Fifth Circuit Affirms The Constitutionality Of Mississippi's Noneconomic Damages Cap

On February 27, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed that Mississippi's $1 million statutory cap on noneconomic damages is a lawful exercise of legislative power under Mississippi's Constitution. This is the first time that an appellate court, state or federal, has reached the merits of a constitutional challenge to Mississippi's noneconomic damages cap.

In Learmonth v. Sears, Roebuck and Co., No. 09-60651, the jury awarded the plaintiff $4 million in compensatory damages for injuries that she suffered in an automobile accident; the award included $2.2 million in noneconomic damages. (Noneconomic damages include any “subjective, non-pecuniary damages” arising from death, pain, suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and the like. Miss. Code § 11-1-60.) The district court applied Mississippi's statutory cap, and reduced the noneconomic damages award to $1 million. The plaintiff appealed, arguing that the cap violated the Mississippi Constitution's jury trial guarantee and separation of powers clauses. Such arguments have been successfully invoked to invalidate damages caps in other states. The Fifth Circuit initially certified the constitutional question to the Mississippi Supreme Court, but the supreme court declined to answer the question on procedural grounds. Sears, Roebuck & Co. v. Learmonth, 95 So.3d 633, 637-38 (Miss. 2012).

Upon return of the unanswered certified question, the Fifth Circuit rejected both of the plaintiff's constitutional challenges to Mississippi's cap. First, the cap did not impermissibly alter a jury's factual determination on damages; it merely imposed a legal limitation on the court's judgment, which provides the actual remedy to the injured party. Moreover, because a litigant does not have a constitutional right to a dollar-for-dollar translation of the jury verdict into a binding judgment...