Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

The Secretary of State of Mississippi (State) and the City of Ocean Springs (Ocean Springs) appealed a chancery court's decision that enjoined the construction of a sidewalk. The sidewalk would have run along a beach adjacent to the seawall on property claimed by Respondents Clyde Gunn, III and Neil Harris in Ocean Springs. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether the chancellor erred in granting the permanent injunction. The State and Ocean Springs asserted that the chancellor erred in issuing the permanent injunction because: her finding of irreparable injury was not supported by substantial evidence; an adequate remedy at law was available; and she failed to rule on the merits of the underlying dispute regarding ownership of the land where the proposed sidewalk was to be located. Upon review, the Supreme Court found no error in the chancellor’s earlier determination that irreparable injury would result if she did not grant an injunction and that no adequate remedy at law was available. The Court concluded that the chancellor’s order and opinion was in fact a preliminary injunction, incorrectly styled as a permanent injunction: "[i[t is clear from its language that the chancellor sought to protect the interests of all parties until ownership of the property could be determined. We therefore remand this case to the Hinds County Chancery Court, vacate the permanent injunction, and leave the earlier-issued preliminary injunction in place." View "Mississippi v. Gunn" on Justia Law

The central issue in this case was whether an oil company could deduct reasonable processing and investment costs from the payments it made to royalty owners. If so, the Supreme Court had to determine whether Mississippi code 53-3-39 was applicable in calculating the damages owed to the royalty owners for unreasonable deductions. Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed the chancellor's holding that reasonable processing and investment costs could be deducted from royalty owners' payments. However, the Court determined that the chancellor erred by failing to apply 53-3-39 to calculate damages. Thus, the Court partly affirmed, partly reversed the chancellor's decision, and remanded the case for recalculation of damages. View "Pursue Energy Corporation v. Abernathy" on Justia Law

Petitioner Sylvia Montgomery filed suit against the Mississippi Transportation Commission (Commission) after she was injured when her car struck a pothole in the northbound lane of Interstate 55 near Vaughan. The Commission filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming it was exempt from liability under several provisions of the Mississippi Torts Claim Act (MTCA). The circuit court denied the Commission’s motion. A three-justice panel of the Supreme Court granted the Commission’s petition for interlocutory appeal. Upon review of the parties’ briefs and the record, the Court found the trial court erred by not determining whether the duty to warn of a dangerous condition on the highway is a discretionary duty under the "public-function test." Accordingly, the Court reversed the trial court’s denial of the Commission’s motion for summary judgment and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Mississippi Transport. Comm'n v. Montgomery" on Justia Law

Defendant Gary Glidden was convicted of one count of possession of a controlled substance. The circuit court sentenced him to serve a term of four years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. The court also sentenced Defendant to serve his imprisonment as an habitual offender. After entering an order denying Defendant's motion for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict, or in the alternative, for a new trial, Defendant perfected his appeal to the Supreme Court. Finding that no reversible error occurred at trial, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the judgment of conviction and sentence of the circuit court. View "Glidden v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

The Mississippi Commission on Judicial Performance filed a Formal Complaint against Lamar County Justice Court Judge Carol Ann Bustin. The complaint charged that Judge Bustin, while serving as an attorney for David C. Lema’s ex-wife, executed a felony arrest warrant for Lema based upon an affidavit submitted by the ex-wife. The Commission and Judge Bustin jointly moved the Supreme Court to accept an agreed findings of fact and to approve the recommended sanctions: a public reprimand, a $500 fine, and assessment of costs in the amount of $100. After conducting an independent inquiry and giving careful consideration to the joint motion for approval of recommendations and the supporting brief, the Court disagreed with the recommendation of the Commission. "Because Judge Bustin abused the power of her office, acted as judge in a matter involving one of her own clients, and has engaged in similar misconduct in the past, we order a thirty-day suspension from office without pay in addition to the recommended sanctions." View "Mississippi Comm'n on Judicial Perf. v. Bustin" on Justia Law

