Hawkins v. Heck Yea Quarter Horses, LLC

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On June 19, 2013, George “Leith” Hawkins (Hawkins), suffered a stroke while working at Heck Yea Quarter Horses, LLC (Heck Yea). Hawkins was hired to wash a wooden fence. After lunch he complained of feeling ill, but declined having an ambulance called. Hawkins slowly drove himself home. Connie Hawkins found her husband in bed with the covers pulled over his head. When she went to his truck to retrieve some Tylenol, Hawkins had moved from the bed to the living room couch. He fell off the couch "shaking and jerking." Connie called emergency dispatch, but her husband died at the hospital having suffered a stroke. Connie sued Heck Yea and other defendants for wrongful death, alleging Hawkins had been left alone “to tend to the fence, at which time he, due to the extreme heat, passed out in the field.” The trial court granted summary judgment to Heck Yea, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Mississippi Supreme Court granted Connie's petition for certiorari review to address whether the trial court and the Mississippi Court of Appeals erred in failing to take into account affidavits which created genuine issues of material fact with regard to the care Hawkins received at Heck Yea. Because the Supreme Court found summary judgment to have been proper, and the Mississippi Court of Appeals’ analysis on the matter to have been correct, it affirmed the lower courts' judgments in this case. View "Hawkins v. Heck Yea Quarter Horses, LLC" on Justia Law