MEMORANDUM OPINION WALTER C. KURTZ, SENIOR JUDGE. The employee injured her back at work and the injury required surgical treatment. The employee returned to work but was later terminated for violation of her employer's attendance and absenteeism policy. The trial court found the employee did not have a meaningful return to work. The trial court, however, adopted the impairment rating that the employee's evaluating physician expressed and awarded 90% permanent partial disability benefits, the...
OPINION JANICE M. HOLDER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., and GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. A construction company entered into a contract with the State of Tennessee to restructure an interstate interchange. The contract provides that the contract completion date "may be extended in accordance with the Standard Specifications, however, no incentive payment will be made if work is not completed in its entirety by...
OPINION CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. We granted permission to appeal in this post-conviction capital case to consider whether the courts below erred in holding that the state and federal constitutional right against self-incrimination does not afford a post-conviction petitioner who chooses to testify the right to limit the scope of the State's cross-examination....
OPINION WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. This appeal involves the assertion of the qualified immunity defense in a 42 U.S.C. 1983 (2008) action filed in state court. A registered nurse employed at a state psychiatric facility publicly disagreed with a change in the facility's procedures for administering prescription medications at night and on the weekend. When the facility declined to change its...
OPINION WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., GARY R. WADE, and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. JANICE M. HOLDER, J., filed a separate concurring opinion. This appeal involves a disciplinary proceeding against a Memphis lawyer who pleaded guilty in the Criminal Court for Shelby County to facilitating the felonious violation of the Tennessee Securities Act. After a Board of Professional Responsibility hearing panel recommended that he be...
MEMORANDUM OPINION GARY R. WADE, JUSTICE. Pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 51 and Tennessee Code Annotated Section 50-6-225(e)(3), this appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Panel. In this instance, an employee was injured when he tripped and fell over boxes while loading a truck. The employer, who contended that the injury was an aggravation of a pre-existing condition, requested two independent medical evaluations, the second of which the employee refused to...
OPINION JANICE M. HOLDER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., and GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. The defendant was indicted for a murder that occurred nearly ten years prior to his arrest. The defendant's theory of the case implicated two other men as the individuals responsible for the murder. These men previously had been tried and acquitted of the murder. Over the objection of the defendant, the State introduced...
OPINION SHARON G. LEE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., GARY R. WADE, and WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., JJ., joined. The issue presented in this case is whether the employee's complaint states a cause of action for relief under the Tennessee Public Protection Act. The employee, hired as a university professor and department head, filed suit against the university after he was removed as department head. On motion of the university, the trial court concluded...
OPINION JANICE M. HOLDER, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. In these two cases, consolidated for oral argument, defendants entered guilty pleas to one count in their respective indictments in exchange for dismissal of other counts. In both cases, the trial court denied their subsequent requests for expungement of the dismissed charges. Both defendants filed petitions for writ of certiorari. The Court of...
OPINION SHARON G. LEE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, and GARY R. WADE, JJ., joined. WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., filed a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. JANICE M. HOLDER, J., filed a separate concurring opinion. In medical malpractice actions, Tennessee adheres to a locality rule for expert medical witnesses. Claimants are required by statute to prove by expert testimony the recognized standard of...
OPINION CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. GARY R. WADE, J., filed a separate opinion in which JANICE M. HOLDER, J., joined. We granted this appeal to determine if the defendant's four sentences for aggravated rape are illegal because each of the four uniform judgment documents designates the defendant as a "Multiple 35% Range 2" offender and does not designate the defendant as a "Multiple Rapist."...
OPINION WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, GARY R. WADE, and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. This appeal involves a claim under Tennessee's False Claims Act. A local vendor of termite control services became suspicious that two of its competitors had overbilled Knox County for termite control services provided to Knox County's public schools. After confirming its suspicions by obtaining and reviewing public records...
OPINION SHARON G. LEE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, and GARY R. WADE, JJ., joined. The plaintiffs, former employees of the Chattanooga Housing Authority ("CHA"), brought retaliatory discharge actions against the CHA and the Chief of the CHA Public Safety Department, pursuant to the Tennessee Public Protection Act, Tennessee Code Annotated section 50-1-304 (2008 & Supp.2010), and the Tennessee Human Rights Act ("THRA"), Tennessee...
OPINION GARY R. WADE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. In separate trials, the petitioner was convicted of aggravated rape for an incident occurring in March of 1980 and of aggravated rape and robbery by use of a deadly weapon for an incident occurring in May of the same year. In 2007, the petitioner sought to have deoxyribonucleic acid ("DNA") analysis performed on the remaining...
OPINION CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. In this direct appeal of a judicial disciplinary proceeding, we are asked to review the Court of the Judiciary's decision that Cocke County General Sessions Court Judge John A. Bell violated various canons of the Tennessee Code of Judicial Conduct, resulting in sanctions that included a ninety-day suspension. The Court of the...
MEMORANDUM OPINION JANICE M. HOLDER, JUSTICE. An employee sustained an injury to his shoulder at work. After a surgical repair, he briefly returned to work but was laid off prior to reaching maximum medical improvement. He filed a complaint in chancery court seeking workers' compensation benefits from his employer. His treating physician assigned no impairment rating and placed no restrictions on his activities. An evaluating physician assigned 6% impairment to the body as a whole and...
OPINION GARY R. WADE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. After being injured when he jumped out of the path of a front-end loader owned by a governmental entity and operated by its employee, the plaintiff filed suit, claiming that the employee either was negligent in his operation of the equipment or had acted intentionally and that the governmental entity was liable under the...
OPINION WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, GARY R. WADE, and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. This appeal raises the issue of whether a contract for the sale of an interest in a corporation and related indemnity agreements are unenforceable because they are contrary to public policy. The sellers of the corporate interest filed suit against the purchasers in the Chancery Court for Williamson County seeking damages for...
OPINION CORNELIA A. CLARK, C.J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which JANICE M. HOLDER, GARY R. WADE, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined. We granted the defendant's application for permission to appeal in this post-conviction proceeding to determine whether the defendant received ineffective assistance of counsel in conjunction with his guilty pleas to multiple sex offenses, because his counsel did not inform him about the mandatory lifetime community supervision...
MEMORANDUM OPINION JON KERRY BLACKWOOD, Senior Judge. Pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 51, this workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel for a hearing and a report of findings of fact and conclusions of law. In this action, Stanley Jenkins ("Employee") sustained a compensable injury to his left leg in the course and scope of his employment with Yellow Transportation, Inc. ("Yellow Transportation"). Employee settled his workers'...
