Opinion ID: 1606009
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether the Trial Court Erred in Denying Young an Apportionment Instruction.

Text: ¶ 29. Young argues that she was entitled to an apportionment instruction. At trial, Young orally tendered the following instruction: I'm proposing to say that ... we, the jury find for the plaintiff and assess the damages, so you may apportion those damages as follows, and list the wrongful death beneficiaries, each one of them, and let the jury sayfor instance, Your Honor, he's going to argue that the housethat's the home, the fact that the husband and the minor son, the part about cutting the phone line off and getting the divorce. I've got to two wrongful death beneficiaries that weren't even living at home, had been gone for four years. Any apportionment of damages as to causation by the husband or the smallest son cannot be imputed to the other two. [1] ¶ 30. Young argues that the apportionment statute, Mississippi Code Annotated section 85-5-7 (Supp.2008), and the comparative negligence statute, Mississippi Code Annotated section 11-7-15 (Rev. 2004), direct the jury to consider all conduct that may have proximately contributed to an injury. According to Young, the trial court should have given the jury an apportionment instruction pursuant to section 85-5-7 because Dr. Guild put forth evidence that Thomas Hancock and other family members caused Hancock to commit suicide. Dr. Guild's testimony indicated several times that Hancock's family exacerbated her mental condition. He referred to notes from previous doctors suggesting that Hancock's children and particularly, her husband, had mentally and physically abused her. Dr. Guild also stated that Hancock's previous psychiatrist had instructed the family that Hancock was not to have access to any guns. Pigg's testimony included various references to negative interactions between Hancock and her family and how the divorce and those interactions had adversely affected Hancock. ¶ 31. Dr. Guild asserts that Young waived the right to request an apportionment instruction when Young swore in an interrogatory response that no heir-at-law had exacerbated Hancock's mental illness. Dr. Guild cites Coho Resources, Inc. v. McCarthy, 829 So.2d 1, 24 (Miss.2002), where this Court held that a failure to raise the issue of another tortfeasor during discovery barred the right to an apportionment instruction. ¶ 32. In McCarthy, the plaintiff served an interrogatory on the defendants, requesting the identity of any parties the defendants would contend caused the accident. Id. The defendants did not identify any additional parties in their answer, nor did they supplement their response. Id. Consequently, the Court found they had waived any right they had to apportion fault to another tortfeasor. Id. ¶ 33. The Court finds that McCarthy controls the outcome of this issue. Young stated in a discovery response that no heir had exacerbated Hancock's mental illness. In arguing for an apportionment instruction, Young provided no other theory as to how an heir could be held partially responsible for the suicide. Young's denial in her discovery response was binding on her; she waived her right to an apportionment instruction.