The case, originally filed as a putative class action by Amy Divine, Karl Merchant, and Columbus Jones, has been reduced to two individual plaintiffs after the court denied class certification earlier this year.
The dispute centers on Securix’s “Diversion Program,” which the Cities of Ocean Springs and Senatobia contracted the company to operate for enforcing Mississippi’s uninsured motorist laws. Under the arrangement, Securix used automated license plate readers to identify vehicles without required liability insurance and mailed citations offering drivers three options: provide proof of insurance, pay a fee to enter the Diversion Program, or appear in court. Both the cities and Securix profited from the program, with the company receiving a percentage of the revenue generated by paid citations.
Plaintiff Divine was ticketed in March 2022 and paid $100 of a $300 fine. Plaintiff Merchant was ticketed in June 2022 and paid the full $300 fine. Plaintiff Jones was ticketed in January 2023 but never paid any fine. The plaintiffs originally brought federal due process claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alongside state-law claims for unjust enrichment and abuse of process. The court dismissed the federal due process claims in September 2024.
In its April 23, 2026 order, the court granted summary judgment on all remaining abuse-of-process claims. The court held that Mississippi law requires an improper use of process after it has been issued for such a claim to succeed, and Securix merely carried out the authorized conclusion of issuing citations under its contracts with the cities. The court held that plaintiffs failed to plausibly allege or produce evidence of an ulterior motive or any improper use of process after issuance.
The court also granted summary judgment on Plaintiff Jones’s unjust-enrichment claim, noting that the legal theory requires a mistaken payment, which Jones never made. Consequently, Jones was dismissed as a party to the suit entirely.
However, the court denied summary judgment on the unjust-enrichment claims brought by Divine and Merchant. The court identified a material issue of fact regarding whether the fines were properly collected under Mississippi law, given that Securix retained profits from a program where tickets were issued to vehicle owners without establishing they were the drivers at the time of the violation. Those two claims will proceed to trial.