DICKINSON, Justice, for the Court:
¶ 1. The wrongful-death heirs of two persons who died in an automobile accident sued a casino and the driver of the other vehicle. The trial court held the casino and driver jointly and severally liable. The casino appealed, arguing that it cannot be held liable under Mississippi's Dram Shop Act, which requires proof that it served alcohol to the driver when he was visibly intoxicated; and that it cannot be held jointly and severally liable. We find there was sufficient evidence for the jury to find the driver was visibly intoxicated when the casino served him alcohol, so we affirm as to the casino's liability. But because there was no proof that the defendants "consciously and deliberately pursue[d] a common plan or design" to commit the tort, the Joint and Several Liability Act in effect when the suit was filed limits the casino's liability to fifty percent of "recoverable damages," so we reverse and render on that issue.
¶ 2. On Friday, August 2, 2002, Rodney Dean got off work at 2:00 a.m. in Memphis, Tennessee, and, after picking up his paycheck and stopping briefly at home, he headed for the Horseshoe Casino in Robinsonville, Mississippi. A regular customer, Dean had a player's card, and the casino made a note of his card number and the time he started gambling—4:05 a.m.
¶ 3. Over the next sixteen hours, Dean gambled and drank free Corona beer—at least "two or three" beers per hour, or perhaps more, according to his testimony—served to him by casino employees. The servers continually brought him fresh bottles before he had completely finished the previous ones.
¶ 4. Dean, who was due back at work in Memphis by 9:00 p.m., did not leave the casino until approximately 8:30 p.m. Two eyewitnesses testified he was driving ninety to one hundred miles per hour when he ran a stop sign and a red light and then slammed into another car, killing its driver, Synithia Harris (who also had been drinking), and its two passengers, Sarah McCalman and Michael Holmes. Dean's blood-alcohol level was 0.16 at 10:00 p.m., and 0.13 at 1:00 a.m. An autopsy on Harris showed that her blood alcohol content was 0.08.
¶ 5. On December 27, 2002, members of the families of McCalman and Holmes filed a wrongful death suit against the casino and Dean—but not Harris. The circuit court entered a default judgment against Dean, the casino filed an answer, and the matter proceeded to trial.
¶ 7. The court reduced each award by five percent to account for Harris's negligence; entered a judgment of $665,000 for McCalman and $380,000 for Holmes; and specified that the defendants were jointly and severally liable, meaning both plaintiffs could pursue collection of the entire amount of their respective judgments from the casino.
¶ 8. The casino filed this appeal, first arguing that it cannot be held liable because it did not serve alcohol to Dean while he was "visibly intoxicated"—a requirement for its liability under Mississippi's Dram Shop Act; and that—even if it is liable—it cannot be held jointly and severally liable because Mississippi's Joint and Several Liability Act limits its liability to its percentage of fault.
¶ 9. Our standard of review of a jury's factual determination is familiar:
¶ 10. Mississippi's statute commonly called the Dram Shop Act, according to its title, provides "immunity from liability of persons who lawfully furnished or sold intoxicating beverages to one causing damage."
¶ 11. So the question before us is whether the plaintiffs produced sufficient evidence for a reasonable jury to conclude that Dean was "visibly intoxicated" when the casino served him alcohol.
¶ 12. The casino points to trial evidence that it had trained personnel who would have detected Dean's intoxication, had it been visible, and that its expert witness testified—based on his analysis of police
¶ 13. Also, Dr. Anthony Verlangieri—a toxicologist and pharmacologist—testified that "at the time Mr. Dean left the casino, he was not under the influence." By "under the influence," he explained, he meant "over the legal limit." Asked what documents he had used to form an opinion, he listed a report from the "MED in Memphis,"
¶ 14. Dr. Verlangieri testified that Dean had scored well on the Glasgow Coma Scale after the accident—that he had a perfect fifteen on this measure of sensory perception and motor ability, which "would be what a normal person would test." He also stated that the medical records contained no mention of Dean smelling of alcohol.
¶ 15. The main thrust of Dr. Verlangieri's testimony was his analysis of Dean's blood test results from the night of the accident. Using a computer program to analyze them, he entered the following data:
¶ 16. A report generated by the software provided the following estimates of Dean's blood-alcohol content (BAC) at various times during the evening:
¶ 17. According to Dr. Verlangieri, Dean's BAC would have peaked at 10:00 p.m., but he was not asked—and he did not volunteer—what the BAC would have been at that time. But based on the BAC levels, Dr. Verlangieri testified that Dean would not have shown visible signs of intoxication between 6:00 p.m. and 8:20 p.m. Then, after answering some additional questions about what those signs would have been, he concluded his testimony by stating once again that, based on Dean's BAC levels, he would not have been visibly intoxicated at the casino.
