COURTNEY HUDSON GOODSON, Justice. Appellants Bayer CropScience LP; Bayer CropScience Holding, Inc.; Bayer CropScience AG; Bayer AG; and Bayer BioScience NV (collectively "Bayer") appeal the judgment entered by the Circuit Court of Lonoke County awarding $5,975,605 in compensatory damages and $42,000,000 in punitive damages to appellees, who are the following rice farmers or farming entities: Randy Schafer; End of the Road Farms, Inc.; Schafer Planting Co.; Wallace Farms; Robert E. Moery; Kyle...
DONALD L. CORBIN, Justice. Appellant, Jonesboro Healthcare Center, LLC (Jonesboro Healthcare), appeals the order of the Craighead County Circuit Court dismissing without prejudice the complaint of Appellee, Eaton-Moery Environmental Services, Inc., d/b/a Delta Environmental (Delta Environmental), for failure to obtain service. This case was certified to this court by the court of appeals as one involving an issue of first impression needing clarification of the law and requiring interpretation...
ROBERT L. BROWN, Justice. This is an appeal from the denial of a petition for postconviction relief filed under Rule 37.1 of the Arkansas Rules of Criminal Procedure. The appellant, Gary Lonnie Williams (Williams), appeals the denial on two grounds. We find no error and affirm. The facts supporting his conviction and sentence, as set out by the court of appeals, are as follows. On the evening of January 9, 2006, Marvin Perkins and Williams were at Perkins's apartment in Conway with a number...
COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Justice. Appellant Brett Nelson, M.D., appeals the order of the Pulaski County Circuit Court granting summary judgment in favor of appellee Arkansas Rural Medical Practice Student Loan and Scholarship Board (Board) on its breach-of-contract claim arising under the Community Match Loan and Scholarship Program. For reversal, Nelson contends that genuine issues of material fact remain as to his counterclaims and defenses, and he argues that the provisions of Arkansas Code...
JIM HANNAH, Chief Justice. The State appeals an order of the circuit court denying its petition for writ of quo warranto to obtain a ruling that appellee Steve Jernigan cannot legally serve as mayor of Lepanto because he does not "reside" within the corporate municipal limits of Lepanto. Because this case involves a petition for quo warranto directed to a municipal official, our jurisdiction is pursuant to Arkansas Supreme Court Rule 1-2(a)(3) (2011). We affirm the circuit court. In a run-off...
COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Justice. Appellant National Bank of Arkansas (NBA) appeals the circuit court's decision to submit certain claims to the jury and the circuit court's denial of its motion for directed verdict, motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV), motion for new trial, and motion for mistrial. For reversal, NBA argues that the circuit court erred in submitting NBA's foreclosure and fraudulent-transfer claims to the jury. NBA further asserts that substantial evidence did...
JIM GUNTER, Justice. This case involves a question of Arkansas law certified to this court by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas in accordance with our Supreme Court Rule 6-8 (2011). This court accepted certification on April 21, 2011, and framed the certified question as follows: what is the statute of limitations for causes of action involving a violation of the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act, codified at Ark.Code Ann. 11-4-201 et seq. See Douglas v. First...
ROBERT L. BROWN, Justice. This is an appeal from an order granting summary judgment in favor of appellee, The Perroni Law Firm (hereinafter Perroni). 1 Because of a violation of the statute of limitations regarding oral contracts, we reverse the order of the circuit court and dismiss. In December 1998, appellant, Ben Still, and his wife, Allison Still, hired Samuel Perroni of the Perroni and James Law Firm 2 to provide legal services in connection with an investigation being conducted by...
ROBERT L. BROWN, Justice. This case involves the question of whether appellant, Curtis Bridges, had a curtesy interest in a settlement award involving his deceased wife, Hazel Mae Frazier. The circuit court rejected Bridges's claim. We affirm. The facts of this case are undisputed. Hazel Mae Frazier, who had been married three times, connects all the parties in this case. Her second husband, Elree Frazier, Sr., died on September 17, 2001, after taking a medication named Vioxx. Mr. Frazier had...
PAUL E. DANIELSON, Justice. Appellant Comcast of Little Rock, Inc., appeals from the circuit court's order granting the motions to dismiss Comcast's amended complaint by appellees Sarah M. Bradshaw, in her official capacity as the Director of the Tax Division of the Arkansas Public Service Commission; the Arkansas Public Service Commission ("the Commission"); Debra Buckner, in her official capacity as the County Treasurer of Pulaski County, Arkansas; Janet Troutman Ward, in her official...
COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Justice. Appellant David Lee Vance appeals an order of the Saline County Circuit Court convicting him of raping his fourteen-year-old daughter, B.V., and sentencing him to twenty years' imprisonment in the Arkansas Department of Correction. For reversal, appellant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the rape conviction and argues that the circuit court abused its discretion and violated his Confrontation Clause rights by excluding evidence under the...
ROBERT L. BROWN, Justice. Appellant Lemuel Session Whiteside, 1 a juvenile who was seventeen at the time the offense was committed, was convicted of capital-felony murder and aggravated robbery in connection with the robbery and death of James London. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the capital-murder conviction and thirty-five years in prison for the aggravated robbery. He was also given a fifteen-year sentencing enhancement for employing a firearm in connection with...
COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Justice. A jury in Crawford County found appellant David Wayne Fuson guilty of computer child pornography, 1 a class B felony, for which he received a sentence of twenty years in prison with fifteen of those years suspended. For reversal, appellant contends that the circuit court erred in denying his motions to suppress his custodial statements and to exclude the evidence seized in a search of his vehicle. We affirm. Our review of the record reflects that on May 20,...
KAREN R. BAKER, Justice. The Board of Directors of the City of Hot Springs adopted Ordinance No. 5629 (the "Ordinance") on January 8, 2008. The ordinance established a Stormwater Utility Fund (the "Fund") and imposed a Stormwater Utility Fee (the "Fee") on municipal utility accounts within the City of Hot Springs's (the "City") corporate limits. The Ordinance fixed a fee of $6 per month for commercial and industrial accounts and $3 per month for residential accounts. On appeal, appellants...
MOTION FOR RULE ON CLERK PER CURIAM. Appellant Deondrae Sims, by and through his counsel Jimmy C. Morris, Jr., brings the instant motion for rule on clerk. Mr. Morris admits in the motion that he is responsible for failing to tender the record on time. This court clarified its treatment of motions for rule on clerk and motions for belated appeals in McDonald v. State, 356 Ark. 106 , 146 S.W.3d 883 (2004). There, we said that there are only two possible reasons for an appeal not being...
MOTION FOR RULE ON CLERK PER CURIAM. Appellant, Dominic McPeak, by and through his attorney, Jimmy C. Morris, Jr., has filed a motion for rule on clerk. The circuit court entered a judgment and commitment order finding McPeak guilty of two counts of aggravated assault and one count of fleeing. McPeak timely filed his notice of appeal on May 11, 2011. When an appeal is taken by the defendant, the record on appeal shall be filed with the clerk of the appellate court and docketed therein within...
MOTION FOR RULE ON CLERK TREATED AS MOTION FOR BELATED APPEAL PER CURIAM. Appellant Napolean Johnson, by and through his attorney, has filed a motion for rule on clerk. His attorney, Robert R. Cortinez, Sr., accepts fault and states in the motion that the clerk's office rejected Johnson's record due to an untimely notice of appeal. We therefore treat Johnson's motion as one for belated appeal, and we grant it. This court clarified its treatment of motions for rule on clerk and motions for...
KAREN R. BAKER, Justice. Appellants, the unknown heirs of Catherine M. Warbington, and Bert John Warbington, Trustee of the Warbington Family Trust and Catherine M. Warbington Marital Trust, appeal from an order of the Poinsett County Circuit Court denying their motion to vacate a foreclosure decree. Appellants argue that appellees' failure to perfect service of process rendered the foreclosure decree void and that no meritorious defense was required. We affirm. Bert Warbington Sr. owned...
COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Justice. Appellant Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company, Inc., as insurer for Focus, Inc. ("Focus"), appeals an order of the Craighead County Circuit Court denying appellant's motion for declaratory judgment and motion to dismiss and ruling that the language of its insurance policy is ambiguous. Appellees include Luther Austin, as administrator of Angela Austin's estate; Melissa and Christopher Brown, as administrators of G.B.'s estate; Terria Davison, as...
COURTNEY HUDSON HENRY, Justice. May Construction Company ("May") appeals from a Washington County Circuit Court order declaring a lien on real property, owned by Town Creek Construction & Development, LLC ("Town Creek"), subordinate to a mortgage filed by Chambers Bank of North Arkansas ("Chambers") and unenforceable against a lien bond issued by Ohio Casualty Insurance Company ("Ohio Casualty"). For reversal, May argues that the circuit court erred in interpreting the materialmen's lien...
