Question: On January 9 , 2 0 0 9 , Lyshell Wilson filed suit against Jocelyn Howard in a Mississippi court. Wilson s complaint stated as
On January Lyshell Wilson filed suit against
Jocelyn Howard in a Mississippi court. Wilsons complaint stated as follows:
On December Plaintiff Lyshell Wilson entered Citi Trends located in Jackson, Mississippi, for
the purpose of shopping for clothing. While shopping on
the premises of Citi Trends, Lyshell Wilson was brutally
injured when an employee of Citi Trends, Jocelyn Howard, maliciously, recklessly, negligently, and violently attacked Lyshell Wilson with a pair of scissors.
Howard filed a motion to dismiss, contending that
Wilson had failed to file her complaint within the oneyear statute of limitations set forth by a Mississippi
statute, which provides that all actions for assault,
assault and battery shall be commenced within one
year next after the cause of such action accrued,
and not after.Different statutes of limitation apply
to different types of claims. When a lawsuit raising
a given claim has not been filed with an appropriate
court prior to the expiration of the period specified in
the relevant statute of limitations the claim can no
longer be pursued and is subject to dismissal.Wilson
responded to Howards motion by denying that she
was filing a battery claim. Instead, Wilson insisted
that the claim set forth in her complaint was a negligence claim. The Mississippi statute of limitations
pertaining to negligence claims set forth a longer limitations period than the period specified by the statute
applicable to assault and battery claims, and would
not have expired by the time Wilson initiated her lawsuit. The trial court denied Howards motion to dismiss. On appeal, Howard made two arguments. First,
she argued that the claim made in Wilsons complaint
was for batterymeaning that the complaint was not
filed within the applicable oneyear statute of limitations Second, Howard argued that Wilsons attempt
to characterize the incident as an act of negligence
was simply an attempt to circumvent the relevant statute of limitations Was Howard correct? How did the
appellate court rule?
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