PIERCE, Justice, for the Court: 1. On July 7, 2006, a fire occurred at the apartment building rented by Paul Booker Whittington, Jr., and Westbrook Cooper (Plaintiffs). Whittington died from injuries he sustained in the fire, while Cooper was injured but survived. The building was owned by William Lipscomb, and it was located on the same property as Lipscomb's residence. Plaintiffs sued Lipscomb in tort and amended their complaint to seek declaratory judgment against Lipscomb's insurer, the...
CHANDLER, Justice, for the Court: 1. On May 6, 2010, sixteen death-sentenced inmates, including Steve Knox, Michelle Byrom, Blayde Grayson, Benny Joe Stevens, Gerald Holland, Jan Michael Brawner, Rodney Gray, Jeffrey Havard, Richard Jordan, Thong Le, Willie Manning, William Mitchell, Stephen Powers, Larry Matthew Puckett, Gary Carl Simmons, and Alan Dale Walker (the inmates), filed a complaint in the Chancery Court for the First Judicial District of Hinds County. 1 The essence of the...
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI CHANDLER, Justice, for the Court: 1. On February 27, 2009, Arvin Phillip Johnson was convicted of possession of cocaine and sentenced to sixteen years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, with nine years suspended, five years of post-release supervision, and a $3,000 fine. 1 The Court of Appeals affirmed Johnson's conviction and sentence. Johnson v. State, 49 So.3d 130 , 138 (Miss. Ct.App.2010). Johnson petitioned this Court for a writ of...
KING, Justice, for the Court: 1. This case comes before the Court on interlocutory appeal from the Bolivar County Circuit Court. The matter arises from a shooting which occurred in the parking lot of a Double Quick convenience store. We must determine whether the trial court erred in failing to apply premises-liability law and denying Double Quick, Inc.'s motion for summary judgment. Finding that the trial court erred, we hereby reverse and render a judgment of dismissal in Double Quick's...
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI LAMAR, Justice, for the Court: 1. In this certiorari case, we consider whether the Mayor and the Batesville Board of Aldermen (collectively the "Board") erred in granting a variance to allow mining in an area zoned single-family residential and community business. The Mississippi Court of Appeals found that it had and reversed and rendered. However, its opinion provided little discussion of the applicable zoning ordinance governing variances. That ordinance allows the...
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI DICKINSON, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. Justin David Shaffer was convicted of child-exploitation for soliciting sex from a twenty-nine-year-old female who he thought was thirteen. He argued to the Court of Appeals that he could not be guilty of child-exploitation because no child had been involved in the sting. The Court of Appeals agreed, but reversed and remanded for Shaffer to be sentenced for attempted child-exploitation—a crime for which he was neither...
RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court: 1. This interlocutory appeal proceeds from an order of the Circuit Court of Harrison County, Mississippi, First Judicial District, which granted the "Motions to Compel Arbitration" of Pass Marianne, LLC ("Pass") and Alfonso Realty, Inc. ("Alfonso"). On appeal, this Court considers (1) whether Pass waived its right to arbitration, and (2) whether a principal's waiver of its contractual right to arbitrate operates to waive that right for its agent. FACTS...
WALLER, Chief Justice, for the Court: 1. Plaintiff Pamela Lynn Lawson appeals the trial court's grants of summary judgment to the defendant, Honeywell International, Inc., on Lawson's Mississippi Products Liability Act ("MPLA") claim and her negligence claim arising from injuries Lawson sustained when her seatbelt buckle allegedly malfunctioned during an automobile accident. We affirm the trial court's grant of summary judgment as to Lawson's MPLA claim, as Honeywell is not the "manufacturer"...
RANDOLPH, Justice, for the Court: 1. The Secretary of State of Mississippi ("State") and the City of Ocean Springs ("Ocean Springs") bring this appeal. The Hinds County Chancery Court enjoined the construction of a sidewalk along the beach, adjacent to the seawall, on property claimed by Gunn and Harris in Ocean Springs. This Court must determine whether the chancellor erred in granting the permanent injunction. The State and Ocean Springs assert that the chancellor erred in issuing the...
