Satchfield v. RR Morrison & Son, Inc.

872 So. 2d 661, 2004 WL 964283
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 6, 2004
Docket2002-CA-01563-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 872 So. 2d 661 (Satchfield v. RR Morrison & Son, Inc.) 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
Satchfield v. RR Morrison & Son, Inc., 872 So. 2d 661, 2004 WL 964283 (Mich. 2004).

Opinion

872 So.2d 661 (2004)

Danny SATCHFIELD
v.
R.R. MORRISON & SON, INC., Premium Tank Lines, Inc. and Bruce Jordan, as Agent of Premium Tank Lines, Inc.

No. 2002-CA-01563-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

May 6, 2004.

*662 John Randall Santa Cruz, attorney for appellant.

Walter William Dukes, Gulfport, Trace D. McRaney, Ronald G. Peresich, Emilie Fischer Whitehead, Michael E. Whitehead, Biloxi, attorneys for appellees.

EN BANC.

COBB, Presiding Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. At issue in this case is whether a witness to a service station gasoline explosion which killed six people unrelated to him is a foreseeable plaintiff to whom the defendants owed a duty of care. Under the precedent of this Court, no such duty was owed. Therefore we affirm the trial *663 court's grant of summary judgment for the defendants.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2. On August 9, 1998, an underground gasoline tank at a Texaco Fast Lane service station in Biloxi, Mississippi was being filled from a fuel truck owned by Premium Tank Lines, Inc. (Premium) and operated by Bruce Jordan (Jordan). During the fueling procedure the tank overflowed, and a large quantity of gasoline spilled into a nearby intersection where it ignited. The ensuing fire resulted in property damage and personal injuries, including several fatalities.

¶ 3. Danny Satchfield, the plaintiff in the trial court below, was at the Texaco station purchasing gasoline for his automobile and witnessed the explosion and the painful death of the victims. Accompanying him were his son, Kurt Satchfield, and a good friend, David Rogers. Satchfield alleges that his vehicle was approximately five feet away from the explosion and that witnessing the explosion and the violent, painful deaths of his fellow citizens caused him to suffer from emotional shock and trauma. He also alleges that he was in immediate fear of imminent death or injury to himself, his son and his close friend, and he was left with permanent psychological injury requiring ongoing medical treatment.[1] Satchfield sought recovery for his injuries from R.R. Morrison & Sons, Inc. (Morrison), the owner of the Texaco station in question, as well as Premium and Jordan. Following Satchfield's complaint, Morrison propounded requests for admissions seeking only to establish that Satchfield was not related to the victims.

¶ 4. Based upon Satchfield's affirmative response to these inquiries, Morrison filed a motion for summary judgment. Morrison claimed that, as a matter of law, Satchfield could not recover because he is not related to any of the victims. Premium and Jordan subsequently filed similar motions. Concluding that Satchfield's claims were those of a bystander, and since it was undisputed that he was not physically injured as a result of the fire and explosion and that he was not related to any of the victims, the trial court granted summary judgment for the defendants. From that judgment Satchfield appeals.

ANALYSIS

¶ 5. This Court applies a de novo standard of review of a trial court's grant or denial of summary judgment. Hudson v. Courtesy Motors, Inc., 794 So.2d 999, 1002 (Miss.2001); Jenkins v. Ohio Cas. Ins. Co., 794 So.2d 228, 232 (Miss.2001); Heigle v. Heigle, 771 So.2d 341, 345 (Miss. 2000). Our appellate standard for reviewing the granting or denial of summary judgment is the same standard as that of the trial court under Rule 56(c) of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure: summary judgment shall be granted 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...." Hudson, 794 So.2d at 1002; Jenkins, 794 So.2d at 232; Heigle, 771 So.2d at 345. The burden of demonstrating that no genuine issue of fact exists is on the moving party. Id. "The presence of fact issues in the record does not per se entitle a party to avoid summary judgment. The court must be convinced that the factual *664 issue is a material one, one that matters in an outcome determinative sense ... [T]he existence of a hundred contested issues of fact will not thwart summary judgment where there is no genuine dispute regarding the material issues of fact." Hudson, 794 So.2d at 1002 (quoting Simmons v. Thompson Mach. of Miss., Inc., 631 So.2d 798, 801 (Miss.1994)).

I. No close relationship between Satchfield and victims.

¶ 6. Morrison, Premium and Jordan assert that summary judgment was proper because Satchfield, unrelated to any of the victims, cannot satisfy the elements necessary to support his claim. The trial court agreed.

¶ 7. In Entex, Inc. v. McGuire, 414 So.2d 437 (Miss.1982), this Court set the standard for determining whether a defendant has a duty of care to a bystander plaintiff:

In determining, ... whether defendant should reasonably foresee the injury to plaintiff, or, ... whether defendant owes plaintiff a duty of care, the courts will take into account such factors as the following: (1) Whether plaintiff was located near the scene of the accident as contrasted with one who was a distance away from it. (2) Whether the shock resulted from a direct emotional impact upon plaintiff from the sensory and contemporaneous observance of the accident, as contrasted with learning of the accident from others after its occurrence. (3) Whether plaintiff and victim were closely related, as contrasted with an absence of any relationship or the presence of only a distance relationship.

Id. at 444 (quoting Dillon v. Legg, 68 Cal.2d 728, 69 Cal.Rptr. 72, 441 P.2d 912, 920 (1968)) (emphasis added). In O'Cain v. Harvey Freeman & Sons, Inc., 603 So.2d 824 (Miss.1991), this Court held that, in Entex, the "Court set out the criteria which one must meet on a claim of emotional trauma by a bystander[.]" Id. at 829 (emphasis added).

¶ 8. Satchfield argues that Entex does not foreclose his claim. He argues that case is only one in a long line of cases related to recovery for emotional harm or injury and that Entex has been substantially expanded. He argues that the factors laid out in Entex are not mandatory elements of foreseeability, but rather only guidelines for that determination. For support, Satchfield points out that Dillon v. Legg, 68 Cal.2d 728, 69 Cal.Rptr. 72, 441 P.2d 912 (1968), the California case which laid out the factors this Court adopted in Entex, expressly required that foreseeability be adjudicated on a case-by-case basis. See id. at 920.

¶ 9. While Satchfield's analysis of Dillon is correct, it is not persuasive authority. Numerous Mississippi cases have reaffirmed the applicability of the factors set forth in the Entex decision as they relate to bystander recovery for emotional distress in Mississippi. As mentioned previously, O'Cain held that, in Entex, the "Court set out the criteria which one must meet on a claim of emotional trauma by a bystander[.]" Id. at 829 (emphasis added). In Summers ex rel. Dawson v. St. Andrew's Episcopal School, Inc., 759 So.2d 1203 (Miss.2000), this Court quoted the Entex factors as the standard to determine whether the parents of a child could recover damages for emotional distress for injuries the child sustained at school. Id. at 1210. Although in Summers

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