Opinion ID: 2533673
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Whether the trial court erred in failing to make a finding of contributory negligence and in assessing a damages award of $500,000.

Text: ¶ 28. The City of Jackson argues it established that Harris was a proximate contributing cause of the accident, and that the trial judge should have apportioned fault. It argues that Harris was contributarily negligent because he violated Mississippi Code Sections 63-3-805 and 63-3-505. It further argues that the Court erred in awarding damages in the amount of $500,000. Conversely, the Beneficiaries argue the trial judge's findings are entitled to deference and that these code sections support the City of Jackson's liability. [24] ¶ 29. The City of Jackson did not argue Section 63-3-505 before the trial court, and as such, it is procedurally barred from raising this argument on appeal. [25] But the City of Jackson did argue Harris's liability under Section 63-3-805, which provides in relevant part that: The driver of a vehicle shall stop as required by this chapter at the entrance to a through highway and shall yield the right-of-way to other vehicles which have entered the intersection from said through highway or which are approaching so closely on said through highway as to constitute an immediate hazard. [26] ¶ 30. The trial judge found that Harris had entered the intersection on a green arrow and could not have avoided the collision. The trial judge further found that Middleton was solely at fault in speeding through the intersection against a red light. The trial judge's findings show that Middleton, not Harris, violated Section 63-3-805. The trial judge's findings of fact are entitled to a manifest-error standard of review, and we cannot say the trial judge manifestly erred in assigning 100 percent of the fault to the City of Jackson. Furthermore, the City of Jackson is procedurally barred from contesting the award of $500,000, because it failed to cite any authority in support of this assignment of error. [27]