Opinion ID: 1870908
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Did the court err by allowing the appellee, Bill Ellis, to appear at trial in uniform?

Text: During trial the appellee, Bill Ellis, wore his Mississippi Highway Patrol uniform despite the fact that he was not acting in any official capacity. In response to the objection of the attorney for Lonnie Edwards, the court said: I don't know of any authority that would permit me to exclude him or require any party ... to wear any particular clothes or not to wear any particular clothes. While there are no Mississippi cases directly on point Weathers Bros. Transfer Co. v. Jarrell, 33 S.E.2d 805, 72 Ga. App. 317 (1945) would seem substantially analogous. In that case, the plaintiff, a U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander, appeared at trial and testified while dressed in his official uniform. Such was not sufficient to establish that the jury was unduly influenced against the defendant so as to require a reversal. Likewise, in the instant case, there is nothing to indicate that the amount of the verdict was unjustly increased due to the fact that Ellis appeared at trial in his uniform. The evidence alone sustains the verdict; this assignment of error is without merit.