Defendant Leo Wales was tried in absentia for two counts of armed robbery and two counts of aggravated assault. A jury found Defendant guilty on all counts, and the Circuit Court of Hinds County sentenced Defendant to twenty years, and forty years for each count of armed robbery and assault, each sentence to run concurrently in the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Defendant's consecutive and concurrent sentences required him to serve a total of eighty years. On appeal, Defendant argued that (1) the trial court erred in trying him in absentia; (2) the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction in Count I, aggravated assault or, alternatively, the verdict of guilty in Count I was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence; and (3) the trial court erred by denying his proffered jury instruction on the specific intent required for armed robbery. The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's convictions and sentence, because it found substantial evidence supported the trial court’s finding that he had waived his right to be present at trial, because the evidence was sufficient to support the verdict of guilty in Count I, and that verdict was not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence, and because the jury instructions, taken as a whole, fully and fairly informed the jury of each element of the crime of armed robbery. View "Wales v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Richard Compere appealed a trial court’s dismissal with prejudice and its imposition of monetary sanctions for his filing a second medical-malpractice action against Dr. Bryan Lantrip and St. Dominic-Jackson Memorial Hospital. The Hinds County Circuit Court imposed these sanctions because Compere previously had filed the same action, and it was pending at the time Compere filed his second complaint. Upon review, the Supreme Court found the trial court erred in dismissing the second complaint with prejudice and imposing monetary sanctions. Therefore, the Court reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Compere v. St. Dominic Jackson Mem. Hosp." on Justia Law

The Mississippi Tax Commission (Commission) assessed a contractor’s tax against Walter Akins, d/b/a Akins Construction Company. Akins challenged the assessment administratively. After exhausting his administrative remedies, Akins appealed to the Chancery Court. The chancellor dismissed his complaint for failure to comply with Mississippi Code Section 27-77-7 (Rev. 2005), which required a taxpayer seeking judicial review to pay the amount ordered before filing the petition or attach a security bond, for double the amount in controversy, with the petition to appeal. Akins appealed to the Supreme Court, arguing that he was deprived of his right to due process because the appeal provisions codified in Section 27-77-7 are unconstitutional. Finding that the statute does meet constitutional standards and that Akins failed to pay the tax or post a bond in order to grant jurisdiction to the chancery court, the Court affirmed the chancellor's decision. View "Akins v. Miss. Depart. of Revenue " on Justia Law

Jules Corbin, Tammy Louis, and James Henry, Jr. were involved in an automobile wreck that left Louis dead and Henry severely injured. Corbin was indicted for capital murder, aggravated assault, and felony fleeing the scene of an accident. However, he was convicted by a jury on the lesser-included offense of murder, as well as aggravated assault and felony fleeing the scene. Corbin was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, ten years for aggravated assault, and three years for felony fleeing. Corbin appealed, and claimed among other things, that his Sixth-Amendment right to confrontation was violated. Upon review of the trial court record, the Supreme Court agreed that Corbin's constitutional rights were violated, and that the error was not harmless as to the charges of murder and aggravated assault, but that it was harmless as to the charge of felony fleeing the scene of an accident. Thus, the Court reversed and remanded part, and affirmed part of the trial court's decision. View "Corbin v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

This was an interlocutory appeal from the denial of a motion to sever and transfer venue. Plaintiffs Hattie Douglas, Kevin Hamlin, and the victim’s five siblings (collectively Plaintiffs) filed a complaint in circuit court against Sunshine Medical Clinic; Dr. Vibha Vig, in her official and personal capacities and Lisa Hoehn, nurse practitioner, in her official and personal capacities (collectively Defendants). The Plaintiffs alleged a medical-negligence and negligent-hiring cause of action against Defendants concerning the treatment and care of their minor son and brother, Kaddarius Douglas (Kaddarius) received before he died. Plaintiffs, in the same complaint, also brought claims against the Mississippi Crime Laboratory; Mississippi State Medical Examiners; Dr. Steven Hayne, in his official and personal capacities; Expertox, Inc.; and MedScreens, Inc. (Wrongful Incarceration Defendants) asserting that their acts and omissions in performing a postmortem examination and toxicological tests on Kaddarius's body, as well as in storing and handling blood and urine samples, caused the wrongful incarceration of Hattie Douglas for the murder of Kaddarius. All Defendants moved to have the trial court sever the claims and to transfer the claims against the Wrongful-Incarceration Defendants and to transfer the claims against the medical-negligence Defendants to another county court. The trial court denied the motion. All Defendants brought an interlocutory appeal to severe the two claims and transfer venue. Upon review, the Supreme Court concluded that the trial court erred in not severing and transferring the claims to their proper venues. The Court the circuit court's judgment and remanded the case for severance and transfer. View "Miss. Crime Lab. v. Douglas" on Justia Law