Opinion ID: 1608961
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: whether the trial court erred in granting contestee's motion to dismiss paragraphs iii and iv of contestant's amended complaint after hearing testimony of how rita fielder would have voted?

Text: Contestant next complains of the trial court's actions in refusing to allow the jury to hear and consider the issue pertaining to Rita Fielder's absentee ballot and argues again that these issues were required to be heard and decided by a jury. Once more this Court's decision in Stringer v. Lucas, 608 So.2d 1351 (Miss. 1992), is relevant. In addressing the issue of whether the trial court erred in granting a partial directed verdict, this Court concluded that a motion for directed verdict was inappropriate in the face of a wealth of statutory election violations. Id. at 1361. Pursuant to this holding, directed verdicts in election contest cases are permissible so that a jury is not required to hear and decide certain issues. Further, while Miss. Code Ann. § 23-15-951 permits a jury to be impaneled to decide issues in an election contest, it does not appear to mandate a full trial of all issues before a jury. Stringer v. Lucas, 608 So.2d at 1358. Because the matter arrives at this Court as a result of a directed verdict granted in favor of the Contestees, the following standard of review should be observed: The Circuit Court  and this Court on appeal  are required to consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs ... giving those plaintiffs the benefit of all favorable inferences that may reasonably be drawn from the evidence. Unless the evidence is so lacking that no reasonable jury could find for the plaintiffs, the motion must be denied. Wall v. Swilley, 562 So.2d 1252, 1256 (Miss. 1990). Once more, it is necessary to inquire whether this ruling was proper in the present case. Prior to instructing the jury with the applicable law, Contestees renewed their earlier motion to strike paragraphs III and IV of Contestant's complaint. The lower court was keenly aware of the difficulties presented by this case. First, the lower court was unsure of how to handle Fielder's absentee ballot because as Mr. Monroe stated, how can you count a vote that was never voted? Second, the lower court was not aware of any controlling authority on how to handle counting a vote which was allegedly cast by an absentee voter where the absentee ballot was never received. Realizing the unique circumstances, the lower court granted Contestees' motion to dismiss the paragraphs pertaining to Rita Fielder's absentee ballot not being voted, such that the jury was not permitted to consider this issue. This ruling stated in part: My fundamental philosophy is the vote should be counted, because it is obvious to me who she would have voted for, and she had the right to vote; but, I'm not going to go that far, because I cannot say that even if she had received the ballot, that she would have voted. We believe that she would, but when we are talking about counting her vote for a candidate, that is a different horse. The evidence in this case is that it [the absentee ballot] was mailed in compliance with the law, and there is further evidence from the postmaster that others received mail oftentimes from this lady's box. The Contestant has the burden of proof that she did not receive it, and saying that I did not get it out of the box, as Ben Fielder testified, and Hattie Hundall testified, does not meet the burden of the preponderance of the evidence, in my opinion. The lawyers tell me that they know of no law on this issue, and this Court knows of no law, but I'm not going to go so far as to permit a vote to be counted on the proof that is before the Court. So, the motion you have made is sustained. The evidence adduced at trial was uncontradicted and clearly showed that Rita Fielder's application for and actual absentee ballot was mailed by the clerk's office. Contestees submit that because Contestant relied solely on the evidence that Fielder did not receive the ballot, he failed to meet the requisite burden of proof in establishing his cause of action. With this we agree. There is ample evidence and proof, namely, the testimony of Childress and Magee and their respective affidavits, in the record that the ballot was indeed mailed. It is also evident from the trial record that no absentee vote was received from Fielder and thus cannot be considered. Therefore, we affirm the trial court's summary judgment in this regard.