Susan/Donald Smytka vs. Dayton-Hudson W1999-01751-COA-R3-CV
Authoring Judge: Presiding Judge Alan E. Highers
Trial Court Judge: Robert A. Lanier
This appeal arises out of a complaint for personal injuries sustained when the Plaintiff was struck by a shopping cart in the parking lot of the Defendant's store. The Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that it did not violate the duty of care owed to the Plaintiff. The trial court granted the motion and entered judgment accordingly.
Shelby
Court of Appeals
Arzolia Charles Goines vs. State E1999-02459-CCA-R3-PC
Authoring Judge: Judge Norma McGee Ogle
Trial Court Judge: Ray L. Jenkins
The appellant, Arzolia Charles Goines, appeals the dismissal of his writ of error coram nobis by the Knox County Criminal Court on September 1, 1999. Following a review of the record and the parties' briefs, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Knox
Court of Criminal Appeals
Underground, Inc., d/b/a The Underground, vs. City of Knoxville E2000-00609-COA-R3-CV
Authoring Judge: Presiding Judge Herschel P. Franks
Trial Court Judge: Daryl R. Fansler
The Beer Board summarily suspended Petitioner's licence to sell beer and following a hearing, revoked the permit. On appeal to Chancery Court, the Chancellor upheld the revocation. We affirm.
Knox
Court of Appeals
Gary Wayne Robertson vs. Lori Vanhooser Robertson E2000-01698-COA-RM-CV
Authoring Judge: Judge Charles D. Susano, Jr.
Trial Court Judge: W. Neil Thomas, III
The Supreme Court granted Mr. Robertson's application for permission to appeal and remanded this case to us "for reconsideration in light of Crabtree vs. Crabtree [16 S.W.3d 356 (Tenn. 2000)]." Upon reconsideration, we adhere to our original opinion.
This appeal arises from a slip-and-fall accident which occurred on property owned by the Defendant Lineberry Properties and leased by the Defendant Robin Media Group. The latter appeals from the jury verdict entered in the Wilson County Circuit Court. The jury assigned one hundred percent of the fault for the Plaintiff's injuries to Robin Media. After the court denied its motions for remittitur or a new trial, the present appeal arose.
Wilson
Court of Appeals
Baggett vs. Baggett M1999-00742-COA-R3-CV
Authoring Judge: Judge Holly M. Kirby
Trial Court Judge: Allen W. Wallace
This is a divorce case involving child custody. After awarding the mother temporary custody of the parties' children during the pendency of the case, the trial court granted the father sole custody and granted the mother visitation. The mother appealed the custody award. We affirm.
Houston
Court of Appeals
Colbaugh vs. Colbaugh M1999-00755-COA-R3-CV
Authoring Judge: Judge Holly M. Kirby
Trial Court Judge: Stella L. Hargrove
This is a post-divorce visitation case. The mother and father lived with their infant child in Columbia, Tennessee. After the couple separated, the mother took the parties' child to her hometown of Bowling Green, Kentucky, over one hundred miles from Columbia. Upon the parties' divorce, the trial court awarded custody of the child to the mother and visitation to the father for twelve days each month, no greater than fourteen days apart. The trial court ordered the mother and father to meet halfway between their two residences to exchange the child for the father's visitation. The mother appealed the trial court's visitation schedule, arguing that it adversely affects the child's sense of stability, that it places overly burdensome travel requirements on the mother and the child, and that it is unworkable in this case because of the mother and father's inability to cooperate. We affirm.
Maury
Court of Appeals
Wilson vs. Tittle M2000-00115-COA-R3-CV
Authoring Judge: Judge Holly M. Kirby
Trial Court Judge: Arthur E. Mcclellan
This is a child custody case. The mother and father, who were never married, had a child in Tennessee. The mother subsequently married another man and filed petitions in a Tennessee court to establish paternity of the child and for adoption by the stepfather. During the pendency of the suit, the mother and stepfather moved with the child to Texas. The Tennessee court awarded custody of the child to the mother but denied the mother's petition for adoption. The court awarded the father visitation. Later, the father filed petitions in the Tennessee court for contempt and for change of custody, arguing that the mother had refused to allow him visitation. Mother subsequently filed a petition in a Texas court to modify the Tennessee court's prior order. The Tennessee court found that the mother's denial of the father's visitation rights was a substantial change of circumstances and that the best interests of the child favored an award of custody to the father. The mother appeals. We affirm.
