MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2010 Regular Session
To: Judiciary A
By: Representative Gunn
AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 11-51-31, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO PROVIDE REQUIREMENTS FOR APPEAL BONDS TO STAY AN EXECUTION OF A JUDGMENT IN CIVIL ACTIONS; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Section 11-51-31, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
11-51-31. (1) A supersedeas shall not be granted in any case pending before the Supreme Court, unless the party applying for it shall give bond as required by the Rules of the Supreme Court.
(2) In civil litigation
under any legal theory, the appeal bond to be furnished during the pendency of
all appeals or discretionary reviews by any appellate courts in order to stay
the execution of any judgment granting legal, equitable, or other relief during
the entire course of appellate review shall be set in accordance with
applicable laws or court rules, except that:
(a) The total appeal bond or other forms of security that are
required of all appellants collectively shall not exceed Twenty-five Million
Dollars ($25,000,000.00), regardless of the value of the judgment;
(b) If the party posting the appeal bond is a "small
business" as defined by Section 57-10-155(a), the total appeal bond shall
not exceed One Million Dollars ($1,000,000.00).
(3) Notwithstanding subsection (2) of this section, if an appellee
proves by a preponderance of the evidence that an appellant is dissipating
assets outside the ordinary course of business to avoid payment of a judgment,
a court may enter orders that:
(a) Are necessary to protect the appellee; and
(b) Require the appellant to post a bond in an amount up to
the total amount of the judgment.
(4) In this section:
(a) "Civil litigation" includes, without
limitation, cases involving individual, aggregated, class action, or otherwise
joined claims.
(b) "Legal, equitable, or other relief" means all
forms of relief including, without limitation, compensatory, special, punitive,
exemplary or other damages; injunctive relief, or any other form of relief.
(c)
"Dissipation of assets" shall not include expenditures, including
payments to the owners of a business, of a kind that the appellant made in the
regular course of business prior to entry of the judgment being appealed.
(d) The provisions of this section shall apply to all
judgments entered on or after the effective date of this act, regardless of the
date the civil litigation was filed.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2010.