard in reviewing a trial court's grant of summary judgment. The moving party shall be granted judgment `if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law.'" Callicutt v. Prof'l Servs. of Potts Camp, Inc., 974 So.2d 216, 219 (Miss.2007) (citations omitted). See also Miss. R. Civ. P. 56(c).

ANALYSIS

¶ 12. The order of dismissal as to Jordan was agreed to by all parties, including FCMH. In its final judgment, the trial court found this order of dismissal to operate to "fully and completely release Jordan's auto insurance carrier, the Third-party Defendant, Mississippi Farm Bureau Insurance Company, from any responsibility and/or coverage."

¶ 13. The dismissal of claims against Jordan, in her individual capacity, was premised upon the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, as Jordan was acting within the course and scope of her employment with FCMH. See Miss.Code Ann. § 11-46-1, et seq. (Rev.2002). Farm Bureau asserts the statutory immunity granted to Jordan should be extended to Farm Bureau, as the liability insurer of Jordan, without addressing that FCMH is also an insured. Farm Bureau relies on a portion of Mississippi Code Annotated Section 11-46-7(5). "A governmental entity shall not be entitled to contribution or indemnification, or reimbursement for legal fees and expenses from its employee unless a court shall find that the act or omission of the employee was outside the course and scope of his employment." (Emphasis added).

¶ 14. FCMH submits the trial court erred in holding that the dismissal of Jordan individually also served to act as a release of her insurance carrier, as FCMH was an "Insured" under the policy. FCMH contends that while it is a "public entity" as defined by the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, the Mississippi Tort Claims *875 Act "does not contain any language which could be construed as limiting the right of a `public entity' to be an `insured' under a policy of insurance."

¶ 15. In its finding that the Order of Dismissal of Jordan applied both to Jordan and Farm Bureau, the trial court strayed from the pivotal issue by focusing on the absence of Jordan's personal liability to Dover. However, Jordan's personal immunity does not absolve FCMH from liability for Jordan's negligence. As FCMH was declared liable, the focus of the inquiry should have been whether FCMH was an insured under the Farm Bureau policy, and if so, whether FCMH was entitled to the protections afforded by the liability coverage provisions.

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Bluebook (online)
975 So. 2d 872, 2008 WL 518143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/franklin-mem-hosp-v-ms-farm-bureau-ins-miss-2008.