¶ 18. Dean testified that the casino did a brisk business on the Friday evening of the accident, implying that the casino's staff could not have monitored its many customers and evaluated whether each of them was visibly intoxicated. And Dr. Steven Hayne, a forensic pathologist, testified that, at the time Dean left the Casino, his BAC would have been 0.18, basing this conclusion on the 0.13 value from the 1:00 a.m. blood test, and the known rates at
¶ 19. Also, Dr. Hayne—pointing out that the 10:00 p.m. test showed a BAC of 0.16-worked backward to arrive at a BAC of 0.175 when Dean left the casino. He stated that the slight difference between his two BAC estimates—0.18 and 0.175— did not indicate error, but rather that the estimates corroborated one another.
¶ 20. Dr. Hayne testified that, at these blood-alcohol levels, Dean would have been "significantly" impaired. When the plaintiffs' counsel asked him whether "those [casino employees] whose job it is and duty it is to observe levels of intoxication or impairment of individuals at the casino would in the exercise of reasonable care have observed [Dean's intoxication]," Hayne replied, "If they are experienced and have that as part of their job, I would expect it."
¶ 21. This issue presents a classic battle of qualified experts—a battle that was decided by the jury,
¶ 22. The jury believed the plaintiffs' expert and rejected the casino's argument that Dean was not visibly intoxicated. The plaintiffs produced ample evidence to meet their burden of proof on this issue, and we affirm the jury's finding of liability against the casino.
¶ 23. The version of the Joint and Several Liability Act in effect at the time the plaintiffs' cause of action accrued was, as one writer put it, "not exactly the paradigm of clear legislative drafting."
¶ 24. Section 3 of that statute provided the general rule:
¶ 25. So with only two exceptions, the statute limited the liability of a defendant to "the amount of damages allocated to him in direct proportion to his percentage of fault," meaning that—absent the application of an exception—the casino's liability would be limited to its percentage of fault assessed by the jury—forty-five percent.
¶ 26. The exceptions stated in the statute were:
And although not a stated exception, subsection 7 provided the following guidance to the jury: "In actions involving joint tort-feasors, the trier of fact shall determine the percentage of fault for each party alleged to be at fault."
¶ 27. So, subsection 3 would have abolished joint and several liability, were it not for the two exceptions. One of those exceptions (subsection 2) applies in this case, and the other (subsection 6) does not. Subsection 2 not only allowed, but actually required—as indicated by the word "shall"—joint and several liability where, as in this case, "damages [are] caused by two (2) or more persons." But subsection 2's joint and several liability was limited to fifty percent of "recoverable damages."
¶ 28. In this case, the plaintiffs' recoverable damages do not include the five percent of the damages attributable to Harris, who was not a defendant, but do include the ninety-five percent of those attributable to the negligence of the two defendants, the casino and Dean. From there, the math is simple: Total damages = $1,100,000, reduced by 5% = $1,045,000 (recoverable damages), and 50% of "recoverable damages" = 50% x $1,045,000 = $522,500. So the casino may be held jointly and severally liable for $522,500, limited to $332,500 of the $665,000 awarded to McCalman, and to $190,000 of the $380,000 awarded to Holmes.
¶ 29. The plaintiffs argue that subsection 6 allowed the trial court to impose full joint and several liability against the casino. We disagree.
¶ 30. Subsection 6 provided that "Joint and several liability shall be imposed on all who consciously and deliberately pursue a common plan or design to commit a tortious act, or actively take part in it." In this case, the record includes no evidence that the casino pursued a common plan or design to commit the tort involved here,
¶ 31. The jury, as trier of fact, followed subsection 7 of the statute and apportioned fault to each tortfeasor.
¶ 32. The casino requested the trial court to instruct the jury on the comparative negligence of the two deceased passengers for allowing themselves to be driven by an intoxicated driver. The court refused to grant the instruction for lack of evidence to support it.
¶ 33. A "trial court has the discretion to refuse an instruction ... which is unsupported by the evidence."
¶ 34. The final assignment of error by the Casino reads as follows, in its entirety:
¶ 35. Because the casino cites no authority in this argument, this Court is not bound to consider it. Mississippi Rule of
¶ 36. The casino is liable under the Dram Shop Act for the deaths Rodney Dean caused after he left the casino. Under the Joint and Several Liability Act, its liability is joint and several for up to one half of the amount of recoverable damages. The trial court erred by ignoring this statutory limit. The judgment is affirmed in part and reversed and rendered in part, and the judgment is modified to limit the defendants' joint and several liability to fifty percent of recoverable damages.
¶ 37.
WALLER, C.J., CARLSON, P.J., RANDOLPH, LAMAR, KITCHENS, CHANDLER AND PIERCE, JJ., CONCUR. GRAVES, P.J., CONCURS IN RESULT ONLY.