Mississippi Litigation Lawyer & Attorney : Bradley Arant Law Firm : Serving Jackson, Gulfport, Biloxi, Tupelo, Hinds County, 5th Circuit

The United States Supreme Court issued its latest decision on the constitutionality of punitive damages awards in Phillip Morris USA v. Williams, No. 05-1256 slip op. (2007). The Court threw out a $79.5 million punitive damages award from an Oregon state court in a tobacco death case. This new decision clarifies that punitive damages cannot be used to punish a defendant for injury inflicted on nonparties to the litigation. Thus, the Court deemed it improper for the jury to have punished the tobacco company for the injuries it caused to all Oregon smokers.

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In a recent opinion, the Mississippi Court of Appeals held that a wrongful death claim must be brought within the limitations period governing the underlying action, even if the decedent does not die until after the limitations period has expired. May v. Pulmosan Safety Equipment Corp., et al., No. 2005-CA-01750-COA (Miss. Ct. App. 2007). The decedent, J.D. May, was diagnosed with silicosis in 1971. The Court held that J.D. May's claim accrued, at the latest, in 1997, when a medical record attributed his silicosis to workplace exposure to silica. J.D. May filed a complaint on March 18, 2002, and died two months later. May's wrongful death beneficiaries were substituted as parties in April of 2004. The defendants moved for summary judgment based on the three-year statute of limitations. May's wrongful death beneficiaries argued that, while May's claims may have accrued in 1997, their wrongful death claims did not accrue until May's death in 2002. The plaintiffs argued that applying the statute of limitations of the underlying tort would bar their wrongful death claim before it accrued.

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On March 29, 2007, Bradley Arant will host a seminar for construction industry professionals with particular emphasis on current legal issues in Mississippi construction. The seminar will be held at the TelCom Center, Conference Room 5, 105 Pascagoula Street, Jackson, Mississippi. Featured speakers at the event include Rob Dodson, David Pugh, David Owen, Will Manuel, David Pharr and Ed Everitt. For registration and other information, click here.

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On February 1, 2007, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Boggan v. Miss. Conference of the United Methodist Church, No. 06-60782 (5th Cir. 2007), affirmed a ruling by the Southern District of Mississippi dismissing a Title VII race discrimination claim under the doctrine of the minister-clergy exception. The Plaintiff, a former minister, had filed a suit alleging race discrimination against the Mississippi Conference of the United Methodist Church. The lower Court dismissed the claim as being barred by the minister-clergy exception to Title VII. The Fifth Circuit agreed and stated that this exception is "firmly rooted" in the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution and has been recognized in at least two other past Fifth Circuit opinions. The Court went on to note that they would continue to recognize the exception to Title VII's ban on discrimination unless the United States Supreme Court ruled otherwise.

For more information, please contact Will Manuel.

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The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Brackens v. Tex. Roadhouse in Wichita, No. 06-50736, slip op. (5th Cir. Jan. 31, 2007), affirmed a district court’s dismissal of claims against a restaurant chain for breach of contract, unprofessional conduct, and claims under Title VII, even though the district court liberally construed the pro se plaintiff’s complaint. Brackens, an African-American male, was dining at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant in Wichita, Kansas when the facility played Gretchen Wilson’s “Redneck Woman” over the speaker system, prompting its employees to dance to it. Brackens sued and asserted that the song’s use of the term “redneck” was racially offensive to him because as a black man, he could never be a “redneck.” Further, Brackens asserted that the restaurant had breached an implied contract created when he and his family ordered their meal, and that the restaurant engaged in unprofessional conduct.

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In a Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) case, the Fifth Circuit affirmed an attorneys’ fees award of $129,805.50 although the plaintiff was awarded $23,357.30 in overtime damages. Howe v. Hoffman-Curtis Partners Ltd., LLP, No. 05-21091, slip op. at 1 (5th Cir. Jan. 30, 2007). After the jury determined that the plaintiff had worked a total of 207 hours of unpaid overtime, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas (Houston Division) awarded the plaintiff $11,678.70 in unpaid overtime wages and an additional $11,678.70 in liquidated damages (pursuant to Section 216(b) of the FLSA) based on the district court’s ruling that the defendant failed to show that it acted in “good faith” and had “reasonable grounds” to believe that its actions complied with the FLSA. The plaintiff sought $134,884 in attorneys’ fees, but the district court reduced the amount of attorneys’ fees awarded to $129,805.50 – still more than five times the amount of the plaintiff’s damages award. A successful FLSA claims carries with it the mandatory recovery of reasonable attorneys’ fees to be paid by the defendant, which is decision made by the court. 29 U.S.C.A. § 216(b).

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