Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

James Oldrum Smith Jr. (Father) died in 2006. This appeal stemmed from his children’s disagreements over the handling of Father’s estate (Estate). These disagreements resulted in lengthy litigation. The Estate was complicated by the fact that, prior to his death, Father created a family trust (Trust); however, he died within three years from the creation of the Trust, meaning the money in the Trust became taxable to the Estate, leaving the Estate otherwise unable to pay its taxes due to liquidity issues. The Estate borrowed $2,020,000 from the Trust, secured by a promissory note and deed of trust, to help pay the taxes. Some of the siblings, who would have received a greater amount of money from the Trust than from the Estate, later took issue with the loan, specifically that the amount now owed on the loan was much greater than what the other siblings, the trustee, and the co-executors claimed. As a result, the aggrieved siblings filed several actions challenging the trustees’ and the co-executors’ decisions, particularly as related to the loan between the Trust and the Estate. The special chancellor appointed to the case determined that the trustees and co-executors did not breach any duty owed to the beneficiaries and that the loan was valid in the amount of $2,523,004.83 plus four percent interest per annum. At issue here was the result of the chancellor’s judgment, and finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "In The Matter of The Estate of James Oldrum Smith, Jr." on Justia Law

Walter Griffith, Jr., a licensed master electrician, was critically injured while attempting to attach a ten-foot piece of metal conduit to an electrical pole owned by Entergy Mississippi, Inc. (“Entergy”). Griffith later filed a complaint against Entergy, alleging grossly negligent and willful conduct and requesting compensatory and punitive damages. The trial judge ultimately granted Entergy’s motion for summary judgment, and Griffith appealed to the Supreme Court, raising three alleged errors by the trial court in its grant of summary judgment to Entergy. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Griffith v. Entergy Mississippi, Inc." on Justia Law

Henry Kinney filed several record requests under the Public Records Act regarding Leonard Bentz II's selection as Southern Mississippi Planning and Development District’s (District) executive director; however, some of Kinney’s requests were never fulfilled. As a result, Kinney filed a complaint seeking a declaratory judgment that the District be declared a public agency subject to the Mississippi Public Records Act, Mississippi Public Procurement laws, Open Meetings laws, Mississippi law regarding salaries/compensation of public officials, Mississippi Ethics in Government laws, Mississippi auditing requirements, Mississippi laws regarding removal of officers from public office, and other general provisions applicable to public office. Kinney also sought the selection of Bentz to be deemed invalid because it did not comply with Mississippi’s laws governing public agencies. As a result of Kinney’s suit, the District, joined by the Mississippi Association of Planning and Development District, Inc. (MAPDD), who intervened in the suit, filed motions for summary judgment. The chancery court granted the motions for summary judgment. Kinney appealed the chancery court’s decision. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed the chancery court’s decision in the case. View "Kinney v. So. Mississippi Planning & Development District, Inc." on Justia Law

The City of Jackson was unable to serve notice to Willie Jordan by certified mail that his property was subject to condemnation and demolition. The City tried notice by publication, and set a hearing for twelve days after the first publication date. The applicable statute required two weeks’ notice. Jordan did not appear at the condemnation hearing. The property was declared condemned, and the house on the property was ordered demolished. After the house was demolished, Jordan filed a notice of tort claim with the city. When he filed his complaint, he alternatively asserted a constitutional claim for deprivation of property without due process. After a bench trial, the trial court awarded Jordan $12,513.53. The city appealed. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "City of Jackson v. Jordan" on Justia Law

A jury convicted Terry Roberson for the murder of Tonya Burton and for being a felon in possession of a firearm. On appeal, Roberson claimed the trial court erred by denying his proposed circumstantial-evidence instruction, by failing to grant a mistrial or spoliation instruction based on a missing audio recording, by failing to grant a mistrial based on hearsay testimony, and by admitting a shotgun and several shotguns shells into evidence. He also claimed the State presented insufficient evidence to support his conviction for murder. After review, the Supreme Court found: (1) the circumstantial-evidence instruction was fairly covered elsewhere in the instructions; (2) Roberson’s due process rights were not violated, and he failed to request a spoliation instruction; (3) the trial judge offered and Roberson rejected an instruction to cure the hearsay testimony; (4) the shotgun and shells were admissible relevant evidence; and (5) the evidence supported the jury’s verdict. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the trial court. View "Roberson v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

