Jackson Free Press

UPDATE, 4 p.m.: After an apparent lunch meeting between Gov. Barbour, Speaker Billy McCoy and Senate President Pro Tem Travis Little, Sen. Charlie Ross, R-Brandon, announced on the floor that the Senate would reject HB 4, the tort-reform bill the House sent to conference committee this morning because they do not believe it will result in damage caps. The House will reconvene at 5 p.m.; the stalemate continues.

On Thursday, the House voted 60-59 to table a motion to reconsider its Wednesday vote to send House Bill 4 to conference committee. With that vote, the bill will be sent to a conference committee between the House and the Senate where it can be debated in order to bring the sections more in line with the desires of the two houses.

That, however, may all be hand-waving if it's allowed to go forward, as many members feel House Bill 4 has a fundamental "flaw" that would cause it to be killed after a conference if it returns to the floor of the House.

"We lost," said Rep Gary Chism (R-Clay). "Now we need to go home. It's over."

House Bill 4 was originally passed by the House without non-economic damage caps and sent to the Senate last week. The Senate's Judiciary A conference used a "strike all" amendment to replace the bill with the language from House Bill 3, which was written by House Republicans. (The bill was characterized as a "compromise" by the Senate, because it had been originated in the House.) The bill then passed the Senate and was returned to the House.

On Tuesday evening, Rep. Ed Blackmon, chairman of the Judiciary A committee in the House, wrote and presented House Bill 6 to his committee, which, before the night was out, was co-sponsored by key Republicans in the House. It included a larger non-economic cap as well as many sections that House Democrats had wanted in any "tort reform" bill, including expanded doctor history and product recall reporting requirements. That bill was killed in committee. Blackmon said on Tuesday he would not craft another bill.

So, what's the "flaw"? If House Bill 4 comes back from conference with a section adding non-economic damages for general civil cases to state law, it could be subject to a "point of order" in the House, which would be ruled on by House Speaker Billy McCoy (D-Prentiss). A favorable ruling would be likely, because the bill contains sections that are not in the original bill (namely, non-economic damages), which is against House rules. That ruling would kill the bill.

Had the House overcome the vote to table, it could then have voted to reconsider. Had pro-caps representatives won that vote, they could have voted against sending the bill to conference; if they'd won that vote, they could have passed the bill and sent it to the governor.

That didn't happen. So, it may be up to the Senate and governor to see if they'll negotiate a bill that doesn't have non-economic damage caps -- which could come back up on the House floor and potentially pass -- or if the governor will simply cancel the special session and send everyone home. More as this develops.