MISS. SUPREME COURT THROWS OUT $80M VERDICT:

The Mississippi Supreme Court has thrown out an $80 million damage award involving a breach of contact lawsuit in Copiah County. The justices said the case was erroneously filed in Mississippi and should have been filed in Texas. In the lawsuit, a Copiah County jury in 2001 awarded Hazlehurst businessman Carroll V. Hood $1.2 million in compensatory damages. His company, HICO Inc., was awarded $1.3 million in compensatory damages and $75 million in punitive damages. Defendants were Titan Indemnity Co., United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. and St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Co. In the lawsuit, Hood said an exclusive marketing agreement he had with Titan was broken after the company was acquired in 1997 by USF&G, which then merged with St. Paul in 1998. In its appeal, the insurance company argued that, “HICO complains St. Paul wronged it by reducing HICO’s commissions and raising rates, but HICO agreed to the decreased commissions, so that agents could be paid more, motivating them to sell more policies. HICO remained profitable.” According to St. Paul, the verdict was largely the product of consistent errors by the trial judge that encouraged the jury to favor local plaintiffs and punish out-of-state insurance companies. The Supreme Court did not get into the issue of rates and commissions. Instead, Justice Jess Dickinson, writing for the court, said the trial judge should have dismissed Hood’s lawsuit. Dickinson said the “forum selection clause” in Hood’s contract with the defendants barred him from bringing legal action in Mississippi. Dickinson said when Hood signed the deal with St. Paul, he consented to disputes being heard in the state and federal courts in Texas. St. Paul is based in Bexar County, Texas. “Consistent with the language of the forum selection clause, personal jurisdiction and venue in this cause is vested exclusively with the state and federal courts located in Bexar County, Texas,” Dickinson wrote. He said since the Mississippi Supreme Court had no power to transfer the case to Texas, the judgment was overturned.

Topics Texas Mississippi