Title: HOLMES CTY. BANK & TR. v. Staple Cotton Co-Op.
Citation: 495 So. 2d 447
Docket Number: 55879
State: Mississippi
Issuer: Mississippi Supreme Court
Date: September 10, 1986

495 So. 2d 447 (1986) HOLMES COUNTY BANK AND TRUST COMPANY, Executor of the Estate of Perry Strickland, Deceased v. STAPLE COTTON COOPERATIVE ASSOCIATION. No. 55879. Supreme Court of Mississippi. September 10, 1986. Rehearing Denied October 29, 1986. *448 Pat M. Barrett, Jr., Barrett, Barrett, Barrett &amp; Patton, Lexington, for appellant. Arnold F. Gwin, Greenwood, for appellee. Before HAWKINS, P.J., and ROBERTSON and GRIFFIN, JJ. GRIFFIN, Justice, for the Court: In March, 1984, the plaintiff/appellant Perry Strickland obtained a jury verdict for personal injuries against the defendant/appellee, Staple Cotton Cooperative Association, in the Circuit Court of Leflore County in the sum of $200,000.00. On appellee's motion for a new trial, the trial court found the damages awarded to be against the great and overwhelming weight of the evidence and so excessive as to be the result of bias, prejudice, and passion. He ordered a remittitur in the sum of $113,400.38, leaving an award of $86,599.62. The plaintiff was required to accept the remittitur or face a new trial. He appeals, and we agree with plaintiff/appellant. However, before proceeding, it should be pointed out that the plaintiff/appellant died in November, 1984, and that the executor of his estate, Holmes County Bank and Trust Company, is substituted here as appellant. The facts giving rise to the suit are well stated in the complaint and we recite the second paragraph: It was not disputed that the operator of the tractor-trailer was acting within the scope of his employment and in furtherance of the business of the defendant/appellee. It was further alleged and supported by evidence that: The appellee asked for and received an instruction on contributory negligence; however, it is stated in appellee's brief that it "does not contend that it was entitled to a peremptory instruction on Mr. Strickland's contributory negligence, so the sole issue here is simply whether or not the trial court abused its discretion in holding that, based on the evidence of Mr. Strickland's injuries and damages, the amount of the verdict was so excessive as to be against the weight of the evidence." The allegations of the complaint were amply supported by the witnesses and the circumstances. Also, there is no dispute concerning the plaintiff's injuries. Therefore, the question here is whether or not the trial court manifestly abused its discretion. Hynum v. Smith, 447 So. 2d 1288 (Miss. 1984); Dorris v. Carr, 330 So. 2d 872 (Miss. 1976). In deciding this question, we are to consider the record as a whole, and weigh the action of the trial judge according to the facts and circumstances of this case and in others. McNair Transport, Inc. v. Crosby, 375 So. 2d 985 (Miss. 1979). The plaintiff's light pickup was knocked off of the highway and he was taken immediately *449 to a Greenwood hospital and within a few hours removed by ambulance to the Baptist Hospital in Jackson, where he remained for 27 days and was there treated by Dr. Lucien Hodges, a neurosurgeon. The appellee in its brief gives the testimony of Dr. Hodges in part. We do likewise: Mr. Strickland was in traction at the hospital for 14 days and upon his release stayed with relatives for approximately two weeks before returning home, where he lived alone. At the time of the trial, Mr. Strickland stated that he still suffered pain from time to time and took Tylenol for the pain, had suffered double vision which had been corrected by glasses and no longer existed, and could not do his gardening and other chores without pain or difficulty as he had been able to do prior to the accident. He was retired and was still able to visit his friends at various businesses around his home town of Lexington. As noted above, the doctor stated that Mr. Strickland was a stoic gentleman and did not complain much of pain. The appellee urges in effect then that the plaintiff did not have "much" pain; however, it has been our experience that plaintiffs who give the impression of concealing pain find a more receptive jury than those who appear to exhibit it. The trial judge, in arriving at his remittitur, did not "knock anything off of the top, but to the contrary started at the bottom". First, he allowed full medical expense of $9,599.62, allowed $1,000.00 per day during his hospitalization of twenty-seven days or $27,000.00, $1,000.00 per week for convalescence at his sister's home for two weeks, and $400.00 per month for the stipulated life expectancy of ten years or 120 months, $48,000.00, for the total award of $86,599.62. We have studied several decisions of this Court during recent years in order to compare approved jury verdicts with the verdict here, and the remittitur of the trial court. This is extremely difficult to do. None of the cases are exactly alike; however, it appears that remittiturs of approximately 56% of the jury's award are out of line. We have approved awards in much larger sums than that approved by the trial court where the injuries and expenditures were no greater than that suffered by the plaintiff/appellant here. In James Reeves Contractor, Inc. v. Chain, 343 So. 2d 1229 (Miss. 1977), the plaintiff was allowed to retain $100,000.00 of a $150,000.00 jury verdict. There was a back injury in that case but not of sufficient gravity to require an operation, and a disability of 10%. In L. &amp; N.R.R. Co. v. Hasty, 360 So. 2d 925 (Miss. 1978), this Court held $120,000.00 not to be excessive. There we said: 360 So. 2d at 927. Of course, since 1978 there has been a change in the purchasing power of the dollar and the cost of living. Jurors are allowed to recognize this. Walters v. Gilbert, 158 So. 2d 43 (Miss. 1963); Boyd Construction Co. v. Bilbro, 210 So. 2d 637 (Miss. 1968); Kinnard v. Martin, 223 So. 2d 300, 302 (Miss. 1969). In Jesco, Inc. v. Shannon, 451 So. 2d 694 (Miss. 1984), we stated that the juries can take into account the "impact of inflation and change of the purchasing power of money and cost of living." It is true that we should not disturb the trial court's finding unless manifestly wrong. Nevertheless, the trial judges are not allowed to disregard the evidence and this Court may reinstate the jury verdict. Schoppe v. Applied Chemicals Div., etc., 418 So. 2d 833 (Miss. 1982). It was there pointed out that "awards fixed by juries are not merely advisory and will ordinarily not be set aside except where so unreasonable in amount as to strike mankind at first blush as being beyond all measure, unreasonable, and outrageous." Mississippi State Highway Comm. v. Antioch Baptist Church, 392 So. 2d 512 (Miss. 1981), states that, while the trial judge has considerable discretion in dealing with additurs or remittiturs granted pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated § 11-1-55 (Supp. 1985), this Court has the responsibility to see that such judicial discretion is exercised soundly and, if not, to reverse. We must decide whether or not the verdict is so excessive as to "shock the enlightened conscience". Grant, Summary of Mississippi Law Sec. 980.1 (Supp. 1984). Interestingly, Judge L.A. Smith, in Conner v. Hatcher, 203 So. 2d 309 (Miss. 1967), reversed Judge Grant when he ordered a remittitur with the following language: 203 So. 2d at 313. Judges cannot sit as jurors, and the question before them is never what they would have done sitting as a juror but whether, considering the evidence in the light most favorable to the non-moving party, together with all reasonable inferences which may be drawn therefrom, the court should disturb the jury verdict. City of Jackson v. Locklar, 431 So. 2d 475 (Miss. 1983). Here, we do not believe that the trial judge properly considered the totality of the evidence before him. Accordingly, *452 we set aside the remittitur and reinstate the jury verdict in the sum of $200,000.00. REVERSED AND JURY VERDICT REINSTATED. WALKER, C.J., ROY NOBLE LEE and HAWKINS, P.JJ., and DAN M. LEE, PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN and ANDERSON, JJ., concur.