OPINION ANDY D. BENNETT , J. 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. The trial court found that Employee suffered work-related injuries to both shoulders and awarded twenty percent permanent partial disability to the body as a whole. Employer argues that the trial court erred in finding that Employee suffered a...
OPINION Sharon G. Lee , C.J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Cornelia A. Clark , Jeffrey S. Bivins , and Holly Kirby , JJ. , joined. The petitioner appeals from a decision of the Board of Law Examiners denying his application to take the Tennessee bar examination. The denial was based on Mr. Chong's noncompliance with Supreme Court Rule 7, section 7.01. We affirm the judgment of the Board of Law Examiners. I. In December 2013, Daniel Sungkook Chong, a resident of South...
OPINION Cornelia A. Clark , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Sharon G. Lee, C.J., and Jeffrey S. Bivins and Holly Kirby, JJ., joined. We granted this appeal to determine whether a party filing a motion under Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1 ("Rule 36.1") states a colorable claim for relief for correction of an illegal sentence by alleging that the trial court increased his sentence above the statutory presumptive minimum sentence but failed to find enhancement...
OPINION BEN H. CANTRELL, Sr. , Judge . Employee aggravated a pre-existing asymptomatic condition in her shoulder while working for Employer and failed to make a meaningful return to work. The trial court found employee to be 100 percent disabled and awarded permanent total disability benefits. Employer appealed, 1 arguing that the trial court erred in determining that employee sustained a compensable injury in the absence of anatomical change and in awarding employee permanent total...
OPINION Cornelia A. Clark , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Sharon G. Lee, C.J., and Jeffrey S. Bivins and Holly Kirby, JJ., joined. We granted this appeal to determine whether Tennessee Rule of Criminal Procedure 36.1 ("Rule 36.1") permits parties to seek correction of expired illegal sentences. We hold that Rule 36.1 does not expand the scope of relief available for illegal sentence claims and therefore does not authorize the correction of expired illegal sentences. We...
OPINION JEFFREY S. BIVINS , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which >SHARON G. LEE, C.J., and CORNELIA A. CLARK, GARY R. WADE, and HOLLY KIRBY, JJ., joined. We granted permission to appeal in this case to determine whether The Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee ("Metro") has standing to file a petition for a writ of certiorari against The Board of Zoning Appeals of Nashville and Davidson County, Tennessee ("BZA") in chancery court in order to...
OPINION HOLLY KIRBY , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SHARON G. LEE, C.J., and CORNELIA A. CLARK, GARY R. WADE, and JEFFREY S. BIVINS, JJ., joined. We granted permission to appeal to address whether exhaustion of administrative remedies is required in this lawsuit brought by a hospital against a TennCare managed care organization (MCO). The hospital alleged in its complaint that the MCO had not paid the hospital all of the monies due for emergency services provided to the...
OPINION CORNELIA A. CLARK , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SHARON G. LEE, C.J., and GARY R. WADE, JEFFREY S. BIVINS, and HOLLY KIRBY, JJ., joined. We granted this appeal to determine whether the courts below erred in concluding that the mother must be afforded relief from a void default judgment terminating her parental rights even though she did not seek relief from the void judgment under Rule 60.02(3) of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure until more than eight...
OPINION Cornelia A. Clark , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Sharon G. Lee, C.J., and Gary R. Wade, Jeffrey S. Bivins, and Holly Kirby, JJ., joined. We granted review in this health care liability action to decide whether the trial court erred by failing to apply this Court's analysis in Estate of French v. Stratford House, 333 S.W.3d 546 (Tenn. 2011), in determining whether it was necessary for plaintiffs to provide pre-suit notice and a certificate of good faith...
OPINION Gary R. Wade , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Sharon G. Lee, C.J., and Cornelia A. Clark, Jeffrey S. Bivins, and Holly Kirby, JJ. joined. Five groups of Pennsylvania-domiciled insurance companies filed complaints in the Tennessee Claims Commission seeking a refund of retaliatory taxes paid under protest. The Commissioner entered judgments denying the requested refunds, and the insurance companies appealed. The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgments. We granted...
