On Tuesday the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed a $2.1 million Copiah County Circuit Court jury verdict in favor of three plaintiffs against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Judge Forrest Johnson presided over the trial because Judge Lamar Pickard recused himself from the case. Judge King wrote the majority opinion, which was fifty-six pages long. Judges Griffis and Barnes dissented without an opinion and Judge Carlton wrote an opinion concurring in result only. It looks like plaintiff’s lead counsel at trial was Mike Allred and Goodyear’s was Michael Baxter of Copeland Cook.
The case involved a car crash that killed one young man and injured two others. The driver was intoxicated and the car was traveling at between 88-92 mph when a back rear tire failed and the car crashed. It was undisputed that there was a tire failure. Plaintiff argued that there was a breach of warranty because the tire should have been safe up to 112 mph, but fell apart because of the car’s speed. Goodyear argued that the tire hit an object that caused the failure and that the driver could have averted the crash if he had been sober.
The Court rejected all eight of Goodyear’s appeal issues, which covered the water front. One interesting point was that the trial judge granted more than one form of the verdict instruction. One was a general verdict form and another was for apportionment of fault to the driver. The jury returned its verdict in general form with no allocation of fault. It makes sense to have more than one form of the verdict form for that situation, but I have always thought in terms of there having to be only one form of the verdict instruction and cannot recall having a trial with more than one.
Another interesting issue involved a jury instruction that Goodyear objected to, but the Court found that the objection was not specific enough and was therefore waived.
It will not be surprising to see the Supreme Court take this case given the size of the verdict and numerous issues. If so, Justice Kitchens will not participate, since he was one of the plaintiffs’ attorneys.