Southwest Mississippi Electric Power Ass'n v. Harried

773 So. 2d 365, 2000 Miss. App. LEXIS 270, 2000 WL 722602
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 6, 2000
DocketNo. 97-CA-01519-COA
StatusPublished

This text of 773 So. 2d 365 (Southwest Mississippi Electric Power Ass'n v. Harried) 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
Southwest Mississippi Electric Power Ass'n v. Harried, 773 So. 2d 365, 2000 Miss. App. LEXIS 270, 2000 WL 722602 (Mich. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

IRVING, J.,

for the Court:

¶ 1. This action arises out of an incident that occurred on February 28, 1995, wherein Stanley Harried suffered severe and permanent injuries from electrical burns to his body when he came into contact with an electrical wire owned by Southwest Mississippi Electric Power As[367]*367sociation. The trial testimony was in direct conflict on the factual question of how Harried’s injuries occurred. Both sides introduced lay witnesses and expert witnesses. The outcome of the trial was a jury verdict in favor of Harried in the sum of $700,000 and in favor of his wife, Annie Wilson Harried, on her loss of consortium claim in the sum of $300,000.

112. Feeling aggrieved, Southwest Mississippi Power Electric Association (Southwest) filed this appeal with the following statement of issues, quoted verbatim from its brief:

1. WAS STANLEY HARRIED’S TESTIMONY SO CONTRARY TO PHYSICAL FACTS AND THE LAWS OF ELECTRICITY THAT THE ONLY REASONABLE CONCLUSION IS THAT HE BURNED HIMSELF WHILE UP ON A POLE STEALING WIRE?
2. IN THE ALTERNATIVE, WAS THE VERDICT IN FAVOR OF STANLEY HARRIED AND HIS WIFE AGAINST THE SUBSTANTIAL WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE?
3. WERE SOUTHWEST POWER’S RIGHTS TO A FAIR TRIAL IM-PERMISSIBLY PREJUDICED WHEN PLAINTIFFS’ COUNSEL GRATUITOUSLY MADE A WITNESS OUT OF THE COURT BAILIFF, HIS PERSONAL CLIENT, AND THE BAILIFF BOTH SERVED AS BAILIFF AT THE OPENING OF THE TRIAL AND TESTIFIED IN UNIFORM FOR THE PLAINTIFF, ALL IN THE FACE OF A PRIOR COURT RULING PROHIBITING ANY WITNESS FROM SERVING AS BAILIFF?
4. WAS PLAINTIFFS’ COUNSEL’S DESCRIPTION OF HEARSAY EVIDENCE IN HIS OPENING STATEMENT A GROUND FOR THE CIRCUIT COURT TO ADMIT THAT HEARSAY AT TRIAL, WHERE THE HEARSAY WAS OFFERED TO ARGUE A THIRD PARTY DECLARANT TRUTHFULLY INTENDED TO AND SUBSEQUENTLY DID PERSUADE DEFENSE WITNESS JIMMY WILLIAMS TO FABRICATE TESTIMONY?
5. WERE STATEMENTS ON THE DAY OF THE ACCIDENT THAT STANLEY HARRIED WAS HURT CUTTING WIRE, MADE BY PEOPLE WHOM THE JURY COULD HAVE BELIEVED GOT THEIR INFORMATION FROM JIMMY WILLIAMS, ADMISSIBLE IRRESPECTIVE OF TRUTH TO REBUT THE ALLEGATION OF LATER FABRICATION BY WILLIAMS, AND WAS ANNIE HARRIED’S STATEMENT THAT DAY THAT STANLEY WAS CUTTING WIRE A PARTY ADMISSION, EVEN THOUGH SHE DID NOT PERSONALLY WITNESS THE ACCIDENT?
6. IN LIGHT OF M.R.E. 608, WHICH ALLOWS THE EXPRESSION OF AN OPINION CONCERNING A WITNESS’ CHARACTER FOR TRUTHFULNESS BUT FORBIDS ADMISSION OF EITHER EXTRINSIC FACTS OR OPINIONS ON OTHER CHARACTER TRAITS, DID THE CIRCUIT COURT ERR WHEN IT ALLOWED SHERIFF PETER WALKER TO TESTIFY THAT DEFENSE WITNESS JIMMY WILLIAMS WAS NOT MENTALLY SOUND, HAD BEEN A SPE- - CIAL EDUCATION STUDENT, AND DRANK ON A DAILY BASIS?
7. WHETHER A NEW TRIAL, IF GRANTED, SHOULD BE HELD I) IN A COUNTY OTHER THAN JEFFERSON COUNTY BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF UNFAIR PREJUDICE ARISING [368]*368OUT OF TESTIMONY BY SHERIFF WALKER AND THE COURT’S CUSTOMARY BAILIFF, AND II) BEFORE A JUDGE WHO DOES NOT HAVE A PROFESSIONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH SHERIFF WALKER AND HAS NOT DECLARED A BELIEF IN HIS HONESTY?

