KING , Justice , for the Court: 1. After all defendants to the original complaint filed responsive pleadings in Mary Meeks's medical malpractice suit, Meeks obtained leave of court and filed a first amended complaint (FAC), adding as a defendant the manufacturer of a medical device, Hologic, Inc. Meeks did not serve the FAC on Hologic but instead filed a second amended complaint (SAC) without leave of court or permission from all defendants. Hologic filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that...
KITCHENS , Justice . 1. Alan and Linda Anderson filed a medical malpractice action against Sharkey Issaquena Community Hospital but failed to designate an expert timely in accordance with the scheduling order imposed by the Circuit Court of Sharkey County. Out of time, the Andersons filed their expert designation, along with a motion for continuance. The hospital moved to strike the expert designation and moved for summary judgment. Following a hearing, the circuit court granted a...
KING , Justice , for the Court: 1. The present case calls upon this Court to determine the validity of a Florida divorce decree issued in 1995. Sarath Sapukotana (Sarath) and Palihawadanage Ramya Chandralatha Fernando (Fernando) were married in Sri Lanka in 1992. Sarath moved to the United States a year later. In 1995, a Florida court entered an uncontested divorce decree, dissolving the marriage of Sarath and Fernando. In 2004, Sarath then married Martha Gay Weaver Sapukotana (Martha) in...
RANDOLPH , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. On March 24, 2006, the Bolivar County Circuit Court granted Dr. Charles F. Brock and Dr. Steven Clark summary judgment based on the expiration of the one-year statute of limitations in the Mississippi Tort Claims Act ("MTCA"). On September 27, 2010, Bolivar Medical Center ("BMC"), the final remaining defendant, was dismissed with prejudice. Improperly relying on an order certifying the March 24, 2006, order as final, which was later...
WALLER , Chief Justice , for the Court: 1. Graham Warwick appeals his conviction for driving under the influence of marijuana, arguing that his conviction is against the weight and sufficiency of the evidence. Finding no error, we affirm. FACTS & PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. On July 16, 2012, at around 6:20 p.m., Officer Tyler Burnell of the Madison Police Department had just completed a traffic stop at the intersection of Highway 463 and Stribling Road and was preparing to drive back to the...
COLEMAN , Justice , for the Court: 1. Following Steve Broome's death, his ex-wife Elizabeth Strickland and his children, Stephen Luke Broome and Jesse Alan Broome, filed claims against Steve's estate for child support arrears, other unpaid support obligations, and for life insurance proceeds. The chancellor dismissed all of the claims, holding that the claims were not valid because they were not reduced to a judgment before Steve's death and that the claims were barred by res judicata....
DICKINSON , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. Deborah Jackson sued Illinois Central Railroad Company ("Illinois Central") under the Federal Employers' Liability Act (FELA) for the wrongful death of her husband, Charles Jackson. Jackson alleged that her husband's death from lung cancer was caused by his exposure to asbestos while working for the railroad. After the close of discovery, Illinois Central filed a motion for summary judgment and a motion to strike Jackson's expert, Michael...
WALLER , Chief Justice , for the Court: 1. This case involves a dispute between Gerald W. Scafidi ("Gerald") and his sister, Jo Ann S. Hille ("Jo Ann"), about three family corporations and the land they inherited from their parents. Unable to get along, each sibling ran one of the corporations essentially as a sole proprietorship, while the third corporation ceased to do business. The sister, dissatisfied with the deadlock, brought this suit to end her business dealings with her brother...
KITCHENS , Justice , for the Court: 1. On February 25, 2014, James Rowsey was convicted of aggravated assault in the Circuit Court of Greene County for throwing scalding water on a fellow inmate at the South Mississippi Correctional Institution. Rowsey was sentenced to serve ten years of incarceration to run consecutively to the life sentence he already was serving for murder. Finding no error, we affirm Rowsey's conviction and sentence. STATEMENT OF FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. On...
KITCHENS , Justice , for the Court: 1. Expro Americas, LLC ("Expro") filed a complaint in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Jones County, seeking, inter alia, a temporary restraining order and applying for a preliminary injunction against Eddie Walters, a former Expro employee, and H & H Welding, LLC ("H & H"). After conducting an evidentiary hearing, the chancellor dissolved the temporary restraining order and found no facts to justify the issuance of a...
