Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Plaintiffs Jourdan Rivers Estates, LLC (JRE) and Jourdan River Resort and Yacht Club (Yacht Club), filed suit for damages in December 2011 against Defendants Scott Favre, Cindy Favre, Jefferson Parker, and CB Partners, LLC d/b/a Cinque Bambini. CB Partners, LLC d/b/a Cinque Bambini was later dismissed from the action without prejudice. The complaint alleged multiple claims against Defendants, including slander of title; slander and/or defamation; trespass; nuisance; tortious interference with use of property; tortious interference with contractual relationships; harassment and intimidation of plaintiffs' agents and intentional infliction of emotional distress upon plaintiffs' agents; assault upon plaintiffs' agents; willful destruction of plaintiffs' property; negligence; gross, willful, and wanton negligence; malicious prosecution; unjust enrichment; false imprisonment; and any other applicable theory of law giving rise to a cause of action. Defendants moved to dismiss for failure to state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6) of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure. The circuit court granted the motion in part and denied it in part. The circuit court dismissed all of Yacht Club's claims in relation to the claim(s) that Defendants made false representations to the Hancock County Board of Supervisors and/or Hancock County employees, finding that such allegations fell under the "Noerr-Pennington" doctrine, expressly adopted by the Mississippi Supreme Court. The circuit court dismissed JRE's claims of slander of title, slander and/or defamation; harassment; assault; and false imprisonment and intentional infliction of emotional distress because each claim constituted an intentional tort and was barred under the statute of limitations. The circuit court denied Defendants' motion to dismiss as to JRE's claims for trespass; nuisance; tortious interference with use of property; tortious interference with contractual relationships; willful destruction of property; negligence; gross, willful, and wanton negligence; malicious prosecution; and unjust enrichment. Plaintiffs thereafter petitioned for an interlocutory appeal. Because the Supreme Court found that Defendants' Rule 12(b)(6) motion should have been converted into a motion for summary judgment, as provided in Rule 56 of the Mississippi Rules of Civil Procedure, it reversed the circuit court's order granting the Rule 12(b)(6) motion and remanded for further proceedings. View "Jourdan River Estates, LLC v. Favre" on Justia Law

The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance determined that Chancellor Talmadge Littlejohn has violated multiple Canons of Judicial Conduct. In March 2012, Chancellor Littlejohn modified a 2001 Agreed Order of Filiation and Support between Ronald Brooks and Janice Fields, and ordered Brooks to pay Fields $15,000 for an automobile for their child within ninety days, and $1,750 in attorney fees within sixty days. Brooks posted a supersedeas bond, which the chancery clerk approved, and appealed Chancellor Littlejohn’s order to this Court. Because he had posted the supersedeas bond, Brooks did not pay the sums ordered while the appeal was pending. Nevertheless, Fields filed a contempt complaint against Brooks. Chancellor Littlejohn acknowledged that Brooks had posted a supersedeas bond but nevertheless held him in contempt for his failure to pay and ordered him incarcerated until he paid the entire amount of $16,750. Brooks spent three days and two nights in jail. During his incarceration, he filed an emergency appeal with the Supreme Court, and the Court vacated the contempt finding and ordered Brooks released. The Commission filed its complaint against Chancellor Littlejohn, alleging violations of Canons 1, 2A, 3B(2), and 3B(8) of the Code of Judicial Conduct. After a formal hearing, the Commission concluded that Chancellor Littlejohn had committed misconduct, and it recommended that the Supreme Court impose a $500 fine and a public reprimand, and assess costs associated with this proceeding. While the Supreme Court agreed with the Commission that Chancellor Littlejohn committed misconduct, it did not adopt the recommended sanctions. The Court found that Chancellor Littlejohn refused to take responsibility for his misconduct, and the recommended sanctions were not commensurate with sanctions imposed for similar misconduct in past cases. The Court suspended Chancellor Littlejohn from office for thirty days without pay, fined him $1,000, order that he be publicly reprimanded, and taxed him with the costs of these proceedings. View "Miss. Comm'n on Judicial Perf. v. Littlejohn" on Justia Law

After a federal court declared Mack Arthur King ineligible for the death penalty under "Atkins v. Virginia," the circuit court sentenced him to life without parole. King filed a motion objecting to being sentenced to life without parole, arguing that the only sentencing options available at the time he committed the crime were death and life. He argued that 1994 sentencing amendments which added life without parole as a sentencing option for capital murder could not properly be applied to him, because they would have violated the ex post facto clauses of the United States and Mississippi Constitutions. He also argued that his due-process rights would be violated if the circuit court applied Mississippi Code Section 99-19-107 to him. After review, the Supreme Court found that because Section 99-19-107 did not apply when an individual’s death sentence was rendered unconstitutional, King had to be resentenced to life, since death and life were the only two sentencing options available at the time he was convicted and originally sentenced. King’s sentence was vacated, and the case remanded for resentencing. View "King v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

