PublicNuisanceWire.com

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has filed an amicus brief in the case of Double Quick Inc. v. Ronnie Lee Lymas, asking the state supreme court to affirm the constitutionality of a tort reform cap enacted by the state legislature in 2004.

Shot while leaving a Double Quick in 2007, Ronnie Lee Lymas successfully sued the Indianola-based convenience store chain for failing to ensure his safety. A circuit court judge lowered the jury award for medical costs and non-economic damages from $4 million to the state cap of $1 million, prompting Lymas to challenge the constitutionality of the cap.

“The Mississippi Legislature has the right to establish laws protecting Mississippians from frivolous lawsuits,” Governor Barbour said in the brief, urging the court to affirm the constitutionality of Mississippi statute 11-1-60(2). According to Barbour, the state’s tort reform measures have reduced insurance premiums for doctors and attracted new business to the state.

”Judicial repeal of the non-economic damages cap would have horrendous consequences for the State,” Barbour warned. “Insurance premiums for Mississippi businesses and healthcare providers would dramatically increase due to the added uncertainty of exposure to outrageous awards. Further, the State’s ability to attract and retain new businesses that create jobs and economic opportunity would be significantly hindered.”

Barbour emphasized that the statute challenged by Lymas “was an integral component of bipartisan tort reform legislation enacted into law by an overwhelming majority of the Mississippi Legislature in 2004. Exercising its police powers to protect the health and welfare of the State’s citizens and promote economic development, the Legislature’s tort reform measures were intended to, and have accomplished, an important state interest,” he continued. “The non-economic damage caps and other tort reform measures leveled the playing field for all litigants, ensured fair and predictable results; averted a health care crisis and attracted new businesses to the State.”

Barbour expressed concern that “any judicial repeal of the noneconomic damage caps or other tort reform measures would destroy the positive progress made in recent years, crush current economic development and drive away desperately needed jobs in one of the gravest economic times in the Nation's history.”

Barbour concluded that the non-economic damage cap is “unquestionably constitutional” and that the state legislature “plainly has the constitutional authority to enact prospective limitations on remedies such as the subject limit on non-economic damages.”

Describing the cap as “a public policy decision supported by an overwhelming majority of the State’s elected representatives” Barbour insisted that it was “necessary to ensure predictability and fairness in the civil justice system.”