Title: Martin v. Armstrong

State: mississippi

Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court

Document:

350 So. 2d 1353 (1977) Kathryn MARTIN v. Dr. William ARMSTRONG. No. 49670. Supreme Court of Mississippi. October 26, 1977. Rehearing Denied November 16, 1977. David B. Clark, Pearl, William E. McLellan, III, Abe A. Rotwein, Jackson, for appellant. McLaurin, Nicols & Kelly, John C. McLaurin, Brandon, Baine, Moore, Simmons & Thompson, Louis G. Baine, Jr., Clifford C. Thompson, Jackson, Gerald, Brand, Watters, Cox & Hemleben, Jackson, Jack W. Brand, Jackson and Newton, for appellee. Before INZER, ROBERTSON and BOWLING, JJ. BOWLING, Justice, for the Court: This appeal is from the Circuit Court of Rankin County. Appellant was plaintiff below. The cause has heretofore been before this Court in Cause No. 48,720. After appeal by appellant from an order of the lower court setting aside a default judgment for appellant, the court dismissed the appeal until a final disposition of the cause was made by the lower court. The subsequent trial resulted in a jury verdict for defendant, appellee here. Appellant again appeals, first assigning as error the action of the circuit judge in sustaining appellee's motion to set aside the default judgment. Also appellant makes certain other assignments of error in the trial of the cause, but we do not reach those assignments of error as the first assignment disposes of the cause. Appellant filed her declaration on August 9, 1974, alleging that the defendant, on September 11, 1973, negligently performed a cataract extraction operation on the right eye of plaintiff; that because of defendant's actions, the plaintiff sustained the loss of her eye and certain other damages. The defendant was served with summons of the circuit court on August 13, 1974, returnable to the August term of the Circuit *1354 Court of Rankin County that convened on August 19, 1974. No pleadings of any kind were filed by defendant. On August 20, the circuit court entered an "interlocutory default judgment" and ordered a writ of inquiry. On August 26, the lower court heard evidence from a board-certified ophthalmologist and other witnesses. The undisputed testimony was that the lens of appellant's right eye was allowed to slip back into the vitreous area of the eye and was not recovered, and there was a vitreous loss and other damage to the eye. The testimony was undisputed that the plaintiff had sustained permanent blindness of the right eye, a cosmetic disfigurement because of other damage to the eye, and the possible removal of the entire ball of the eye. Much testimony was introduced as to permanent physical, mental and emotional difficulty sustained by the plaintiff. On August 28, 1974, the lower court heard further evidence on the writ of inquiry, including life expectancy, expenses, both present and future, all of which amounted to a considerable sum. The evidence was clear that plaintiff had sustained a severe and disabling permanent injury. On August 30, 1974, the last day of the August term of court, the circuit judge entered a "final judgment" in the sum of $68,000. The term ended and the court minutes of the term were signed that same day. On September 5, 1974, appellee filed a motion to set aside the interlocutory default and final judgments. He alleged in his motion that on or about July 25, 1974, he was notified by plaintiff's attorney of the claim. He alleged that prior to July 30, 1974, a claims representative of defendant's liability insurance carrier discussed the claim with plaintiff's attorney. He alleged that on August 1, 1974, plaintiff's attorney advised the claims representative by letter of a demand of settlement of the claim. Appellee further alleged that on August 6, 1974, the insurer's claims representative conferred with plaintiff's attorney and that at that meeting plaintiff's attorney delivered to the claims representative a copy of the declaration he had prepared to file. The motion admitted that plaintiff's attorney advised that he could not wait to file the suit until further contact with the insurance carrier. After service of summons on appellee, he immediately delivered the summons to his insurance carrier whose representative had been discussing the claim with appellant's attorneys. The motion further alleged that the insurance company's claims representative contacted an attorney on August 26, 1974. No pleadings of any kind were filed in the cause and neither the court nor plaintiff's attorneys were contacted. The motion did allege that on August 29, 1974, a letter was postmarked to one of plaintiff's attorneys regarding a request for additional time to plead. The proof is undisputed that this letter did not reach plaintiff's attorneys until after the two hearings on the writ of inquiry and the default judgment was entered on the last day of the term. The court held a hearing on appellee's motion to set aside