RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court: 1. In this premises-liability case, the jury was presented with starkly conflicting stories about the facts surrounding the rape of L.R., an eleven-year-old girl, at Federation Tower, an apartment building where her father lived. As a result of the rape, L.R. was impregnated by Tony Kelly and gave birth to a normal, healthy child. L.R.'s father and mother brought suit, individually and on behalf of L.R., against the building owner, Mississippi State...
RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court: 1. On June 9, 2007, eighty-seven-year-old Myrtice Edwards died at Tallahatchie General Hospital and Extended Care Facility ("TGH"), a community hospital. In October 2007, Edwards's daughter and son, Susan Edwards Howe and Wayne Edwards ("Edwards"), sent a notice of claim and letter to the Tallahatchie County chancery clerk and the attorney for the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors, asserting a wrongful-death claim against Tallahatchie County. The...
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI WALLER, Chief Justice, for the Court: 1. The Court of Appeals reversed Cory J. Maye's conviction for capital murder and remanded for a new trial, finding that the trial court had violated Maye's constitutional right to be tried in the county where the offense occurred. We granted both the State's and Maye's petitions for certiorari. Finding that the circuit court improperly denied Maye's requested defense-of-others jury instruction, we vacate the Court of Appeals'...
RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court: 1. Aggrieved by the Jackson City Council's decision to award a contract to Jackson Water Partnership ("JWP"), United Water Services and its affiliate, United Water Services of Mississippi, LLC (collectively "UWS"), appealed the City Council's decision, pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 11-51-75 (Rev.2002), in the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi. JWP filed a motion to intervene, which the circuit court denied. JWP...
KITCHENS, Justice, for the Court: 1. This case involves an alleged breach of contract and bad-faith denial of a homeowners' insurance claim following Hurricane Katrina. The jury awarded the plaintiffs more than $900,000 in compensatory damages, but the trial judge directed a verdict in favor of the defendant on the issue of punitive damages. USAA appealed and the Lisanbys cross-appealed. Because the defendant demonstrated an arguable basis for its denial of claims, the trial judge erred in...
GRAVES, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. A long history of litigation involves the management of a county hospital and nursing facility by Corporate Management, Inc. (CMI), 1 a medical management company, and Greene County, Mississippi, through its Board of Supervisors and Board of Trustees (Trustees). 2 CMI now appeals from a March 9, 2009, order, in which the special chancellor determined that it had limited jurisdiction to enforce the terms of the Transition Order, and that certain...
LAMAR, Justice, for the Court: 1. Kristi Fulgham was convicted of capital murder 1 and sentenced to death for killing her husband, Joey Fulgham. 2 Fulgham claims numerous errors at the guilt and sentencing phases of her trial. We find merit in one assignment of error: The trial court committed reversible error by limiting mitigation evidence. Specifically, the court erred by refusing to allow social worker Adrienne Dorsey-Kidd to testify to her observations as mitigating evidence at the...
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING PIERCE, Justice, for the Court: 1. The motion for rehearing is denied. The previous opinions are withdrawn and this opinion is substituted therefor. 2. This appeal arises from a medical-negligence action arising out of the care and treatment of Shelia Regan at South Central Regional Medical Center ("the Hospital") on or about December 5, 2003. The trial court granted the Hospital's Motion for Summary Judgment and dismissed the suit on November 27, 2007, due to...
DICKINSON, Justice, for the Court: 1. After falling down steps at a state agency's fund-raising event, the plaintiff filed suit alleging negligence. Because the agency—in promoting the event—was immune from tort liability, we must reverse the trial court's denial of the agency's motion for summary judgment. BACKGROUND 2. The Mississippi Department of Mental Health ("MDMH") operates the Ellisville State School, a school for persons who suffer from mental retardation. In 2004, the school's...
KITCHENS, Justice, for the Court: 1. Charles Barry filed this legal malpractice action against his former attorney, John R. Reeves. After the case had been pending for nearly seven and one-half years, the trial court granted Reeves's motion to dismiss the case for failure to prosecute, and Barry appeals that ruling. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. In the underlying medical malpractice case upon which this legal malpractice suit is based, John R. Reeves represented Charles Barry and...
RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court: 1. The premises-liability case before the Court today is an appeal from a substantial verdict in favor of the wrongful-death beneficiaries of Crystal Coleman. It was brought by Dwight English, the father of the youngest child of Crystal, charging that the managers and owners of Rebelwood Apartments ("Rebelwood"), an apartment complex in South Jackson, failed to provide adequate security. The suit was filed in January 2008 and tried in January 2009. 2....
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI LAMAR, Justice, for the Court: 1. Demarious Banyard was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Banyard appealed, claiming, among other things, that the trial court erred when it refused his proffered duress instruction. Finding that Banyard was entitled to have an instruction given the jury which presented his theory of the case, we reverse and remand for a new trial. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2....
CHANDLER, Justice, for the Court: 1. This case is before the Court on interlocutory appeal. After a mistrial and prior to a retrial on the matter, the trial court denied the Burnwatts' renewed motion to exclude an expert witness's testimony. Following that decision, the Burnwatts petitioned this Court for an interlocutory appeal. 2. On July 28, 2001, Alex Burnwatt (Alex) had a tonsillectomy at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi (BMH-NM). At the time of the procedure, Alex was...
PIERCE, Justice, for the Court: 1. This appeal arises from the trial court's grant of summary judgment in an action between an attorney and his former clients. Gloria Thompson and Deborah Dixon sued attorney Herbert Lee, Jr., who represented them in diet-drug litigation, for breach of contract, tortious breach of contract, failure to accurately refund their portion of a multi-district litigation fee, and under the theory of quantum meruit. The trial court granted partial summary judgment to...
GRAVES, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. After a large number of its former employees sued Illinois Central Railroad Company ("ICRR"), alleging occupational exposure to asbestos, plaintiffs' counsel and ICRR's counsel met to discuss the possibility of a settlement. Although the parties dispute exactly what transpired at the meeting, they agree that ICRR later sent settlement checks to a substantial majority of the 216 plaintiffs after receiving signed releases and other pertinent...
GRAVES, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. Corporate Management, Inc. (CMI) is a private hospital and nursing home administrator that managed the Greene Rural Health Center (GRHC), the public hospital and nursing home in Greene County. CMI sued Greene County Board of Supervisors and others for breach of contract when the Greene County Board of Supervisors purported to terminate CMI's contract to manage GRHC. The Greene County Board of Supervisors retained Heber Simmons and Simmons Law...
KITCHENS, Justice, for the Court: 1. Appellants Wendy Ryals and Ronald Perry each own inner tube, canoe, and kayak rental businesses on the Bogue Chitto River and Topisaw Creek in Pike County. After the Pike County Board of Supervisors enacted an ordinance prohibiting the possession and consumption of alcoholic beverages on portions of the two waterways, Ryals and Perry filed a bill of exceptions in the Pike County Circuit Court. Aggrieved by the circuit court's dismissal of the bill of...
CHANDLER, Justice, for the Court: 1. We are asked to determine whether a trial court erred by denying an amended motion for relief from and to set aside an agreed judgment pursuant to Mississippi Rule of Civil Procedure 60(b). Eldon Ladner (Ladner) and his daughter Regina Ladner Davenport (Davenport) entered into a substitute agreed judgment (agreed judgment) signed October 28, 2008, nunc pro tunc to October 14, 2008, and filed in the Chancery Court of Stone County, Mississippi. Ladner and...
WALLER, Chief Justice, for the Court: 1. Dennis C. Sweet, III, and his wife, Kimberly Noel-Sweet, filed suit against TCI MS Investment, Inc., alleging breach of contract by TCI after it failed to purchase a building from the Sweets. The Chancery Court of Hinds County granted summary judgment for TCI. Because summary judgment was based wholly on a self-serving, conclusory affidavit, we reverse and remand. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. Dennis and Kimberly Sweet purchased a commercial...
CARLSON, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. Calvin and Jamie Danos, individually and as guardians and next friends of Laura Matherne, a minor, Gavin Danos, a minor, and Marissa Danos, a minor (the Danoses), filed a petition for writ of certiorari after the Court of Appeals reversed the Lamar County Circuit Court's judgment entered in their favor against Flagstar Bank, FSB (Flagstar), and rendered judgment in favor of Flagstar. Having granted certiorari, we now reverse the judgment of the...
