COLEMAN , JUSTICE , FOR THE COURT: 1. In 2007, the State of Mississippi, through the Attorney General's office, filed suit against Louisville Tire Center, Inc. d/b/a Fair Oil Company (Fair Oil) for violating Mississippi's price-gouging statute. Fair Oil filed a successful motion for summary judgment on the basis that the price-gouging statute was unconstitutional as written; however, on appeal, the Court reversed the grant of summary judgment and remanded the case for the Winston County...
MAXWELL , JUSTICE , FOR THE COURT: 1. When sexual-abuse allegations are raised in a child-custody case, a guardian ad litem ("GAL") must be appointed to represent the child's best interest. Here, the appointed GAL made visitation recommendations but was not asked to make a custody recommendation. The chancellor addressed this issue on his own. We find the fact the chancellor made an independent custody assessment is not, itself, error. Furthermore, after review, we find no error in the...
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING RANDOLPH , PRESIDING JUSTICE , FOR THE COURT: 1. The motion for rehearing is granted. The previous opinion of this Court is withdrawn, and the following opinions are substituted therefor. Eddie Hall was convicted of murdering Johnny "Tubby" Hubbard in the Black Cat community of Covington County, Mississippi. The jury received eyewitness testimony that when a fight broke out at the end of a horse show, Hall retrieved a gun from his trailer and shot Tubby twice as...
MAXWELL , JUSTICE , FOR THE COURT: 1. Under Mississippi Code Annotated Section 15-1-65, when a cause of action has accrued in another state and is time-barred there, it cannot be maintained in Mississippi. 1 Here, Tommy and Kelli Murray's action accrued in Louisiana. But by the time they filed their action in Mississippi, Louisiana's one-year statute of limitations had passed. 2 Because they could no longer file an untimely action in Louisiana, they were likewise barred from filing suit...
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI KING , JUSTICE , FOR THE COURT: 1. During the construction of Jeff Anderson Regional Medical Center's ("ARMC") "Medical Towers III" expansion in Meridian, scaffolding built by W.G. Yates & Sons Construction Company ("Yates Construction") collapsed, injuring David McKean, Francesco Medina, Donald Arrington, and Wayne Robertson (collectively, the "plaintiffs"). The trial court granted summary judgment and dismissed the plaintiffs' claims against all defendants. The...
COLEMAN , JUSTICE , FOR THE COURT: 1. Edward Lavonne Love ("Love") filed a complaint against Wesley Health System, LLC ("Wesley") alleging negligence, medical malpractice, and wrongful death of his wife, Jackie Katherine Love ("Mrs. Love"). 1 A default judgment was entered against Wesley. The trial court denied Wesley's motion to set aside the default judgment and entered a final judgment against Wesley awarding Love $1,784,715.18 in compensatory and punitive damages and attorney's fees....
COLEMAN , JUSTICE , FOR THE COURT: 1. James Oldrum Smith Jr. (Father) died on August 24, 2006. The present appeal stems from his adult children's discord over the handling of Father's estate (Estate), and, as is common in estate cases, the children's discord over the Estate has resulted in lengthy litigation. The Estate is complicated by the fact that, prior to his death, Father created a family trust (Trust); however, he died within three years from the creation of the Trust. Father's...
KITCHENS , Justice , for the Court: 1. Marveo Lane was shot and killed in the early morning hours of August 2, 2008. Mareno Hubbard testified that Lamarcus Jones was the shooter. Jones was indicted for Lane's murder in 2010 and convicted in 2014. He received a life sentence. After Jones's conviction and sentence, Hubbard pled guilty to manslaughter and was given a sentence of twenty years, with eight years suspended and credit for time served. Finding Jones's assignments of error to be...
DICKINSON , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. While visiting the DeSoto County Civic Center, Cynthia Crider stepped in a hole that was obscured by grass. She sued the DeSoto County Convention and Visitors Bureau (the Bureau), which operates the Civic Center. The circuit judge granted summary judgment to the Bureau based on discretionary-function immunity. We affirm. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. In May 2008, Crider attended a high-school graduation at the Civic Center. At the...
MAXWELL , Justice , for the Court: 1. Linde Health Care Staffing, Inc., received a favorable arbitration award in Missouri against the Claiborne County Hospital. Linde reduced the award to a Missouri judgment, then enrolled the foreign judgment in two Mississippi counties. The Hospital successfully moved to set aside the foreign judgment in both Mississippi counties, since it never contracted with Linde and, thus, was not bound by the contract's arbitration agreement. 2. On appeal,...
