Perkins v. Star Transportation, Inc.

75 So. 3d 1065, 2011 Miss. App. LEXIS 209, 2011 WL 1366527
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedApril 12, 2011
DocketNo. 2009-CA-01714-COA
StatusPublished

This text of 75 So. 3d 1065 (Perkins v. Star Transportation, Inc.) 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
Perkins v. Star Transportation, Inc., 75 So. 3d 1065, 2011 Miss. App. LEXIS 209, 2011 WL 1366527 (Mich. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinions

GRIFFIS, P.J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. The award of sanctions under Rule 37(c) of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure is the issue in this appeal. We find no reversible error and affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On March 23, 2004, Brenda Burson Perkins was a passenger in a Toyota Camry driven by Nancy Fulgham. They were driving west on Highway 82 in Webster County, Mississippi. Fulgham stopped in the left-turn lane at a four-way stop at the intersection of Highway 82 and Highway 15, in Mathiston, Mississippi. Highway 82 is a four-lane major thoroughfare with a sizeable median separating the two westbound lanes and the two eastbound lanes. When Fulgham turned south on Highway 15 and attempted to cross the two eastbound lanes of Highway 82, her automobile was struck by an eighteen-wheeler that was driven by Loraine W. Clark. The eighteen-wheeler was owned by Star Transportation, Inc.

¶ 3. On March 8, 2007, both Fulgham and Perkins filed separate complaints against Clark and Star Transportation. The same attorneys represented Perkins and Fulgham. Both complaints asserted a claim for negligence and gross negligence. The claim for gross negligence alleged that “the negligent acts of omission and commission on the part of Clark ... were so gross as to amount to wantonness and were such character as to evidence a complete and total [disregard for and indifference to the safety of the traveling public, in general, and of [Perkins], in particular.” Perkins’s complaint asked for both compensatory and punitive damages.

¶ 4. On April 12, 2007, Clark and Star Transportation, through joint counsel, filed an answer to Perkins’s complaint. Their answer admitted that the accident occurred but denied liability, either in general or on the grounds of insufficient information. Their answer included twenty-two affirmative defenses. Clark and Star Transportation alleged the following defenses:

SECOND AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE
And now further answering, the Defendants aver that the accident in question was not due to any negligent fault on the part of Defendants, but was caused in whole or in part through the proximate fault, strict fault, negligence or want of care of Nancy Fulgham and/or Brenda Person Perkins in the following, but not exclusive respects:
a. Failing to maintain a proper lookout;
b. Failing to use due care;
c. Failing to maintain proper control over his vehicle;
d. Acting in a careless or reckless manner; and
e. Other acts of negligence that will be shown at the trial of this matter.
THIRD AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE
And now further answering, the Defendants aver in the alternative, and only in the event that it is shown that there is any fault or negligence on the part of Defendants, all of which is denied, or that such negligence is the cause of any injury or loss to the Plaintiffs (which is also at all times denied), then in that event, Defendants affirmatively aver that Nancy Fulgham and/or Brenda Burson Perkins’s own contributory fault or negligence operates as a complete bar, or alternatively in the mitigation of any damages which might otherwise be true.
FOURTH AFFIRMATIVE DEFENSE
[1067]*1067Defendants aver that if the subject accident was caused by any acts or omissions on the part of the answering Defendants, which is expressly denied, such acts or omissions were the result of sudden emergency and/or hazard created by Nancy Fulgham and/or Brenda Burson Perkins, and/or others for whom the answering Defendants are not liable.

¶ 5. On July 31, 2007, Perkins served requests for admissions on Clark and Star Transportation. Clark responded on September 14, 2007, as follows:

a. Request for Admission No. 9: Do you admit or deny that you caused the collision that occurred between Plaintiff Nancy Fulgham and Defendants Loraine W. Clark and Star Transportation, Inc. on March 23, 2004?
Response to Request for Admission No. 9: Denied
b. Request for Admission No. 12: Do you admit or deny that you were driving in excess of the posted, legal speed limit at the time of the collision on March 23, 2004?
Response to Request for Admission No. 12: Denied
c. Request for Admission No. 17: Do you admit or deny that you failed to stop at the four-way stop located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 82 and MS Highway 15, the location of the subject collision?
Response to Request for Admission No. 17: Admitted
d. Request for Admission No. 18: Do you admit or deny that you failed to yield the right-of-way to the Plaintiffs’ vehicle at the four-way stop located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 82 and MS Highway 15, the location of the subject collision?
Response to Request for Admission No. 18: Denied

Star Transportation also responded as follows:

a. Request for Admission No. 8: Do you admit or deny that the defendant caused the collision that occurred between Plaintiff Nancy Fulgham and Defendants Loraine W. Clark and Star Transportation, Inc. on March 23, 2004?
Response to Request for Admission No. 8: Denied
b. Request for Admission No. 11: Do you admit or deny that Defendant, Loraine W. Clark, was driving in excess of the posted, legal speed limit at the time of the collision on March 23, 2004?
Response to Request for Admission No. 11: Denied
c. Request for Admission No. IS: Do you admit or deny that Defendant, Loraine W. Clark, failed to stop at the four-way stop located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 82 and MS Highway 15, the location of the subject collision?
Response to Request for Admission No. 15: Admitted
d. Request for Admission No. 17: Do you admit or deny that Defendant, Loraine W. Clark, failed to yield the right-of-way to the Plaintiffs’ vehicle at the four-way stop located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 82 and MS Highway 15, the location of the subject collision?
Response to Request for Admission No. 17: Denied

¶ 6. On December 12, 2007, counsel for Clark and Star Transportation took the deposition of Nancy Fulgham. In that deposition, Fulgham testified:

A. ... We were traveling west on 82. And when we got to Mathiston there’s a four-way stop. We were [1068]*1068going to cross. We came to a stop, and I was fixing to cross, and that’s when I got hit.
Q. Okay, you were taking a left on 15 there to go to Canton?
A. Yeah. I was taking a left on 15.
Q. Okay, you came to a full stop?
A.

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Bluebook (online)
75 So. 3d 1065, 2011 Miss. App. LEXIS 209, 2011 WL 1366527, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/perkins-v-star-transportation-inc-missctapp-2011.