COLEMAN, Justice, for the Court: 1. At issue in the instant case is the interpretation of Mississippi Code Section 11-21-1(2) (Rev.2004); particularly whether the statute, which limits partition of homestead property "exempted from execution" and owned by spouses to partition by agreement only, prohibits one spouse from obtaining a partition of jointly owned property by chancery decree against the other. As more fully detailed below, the issue is the meaning of the phrase "exempted from...
LAMAR, Justice, for the Court: 1. Following a motor-vehicle accident, Virgil Burcham sued Edward Miles's estate for negligence and negligence per se. Burcham received a $60,000 judgment, from which the Miles estate appeals. We affirm the judgment as to liability, subject to remittitur. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. On November 3, 2005, Edward Miles drove his pickup truck into an intersection in front of Virgil Burcham's eighteen-wheel fuel truck. 1 Miles was transported by helicopter...
COLEMAN, Justice, for the Court: 1. The instant case arises from a jury verdict awarding Mrs. Elsie Smith and other wrongful death beneficiaries monetary damages for the wrongful death of Elsie's husband, Larry Smith. Larry, who spent most of his life working on oil rigs, died of lung cancer, and the plaintiffs filed suit against several manufacturers of various drilling additives. She claimed that her husband's proximity to working with these products led to his lung cancer because the...
DICKINSON, Presiding Justice. 1. In this judicial-misconduct case, Chancellor D. Neil Harris abused his contempt powers, failed to recuse himself from contempt proceedings, and prevented those he charged with contempt from presenting any defense. This Court finds an appropriate sanction to be a public reprimand, a $2,500 fine, and assessment of the costs of this proceeding in the amount of $200. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. The facts precipitating this judicial-performance complaint are...
KITCHENS, Justice. 1. Jessica Norton Jordan appealed the chancellor's declaratory ruling that she was not entitled to a share of her adoptive father's estate under Mississippi's pretermitted heir statute. Miss. Code Ann. 91-5-5 (Rev. 2013). The order was entered in an ongoing probate action, and the certified copy of the trial court's docket indicates that Jordan still is involved in the probate matter. Moreover, the declaratory judgment did not contain a Rule 54(b) certification or...
WALLER, Chief Justice. 1. Gail Thompson petitions the Court for reinstatement to the practice of law following her suspension in two separate matters. We find Thompson has satisfied the jurisdictional requirements necessary to warrant her reinstatement. Therefore, we approve Thompson's petition for reinstatement. FACTS & PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. Gail Thompson was admitted to the Mississippi Bar (Bar) in 1990 and primarily practiced criminal law. Thompson was publicly reprimanded in 2002 for...
PIERCE, Justice, for the Court: 1. This appeal arises out of a civil suit by the estates and wrongful-death beneficiaries of Christopher Allan Bloodworth, Steven Earl Tallant Jr., Marcus Richardson, and A.W. Hilson, four men killed at a railroad crossing when a freight train collided with the truck in which they were traveling (hereinafter Plaintiffs). The wrongful-death beneficiaries of Bloodworth, Tallant, Richardson, and Hilson filed their complaint(s) against Illinois Central and its...
COLEMAN, Justice, for the Court: 1. The Securities and Charities Division of the Mississippi Secretary of State Office (the "Division") brought charges against Marshall Wolfe and Jack Harrington for securities violations pertaining to their operation of SteadiVest, LLC. The Secretary of State found that Wolfe and Harrington had violated Mississippi securities laws, and fines were levied against them. Wolfe and Harrington appealed, and the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of...
KITCHENS, Justice, for the Court. 1. In this custody dispute between the natural father and the maternal grandmother, the chancellor granted custody to the father, finding that the father had not deserted his child. Although the grandmother had stood in loco parentis to the child since the mother's death, the chancellor correctly recognized that this alone could not overcome the natural-parent presumption. See Smith v. Smith, 97 So.3d 43 (Miss.2012) (reemphasizing that a third party'...
RANDOLPH, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. This case arises out of an alleged breach of contract and bad-faith denial of Dr. Jack and Margaret Hoover's homeowner's insurance claim against United Services Automobile Association ("USAA") following Hurricane Katrina ("Katrina"). The trial judge granted USAA's motion for directed verdict as to the Hoovers' claims for: (1) the unpaid portion of losses; (2) mental anguish and emotional distress; and (3) punitive damages. The trial court...
