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Choctaw Maid Farms5/30/2002
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING
DATE OF JUDGMENT: 05/04/1998
NATURE OF THE CASE: CIVIL - WRONGFUL DEATH
DISPOSITION: AFFIRMED-05/30/2002
MOTION FOR REHEARING FILED: 11/27/2001
EN BANC
. The motion for rehearing is granted. The original opinions are withdrawn, and these opinions are substituted therefor.
. This is a wrongful death case in which there is no dispute that a motor vehicle crash occurred and caused the death of Thomas H. Hailey. Choctaw Maid Farms, Inc. ("CMF") appeals the circuit court's grant of a directed verdict against it on liability, the award of loss of enjoyment of life (hedonic damages) to Hailey and alleges other trial court errors, concerning evidentiary ruling on photos and videotape, failure to grant a continuance concerning the timely disclosure of expert, expert testimony on enjoyment of life and the, refusal to grant various instructions, all totaling eleven issues. The administratrix of Hailey's estate cross-appeals the court's refusal to allow an instruction regarding punitive damages to be submitted to the jury. We affirm both appeals and, therefore, affirm the judgment of the circuit court as to all issues.
. In the pre-dawn hours of July 18, 1996, Tom Hailey was traveling in the southbound lane of Mississippi Highway 21, in heavy fog, from Philadelphia, Mississippi, to begin a day of work in Forest, Mississippi. Odell Frazier, a CMF employee, was hauling his last load of chickens from the McDill Farm to the processing plant in Carthage, Mississippi. Shortly after pulling out of a private drive onto Highway 21 and into the Hailey's lane of travel (a country turn), Frazier's trailer and Hailey's vehicle collided. While the tractor part of Frazier's rig was entirely in the northbound lane, the trailer angled across the foggy highway over 17 feet into Hailey's lane of traffic, at an angle of slightly less than 90 degrees from the center line. Frazier pulled onto the highway though his visibility was impaired due to the fog, and his trailer remained in Hailey's lane for over twenty seconds. The accident occurred entirely within Hailey's southbound lane of travel. Hailey died as a result of injuries sustained in the wreck.
. The administratrix of Hailey's estate, Elizabeth F. Hailey ("Hailey"), filed this wrongful death action. The trial court granted a directed verdict against CMF on the issue of liability, and also granted CMF a comparative negligence instruction regarding any potential liability on the part of Hailey. The jury found that CMF's negligence was ninety percent (90%) and that of the deceased to be ten percent (10%). CMF and Hailey appealed.
STATEMENT OF THE ISSUES
I. Whether the trial court erred in granting a directed verdict against CMF and Odell Frazier based on negligence and proximate cause.
II. Whether the trial court erred by granting jury instruction C-4.
III. Whether the trial court erred in failing to grant a continuance or other relief due to the delay of disclosure of testimony by expert witnesses.
IV. Whether the trial court improperly allowed expert testimony about loss of income damage calculations.
V. Whether the trial court erred by granting jury instruction C-11.
VI. Whether the trial court erred in its refusal of CMF's proposed jury instruction D-16.
VII. Whether the trial court erred in its refusal of proposed jury instructions D-7, D-8, D-9, D-13 and D-15.
VIII.Whether the trial court properly admitted Hailey's videotape of photographs into evidence.
IX. Whether the trial court made proper
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