The Circuit Court of Copiah County convicted David Dickerson of capital murder, arson, and armed robbery. The jury sentenced him to death for the capital murder conviction; he was sentenced to twenty years for arson and forty years for armed robbery, to run consecutively. Dickerson appeals his convictions and death sentence. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Dickerson v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Andy Brown was indicted and convicted for murder in the stabbing death of Earlie Balford. On appeal, Brown argued: (1) he was provided ineffective assistance of counsel; (2) the trial court erred by excluding Brown’s jury instructions; (3) the trial court erred by denying Brown’s motion to quash his indictment; (4) the trial court erred by denying Brown’s motion for directed verdict; (5) the trial court erred by denying Brown’s motion for a new trial; and (6) the trial court erred by excluding evidence Brown sought to introduce from a psychiatric evaluation. Brown further argued that these errors resulted in cumulative error, denying Brown a fair trial in violation of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. Finding no error, the Supreme Court affirmed Brown’s conviction. View "Brown v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Thomas Blanton petitioned the Mississippi Supreme Court to invalidate rate increases approved by the Public Service Commission for Mississippi Power Company (“MPC”). After review of the controlling law and statutes, the Constitutions of the United States and Mississippi, and a comprehensive review of the Commission proceedings, the Supreme Court concluded that Commission failed to comply with the language of the Base Load Act, inter alia, and exceeded its authority granted by the Act. The increased rates were achieved by including "mirror CWIP" in the rate base and rates. The increased rates for 186,000 South Mississippi ratepayers failed to comport with the Act or, otherwise, with Mississippi law. Accordingly, the order granting rate increases was reversed, and the matter remanded to the Commission for further proceedings. View "Mississippi Power Company, Inc. v. Mississippi Public Service Comm'n" on Justia Law

Patrick Fluker filed a motion for post-conviction relief (PCR). A grand jury indicted Fluker for one count of armed robbery. As the result of plea bargaining, Fluker entered a guilty plea. The circuit court sentenced him to the maximum of fifteen years with three years to serve, twelve years suspended, and four years on post-release supervision. Fluker was incarcerated until placed on earned-release supervision. The Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC) officially released him from its custody on April 23, 2005. On May 5, 2005, Fluker was arrested and charged with armed robbery and being a felon in possession of a weapon. The circuit court found that he had violated the terms of his post-release supervision, revoked Fluker’s post-release supervision and imposed his suspended sentence, ordering him to serve twelve years. On motion for post-conviction relied, the circuit court found Fluker's motion to be procedurally barred as a successive pleading and dismissed it. Fluker appealed, and the Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the motion for PCR. The Supreme Court then granted Fluker’s petition for certiorari. After review, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgments of the Court of Appeals and the Circuit Court, but clarified and corrected the analysis of the law provided by the Court of Appeals. View "Fluker v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Appellant Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics (“the State”) had a search warrant signed and executed at the home of Bobby Ray Canada and Beverly Turman. Section one of the warrant, where the location for the search to be executed, was left completely blank. The State collected, among other things, $293,720 from the home, and the State then filed a civil forfeiture action. Canada and Turman filed a summary judgment motion, arguing that the search warrant was blank and void, and therefore, the search violated their Fourth Amendment Rights. The trial judge granted the summary judgment motion. The State appealed. Finding no reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Mississippi, Ex Rel. Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics v. Canada" on Justia Law

Phillip and Paige Faucheux were a military couple who moved frequently during the early years of their marriage. In early 2002, Phillip got a job as a pilot with FedEx in Memphis, so the couple moved to Southaven, Mississippi (a suburb of Memphis just south of the Tennessee border). Phillip also served as a naval reserve pilot, often training at the Naval Air Station in Belle Chasse, Louisiana. Because of his frequent trips to Louisiana, he kept a Louisiana-registered pick-up truck parked at the New Orleans airport. On a trip to Louisiana during Carnival Season in January 2004, that Phillip met and began an extramarital affair with Francesca Munne Nordness. In June 2004, Paige discovered the affair. Eventually the couple reconciled their marriage, yet Phillip secretly continued his relationship with Francesca in New Orleans. In October 2004, Francesca moved from New Orleans to Fayetteville, North Carolina, and Phillip stopped seeing her. But several months later in early 2005, Phillip hopped a FedEx flight to North Carolina and showed up unannounced at the hospital where Francesca worked, professing his love for her and begging her to see him again. From 2005 to 2009, Francesca and Phillip continued to rendezvous at locations across the country, including Louisiana, Florida, North Carolina, Nevada, and Colorado (but never Mississippi). And although the two exchanged e-mails, phone calls, and text messages, Francesca never knowingly communicated with Phillip while he was in Mississippi. Phillip also sent Francesca several FedEx packages during this time, but according to Phillip’s uncontroverted testimony, he always used a Memphis return address. Phillip’s continued infidelity proved too much for Paige and, in August 2010, she was granted an irreconcilable-differences divorce from Phillip. Following the couple’s divorce, Paige (now a resident of Texas) sued Francesca in Mississippi for alienation of affections, intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, invasion of privacy, and punitive damages. Francesca immediately challenged the suit by moving the court to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction over her. Francesca ultimately lost at the trial court level, and she appealed. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed, finding she did not have enough minimum contacts with Mississippi for a Mississippi court to have jurisdiction over her. View "Nordness v. Faucheux" on Justia Law

Charles Burleson II appealed his conviction and sentence for capital murder (with the underlying felony of robbery). Finding that the trial court erred in amending Burleson’s indictment to charge him as a violent habitual offender and in denying Burleson’s proffered circumstantial-evidence instruction, the Supreme Court reversed Burleson’s conviction and sentence and remanded this case for a new trial. View "Burleson v. Mississippi" on Justia Law