COURTNEY HUDSON GOODSON , Associate Justice . Appellant Sarah Gildehaus appeals the order entered by the Benton County Circuit Court dismissing her petition for judicial review of the decision of appellee, the Arkansas Alcoholic Beverage Control Board (Board), on the basis that she lacked standing. Gildehaus also contests the circuit court's alternative ruling that even if she did have standing, it would affirm the findings of the Board. For reversal, Gildehaus argues that (1) the circuit...
ROBIN F. WYNNE , Associate Justice . Chuck Lange and Bill Walmsley, Individually and on behalf of Committee to Protect Arkansas Values/Stop Casinos Now, filed an original action in this court challenging the Arkansas Secretary of State's certification of a proposed amendment to allow three casinos to operate in Arkansas for the November 8, 2016 general election ballot. The complaint contains three counts. Counts I and II challenge the ballot title of the proposed amendment. Count III...
KAREN R. BAKER , Associate Justice . Petitioners, Chuck Lange and Bill Walmsley, Individually, and on Behalf of Committee to Protect Arkansas' Values/Stop Casinos Now ("Lange"), bring this original action challenging the legal sufficiency of the ballot title for Issue No. 5, a proposed constitutional amendment with the popular name "An Amendment to Allow Three Casinos to Operate In Arkansas, One Each In the Following Counties: Boone County, Operated by Arkansas Gaming and Resorts, LLC;...
ROBIN F. WYNNE , Associate Justice . On December 3, 2015, pursuant to Rule 6-8 of the Rules of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals of the State of Arkansas, this court accepted certification of the following question of law: Under Arkansas's tort of conversion, can intangible property such as electronic data, standing alone and not deemed a trade secret, be converted Integrated Direct Mktg., LLC v. May, 2015 Ark. 454 (per curiam). As explained below, we answer this question in the...
COURTNEY HUDSON GOODSON , Associate Justice . Petitioners Capital SeniorCare Ventures, LLC, et al. ("Capital SeniorCare") seek a writ of certiorari to the Pulaski County Circuit Court to quash proceedings in that court. In support of the petition, Capital SeniorCare argues that the circuit court proceedings against it are irregular and erroneous on the face of the record because the plaintiff in the lawsuit has commenced three actions alleging the same claims and injuries in violation of...
KAREN R. BAKER , Associate Justice . On December 17, 2013, the appellee Arkansas Department of Human Services ("DHS") took a seventy-two-hour hold on Priscilla Ponder's children, A.P., E.P., and J.P. after the death of L.C., a sibling. Ponder is the appellant in this matter. DHS and A.P., E.P., and J.P. are joint appellees in this appeal and will be referred to collectively as "DHS." The children were removed from the home, and A.P. was placed with one set of relatives and E.P. and J.P....
KAREN R. BAKER , Associate Justice . This appeal stems from a petition to terminate a permanent guardianship. Appellant, Temika Donley, and appellee, Lakitcher ("Kisha") Donley, are half sisters. Temika appeals the order of the Pulaski County Circuit Court denying her petition to terminate Kisha's guardianship over Temika's daughter, M.B. I. Facts and Procedural History On April 9, 2012, Kisha filed a petition for temporary guardianship of M.B. and a motion for an expedited hearing. The...
RHONDA K. WOOD , Associate Justice . Appellants, Courtyard Gardens Health and Rehabilitation, LLC and others ("collectively Courtyard"), appeal from a circuit court order denying their motion to dismiss and compel arbitration of the claims brought against them by appellee, Patricia Ann Sheffield, as special administrator of the estate of Maylissia Holliman, deceased. For reversal, Courtyard contends first that the circuit court erroneously ruled that Johnathan Mitchell, Holliman's emergency...
KAREN R. BAKER , Associate Justice This appeal stems from the termination of parental rights of appellant, Chris Taffner, and separate appellant, Anita Taffner, of their five adopted children. N.T., A.T., B.T., K.T., and J.T. Appellee, the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS), initiated dependency neglect proceedings and ultimately termination of parental rights proceedings. Chris and Anita Taffner are the adoptive parents of five children who came to their home through foster-care...
KAREN R. BAKER , Associate Justice . Appellant, Gerber Products Company d/b/a Nestl Infant Nutrition d/b/a Nestl Nutrition USA d/b/a Nestl Nutrition USA-Infant Nutrition d/b/a Nestl Nutrition USA-Performance Nutrition ("Gerber") appeals the Sebastian County Circuit Court's January 23, 2015 order granting partial summary judgment in favor of appellees in their case alleging Gerber's liability for failure to pay certain overtime wages in violation of the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act ("...
