Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Billy Bradley waited until 2014 to file suit against his court-appointed counsel from a 2004 proceeding. Bradley alleged negligence against his representative, Earl Jordan, which resulted in his injury (wrongful incarceration). Jordan filed a motion for summary judgment, alleging that the statute of limitations had run on any claims Bradley may have had as to Jordan’s negligence or professional malpractice. The trial court entered judgment in Jordan’s favor, finding that Bradley’s claims were barred by the statute of limitations. Bradley appealed. Finding that Bradley’s claims were time-barred, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court. View "Bradley v. Jordan" on Justia Law

Bobby Batiste was convicted of capital murder with the underlying felony of robbery and was sentenced to death. On appeal of that sentence, Batiste raised sixteen issues. The Supreme Court addressed one: whether certain statements alleged to have been made by bailiffs to jurors, violated Batiste's constitutional right to an impartial jury. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that Batiste made a substantial showing of a denial of a state or federal right sufficient to entitle him to a hearing to enable the circuit court to ascertain what communications were had between bailiffs and/or other persons and the jury and to determine, insofar as was possible, what impact, if any, those communications had on Batiste’s conviction and sentence. The Court granted Batiste’s motion for leave to file his petition for post-conviction relief. View "Batiste v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

This appeal arises from a trial court’s grant of summary judgment dismissing Ike Thrash’s and Dawn Investments LLC’s claims for negligence and breach of fiduciary duty against Deutsch Kerrigan & Stiles, LLP (DKS). The dispute underlying this appeal arose over the purchase of land at a trustee sale. Joel Blackledge, the acting trustee, prepared a trustee's deed in favor of Dawn Investments. Thrash deposited $5.6 million dollars into the trust account of his attorney, Charliene Roemer. The trustee’s deed was then delivered to Dawn Investments, and Thrash authorized the transfer of the funds. The former owner of the property, Coastal Land Development Company, filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Neither Thrash nor Blackledge was aware of the bankruptcy filing, but William Little Jr., Coastal’s bankruptcy attorney, notified Roemer through email. Subsequently, Thrash and Roemer discovered that the foreclosure sale had been conducted improperly. According to statute, the foreclosure sale must occur one week following the last day of publication; however, the foreclosure sale was conducted one day after the last day of publication. Thrash notified the seller of the error and demanded the funds be returned, but the request was refused. DKS filed suit in circuit court against Thrash, Dawn Investments, and the seller seeking a declaratory judgment that the failure of Blackledge to conduct a foreclosure sale properly was not the proximate cause of Thrash’s and Dawn Investments’ damages. Thrash and Dawn Investments counterclaimed, alleging that Blackledge was negligent and breached his fiduciary duty by improperly conducting the foreclosure sale, leading to Thrash and Dawn Investments to suffer damages. The parties agreed to dismiss DKS’s complaint for declaratory judgment and proceed under Thrash’s and Dawn Investments’ counterclaim. The parties were realigned, naming Thrash and Dawn Investments as Plaintiffs and DKS as Defendant. Both parties filed motions for summary judgment, and the trial court granted DKS’s motion. The Dawn Plaintiffs then filed this appeal. The Supreme Court found that the trial court was correct in finding that DKS did not owe the Dawn Plaintiffs a duty. View "Thrash v. Deutsch, Kerrigan & Stiles, LLP" on Justia Law

Stribling Investments, LLC, sued Mike Rozier Construction Company, Inc., alleging negligence and negligent construction. The trial court granted Mike Rozier Construction’s Motion for Summary Judgment and dismissed Stribling Investments’ Complaint on the ground that Mike Rozier Construction did not owe a duty to Stribling Investments. Stribling Investments appeals. Holding that the trial court should have considered whether the "builder-vendor" rule applied to Mike Rozier Construction Company, the Supreme Court reversed. View "Stribling Investments, LLC v. Mike Rozier Construction Company, Inc." on Justia Law

Alesa Dawn Crum’s home in Corinth, Mississippi, was flooded with backflowed sewage, twice. Crum filed suit against the City of Corinth, alleging damages as a result of the City’s negligent maintenance of its sewage system. The Circuit Court granted the City’s motion to dismiss Crum’s complaint, finding that the City was immune under the discretionary-function exemption of the Mississippi Tort Claims Act (MTCA). Crum appealed, arguing that the City was not entitled to discretionary-function immunity. Because the Supreme Court found that the trial court erred in dismissing Crum’s complaint, it reversed the judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Crum v. City of Corinth" on Justia Law

The McMullans filed a complaint against U.S. Bancorp, U.S. Bank N.A. (collectively the Bank), and the Johnson Group. In answering the complaint, all defendants pled improper venue. The McMullans filed an amended complaint. The Johnson Group answered, again pleading improper venue, and filed a cross claim against the Bank. The Bank answered the McMullans’ amended complaint and the Johnson Group’s cross-claim, pleading improper venue in both. The Johnson Group filed a motion to change venue, joined by the Bank. The trial court denied the motion, holding that the defendants had waived venue because they had unduly delayed pursuit of the defense and had substantially participated in the litigation. The Bank sought and was granted permission to file this interlocutory appeal, which was joined by the Johnson Group. Upon review, the Mississippi Supreme Court found the trial court erred in denying the motion to transfer venue because the Bank consistently pled improper venue, joined the Johnson Group’s motion to transfer, and did not otherwise substantially participate in the litigation. View "U.S. Bancorp v. McMullan" on Justia Law