WALLER , Chief Justice , for the Court: 1. This matter comes before the Court on Charles Ray Crawford's Application for Leave to File Successive Petition for Post-Conviction Relief attacking his conviction for capital murder and death sentence. Also before the Court are the Response filed by the State of Mississippi and Crawford's pro se Application for Leave to File Successive Petition for Post-Conviction Relief. After review, we deny both Crawford's application for leave to proceed and...
RANDOLPH , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. Bay Point Properties Inc. filed inverse condemnation proceedings against the Mississippi Transportation Commission, 1 claiming the easement MTC had across Bay Point's property had terminated and that MTC was required to pay Bay Point the unencumbered value of the property. The issue was put to the jury, which determined the easement — for which the Commission had paid $50,000 — continued to encumber the property, but that the use by MTC...
ON MOTION FOR REHEARING DICKINSON , Presiding Justice , for the Court: 1. The motion for rehearing filed by Georgia Pacific Corporation is denied. The motion for rehearing filed by Cook Timber Company, Inc., is denied. The previous opinions issued in this case are withdrawn, and these opinions are substituted therefor. 2. Cook Timber Company sued Georgia Pacific Corporation, claiming breach of contract and antitrust violations, both unilaterally and through a conspiracy with other...
LAMAR , Justice , for the Court: 1. Arrowood Indemnity Company, 1 a member of the Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association ("the Windpool"), submitted its premium data as required for a post-Katrina data-correction process. Arrowood failed to claim the appropriate credits available to it by statute which, it alleges, resulted in a nearly five-million-dollar overpayment. But Arrowood had based its data submission on information provided by the Windpool, which was incorrect. So...
LAMAR , Justice , for the Court: 1. This is an interlocutory appeal. The Mississippi Transportation Commission ("MTC") and the Mississippi Department of Transportation ("MDOT") (collectively, the "defendants") filed a motion for summary judgment in the Jackson County Circuit Court and argued that they were immune from liability under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act ("MTCA"). The trial judge denied their motion because the plaintiff had alleged — and provided evidence — that they had...
BEAM , Justice , for the Court: 1. Sweet Valley Missionary Baptist Church appeals from the Marion County Circuit Court's order denying its request for prejudgment interest against Alfa Insurance Company. Because there was no judgment in this instance upon which interest could accrue, we affirm the trial court's judgment. FACTS 2. This suit arises from a 2005 insurance claim Sweet Valley Missionary Baptist Church ("Sweet Valley") filed with Alfa Insurance Corporation ("Alfa"),...
LAMAR , Justice , for the Court: 1. After hearing all the evidence in a medical-malpractice trial, the jury retired to deliberate. At some point during their deliberations, they requested a copy of the jury instructions, which the bailiff provided. But instead of providing the approved set of instructions, the bailiff mistakenly provided a set that the defendants previously had proffered, which included a peremptory instruction. The jury returned a unanimous defense verdict, and the...
LAMAR , Justice , for the Court: 1. The definitive question in this appeal is if the Director of the East Mississippi State Hospital ("EMSH") 1 is the proper "chief executive officer" for notice purposes under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act ("MTCA"), as opposed to the Executive Director of the Department of Mental Health ("DMH"). We find that EMSH's Director is the CEO under the MTCA, and we therefore reverse and remand. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY 2. According to the complaint in...
COLEMAN , Justice , for the Court: 1. Three and a half years after his divorce was final, Dr. Chad Wigington ("Chad") filed his complaint to reopen in the Chancery Court of Hinds County. He alleged that the divorce settlement agreement between him and his ex-wife, Dr. Laura McCalop ("Laura"), was procedurally and substantively unconscionable and specifically requested that the chancellor modify the child support and visitation provisions. After trial, the chancellor issued an opinion and...
MAXWELL , Justice , for the Court: 1. In this interlocutory appeal, Pekin Insurance Company challenges the Jones County Circuit Court's denial of its motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. Pekin — an Illinois company not licensed to sell insurance in Mississippi — asserts it had not entered a contract with a Mississippi resident, had not committed a tort in Mississippi, and had not done any business in Mississippi. So it cannot be subject to the jurisdiction of Mississippi...