Sumner
Court of Appeals
State vs. Swindle M1998-00362-SC-R11-CD
Authoring Judge: Justice William M. Barker
Trial Court Judge: Seth W. Norman
This is an appeal from the Criminal Court for Davidson County, which convicted the defendant of two counts of facilitation of child rape and two counts of aggravated sexual battery. The defendant appealed, arguing that the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on Class B misdemeanor assault as a lesser-included offense of aggravated sexual battery. After the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the convictions, the defendant sought, and this Court granted, permission to appeal on the following issue: whether the trial court erred in failing to instruct the jury on Class B misdemeanor assault as a lesser-included offense of aggravated sexual battery. We hold that Class B misdemeanor assault is a lesser-included offense of aggravated sexual battery and that it was error for the trial court not to instruct the jury accordingly. Nevertheless, having determined that such error was harmless, the defendant's convictions for aggravated sexual battery are affirmed.
Davidson
Supreme Court
State vs. Jefferson M1997-00115-SC-R11-PC
Authoring Judge: Justice Adolpho A. Birch, Jr.
Trial Court Judge: Walter C. Kurtz
This case is before us upon a jury's resentencing of the defendant, James Thomas Jefferson, on his conviction for premeditated first degree murder. In the original appeal, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction, vacated the sentence, and remanded the matter to the trial court for resentencing. On remand, the defendant requested a new jury trial on the merits in addition to the already-ordered resentencing. The trial court denied the request for a new trial. After a new hearing, the jury fixed a sentence of life imprisonment. The defendant appealed of right, challenging the trial court's overruling of his motion for a new trial on the merits. Relying on the "law of the case" doctrine, the Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment. We granted the defendant's application for permission to appeal and now hold that the Court of Criminal Appeals properly determined that the law of the case doctrine barred the trial court from granting Jefferson's motion for a new trial. The Court of Appeals is, therefore, affirmed.
Gretchen Bish vs. Sofamor W1998-00373-COA-R9-CV
Authoring Judge: Judge W. Frank Crawford
Trial Court Judge: John R. Mccarroll, Jr.
These are consolidated interlocutory appeals of products liability suits against the manufacturers of spinal fixation devices. The trial court dismissed plaintiffs' negligence per se claims based on the alleged violation of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Act (FDCA) and the Medical Device Amendments (MDA). In one of the cases, the trial court also granted defendants' motion in limine to exclude all Federal Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory evidence information and documents concerning the fixation devices. Plaintiffs appeal the rulings of the trial court.
Shelby
Court of Appeals
State vs. Willie Smith W2001-02973-CCA-R3-CD
Authoring Judge: Presiding Judge Joseph M. Tipton
Trial Court Judge: Joseph H. Walker, III
The defendant, Willie Nathaniel Smith, appeals as of right his conviction by a jury in the Tipton County Circuit Court of delivery of .5 grams or more of cocaine, a Class B felony, and his resulting fifteen-year sentence. He also appeals the concurrent fifteen-year sentences received following his guilty pleas to two additional counts of delivery of .5 grams or more of cocaine. He contends (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his conviction in case number 4149; (2) the trial court erroneously allowed a police investigator to testify about what he heard on a recording device; and (3) his sentences in both cases are excessive. We affirm the judgments of conviction.
Tipton
Court of Criminal Appeals
State vs. Jeremy Jones E1999-02207-CCA-R3-CD
Authoring Judge: Judge John Everett Williams
Trial Court Judge: James Edward Beckner
The defendant appeals his conviction and sentence for theft of property, asserting that insufficient evidence supported the verdict and that the trial court erroneously sentenced him to three years of incarceration. We affirm the conviction and modify the sentence to two years of incarceration.
Greene
Court of Criminal Appeals
Sarah Anita James vs. Susan Kay Swindell E1999-02407-COA-R3-CV
Authoring Judge: Judge Houston M. Goddard
Trial Court Judge: L. Marie Williams
This appeal arises out of an automobile accident. The Defendant lost control of her vehicle, crossed three lanes of traffic, and hit Plaintiff's vehicle. Plaintiff suffered injuries and sued Defendant for damages. A jury trial ensued. The jury found Defendant to be 100% at fault and awarded $15,000 in damages to Plaintiff. The Plaintiff filed a motion for a new trial alleging juror misconduct and presented a juror's affidavit in support of her position. The Defendant untimely presented counter affidavits by jurors. The trial court judge granted a new trial based on juror misconduct. At the second trial the jury found the Defendant 100% at fault and awarded Plaintiff $27,608.60 in damages. On appeal, the Defendant claims that the trial court erred in failing to grant Defendant's motion for a directed verdict and in granting a new trial. We affirm the trial court's denial of a directed verdict for the Defendant and reverse the trial court's granting of a new trial based on juror misconduct. We remand the case to the trial court for the reinstatement of the jury verdict at the first trial.
