Ocean Springs tried to turn over uninsured motorist fees. Too late, judge says
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Ocean Springs contracted with Securix to run traffic-camera ticketing and split fees.
- A magistrate judge has rejected Ocean Springs’ motion to turn over $468,681 collected.
- Two motorists can go to trial on their unjust enrichment claims against Securix.
The city of Ocean Springs is still dealing with fallout from a program that deployed traffic cameras to ticket uninsured motorists.
The city contracted with Georgia-based Securix LLC in 2021 to run the program and split 50-50 revenue collected from violators. Several Mississippians sued Securix in federal court over the program in August 2023, saying the tickets violated their constitutional rights and the company was unjustly enriching itself. By then, Ocean Springs had ended the program.
The city in November filed a motion in the federal court case, saying it wanted to turn over the $468,681 the city collected from the program until a judge decided whether the motorists were improperly ticketed. Magistrate Judge Bradley Rath, who is handling pretrial matters in the case, recently rejected the city’s money.
Rath said in his court order that the city waited too long to file its motion.
“The court finds that Ocean Springs’s motion is untimely,” he wrote. “This action has been pending for nearly three years, and Ocean Springs filed its Motion to Intervene over two years after the Complaint was filed. Judicial economy would not be served by allowing Ocean Springs to intervene this late in the litigation.”
Rath also pointed out that the judge presiding over the case, Sul Ozerden, has denied the motorists’ request for class-action status. Ozerden also rejected claims from the motorists that their rights to due process had been violated.
Ozerden has left open the claim that Securix unjustly enriched itself through fees paid by two of the motorists who filed the lawsuit, Amy Divine of Madison County and Karl Merchant of Jackson County. The claims of a third motorist, Columbus Jones of Forrest County, have been completely dismissed because he did not pay Securix any money.
The program offered motorists the option of paying $300 for a diversion program to avoid court and potentially higher penalties. Divine was ticketed in Ocean Springs and paid $100 toward the diversion program, according to the lawsuit, while Merchant, also ticketed in Ocean Springs, paid the full $300.
Jones was ticketed in Senatobia, which has also ended its contract with Securix. It is unclear where the case goes from here because, as Rath pointed out, “The only remaining issue for trial is whether (Securix) should be permitted to retain the money that Plaintiffs Merchant and Divine each paid defendant (totaling $400.00) after being mailed the citations.”
In granting a partial judgment for Securix, Ozerden has ruled the unjust enrichment claims of Merchant and Divine will go to trial.
