Thursday, October 23, 2014

Accident Appeal of Interest

There is currently an interesting issue being considered on interlocutory appeal in the Mississippi Appellate Court's located here.  The question presented is whether it was proper for a trial court to consolidate two separate and distant car accidents the same plaintiff was in four (4) months apart where there is no way to tell which accident caused the Plaintiff's injuries?  Best I can tell each Defendant is pointing the finger at the other.  The Defendants have filed the petition for interlocutory appeal which is still pending.  From the Plaintiff's perspective, this prevents a verdict where a jury could find the unjoined defendant in each case liable.  There is a little bit of a gamble here by the Defendant to me.  What happens if the claims are severed and the jury in each case finds the named defendant in each case 100% liable?  Plaintiff could recover twice literally.  Arguably, any verdict from another case would be inadmissible too.  Sometimes, you have to be careful what you ask for on appeal because you might actually get it and end up in a worse position.     

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