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING KITCHENS, Justice, for the Court: 1. The motion for rehearing is granted. The original opinions are withdrawn, and these opinions are substituted therefor. 2. An underground culvert system failed and caused a large sinkhole behind the Carraway residence. The culvert system drains Eastover Lake, which is owned by the surrounding property owners (collectively, "the Lake Owner Defendants") and maintained by the Eastover Lake Association (ELA). On October 9, 2006, T....
WALLER, Chief Justice, for the Court: 1. This interlocutory appeal arises from the Madison County Circuit Court's denial of Robert Germany's motion to sever and transfer claims filed against him by his wife, Ginger Germany, to the Germanys' pending divorce proceeding in the Hinds County Chancery Court. Finding that many of Ginger's claims against Robert are either equitable in nature or are related to divorce and alimony, we reverse the circuit court and remand with instructions to sever and...
RANDOLPH, Presiding Justice, for the Court: 1. Gloria Richmond Jackson appeals the Quitman County Circuit Court Special Judge's dismissal with prejudice of her petition for judicial review of an election contest, which contested the result of a Democratic primary runoff election. Jackson's petition was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction, because she failed to attach two attorney certificates to her petition, as required by Mississippi Code Section 23-15-927. We hold that the special judge...
PIERCE, Justice, for the Court: 1. In November 2008, S. Lavon Evans Jr. and his companies S. Lavon Evans Jr. Operating Company, Inc.; S. Lavon Evans Jr. Drilling Ventures, LLC; and E & D Services, Inc. (collectively "Plaintiffs") sued the law firm of Baker & McKenzie, LLP, and one of its partners, Joel Held (collectively, "Baker Defendants") in the Circuit Court of Jones County, Mississippi. The complaint also named as defendants Laredo Energy Holdings, LLC, and its related subsidiaries S....
COLEMAN, Justice, for the Court: 1. George Neville filed a petition for modification of a final judgment of divorce seeking to have his ex-wife, Tina Blitz, pay their daughter's college expenses. The chancellor ordered the parties to divide the college expenses equally, after scholarships and a monthly housing stipend from the Post-9/11 GI Bill were deducted. George, who had assigned his Post-9/11 GI Bill benefits to his daughter, appealed and asserted that the chancellor had erred by...
CHANDLER, Justice, for the Court: 1. A minor, Nicholas Proulx, was injured in a car accident and treated for his injuries at Memorial Hospital at Gulfport. Nicholas's parents, Timothy Proulx and Hope Proulx Roche (the guardians), obtained letters of guardianship and petitioned the chancery court for authority to compromise and settle his personal-injury claim for $50,000, provided by liability insurance coverage. The guardians also asked the chancery court to dismiss claims against the...
WALLER, Chief Justice, for the Court: 1. Shirley Johnson sued the City of Belzoni and two city employees for employment discrimination and sexual harassment. A Humphreys County jury rendered a verdict in Johnson's favor, resulting in monetary judgments against each of the three defendants, severally. The defendants appealed, and this Court affirmed the verdict. The City now appeals from the circuit court's order granting Johnson's motion to enforce the defendants' supersedeas bond against...
KITCHENS, Justice, for the Court: 1. This is an interlocutory appeal from the trial court's denial of the defendant Vaughn, Bowden, PA's (V & B) (f/k/a Vaughn, Bowden & Wooten, PA) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted. 2. The plaintiffs, Cherie Brott Blackmore and Diane Young, 1 sued their former employer, the law firm of V & B, as well as the individual partners, Eric Wooten, Ben Bowden, Tom Vaughn, and office administrator Debra Vaughn, for...
LAMAR, Justice, for the Court: 1. Malcolm Weeks Sr. was indicted and tried for sexually abusing his fourteen-year-old daughter. He was convicted of one count of child fondling and two counts of sexual battery. 1 On appeal, Malcolm asserts three assignments of error: 1) that the State was permitted to substantively amend his indictment; 2) that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verdicts; and 3) that the jury's verdicts were against the overwhelming weight of the evidence....
WALLER, Chief Justice, for the Court: 1. William Antonio "Ken" Avery was convicted of selling cocaine and felony fleeing. The Court of Appeals affirmed his conviction and sentence. This Court granted certiorari to address Avery's claim that the trial court committed reversible error in refusing to sequester the witnesses at the post-trial hearing. Finding no reversible error, we affirm Avery's conviction and sentence. FACTS & PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. On March 30, 2010, law enforcement...
