APPELLATE COURT OPINIONS

This appeal involves the termination of parental rights. The juvenile court terminated the parental rights of both parents. Appellant/mother challenges the juvenile court’s termination of her rights contending the juvenile court erred by allowing in certain documentary evidence, that the evidence did not clearly and convincingly establish that termination was in the child's best interest, the court failed to state affirmatively that termination was in the best interest of the child, and the petition for termination was defective as it did not explicitly state the statutorily mandated language of Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-1-113(d)(3)(C) (Supp. 2000). As discussed below, we affirm the judgment of the juvenile court.
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A prison disciplinary board found a minimum security prisoner to be guilty of violation of state law. The prisoner filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari, claiming that the board had denied him due process. The trial court dismissed the petition. We affirm.

A prisoner who was denied parole filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari, challenging, on constitutional grounds, the procedures followed by the Parole Board. The trial court dismissed the petition. We affirm.

This case involves whether Mike and Bonnie Graves d/b/a/ GRESCO ("Defendants" or "Lessees") breached a commercial lease with Sue S. Plemmons ("Plaintiff" or "Lessor"). The lease was entered into in 1983 and permitted the installation of a billboard on Plaintiff's property. Plaintiff claims Lessees breached the lease when they paid the rent for 1999 late and when they refused to pay an increase from $250 to $1,500 in the annual rent. The Trial Court held that Lessees did not breach the lease and dismissed the case. We affirm.

In this action to collect the purchase price for the sale of nursery stock, the buyer alleged that the goods did not conform to the contract and that the number of units delivered was significantly short of the number specified in the invoice. The buyer also filed a counterclaim for the damage to its professional reputation resulting from the seller's breach. The Circuit Court of Franklin County resolved all the issues in favor of the seller and rendered judgment for the balance of the purchase price. Because we find that the buyer had accepted the goods and failed to carry his burden of proving that they were defective, we affirm.

This appeal involves a dispute between a decedent’s estranged husband and brother over the proceeds of a $12,000 life insurance policy. When he discovered that his deceased wife had removed him as the beneficiary of her policy, the husband filed suit in the Circuit Court for Davidson County seeking to invalidate the change of beneficiary form. Following a bench trial, the trial court found that the decedent lacked the capacity to change the beneficiary on her life insurance policy and that the decedent’s brother had procured the change through undue influence. Accordingly, the trial court awarded the decedent’s husband the proceeds of her life insurance policy as well as $350 that his brother-in-law had removed from a joint account using a power of attorney he obtained from the decedent. We have determined that the evidence does not support the trial court’s conclusion that the decedent lacked capacity to change the beneficiary of her life insurance policy and that the decedent’s husband never asserted an undue influence claim in the trial court. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment and remand the case with directions to award the proceeds of the life insurance policy to the decedent’s brother.

A state prisoner appeals the trial court's dismissal of his petition for writ of certiorari seeking judicial review of sanctions imposed in prison disciplinary proceedings. He asserts the proceedings denied him due process and that the board's failure to follow Department of Correction policies and procedures constituted an illegality under state law grounds for common law writ of certiorari. We affirm the trial court and hold (1) the sanctions imposed did not trigger due process protections, (2) the alleged failure to follow specific procedures did not amount to failure to follow the essential requirements of the law in the context of prison disciplinary proceedings, and (3) there was evidence to support the board's finding.

This appeal involves the custody of a child born out of wedlock to a mother who was at all times married to another man. The trial court awarded the mother custody. The father of the child now appeals. We have determined that the trial judge did not err in failing to recuse himself and properly awarded custody to the mother. Accordingly, we affirm.

This appeal arises from the third effort of the plaintiffs to obtain compensation and other employment benefits from their former employer. The same claims were first filed in Chancery Court against the doctor and his management company, and the complaint was dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted and failure to join an indispensable party. Thereafter, the plaintiffs filed suit in Chancery Court against the company which supplied the employee handbook and other services to the doctor. That case was dismissed on a motion for summary judgment. The plaintiffs then again filed suit against the doctor-employer in Circuit Court. The Circuit Court dismissed the case by converting the doctor-employer's motion for Rule 11 sanctions into a motion to dismiss on the basis of res judicata. The plaintiffs now appeal that dismissal to this court. We affirm the trial court's dismissal.