Finding that the evidence, taken in the light most favorable to Harried, will not sustain the verdict, we reverse and render.

Facts

¶ 3. There were only two witnesses to the accident, the appellee Stanley Harried, and his passenger, Jimmy Williams. Each gave different versions as to what happened. We now discuss their accounts of what happened.

Harried’s version

¶ 4. At the trial of this matter Harried testified that on the day of the incident he had driven his vehicle down a narrow gravel road which leads from Mississippi Highway 553 in Jefferson County. Harried claimed that there were two loose wires dangling from an electrical pole along the roadway which were long enough to cross onto the roadway. He testified that he had seen these wires on many occasions lying in the roadway for a period of approximately six months prior to the day of the incident.

¶ 5. Harried testified that he and his passenger, Jimmy Williams, were going to Samuel Ellis’s home which was located at the end of the road. Harried claimed that Ellis had called him the day before and asked Harried to bring him cigarettes. Harried testified that he often carried cigarettes to Ellis.1 Harried went on to testify that as he drove down the gravel road, the two electrical wires that were lying in the roadway became lodged underneath his car on a wire clothes hanger that had been placed around the car’s catalytic converter to hold it in place. Harried stated that he exited the driver’s side of the car and went around to the passenger’s side where the electrical wires were lodged. He stated that he assumed the wires were dead. He testified that he crouched down, placed his left hand on the ground on top of one of the wires, and with the wires between his legs, used his right hand to pull on the wires in an attempt to dislodge them. It was his testimony that the dead wire dangling from the top position on the pole was looped over the top of the pole so that it rested near the energized top wire on the other side of the pole and that his pulling on the wires caused the two wires to come into contact with each other causing the dead wire to become energized and sending at least 6,500 volts of electricity into his body.

Williams’s version

¶ 6. Williams suffers from some form of diminished mental capacity as a result of an injury and was described as “slow.” He testified that Harried was injured when Harried climbed the pole with the intention of taking the neutral wire from the pole. The wire was made of copper.2 He told the story this way. On the day of the incident Harried gave him a ride when Harried saw him walking. Harried told Williams that he was on his way to pick up carpet. Williams said he went along for the ride. Harried drove onto the gravel road, stopped next to the pole, and exited the car. Williams testified that he also exited the vehicle, but that he did so in order to relieve himself. Williams stated that he had his back to Harried while he [369]*369relieved himself, and when he finished and turned around he saw Harried climbing the pole with the aid of a small cedar tree located near the pole. Harried had a pair of insulated red-handled pliers with him. After Harried climbed the pole, he first touched the bottom wire then climbed a little higher on the pole, straddled the bottom wire and began cutting it with the pliers, but he did not completely cut the wire in two. Harried then reached up with the pliers and touched the top wire. That was when the electricity struck him. Williams testified that when the electricity struck it looked like “blue fire.” According to Williams, Harried held onto the pole for a period of about five minutes before falling to the ground. Williams testified that he put Harried in the car, drove to Harried’s home where they picked up Harried’s wife and then drove to the hospital. Williams denied that the loose wires dangling from the pole were long enough to reach the ground and denied that Harried ever touched either of those wires.

¶ 7. Robert Sanxton was called as a witness by Harried at the trial. He testified that he lived near where the incident occurred and often had occasion to walk down the gravel road, sometimes as often as two or three times a month.

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Bluebook (online)
773 So. 2d 365, 2000 Miss. App. LEXIS 270, 2000 WL 722602, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southwest-mississippi-electric-power-assn-v-harried-missctapp-2000.