Hamilton
Court of Appeals
State vs. Eric William Sanders E1999-00345-CCA-R3-CD
Authoring Judge: Judge Robert W. Wedemeyer
Trial Court Judge: R. Jerry Beck
The Defendant pleaded guilty in Sullivan County Criminal Court to violation of a habitual traffic offender order, a Class E felony, and driving under the influence, second offense, a Class A misdemeanor. The Defendant was sentenced to serve one year in the Tennessee Department of Correction as a Range I standard offender for violation of the HTO order and eleven months and twenty-nine days, suspended except for forty-five days, for the DUI. The sentences were to run consecutively. After serving thirty percent of his one-year sentence for violation of the HTO order, the Defendant was released by determinate release to the local jail to serve the remainder of his mandatory forty-five day jail term for the DUI conviction, and he was then released on probation pursuant to determinate release. Within one year of the convictions, two warrants were filed alleging that the Defendant violated the terms of his determinate release for the HTO conviction, but neither warrant made reference to the DUI conviction. Following a hearing, at which the Defendant stipulated that he had absconded as alleged in the second warrant, the trial court revoked the Defendant's probation for the HTO conviction and ordered the Defendant to serve his sentence. The trial court continued disposition of the first warrant to allow the State to file a written motion to amend the first warrant to include the DUI conviction. The trial court then issued a third warrant to amend the first warrant to include the DUI conviction. Following a hearing on the first warrant, as amended, the trial court revoked the Defendant's probation for the DUI conviction and ordered him to serve that sentence as well. The Defendant now appeals, arguing (1) that the trial court did not have jurisdiction to revoke his probation for the DUI conviction, and (2) that the trial court abused its discretion in revoking his probation for the DUI conviction. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Sullivan
Court of Criminal Appeals
Danny S. Cosby vs State M1999-01861-CCA-R3-CD
Authoring Judge: Judge Robert W. Wedemeyer
Trial Court Judge: Steve R. Dozier
The Appellant, Danny S. Cosby, pleaded guilty to two counts of attempted first degree murder and to two counts of aggravated assault. Pursuant to a plea agreement, the Davidson County Criminal Court sentenced the Appellant to an effective sentence of thirty years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. The Appellant subsequently filed for post-conviction relief, claiming that his plea was constitutionally defective because he was inadequately represented. The trial court denied relief. After review, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
Davidson
Court of Criminal Appeals
Christopher Woods vs. Ellis Woods W1999-00733-COA-R3-CV
Authoring Judge: Judge David R. Farmer
Trial Court Judge: D'Army Bailey
This appeal arises from a dispute between Plaintiff Christopher Lamar Woods and Defendant Ellie Joan Woods regarding Mr. Woods' financial obligations under the parties' final decree of divorce. The trial court approved the ruling of the arbitrator, which was that Mr. Woods is responsible for the expense of Ms. Woods' "tummy tuck" and breast reduction surgery but is not responsible for the expense of Ms. Woods' Obagi cream treatments, collagen injections, lip implants, and other topical procedures. For the reasons set forth below, we affirm the ruling of the trial court.
Shelby
Court of Appeals
Jerrell Livingston vs. James Dukes W2000-00840-CCA-R3-CD
Trial Court Judge: Joseph H. Walker, III
This appeal results from the trial court's denial of the petitioner's petition for writ of habeas corpus based on the fact that the challenged judgment was not invalid on its face, nor had the petitioner's sentence expired. The court also considered this request as a petition for post-conviction relief but dismissed the petition for lack of jurisdiction. Based upon our review of the record, we affirm the trial court's dismissal of the petitioner's request for habeas corpus or post-conviction relief.
Lauderdale
Court of Criminal Appeals
W1999-1453-CCA-R3-PC W1999-1453-CCA-R3-PC
Trial Court Judge: John P. Colton, Jr.
State vs. John D. Brown E1999-02217-CCA-R3-CD
Authoring Judge: Judge David H. Welles
Trial Court Judge: R. Steven Bebb
McMinn
Court of Criminal Appeals
State vs. John D. Brown E1999-02217-CCA-R3-CD
Authoring Judge: Judge David H. Welles
Trial Court Judge: R. Steven Bebb
McMinn
Court of Criminal Appeals
State vs. William Livingstone, Jr. E1999-01362-CCA-R3-CD
Authoring Judge: Judge Robert W. Wedemeyer
Trial Court Judge: James E. Beckner
A Hamblen County jury convicted the Defendant of three counts of obtaining prescription drugs by fraud, and the trial court sentenced him as a Range II persistent offender to six years incarceration for each count, with the sentences to be served concurrently, but consecutive to a previous conviction for which he received a twenty-one-year sentence. On appeal, the Defendant argues: (1) that he was improperly arraigned; (2) that the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions; (3) that a mistrial should have been ordered by the trial court when a witness speculated that the Defendant might have been Sheriff of Grainger County at one time; (4) that the trial court erred by failing to grant the Defendant's motion for a change of venue; (5) that the trial court should have recused itself; and (6) that the Defendant was denied a speedy trial. Finding no merit to these allegations, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.