In 2004, Quality Diesel Service, Inc. obtained a judgment against Gulf South Drilling Company, LLC. Then, after learning that Tiger Drilling Company, LLC was indebted to Gulf South, Quality Diesel had multiple writs of garnishment issued and served on Tiger Drilling from 2004 to 2006. All of Tiger Drilling’s answers to the writs were almost identical, stating that Tiger Drilling was indebted to Gulf South but that the debt was not yet due. On November 29, 2006, Quality Diesel contested Tiger Drilling’s responses by filing a Petition to Controvert Answers to Garnishments, specifically contesting Tiger Drilling’s answer to a writ issued on January 18, 2006. On March 14, 2014, Tiger Drilling filed a motion to dismiss the garnishment proceeding. On October 3, 2014, the Circuit Court granted dismissal on the ground that the underlying judgment had expired while the case was pending. On appeal, Quality Diesel contended that, because the underlying judgment was valid when the writs of garnishment were issued and served (and when it filed its Petition to Controvert) it could maintain a garnishment proceeding against Tiger Drilling, despite the fact that the underlying judgment has since lapsed. This case presented an issue of first impression concerning Mississippi’s garnishment law: when a party gets a judgment, timely executes a writ of garnishment, and timely initiates a garnishment proceeding, is that party required to renew the underlying judgment to collect the “property in the hands of the garnishee belonging to the defendant” at the time the garnishment proceeding was filed, to defeat the running of the statute of limitations? The Supreme Court held that a party was not required to renew the underlying judgment to collect such property under these circumstances. In this case, the Court reversed and remanded. View "Quality Diesel Service, Inc. v. Tiger Drilling Company, LLC" on Justia Law

Devin Jones worked for T&L Specialty Company as a product technician from 2012 to 2013. On February 4, 2013, Jones timely reported to work at 7:00 p.m. and performed his assigned duties until his first break at 9:00 p.m. While on his break, Jones learned that his fiancé was having complications related to her pregnancy, so he left work early. He did not notify his supervisor, Mitch Monts, that he was leaving, but he did ask his coworker, Demetrius Tatum, to tell Monts that he was leaving and why. Tatum, however, failed to relay this message, and so Monts did not learn of the emergency. Pursuant to a policy in T&L’s employee handbook, Monts concluded that by leaving work early without informing him within eight hours, Jones had “voluntarily quit” his job. He immediately hired a replacement for Jones. Unaware that Monts deemed him to have quit voluntarily, Jones returned to work the following day. Jones pleaded with Monts, and then with Karen Hodum from T&L’s Human Resources department, insisting that he had not intended to quit his job and maintaining that he believed that, by leaving work early, he would only receive a half-point on his record. Jones’s pleas with T&L representatives proved unsuccessful and so he filed a claim for unemployment benefits. After determining that Jones voluntarily quit his job without good cause, the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) denied his application for unemployment benefits. Because the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) relied solely on an inapplicable provision from the employee handbook in concluding that Jones had voluntarily quit his job, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded for further proceedings. View "Jones v. Mississippi Employment Security Commission" on Justia Law

Cherri Porter’s beachfront vacation home was completely destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. Porter claimed the destruction was the result of a barge, owned by Grand Casino of Mississippi, Inc.–Biloxi, breaking free from its moorings and alliding with her home. Because Porter’s all-risk insurance policy excluded from coverage damage caused by water or windstorm, State Farm Fire and Casualty Company denied Porter’s claim. Porter filed suit against the insurance agent who maintained the policy, Max Mullins, against State Farm, and against Grand Casino. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of each defendant, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Porter filed a petition for writ of certiorari claiming genuine issues of fact existed as to each defendant, and the Mississippi Supreme Court granted her petition. Because Porter’s all-risk insurance policy unambiguously excluded from coverage loss that would not have occurred absent water damage, no genuine issue of material fact existed as to Porter’s bad-faith denial of coverage claim against State Farm. Additionally, Porter failed to produce sufficient evidence showing a genuine issue of fact as to whether Grand Casino breached its duty to take reasonable measures to prevent foreseeable injury. The Court therefore affirmed the decisions of the trial court and of the Court of Appeals as to all issues. View "Porter v. Grand Casino of Mississippi, Inc.- Biloxi" on Justia Law

This action began as a paternity and custody dispute between Concetter and James Wilson. James was adjudged to be Sha’Nyla Wilson's natural father. Concetter was awarded custody, and James was awarded visitation. Concetter died in 2011. When Concetter’s relatives would not return "Sha" to James, he filed a petition for modification and sought sole legal and physical custody of Sha. The chancellor entered an order that awarded the primary physical custody of Sha to Pearlean Davis, Sha’s maternal grandmother. The chancellor also awarded James liberal visitation. In the decision, the chancellor did not treat the issue as an initial custody dispute between a natural parent and grandparent. Instead, the chancellor considered the motion as a modification of child custody based on the prior custody determination between Concetter and James. The chancery court found that the natural parent presumption was rebutted, and, further, that the best interests of the child were served by remaining in the physical custody of the grandmother, while allowing the father liberal visitation. Because the evidence was insufficient to rebut the natural parent presumption, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Wilson v. Davis" on Justia Law