HOWARD W. BRILL , Chief Justice . This appeal arises from a dispute between a father and his son over the ownership of Chicot County farmland. The father, appellant George M. Stokes, Sr. ("George"), appeals an order of the Chicot County Circuit Court, denying and dismissing George's motion to set aside title in the farmland and awarding attorney's fees to his son, appellee Mason F. Stokes ("Mason"). For reversal, George argues that the circuit court erred (1) by denying his constitutional...
COURTNEY HUDSON GOODSON , Associate Justice . The present case involves two questions of law certified to us by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas, Western Division, in accordance with Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 6-8. The certified questions arise from a complaint for declaratory judgment filed in the federal court by petitioners Columbia Insurance Group, Inc., and Columbia Mutual Insurance Co. (Columbia) to determine its obligations under the Commercial...
ROBIN F. WYNNE , Associate Justice . Tom Muccio, Mike Muccio, and Next Chapter Resources, LLC, appeal from an order of the Pulaski County Circuit Court granting summary judgment in favor of appellees Johnelle Hunt, Phil Phillips, David Schumacher, Trey Trumbo, Johnelle Hunt, LLC, Phil and Judy Phillips Family Limited Partnership, LLLP, and Big Horn Lodge Financing, LLC. We affirm. In 2012, appellants sued appellees in the Pulaski County Circuit Court, alleging causes of action for civil...
PAUL E. DANIELSON , Associate Justice . This case involves a question of law certified to this court by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in accordance with Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 6-8 and accepted by this court on September 17, 2015. See Mendoza v. WIS Int'l, Inc., 2015 Ark. 321. The certified question is: Under the facts of this case, does Arkansas Code Annotated section 27-37-703, which restricts the admissibility of seat belt-nonuse evidence...
JOSEPHINE LINKER HART , Associate Justice . Richard H. Ashley and J.D. Ashley, Jr., as the personal representatives of the estate of J.D. Ashley, Sr.; Candace Baughman; and the estate of Charolette Ashley, deceased (the Ashleys) appeal from the circuit court's nunc pro tunc order addressing deficiencies in an earlier order it had issued granting an extension of time for lodging the record in Todd H. Ashley's appeal. On cross-appeal, Todd Ashley appeals from the circuit court's probate order...
PAUL E. DANIELSON , Associate Justice . Appellant Southwest Power Pool, Inc. ("SPP"), appeals an order of summary judgment entered in favor of appellee Kanis and Denny Roads Suburban Water Improvement District No. 349 of Pulaski County ("the District"). On appeal, SPP argues that the Pulaski County Circuit Court erred in granting summary judgment on SPP's challenge to the reasonableness of an assessment of benefits and accompanying levy of taxes. We reverse and remand. The District was...
RHONDA K. WOOD , Associate Justice . Covenant Presbytery appeals from a Mississippi County Circuit Court's order which applied the doctrine of cy pres to reform a trust. On direct appeal, Covenant Presbytery argues first that the circuit court erred in applying the cy pres doctrine because there was no charitable trust and because the gift to First Presbyterian vested upon the settlor's death. Second, it argues that, if the circuit court was correct to apply cy pres, then the court's...
JOSEPHINE LINKER HART , Associate Justice . In Bank of the Ozarks, Inc. v. Walker, 2014 Ark. 223 , 434 S.W.3d 357 , the circuit court denied the motion of appellants Bank of the Ozarks, Inc., and Bank of the Ozarks (Ozarks) to compel the arbitration of a class-action complaint filed by appellees, Robert Walker, Ann B. Hines, and Judith Belk on the ground that the arbitration provision in the account agreement between Ozarks and the appellees was unconscionable. This court reversed and...
COURTNEY HUDSON GOODSON , Associate Justice . Appellant Kenny Quarles, as Special Administrator of the Estate of Bennie Jean Quarles, deceased, and on behalf of the wrongful-death beneficiaries of Bennie Jean Quarles, deceased (the Estate) appeals the order entered by the Circuit Court of Clark County granting the motion for summary judgment filed by appellees Courtyard Gardens Health and Rehabilitation, LLC, and others (Courtyard Gardens). For reversal, the Estate contends that the circuit...
ROBIN F. WYNNE , Associate Justice . At issue in this appeal is Act 766 of 2013, known as the Arkansas Peer Review Fairness Act (the Act). Act of Apr. 5, 2013, No. 766, 2013 Ark. Acts 2890 (codified at Ark.Code Ann. 20-9-1301 (Repl. 2014)). Before the Pulaski County Circuit Court, the case was decided on competing motions for summary judgment. The hospitals appealed, and the defendants cross-appealed. The Arkansas Hospital Association and the Arkansas Medical Society have filed amicus...