COLEMAN , Justice , for the Court: 1. The administrator of the Pearl River County Hospital, Michael Boleware, entered into a contract with Wellness, Inc., for Wellness to provide furnishings, fixtures, equipment, and systems for the Hospital's renovation. The Hospital subsequently sued Wellness and other defendants not party to the instant appeal, alleging fraud, conspiracy, breach of contract, and other causes of action. Before trial commenced, Wellness moved to compel mediation and...
RANDOLPH , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. Following a jury trial in the Circuit Court of Rankin County, Casey Mark Burgess was convicted of three counts of sexual battery against his wife, S.B. He was sentenced to thirty years on each count, to run concurrently. Following the denial of his alternative motions for judgement notwithstanding the verdict or for a new trial, Burgess appealed. Finding no error, we affirm. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. The day after celebrating the...
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI PIERCE , Justice , for the Court: 1. John Doe initiated this action on behalf of his daughter, Jane Doe (collectively Doe), after she was sexually assaulted on a Rankin County School District (RCSD) school bus, parked on the campus of Richland High School (RHS). After nineteen months of discovery, the circuit court granted RCSD's motion for summary judgment against Doe based on governmental immunity under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act (MTCA). Doe moved for...
WALLER , Chief Justice , for the Court: 1. The Union County Election Commission disqualified Roger Browning from running for Union County Superintendent of Education, finding that he was not a qualified elector of the Union County School District. The Union County Circuit Court overturned the Commission's decision and issued an injunction requiring Browning's name to be placed on the ballot for the general election. James K. Basil, the incumbent Union County Superintendent of Education...
KITCHENS , Justice , for the Court: 1. In January 2003, Christopher Lyas ("Christopher") died while receiving treatment at Pine Grove Behavioral Health Center ("Pine Grove"), a subsidiary of Forrest General Hospital. Shortly after Christopher's death, his widow, Madra Lyas ("Madra") was visited by an employee of the Forrest County Coroner's Office who provided her a provisional Certificate of Death which listed the immediate cause of death as "pending" and a provisional autopsy report...
WALLER , Chief Justice , for the Court: 1. Daniel Parish appeals his Rankin County conviction for driving under the influence of marijuana, arguing that the prosecution failed to present sufficient evidence to prove the elements of the charged offense. Finding no error, we affirm. FACTS & PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. At around 12:30 a.m. on October 9, 2012, Parish encountered a driver's license safety checkpoint while driving on Luckney Road in Brandon, Mississippi. Officer James King of the...
RANDOLPH , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. When the Mississippi State Highway Commission (MHC) sought a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers (ACE) to fill wetlands in the roadbed of a proposed limited-access road, it pledged approximately 1,300 acres of Ward Gulfport Properties, L.P.'s and T. Jerard Gulfport, L.L.C.'s ("Ward," collectively) property as wetlands mitigation. ACE issued the permit to MHC in 2009. Ward filed suit in state court against MHC, seeking damages from an...
RANDOLPH , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. The question before us today is whether a quitclaim deed acts to assign and transfer a grantor's rights and interests retained in a deed of trust even when that grantor no longer holds title to the property. We hold that it does, and so we affirm. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. In 2004, Clayton Hinton purchased a tract of real property to use as a used-car lot. He financed its acquisition with funds provided by Wells Fargo. Wells...
LAMAR , Justice , for the Court: 1. Hattiesburg High School ("HHS") filed a complaint for injunctive relief against the Mississippi High School Activities Association ("MHSAA"), alleging that its decision to declare one of HHS's students ineligible to participate in athletics was arbitrary and capricious. The Forrest County Chancery Court agreed, and it vacated the penalties that MHSAA had imposed against HHS. MHSAA appealed to this Court. Because we find that HHS failed to state a...
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI DICKINSON , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. In this custody battle between a child's mother and grandparents, the chancellor heard evidence that the child's mother was sexually promiscuous, that she had failed drug tests, and that she planned to move with the child to Chicago to live with a convicted sex-offender. The chancellor also heard evidence to the contrary. Based on this evidence, and judging the credibility of the witnesses before him, the chancellor...
