Opinion ID: 2546139
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: whether blake and baptist waived the defense of the meadowses' lack of strict compliance with mississippi code section 11-1-58(4).

Text: ¶ 14. The Meadowses assert that Blake and Baptist waived their objection to [the Meadowses'] lack of strict compliance with Miss.Code Ann. § 11-1-58(4) due to their unreasonable delay in pursuing the defense for nearly three years and until after [the Meadowses] designated their experts and otherwise after actively litigating the merits of the case. This Court has held that [a] defendant's failure to timely and reasonably raise and pursue the enforcement of any affirmative defense or other affirmative matter or right which would serve to terminate or stay the litigation, coupled with active participation in the litigation process, will ordinarily serve as a waiver. MS Credit Center, Inc. v. Horton, 926 So.2d 167, 180 (Miss.2006). In Horton, the defendants delayed pursuing their right to compel arbitration for eight months while participating in the litigation process. Id. at 180-81. This Court held thatabsent extreme and unusual circumstancesan eight month unjustified delay in the assertion and pursuit of any affirmative defense or other right which, if timely pursued, could serve to terminate the litigation, coupled with active participation in the litigation process, constitutes waiver as a matter of law. Id. at 181. ¶ 15. In today's case, Baptist and Blake both asserted the defense of the Meadowses' failure to comply with Section 11-1-58 in their answers, which were filed on January 14 and 20, 2005, respectively. However, Baptist and Blake failed to further assert or pursue this defense until they filed their Joint Motion to Dismiss for Plaintiffs' Failure to Comply with the Requirements of Miss.Code Ann. § 11-1-58 on March 30, 2007. The Meadowses filed their second Certificate of Plaintiffs' Attorney pursuant to Section 11-1-58 on June 13, 2005, which still did not trigger Baptist's and Blake's pursuit of their defense. During this two-year delay, Baptist and Blake also participated actively in the litigation process. They filed a motion for partial summary judgment, participated in discovery, filed a motion to compel, entered into three scheduling orders, and designated experts. [11] In East Mississippi State Hospital v. Adams, the defendants raised the defenses of insufficiency of process and insufficiency of service of process in their answer but failed to pursue them until almost two years later, while actively participating in the litigation. E. Miss. State Hosp. v. Adams, 947 So.2d 887, 890-91 (Miss.2007). This Court concluded, citing Horton, that the defendants had waived the defenses. Id. at 891. See Estate of Grimes v. Warrington, 982 So.2d 365, 370 (Miss.2008) (failure actively and specifically to pursue affirmative defense while participating in litigation served as waiver of defense). The same must hold true today. In that Baptist and Blake actively participated in the litigation of the merits of this case for two years without pursuing their defense of the Meadowses' lack of strict compliance with Section 11-1-58, and in that there are no extreme and unusual circumstances, Baptist and Blake waived the defense. We therefore reverse the trial court's grant of Defendants' Joint Motion to Dismiss for Plaintiffs' Failure to Comply with Miss.Code Ann. § 11-1-58 and dismissal with prejudice, and we remand this case for further proceedings. Also, finding this issue dispositive, we elect not to address the remaining issues on appeal.