JACKSON, Miss. (Legal Newsline) – Judges and juries are feeling too sorry for a Mississippi couple who were lied to by their lawyer for three years, the state Supreme Court has ruled.
On June 18, the court opined that a $1.1 million judgment for Vernon and Donyell Walters was too high and that the trial court will have to try to find a more appropriate figure.
The $1.1 million figure, itself, was a reduction from the jury’s original $2.8 million verdict, which the trial judge noted was more than what the Waters had asked for.
“(I)t is clear that the compensatory damages awarded to the Walterses were excessive and could not be supported by the presented evidence,” Justice Robert Chamberlin wrote.
“This Court believes that the egregious, outrageous and obviously intentional nature of Tadd’s conduct may have influenced the trial court to award compensatory damages that were penal in nature.”
Vernon Walters hired Tadd Parsons to represent him and his wife in a lawsuit against Kansas City Southern Railway Company, but it was dismissed with prejudice in 2010 for failure to prosecute, failure to comply with discovery obligations and fraud upon the court.
Parsons did not relate what had happened with the case to his clients. Three years after its dismissal, with the Walterses believing the case was still pending, Parsons fabricated a settlement offer of $104,000 from KCSR and advised them to take it.
They accepted, thinking it was a real offer. When no money came in, they met with Jack Parsons, the other general partner at Parsons Law Firm. He offered to settle legal malpractice claims against Tadd for $50,000. Instead, they sued the firm.
The jury’s $2.8 million verdict shocked the conscience, the trial judge ruled when reducing it to $1.1 million. That figure is still too high, the state Supreme Court ruled.
Tadd Parsons was disbarred in 2014.