Case Title: Western Chain Company v. Brownlee

Citation: 317 So. 2d 418

Docket Number: 

State: mississippi

Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Date: 1975-07-21T00:00:00Z

Document:
317 So. 2d 418 (1975) WESTERN CHAIN COMPANY v. Mrs. Nell BROWNLEE et al. No. 48140. Supreme Court of Mississippi. July 21, 1975. Rehearing Denied September 9, 1975. Stennett, Wilkinson & Ward, James A. Peden, Jr., Jackson, Robert A. Holstein, Chicago, Ill., for appellant. Bowling, Coleman & Cothren, Jackson, Douglas M. Magee, Mendenhall, for appellees. Before RODGERS, ROBERTSON and BROOM, JJ. ROBERTSON, Justice. On March 20, 1973, the Circuit Court of Simpson County entered an intelocutory default judgment, and then a final judgment, based on writ of inquiry, for $204,160 against Western Chain Company, a non-resident corporation, and in favor of Mrs. Nell Brownlee, widow of Billy Brownlee, and her four minor children. The March, 1973, term of court ended on March 30, 1973. On August 6, 1973, Western Chain Company filed a motion to set aside and vacate these two judgments. In its motion to set aside, Western Chain contended that, under the peculiar facts of this case, there was a failure of due process, and that the interlocutory and final judgments offended traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice. After a hearing on the motion, the court took the matter under advisement, and on October 8, 1973, rendered a written opinion overruling the motion. In its opinion, the court found: We list the chronology of pertinent events: On January 9, 1973, Mrs. Nell Brownlee, individually and for her four minor children, filed suit against Western Chain Company charging that her husband, 28-year-old Billy Brownlee, died on May 5, 1971, from injuries received on that day when a defectively made chain, manufactured and sold by Western Chain, broke and the front end of a wrecked car fell on him. The new chain had been purchased on April 27, 1971, from a retail hardware store in Magee, Mississippi, and was being used on a Berry Motor Company wrecker to hoist the front end of a wrecked automobile. After the front end of the car had been raised, Brownlee went underneath the car to check the transmission to see if the car could be moved without damage to the transmission. The chain broke, the car fell upon him, and he was fatally injured. The suit was brought under Mississippi Code Annotated section 13-3-57 (1972) which provides in part: That part of Mississippi Code Annotated section 13-3-63 (1972), having to do with the service of process provides: On January 11, 1973, in strict accord with the statute, the Hinds County Sheriff served two copies of the summons for Western Chain Company, 1807 Belmont Avenue, Chicago, Illinois, which summons was returnable before the Circuit Court of Simpson County on the second Monday of March, 1973, on the Secretary of State in Jackson, Mississippi. On that same day the Secretary of State mailed a copy of the summons, together with a letter giving notice of such service, to Western Chain Company by "REGISTERED MAIL DELIVER TO ADDRESSEE ONLY RETURN RECEIPT REQUESTED". The letter giving notice of such service and the copy of the summons were delivered on January 15, 1973, and the return receipt was signed "Western Chain Company John R. Miller." On January 15, 1973, the letter from the Secretary of State and the copy of the summons were placed on the desk of Arthur W. Hill, president, general manager, and principal stockholder of Western Chain Company. Mr. Hill was 75 years of age, had lost his wife of 53 years on November 3, 1972, and, according to an affidavit of his doctor, was still suffering from depression, melancholy, anxiety and emotional upset well into the Spring of 1973. On January 15, 1973, Mr. Hill put a question mark on the letter from the Secretary of State, and placed the letter and the summons in a "pile" of correspondence on his desk. There being no answer or pleading of any kind filed, on motion of the plaintiff, the Simpson County Circuit Court, on March 20, 1973, entered an interlocutory default judgment against Western Chain Company. On that same day, after a writ of inquiry, the trial court entered a final judgment against Western Chain Company for $204,160. The March, 1973, term of court ended on March 30, 1973. *421 On June 22, 1973, the plaintiff's attorney wrote Western Chain Company: Upon receipt of this letter, President Hill checked back and found the letter from the Secretary of State and the copy of the summons in the pile of correspondence on his desk. He contacted his Illinois attorneys, but it was not until August 6, 1973, that the motion to set aside default judgment was filed. In Smith v. Temco, Inc., 252 So. 2d 212 (Miss. 1971), this Court held that Mississippi Code Annotated section 13-3-57 (1972), covered strict products liability suits. In Smith, the Court said: In Ellis v. Milner, 194 So. 2d 232 (Miss. 1967), this Court held that service of process under Mississippi's long-arm statute [Mississippi Code Anotated section 13-3-63 (1972)], was personal service of process authorizing the entry of a default judgment at the return term of court. In Ellis, we said: The trial court was correct in granting an interlocutory default judgment, the final judgment based on writ of inquiry and in overruling the motion to set aside and vacate these judgments. The final judgment of the circuit court is affirmed. Affirmed. GILLESPIE, C.J., and PATTERSON, INZER, SMITH, SUGG and WALKER, JJ., concur.