Mike Ellis v. Pauline S. Sprouse Residuary Trust, et al.

This matter is before us on remand from the Tennessee Supreme Court for consideration of  issues we pretermitted in our earlier opinion, which decision the High Court reversed. In our earlier judgment, Ellis v. Sprouse, E2006-01771-COA-R3-CV, 2007 WL 3121666 (Tenn. Ct. App, E.S., filed October 26, 20007), we held that plaintiff Mike Ellis (“the Farmer”) did not exercise his lease option on farmland owned by Kerry M. Sprouse 1 (“the Landlord”) by actions taken after the lease expired. As a result of that holding, we ruled that the portion of the judgment entered on a jury verdict awarding lost farming profits of $82,000 could not stand. We further held that the punitive damage award of $30,000 had to be retried since – at the time of our decision – it was based solely upon a compensatory damages award of $534 for the Landlord’s trespass – a trespass that was not contested on appeal. In Ellis v. Sprouse, 280 S.W.3d. 806 (2009), the High Court held that the Farmer had indeed exercised his option to renew the lease by continuing to hold over and making his lease payments after the initial term had expired. Accordingly, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded to this Court with “directions to consider and decide the issues that were pretermitted in [our] earlier opinion in this case.” We now have considered those issues, and, with respect to them, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. In light of the Supreme Court’s opinion and our opinion on remand, the trial court’s judgment is affirmed in toto.