the default judgment on September 20, 1974, in the courtroom in Madison County, Mississippi. On that day the court heard evidence regarding the allegations set out in the motion to set aside the judgment. There was testimony from the insurance company's claims representative and the attorney in line with the allegations of the motion. After receiving this evidence the Court entered the following order: Appellant asked for and received a bill of exceptions in which it was stated by the court to one of appellee's attorneys that "I want the order to reflect that there was no fraud." The court further ordered the appellee to pay all costs arising out of the default judgment obtained by the plaintiff. The court overruled appellant's motion for reconsideration. As hereinbefore stated, appellant then appealed to this Court and the appeal was dismissed pending a final disposition of the cause in the lower court. This Court has no choice in the decision of this case. The law as announced by the previous cases is clear, after the conclusion of the August, 1974, term of the circuit court of Rankin County and the minutes signed, the lower court lost jurisdiction of the cause unless it could be set aside for specific reasons heretofore set out by this Court. We discuss and reaffirm the principal cases decisive of this point. In Strain v. Gayden, 197 Miss. 353, 20 So. 2d 697 (1945), the declaration was filed on October 27, 1943, and process duly served upon the defendant on the same day, returnable to the term of court that convened on November 1, 1943. Defendant's counsel appeared in person before the court but filed no pleadings of any kind. There was no contention of an agreement between attorneys. This Court stated: In Overstreet v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Co., 263 So. 2d 528 (Miss. 1972), the Court reaffirmed Strain, supra, and said: *1357 In Alexander v. Killebrew, 321 So. 2d 488 (Miss. 1975), this Court, speaking through Justice Broom, reaffirmed the holding in the above cited cases. Plaintiff's [Killebrew] original declaration was filed on September 26, 1973. Process was personally served on the defendant Alexander on September 26, returnable to the following Monday, october 1, the first day of the court term. Default judgment in Killebrew's favor in the sum of $2,380.86, plus court costs, was entered on October 23, 1973, and the term adjourned on October 26, 1973. The Court said: The above principles again were plainly set out by this Court in Western Chain Company v. Brownlee, 317 So. 2d 418 (Miss. 1975). Appellee advances the theory that this Court should find that appellant and her attorneys were guilty of "legal or constructive fraud." There is absolutely no evidence that would warrant such a finding. In the first place, the opinion of the circuit judge in his order setting aside the default judgment clearly stated that his only reason was that from observing the plaintiff in the courtroom in Canton on September 20, several *1358 weeks after the three hearings on the writ of inquiry, he was of the opinion that he gave too high an award. According to the above discussed cases, he lost jurisdiction of this issue when he lost jurisdiction of the cause. Furthermore, the lower court found as a fact in its order that "the court does not say that fraud was committed." A review of the entire case clearly shows that no fraud was committed, either actual or constructive. The representative of the insurance company admitted being delivered a copy of the declaration. He admitted receiving the summons immediately after appellee was served. He admitted discussing the claim with appellant's attorneys and admitted discussing it with his own attorney several days prior to the end of the court term. Appellant's attorneys secured the interlocutory default judgment on August 20. They could have, at the convenience of the court, presented the writ of inquiry at the same time. This was not done, however, until August 26, 28 and 30. The lower court clearly was correct in holding that there was no fraud committed. We realize that decisions such as this sometimes cause hardships and sometimes appear not to be entirely equitable. However, this is clearly offset by the opinion of this Court, through Justice L.A. Smith, Sr., in Strain, supra, where the Court said that "these rules are necessary for the administration of the business of the Court and we recognize that the rule is a hard one, nevertheless it is justified by reason, experience and law." The Court cannot operate without statutes and rules necessary to be followed by the parties and their representatives. The cause, therefore, is reversed and rendered, with judgment here for the appellant against appellee in the sum of $68,000, with legal interest from August 30, 1974. REVERSED, RENDERED AND JUDGMENT HERE. PATTERSON, C.J., INZER and SMITH, P. JJ., and ROBERTSON, SUGG, WALKER, BROOM and LEE, JJ., concur.