Mississippi judge says NO to tort reform

Yesterday, a Circuit Court judge in northern Mississippi said "No" to one of the most dangerous forms of tort reform ever enacted in Mississippi. Several years ago, as a result of a special session of the Mississippi legislature, section 11-1-60 of the Mississippi Code was passed. This statute limited non-economic damage awards to $1 million dollars. A previous statute had limited the same type of awards in medical malpractice cases to $500,000. Apparently, your life is worth less if you are killed by a doctor rather than an 18 wheeler. But I digress.

The issue of whether the legislature's capping of damages unconstitutionally invades the province of the judicial branch has been pending before the Mississippi Supreme Court for some time. Thus far, the Mississippi Supreme Court has been able to avoid ruling directly on this issue, despite even having the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals directly certify the issue of the damage caps' constitutionality to the Mississippi Supreme Court for resolution, as Federal appellate courts are allowed to do regarding questions of state law.

Tired of waiting on the Supreme Court to finally take up this issue, which was causing a significant delay in a case pending before him that had already resulted in a verdict larger than the $1 million dollar cap, Judge Charles E. Webster ruled that section 11-1-60 is unconstitutional in that it violates Article I, Sections 1 and 2 of the Mississippi Constitution, which provide that the powers of government will be separated into the three branches of executive, legislature and judicial and that no encroachment by one branch will be allowed on the powers given to any other branch.

Judge Webster correctly found that allowing the legislative branch to set the maximum recovery in a civil case would give the legislative branch the ability to effectively do away with jury trials since, in theory, the legislative branch could set the maximum recovery at only a $1. While unlikely to happen, it is this ability to encroach on the judicial branch that renders section 11-1-60 unconstitutional. This would clearly violate Article III, Section 31 that made the right to a trial by jury inviolate in Mississippi.

Judge Webster did a brave and correct act when he made this ruling. Too many judges would have kept their head down and simply waited for the Supreme Court to rule. It's too bad that there are not more judges of the caliber of Judge Webster aroun the nation willing and able to rationally and logically say "No" to tort reform. Good job, Judge Webster.