A jury found Jerome Clemons guilty of felony driving under the influence (DUI), and he was sentenced to serve five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. He appealed, arguing that the jury’s verdict was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Clemons v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Scott Buras and Carlos Rodriguez founded Lagniappe Logistics in 2004. Since then, Buras and Rodriguez’s business relationship deteriorated to the point that Buras left the company in June 2013. In early 2014, Buras filed suit claiming that Rodriguez had been unjustly enriched through Lagniappe’s operation. Buras’s complaint requested that the chancellor declare Buras a fifty-percent owner of Lagniappe, order an accounting, judicially dissolve the company, and appoint a receiver or custodian to wind up its affairs. Rodriguez and Lagniappe moved to dismiss Buras’s complaint based on Mississippi’s catch-all, three-year statute of limitations. According to the defendants, Buras’s claims (which depended on Buras’s status as an owner) were time-barred because Buras failed to file a legal action to rescind or cancel a 2006 agreement transferring his ownership interest to Rodriguez within three years of the agreement’s execution. "Occasionally, the question of whether the statute of limitations has run turns on the resolution of a fact question. In such cases, a statute-of-limitations defense cannot be resolved on a defendant’s motion to dismiss based on Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6)." The chancellor found it inappropriate to dismiss the case at the Rule 12(b)(6) stage due to an existing fact question and denied the motion. Finding no reversible error with that decision, the Supreme Court affirmed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Lagniappe Logistics, Inc. v. Buras" on Justia Law

Minor Tamarcus Ewing and his mother were involved in a motor-vehicle accident. Tamarcus sustained severe injuries and his mother died. Tommy Lee Ewing, Tamarcus’s father, was appointed guardian of Tamarcus’s person and estate. Tommy filed a negligence complaint on behalf of Tamarcus. At some point, the parties settled the circuit-court case. The Chancery Court sealed the guardianship case file on stipulation and agreement of the parties and attorneys of record in the circuit-court action. Then in 2010, the chancellor removed Tommy as guardian of Tamarcus’s estate after finding that seventy-five thousand dollars in annuity payments had been redirected from a frozen guardianship account into an unfrozen account jointly owned by Tommy and Tamarcus. The court also found that Tommy had spent those funds without court approval. Chokwe Lumumba and Roy Perkins were appointed as coguardians of the estate. Tommy was not removed as the guardian of Tamarcus’s person. Tommy later sought a copy of the sealed settlement documents after he had been removed as guardian. The chancellor denied his request. But because he had access to those documents as guardian and participated in the settlement process, no purpose was served by keeping the sealed documents from him. So, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded with instructions for the chancellor to grant him access to the documents. View "Ewing, Jr. v. Neese" on Justia Law

Lamarcus Jones was indicted for the 2008 shooting death of Marveo Lane. Mareno Hubbard testified that Lamarcus Jones was the shooter. Jones received a life sentence. After Jones' conviction and sentence, Hubbard pled guilty to manslaughter and was given a sentence of twenty years, with eight years suspended and credit for time served. There were three mistrials in this case. On appeal of his eventual conviction, Jones raised five issues challenging trial court procedure and his resulting conviction and sentence. "Finding Jones’s assignments of error to be unavailing," the Supreme Court affirmed his conviction and sentence. View "Jones v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

An employee of NTC Transportation, Inc. (“NTC”) filed petitions with the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission (“the Commission”), claiming he had suffered compensable work-related injuries on two occasions. AmFed National Insurance Co. (“Amfed”), believing NTC’s workers’ compensation coverage to have lapsed due to NTC’s failure to timely pay the premium, responded and denied both liability and coverage as to the latter injury. AmFed’s denial of coverage was litigated and culminated in a judgment rendered in NTC’s favor. Based on the applicable law and particular facts of this case, the Supreme Court found that NTC had no insurance coverage with AmFed in effect at the time of the relevant injury. Accordingly, the Court reversed and remanded. View "Amfed National Insurance Co. v. NTC Transportation, Inc." on Justia Law