Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Johnson

807 So. 2d 382, 2001 WL 1243860
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 18, 2001
Docket1999-CA-00557-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by54 cases

This text of 807 So. 2d 382 (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Johnson) 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
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Johnson, 807 So. 2d 382, 2001 WL 1243860 (Mich. 2001).

Opinion

807 So.2d 382 (2001)

WAL-MART STORES, INC.
v.
Kertrena JOHNSON and Sabrena Johnson.

No. 1999-CA-00557-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

October 18, 2001.
Rehearing Denied February 21, 2002.

*384 Edley H. Jones, III, Jackson, Attorney for Appellant.

Philip Elmer Carby, Natchez, Attorney for Appellees.

EN BANC.

*385 COBB, J., For The Court.

¶ 1. Kertrena and Sabrena Johnson brought this negligence suit against Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (Wal-Mart) in the Jefferson County Circuit Court, alleging that Wal-Mart had negligently performed work on Kertrena's 1993 Mitsubishi, resulting in a crash which caused them serious and permanent injuries. In response, Wal-Mart filed a motion for change of venue and later for a summary judgment, both of which were denied by the circuit court. At the conclusion of trial, the jury found for the Johnsons and awarded them damages in the amounts of $30,000 for Kertrena and $37,500 for Sabrena. The circuit court entered judgment accordingly and also denied Wal-Mart's post-trial motions. Aggrieved, Wal-Mart has appealed, raising the following nine issues:

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT DENIED WAL-MART'S MOTION FOR A CHANGE OF VENUE.
II. THE SOLE PROXIMATE CAUSE OF THE JOHNSONS' INJURIES AND DAMAGES WAS THEIR INTERVENING AND SUPERSEDING CONDUCT TO OPERATE THE VEHICLE IN QUESTION AFTER ARRIVING SAFELY AT HOME.
III. THE JOHNSONS FAILED TO MEET THEIR BURDEN OF PROOF TO ESTABLISH BY EXPERT TESTIMONY THAT THE ALLEGED ENGINE PROBLEM WAS CAUSED BY A NEGLIGENT ACT OF WAL-MART.
IV. THE JURY VERDICT WAS AGAINST THE OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE AND WAS THE PRODUCT OF BIAS, PREJUDICE AND IMPROPER PASSION.
V. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED BY REFUSING DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR A DIRECTED VERDICT, JURY INSTRUCTION D-1, D-2, AND DEFENDANT'S POST-TRIAL MOTION FOR A JNOV, A NEW TRIAL, OR A REMITTITUR.
VI. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN GRANTING PLAINTIFFS' INSTRUCTION P-6 BECAUSE THERE WAS NO PROOF BEFORE THE JURY TO RAISE AN ISSUE OF FACT THAT WAL-MART HAD ACTED NEGLIGENTLY.
VII. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN GRANTING PLAINTIFFS' INSTRUCTION P-9.
VIII. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT GRANTED PLAINTIFFS' INSTRUCTION P-12.
IX. THE VERDICT WAS EXCESSIVE AND AGAINST OVERWHELMING WEIGHT OF THE EVIDENCE, AND THE TRIAL COURT ERRED IN REFUSING TO GRANT A REMITTITUR.

FACTS

¶ 2. In June of 1997, Kertrena Johnson, a resident of Fayette, Jefferson County, Mississippi, had her car serviced at a Wal-Mart in Natchez, Adams County, Mississippi. A Wal-Mart mechanic told Kertrena that her car needed a fuel injection cleaning, and Kertrena returned to Wal-Mart on July 3 to have that service performed on the car. The mechanic who performed the service testified that he did not adjust the idle speed on the engine; however, he did notice that the car was idling high before he performed any service. He further testified that after he completed his work, the car's engine was idling much lower than when he started. *386 The mechanic revved the engine a few times and saw the idle fall into a range which he thought was normal.

¶ 3. Kertrena later picked up the car and drove home to Fayette. On her way home, however, Kertrena felt as though she had to brake more than normal in order to slow the car and that it idled too high. Later that night, Kertrena called Wal-Mart to complain about the engine, and the manager of Wal-Mart's automotive department asked Kertrena to bring the car back to the shop. Kertrena refused to do so because of concerns about the car's safety, and the manager arranged for an employee to go to her home in Fayette the next morning to inspect the car.

¶ 4. That evening, however, Kertrena decided to take the car to a local automotive repair shop, Bouie's Garage, accompanied by her sister Sabrena and a third person. Sabrena testified that Kertrena had described the nature of the car problems to her and that as soon as Kertrena started the car Sabrena heard a roaring noise. As Kertrena pulled into the Bouie parking lot, she lost control of the car and ran into a parked vehicle.

¶ 5. The Johnsons jointly brought suit against Wal-Mart in the Jefferson County Circuit Court seeking damages for personal injuries. The circuit court denied Wal-Mart's motion for change of venue which asserted that venue was improper in Jefferson County because Wal-Mart was not a resident of Jefferson County and the cause of action as alleged accrued in Adams County, Mississippi. Wal-Mart then filed a motion for summary judgment alleging that Kertrena's decision to operate the vehicle, in spite of their personal knowledge that there was a malfunction, constituted a superseding and intervening cause which broke the chain of causation between the acts of Wal-Mart's employees in Natchez, Mississippi, and the Johnsons' accident. The circuit court denied that motion as well, along with Wal-Mart's motion for directed verdict and its post-trial motions.

ANALYSIS

I. THE TRIAL COURT ERRED WHEN IT DENIED WAL-MART'S MOTION FOR A CHANGE OF VENUE.

¶ 6. Under Mississippi's venue statute, "[c]ivil actions .... shall be commenced in the county in which the defendant or any of them may be found or in the county where the cause of action may occur or accrue and, if the defendant is a domestic corporation, in the county in which said corporation is domiciled...." Miss.Code Ann. § 11-11-3 (Supp.2001). Since the statute allows for more than one possible venue, the plaintiff is afforded the right to choose among all permissible venues, and "his choice must be sustained unless in the end there is no credible evidence supporting the factual basis for the claim of venue." Flight Line, Inc. v. Tanksley, 608 So.2d 1149, 1155 (Miss. 1992).

¶ 7. Wal-Mart argues that venue in Jefferson County was improper, as the cause of action actually accrued in Adams County where the allegedly negligent acts occurred. In support of its argument, Wal-Mart cites Flight Line, 608 So.2d 1149; Forrest County Gen. Hosp. v. Conway, 700 So.2d 324 (Miss.1997); and Blackledge v. Scott, 530 So.2d 1363 (Miss. 1988).[1]

*387 ¶ 8. In Flight Line, Tanksley was injured in Chicago while unloading cargo from a plane that had been negligently loaded in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Flight Line, 608 So.2d at 1153-54. Tanksley brought suit against Flight Line in Warren County (where the plane was loaded) rather than Rankin County (where Flight Line was domiciled), and the trial court denied Flight Line's repeated motions for change of venue. Id. at 1154-55. This Court affirmed, stating that "a cause of action accrues when it comes into existence as an enforceable claim, that is, when the right to sue becomes vested." Id. at 1156. The Court further noted that:

Torts arise from breaches of duties causing injuries, and it is common experience that breach and causation and impact do not all always happen at once. At the very least, the word "occur" connotes each county in which a substantial component of the claim takes place, and this may include, in the present context, the negligent conduct which substantially undergirds Tanksley's claim.

Id. at 1157.

¶ 9. In Conway,

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Bluebook (online)
807 So. 2d 382, 2001 WL 1243860, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wal-mart-stores-inc-v-johnson-miss-2001.