$492,080 verdict after a burglar got into a tenant's apartment with the office's key

A Hinds County jury awarded $492,080 to a tenant whose apartment in Jackson was burglarized by someone who used a key belonging to the complex’s office.

The tenant, a mother of two young daughters, chose the complex because of its signs promising video surveillance and a courtesy officer living on site. She came home one evening to find an office key still in her door and her drawers open. A game console, a laptop and a handgun were gone. Management did not return her calls, an assistant manager told her she should have had insurance, and the cameras did not cover her building.

She testified to months of anxiety, sleepless nights and a three-year course of counseling. The jury awarded $42,080 in economic damages, including $3,500 for the stolen property, and $450,000 for past and future pain, suffering and mental anguish. The trial court denied the owner’s request to cut the award.

The owner did not contest liability on appeal, only the size of the non-economic award. In February 2023 the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the full award. Two judges dissented and would have reduced it. The record we reviewed gives the judgment date, not the verdict date, so this case is dated by the judgment.