OPINION GARY R. WADE , J. An employee sustained various injuries in a motor vehicle accident. Her employer denied the claim for workers' compensation benefits, contending that because the employee was driving to her home from work, the injury was not compensable. The trial court awarded benefits, including permanent total disability, based upon its finding that at the time of the accident the employee was returning to her office after an employment-related client visit. The employer has...
OPINION Holly Kirby , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Sharon G. Lee, C.J., Cornelia A. Clark, and Jeffrey S. Bivins, JJ., joined. In this appeal, the claimant seeks to toll the statute of limitations on his claim against a municipality based on two statutes: (1) Tennessee Code Annotated 20-1-119, the 90-day "window" in Tennessee's comparative fault statute to name a non-party defendant as a comparative tortfeasor, and (2) Tennessee Code Annotated 9-8-402(b), the...
OPINION JEFFREY S. BIVINS , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which CORNELIA A. CLARK and HOLLY KIRBY, JJ., joined. SHARON G. LEE, C.J., filed a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part, in which GARY R. WADE, J., joined. In this capital case, the jury convicted the Defendant, Rickey Alvis Bell, Jr., of two alternative counts of first degree felony murder, one count of especially aggravated kidnapping, and one count of aggravated sexual battery. The jury...
OPINION PAUL G. SUMMERS, Sr. , J. The trial court found that Employee, a utility technician, suffered a work-related injury to his left hand and awarded thirty percent vocational disability. Employer has appealed, contending the trial court erred in awarding benefits for an injury to Employee's left hand rather than to his left index finger. This appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel for a hearing and a report of findings of fact and conclusions of...
OPINION CORNELIA A. CLARK , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SHARON G. LEE, C.J., and GARY R. WADE, JEFFREY S. BIVINS, and HOLLY KIRBY, JJ., joined. We granted permission to appeal to address two issues: (1) Whether the Governmental Tort Liability Act ("GTLA"), Tenn. Code Ann. 29-20-101 to -408 (2012 & Supp.2014), applies to Tennessee Public Protection Act ("TPPA"), Tenn.Code Ann. 50-1-304 (2008 & Supp.2009), claims against governmental entities; and (2) If the GTLA...
OPINION Sharon G. Lee , C.J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Cornelia A. Clark, Gary R. Wade, Jeffrey S. Bivins, and Holly Kirby, JJ., joined. We accepted a question of law certified by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee to determine whether a job applicant has a cause of action under the Tennessee Workers' Compensation Act against a prospective employer for failure to hire if the prospective employer failed to hire the job applicant...
OPINION CORNELIA A. CLARK , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SHARON G. LEE, C.J., JEFFREY S. BIVINS, and HOLLY KIRBY, JJ., joined. GARY R. WADE, J., filed a dissenting opinion. The dispositive issue in this appeal is whether an inaccuracy in the prosecution's election of offenses amounted to plain error that entitles the defendant to relief. Although the Court of Criminal Appeals erred by failing to subject the election issue to plain error analysis, we hold, after...
OPINION SHARON G. LEE , C.J. A truck driver alleged that he sustained a heart attack in the course and scope of his employment. His employer denied the claim, asserting that the heart attack was not caused by his employment. The trial court ruled that the claim was compensable and awarded the truck driver workers' compensation benefits. The employer has appealed. Pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 51, the appeal was referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel for a...
OPINION CORNELIA A. CLARK , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which SHARON G. LEE , C.J. , and GARY R. WADE , JEFFREY S. BIVINS , and HOLLY KIRBY , JJ. , joined. We granted this extraordinary appeal to determine whether, in this declaratory judgment action, the death-sentenced inmates' claims challenging the constitutionality of a 2014 statute that designated electrocution as an alternative method of execution and the constitutionality of electrocution as a means of...
OPINION Gary R. Wade , J. , delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Sharon G. Lee , C.J. , and Cornelia A. Clark , Jeffrey S. Bivins , and Holly Kirby , JJ. , joined. A railroad employee who was diagnosed with lung cancer filed suit against the railroad under the Federal Employers' Liability Act, alleging that the railroad had negligently exposed him to asbestos, diesel exhaust fumes, and radioactive materials, all of which were contributing causes to his illness. The employee...
