Justia Mississippi Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

The sole issue presented for the Mississippi Supreme Court’s review was the interpretation of Mississippi Code Section 11-44-7, which provided the method for determining attorney’s fees in a wrongful conviction and imprisonment case. The trial court held that the statute set out an escalation of fees tied to each stage of the case, capping the fee award at 25%. The Supreme Court agreed. View "Hall v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Thomas Harris sought a reduction in the alimony award he paid to Susan Harris, due to the Social Security benefits she was receiving that were based on his income. After review of the applicable law in Mississippi and in other states, the Mississippi Supreme Court overruled Spalding v. Spalding, 691 So. 2d 435 (Miss. 1997), to the extent that it held an alimony reduction to be automatic for Social Security benefits derived from the alimony-paying spouse’s income. Further, the Court fully reversed the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remanded for the trial court to perform an analysis under Armstrong v. Armstrong, 618 So. 2d 1278 (Miss. 1993). View "Harris v. Harris" on Justia Law

Nolana and Chad Griffin married in 2001. They had four daughters together—one born in 2001, another born in 2004, and twins born in 2009. Nolana was a high school teacher for the Walthall County School District. In early 2014, she confessed to Chad that she had engaged in sexual relationships with four of her teenaged students. Chad, an officer with the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, immediately contacted the district attorney. In April 2014, Nolana pled guilty to four counts of sexual battery of a minor by a person of trust or authority. For each count, Nolana was sentenced to twenty-five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with ten years suspended and the sentences to be served concurrently. She would be transferred to the Washington County Correctional Facility in Greenville, Mississippi, four hours away. Mississippi law presumes visitation with the noncustodial parent was in the best interest of the child. But under the circumstances here, where an incarcerated mother sought a court order requiring her four children, one of whom has a social disability, to drive four hours to visit her in prison, every other week, the chancellor found it was not. In reaching this decision, the Mississippi Supreme Court determined the chancellor applied the correct legal standard and supported his decision with substantial evidence. Given the broad deference afforded chancellors in visitation matters, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Griffin v. Griffin" on Justia Law

John Cole was convicted by jury for possession of less than thirty grams of marijuana with the intent to distribute, and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He was sentenced as a habitual offender. As a result, Cole was sentenced to serve three years for the marijuana-related charge, and ten years for the possession of the firearm; the sentences were ordered to run consecutively. Cole filed post-trial motions, all of which were denied. On appeal, Cole challenged the sufficiency of the evidence presented against him. Finding no error, the Mississippi Sipreme Court affirmed his conviction. View "Cole v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

The husband in this case divorced his wife and entered into a property-settlement agreement that strongly favored his wife and child. The chancellor approved and adopted the agreement and incorporated it as part of the final divorce judgment. After abiding by the judgment’s terms for two years, the husband moved the court to set it aside or modify it. As grounds, he alleged duress and his wife’s supposed coercive misconduct in their negotiating of what he deemed an unconscionable settlement. The chancellor denied the husband’s request, finding he simply had waited too long to challenge the judgment. Finding no error in the chancellor’s decision, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed. View "Smith v. Doe" on Justia Law

Twenty years after their divorce, Deveaux Carter filed for contempt against her exhusband, Allen Davis, for failing to pay child support and for their daughters’ medical, college, and other expenses. After a hearing, the chancellor calculated Davis’s total financial obligations under the divorce decree to be significant, $201,187.66. But the chancellor also found Davis and his mother had made substantial contributions directly to the children. His mother also made payments to Carter. The chancellor credited these contributions, totaling $197,911, toward Davis’s obligations. The chancellor then ordered Davis to pay the difference, $3,276.66. Citing these credits, the chancellor did not find Davis in willful contempt. But the chancellor awarded Carter $7,500 in attorney’s fees. He did so because Carter had to file suit to enforce the support order, with which Davis conceded he had not fully complied. The Court of Appeals reversed because the trial court did not find Davis in contempt. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals’ decision regarding the attorney’s fees award, finding the chancellor rightly recognized that Carter was entitled to attorney’s fees, even though the chancellor did not find Davis in willful contempt based on the credits. View "Carter v. Davis" on Justia Law

The circuit court dismissed as untimely Larry Christmas’s county court misdemeanor conviction on traffic charges (no proof of liability insurance). Christmas appealed the circuit court’s dismissal to the Mississippi Supreme Court. Because the record showed Christmas’s notice of appeal was filed too late and that Christmas failed to request an extension, the Supreme Court affirmed the dismissal. View "Christmas v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

Notwithstanding Garrett Ray’s appointed appellate counsel filing a “Lindsey” brief, certifying she had thoroughly examined the record and found no arguable issues supporting Ray’s appeal, he filed a pro se brief, arguing crack cocaine found in a cigarette pack he tried to discard when approached by officers was unlawfully obtained. He also insisted the State violated his constitutional right to confront an informant who provided information to narcotics officers, leading to his drug arrest. The Mississippi Supreme Court disagreed with both of Ray’s assertions: (1) Ray abandoned the cocaine by throwing it out of his vehicle’s window, thus, the drugs were not seized in violation of the Fourth Amendment; and (2) the informant did not testify and was not an eyewitness to or a participant in Ray’s drug possession, nor were the informant’s statements used against Ray, so the State was not obligated to disclose his or her identity, and there was no Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause violation. Accordingly, the Court affirmed Ray’s conviction. View "Ray v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In 2005, the State of Mississippi filed suit against more than eighty prescription drug manufacturers alleging, among other things, that each committed common-law fraud and violations of the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act. The allegations primarily focused on whether the prescription-drug manufacturers inflated reported prices, which caused the Mississippi Division of Medicaid to reimburse pharmacies at inflated rates. The cases were eventually severed; this appeal involved only Watson Laboratories, Inc., Watson Pharma Inc., and Watson Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (collectively “Watson”). Following a bench trial, the Chancery Court concluded that Watson had committed common-law fraud and had violated the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act. As a result, the chancery court awarded the State a total of $30,262,052 in civil penalties, compensatory damages, and punitive damages. The chancery court also awarded post-judgment interest of three percent on the compensatory and punitive damages. Watson appealed, challenging the chancery court’s decision; the State also filed a cross-appeals relating to damages. After review, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the chancery court’s judgment in favor of Mississippi Medicaid. Further, the Court affirmed the ruling on the State’s cross-appeal. View "Watson Laboratories, Inc. v. Mississippi" on Justia Law

In 2015, a grand jury indicted Tony Swinney for robbery with an enhancement for a crime committed against a victim of sixty-five years of age or older, and conspiracy to commit robbery. Earlier that year, Audrey Swinney drove her brother Tony and their cousin LaMarvin Swinney to rob “Bullets,” a convenience store in Flora, Mississipppi. Tony and LaMarvin entered the store and robbed Pyare Lal, the seventy-three-year-old proprietor of the store. A jury ultimately found Tony guilty on both counts of the indictment, and Tony was sentenced as a habitual offender under Mississippi Code section 99-19-83 (Rev. 2015) to life without the possibility of parole or early release for each count, with the sentences to run concurrently. The Mississippi Supreme Court found only that the evidence presented at the sentencing hearing would have met only the requirements of Section 99-19-81, vacated Tony’s sentences and remanded for resentencing. The Court found no other reversible error and affirmed in all other respects. View "Swinney v. Mississippi" on Justia Law