Premises Liability Case of Interest

The Mississippi Supreme Court decided Cheeks v. AutoZone yesterday located here.  The trial court had originally set aside a substantial jury verdict against AutoZone related to a car driving through the front glass of a store.  In a 5-4 decision, the Mississippi Supreme Court reinstated the verdict.  The main problem for AutoZone in the case was that there was an ongoing problem with people driving through the front glass of the store to the extent $2,000 a week was being spent fixing the problem.  The Plaintiff's theory was that buffers should be in place in the store.  The Mississippi Supreme Court agreed to the extent that the Defendant was on notice of the foreseeability of the injury due to the prior incidents.  As a result, they instated a verdict of 45% fault to AutoZone on a 2.5 million dollar verdict.