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Strong v. Southside Baptist Church8/6/2002
DATE OF TRIAL COURT JUDGMENT: 07/28/2000
NATURE OF THE CASE: CIVIL - PERSONAL INJURY
TRIAL COURT DISPOSITION: JUDGMENT FOR THE DEFENDANT
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED - 08/06/2002
PROCEDURAL HISTORY
. Marie Elizabeth Strong sued the Southside Baptist Church (Southside) after she fell at the church when attending a wedding. Southside filed a motion for summary judgment claiming Mrs. Strong was a business invitee, but the court found her to be a licensee and the motion was denied. The matter was tried before a Hinds County Circuit Court jury, and the jury returned a verdict in favor of Southside. Mrs. Strong appeals to this Court asserting two errors: 1) the circuit court erred in denying both her request for a peremptory instruction, as well as her post-trial motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict or in the alternative a new trial; and 2) the circuit court erred in giving a jury instruction stating that the jury should find for Southside if it found that Mrs. Strong's own actions were the "sole proximate cause of her fall." Finding no error, we affirm.
FACTS
. Joe and Marie Strong were invited to a wedding at Southside. The Strongs had difficulty finding the church and were late, arriving ten minutes after the wedding started. Joe Strong dropped his wife off in front of the church, so she could go inside while he parked their car. As Mrs. Strong entered the church, she fell and broke her left ankle.
. No one observed Mrs. Strong's fall; however, David Grayson, a paramedic and family friend of the Strongs, entered the church immediately after the fall and was able to render medical assistance. Grayson noted that the entrance to the church involved a step down of two to three inches and that the threshold plate or the floor molding was deteriorating. Mr. Strong similarly described the entryway and stated that when he examined the threshold by putting his hand on it, it "wiggled." Mrs. Strong admitted she did not know how she came to fall.
DISCUSSION
I. EVIDENCE SUPPORTING THE VERDICT
. Mrs. Strong argues that the court erred in denying her requested peremptory instruction, as well as in denying her motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict or, in the alternative, a new trial. We look to our applicable standards of review.
This Court's standards of review regarding a denial of a judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a peremptory instruction are the same. Our standards of review for a denial of a judgment notwithstanding the verdict and a directed verdict are also identical. Under this standard, this Court will consider the evidence in the light most favorable to the appellee, giving that party the benefit of all favorable inference that may be reasonably drawn from the evidence. If the facts so considered point so overwhelmingly in favor of the appellant that reasonable men could not have arrived at a contrary verdict, we are required to reverse and render. On the other hand if there is substantial evidence in support of the verdict, that is, evidence of such quality and weight that reasonable and fair minded jurors in the exercise of impartial judgment might have reached different conclusions, affirmance is required. The above standards of review, however, are predicated on the fact that the trial judge applied the correct law. Steele v. Inn of Vicksburg, Inc., 697 So. 2d 373, 376 (Miss. 1997).
. In this case, the circuit court found that Marie Strong's status was that of an invitee to the wedding. As an invitee, Southside owed a duty to Mrs. Strong to use reasonable care in keeping its premises reasonably safe and to war
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