Store Shooting Case Tests Mississippi Cap on Civil Damages

Before Mississippi lawmakers passed tort reform that limited damages in civil litigation, Ronnie Lee Lymas’ lawsuit against the store where he was shot wouldn’t have gotten much attention.

That’s anything but true now: The case is being characterized as a test of Mississippi’s tort reform laws – hailed by business leaders and despised by plaintiffs attorneys – and a showdown over so-called premises liability issues.

Lymas’ lawsuit is now before the Mississippi Supreme Court, and those filing briefs in the case include the Mississippi attorney general, Gov. Haley Barbour and trade and business associations.

Barbour, a Republican who has championed tort reform, said in a news release that Mississippi was a “judicial hellhole” before limits were placed in civil litigation and a ruling that overrides those laws would be devastating for the state. Barbour filed a brief in the case asking the state Supreme Court to uphold a lower court’s ruling that he said affirmed “the constitutionality of Mississippi’s non-economic damage caps.”

The non-economic caps put a limit on what juries can award someone for pain and suffering.

Business groups have also weighed in on the issue of premises liability and whether businesses are liable for injuries to customers.

Lymas sued Double Quick Inc. after he was shot in 2007 while leaving a store in Belzoni, claiming the company didn’t do enough to ensure the safety of its customers. A jury awarded him actual damages to cover medical costs and additional non-economic damages with the total coming to about $4 million. The judge in the case, however, lowered the non-economic damages to $1 million, which is the cap put into law in 2004.

Lymas’ attorneys are challenging the constitutionality of the limit.

The Magnolia Bar Association filed a brief in support of Lymas, saying the limit violates the Constitution’s separation of powers by stepping into judiciary matters. “Capping damages … eviscerates trial by jury as it was understood when the constitutions of Mississippi and the United States were first adopted,” the group argues.

But Barbour is arguing that repeal of the non-economic damages cap would harm the state by hiking insurance premiums for businesses and health care providers.