CARLSON, PRESIDING JUSTICE, FOR THE COURT: 1. Sylvia Montgomery filed suit against the Mississippi Transportation Commission (Commission) in the Circuit Court of Yazoo County 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). See Miss. Code Ann. 11-46-9(1) (Rev. 2002). The...
LAMAR, Justice, for the Court: 1. Richard Compere appeals the trial court's dismissal with prejudice and 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. We find the trial court erred in dismissing the second...
KING, Justice, for the Court: 1. The Mississippi Tax Commission (Commission) 1 assessed a contractor's tax against Walter D. Akins, d/b/a Akins Construction Company. Akins challenged the assessment administratively. After exhausting his administrative remedies, Akins appealed to the Chancery Court for the First Judicial District of Hinds County. The chancellor dismissed his complaint for failure to comply with Mississippi Code Section 27-77-7 (Rev.2005), 2 which requires a taxpayer seeking...
PIERCE, Justice, for the Court: 1. This is an interlocutory appeal from the denial of a motion to sever and transfer venue. Plaintiffs Hattie Douglas ("Douglas"), Kevin Hamlin, and the victim's five siblings (collectively, "plaintiffs") filed a complaint in the Circuit Court of Hinds County against Sunshine Medical Clinic; Dr. Vibha Vig, in her official and personal capacities; Lisa Hoehn, nurse practitioner, in her official and personal capacities (collectively "medical-negligence...
CARLSON, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. Roger Eric Thorson was indicted on June 3, 1987, and charged with the capital murder of Gloria McKinney, his ex-girlfriend, during the commission of a kidnapping on March 4, 1987. On Thorson's direct appeal of his capital-murder conviction and sentence of death, this Court affirmed the trial court on all issues except a Batson issue, and the case was remanded to the trial court to conduct a Batson hearing. 1 Thorson v. State, 653 So.2d...
WALLER, Chief Justice, for the Court: 1. Amanda Goforth, a former high-school teacher, was indicted on five counts of sexual battery involving one of her former students. She was convicted on two counts and acquitted on the remaining three. Because we find that Goforth was not afforded a constitutionally adequate opportunity to confront one of the witnesses against her, we reverse. Further, we find that Goforth's conviction and sentence must be reversed and rendered. Any subsequent...
EN BANC. DICKINSON, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. Two girls sued the City of Jackson, Mississippi, after they were molested in a public park operated by the City. The City moved for summary judgment, arguing that it was immune from suit. The trial court denied the motion. Because the City's operation of the park was a discretionary function, we granted the City's petition for interlocutory appeal and now reverse the trial court and render judgment for the City. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL...
EN BANC. LAMAR, Justice, for the Court: 1. David Waide filed an Initiative 1 with Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, and Hosemann has approved it for placement on the November 2011 general election ballot. 2. Leland Speed filed a complaint against Hosemann in the Hinds County Circuit Court, along with a Motion for Expedited Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, asking the court to declare Initiative 31 unconstitutional and to enjoin Hosemann from placing it on the ballot....
KITCHENS, Justice, for the Court: 1. In this appeal, we are asked to determine whether the statute of limitations barred an action against a casino for its alleged involvement in an embezzlement scheme. Finding that the plaintiff failed to provide any evidence of fraudulent concealment by the casino, we agree with the trial court that the statute of limitations had run at the time the suit was filed. Furthermore, because the plaintiff did not properly request a continuance for further...
PIERCE, Justice, for the Court: 1. In November 2008, P. Leslie Riley and an organization known as Personhood Mississippi filed an initiative, now known as Measure 26, with the Office of the Secretary of State. The initiative was qualified by the Secretary of the State to be placed on the general-election ballot. Thereafter, Deborah Hughes and Cristen Hemmins ("Plaintiffs") filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief in Hinds County Circuit Court against Secretary of State...
CARLSON, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. Bernice Conner filed a medical-negligence suit against Mid-South Retina, LLC. The County Court of Coahoma County originally granted summary judgment in favor of Mid-South, finding that Conner had failed to establish the necessary element of causation. The trial court then reversed its judgment upon reconsideration and denied Mid-South's motion for summary judgment. Aggrieved, Mid-South filed a petition for interlocutory appeal, and we granted the...
