Haley Barbour asks High Court to revisit ruling
That decision undermines the legislative intent behind tort reform, increases health-care costs and potentially reduces access to health care in parts of Mississippi, Barbour’s attorneys wrote.
In its July 23 decision, the state Supreme Court concluded that a judge erred when he tossed out Nina Price’s negligent death lawsuit on the basis of the statute of limitations. In 2004, Price sued the doctors, clinics and hospitals in the Delta that failed to diagnose a pituitary tumor that killed her husband, Albert Jr., earlier that year.
“A properly served complaint – albeit a complaint that is wanting of proper pre-suit notice – should still serve to toll the statute of limitations until there is a ruling from the trial court,” Justice George Carlson wrote for the court.
But Barbour’s attorneys say this decision will “subject the state to increased liability, straining state and local resources in the midst of a major economic crisis when state and local budgets are already approaching the breaking point.”
State Rep. Ed Blackmon, D-Canton, who opposed the 2004 Tort Reform Act, said the high court’s decision is correct. “This is procedural. It has nothing to do with the merits of the disposition,” he said. “The Supreme Court is trying to bring some sense from the stupidity swirling around.”
Barbour, the medical association, similar groups and the Mississippi Tort Claims Board have filed briefs as “friends of the court” – nonparties weighing in on issues they say are important to the case – in hopes of changing justices’ minds.
Clarion-Ledger
9/8/9
Magnolia Tribune
