David Ishee

The case involved Meshel Davis-Everett's appeal of an administrative order by the Mississippi Commissioner of Insurance suspending her bail bonding license for six months and fining her $5,000 for employing her convicted felon husband in the business and using his nickname as the trade name, in violation of state law. The circuit court affirmed the order, and the Court of Appeals of Mississippi also affirmed, finding the decision supported by substantial evidence including advertisements and an affidavit showing the husband's involvement. The court held that the order was not arbitrary or capricious, was within the agency's authority under Mississippi Code Annotated Sections 83-39-15 and 83-39-9, and did not violate any statutory or constitutional rights, as the appellant failed to provide supporting authority or preserve issues for appeal.

business & regulatory

This case involved a dispute over an outdoor advertising sign leased on property in Leake County, Mississippi. In 1965, the property owner leased space to Lamar for the sign, with subsequent lease renewals; the leases and a reservation of rights were referenced in a 1991 recorded warranty deed when the land was sold. After purchasing the property at a foreclosure sale in 1996, Harrell destroyed the sign in 2001 despite having seen it and reviewed the deed, leading Lamar and the original lessor's widow to sue for damages. The chancery court found Harrell liable for intentional destruction and ordered him to pay $6,645 in replacement costs plus attorney's fees while issuing a permanent injunction. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that Harrell had actual and constructive notice of the valid, unrecorded leases through the recorded deed reservation and thus was not a bona fide purchaser without notice, making the destruction tortious.

propertytorts & liability

The case involved a mother and her minor son suing Sherwin-Williams Company for injuries the child allegedly suffered from ingesting lead-based paint in their home, claiming strict liability, negligence, and other theories. The trial court granted summary judgment to the defendant, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The court reasoned that the claims were barred by the statute of limitations because the plaintiffs knew of the child's excessive lead exposure by 1993 and its connection to lead paint by 1994, starting the three-year clock under Mississippi law, which expired before the 2000 filing.

torts & liabilityprocedure

Reo Covington was indicted for robbery after threatening a bank teller with a bomb to obtain over $7,000 and entered a guilty plea in the Franklin County Circuit Court. Before accepting the plea, the court questioned Covington to confirm it was voluntary, and he acknowledged understanding the charge, rights waived, and possible maximum sentence of fifteen years. Covington later moved for post-conviction relief, alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, that the facts did not support a robbery conviction, and excessive bail; the trial court denied the motion. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the plea statements contradicted the ineffective-counsel claims, the facts satisfied the robbery statute, and the guilty plea waived the bail issue.

criminal lawprocedure

The case involved the estate of Mary Kathleen Bond suing the City of Long Beach, Mississippi, after Bond tripped and fell on a sidewalk with an approximately one-inch elevation variation while hurrying to film a Christmas parade in 1998, resulting in a knee fracture; Bond alleged the city failed to maintain its sidewalks in a reasonably safe condition and to warn of dangers. Following a bench trial, the circuit court ruled that the city breached no duty and that no dangerous condition existed. On appeal, the Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed, applying a deferential standard of review to the trial court's findings of fact. The court reasoned that municipalities owe a duty of ordinary care to keep sidewalks reasonably safe but are not required to maintain them in perfect condition or eliminate minor defects, which are common and expected, and that the one-inch variation here did not constitute an unreasonably dangerous condition even in the context of a crowded evening event.

torts & liability

In this case, Bobby Allred was convicted in Union County Circuit Court on three counts of sexual battery against a twelve-year-old girl and sentenced to seventy-five years in prison. Allred appealed, arguing that the indictment's approximate dates for the offenses were too vague to allow him to prepare an alibi defense, that the trial court improperly applied the tender years hearsay exception to admit the victim's statements through a social worker, and that cumulative errors required reversal. The Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed the convictions, holding that the indictment provided sufficient notice under state law, that the trial court properly conducted a hearing and made factual findings supporting the reliability of the statements regardless of the victim's age at trial, and that no errors occurred. The court reviewed the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution and found it sufficient to support the jury's verdict on each count.

criminal lawprocedure

The case involved multiple plaintiffs suing Perma Corp. for negligence and breach of contract, claiming illnesses from contaminated water after a Perma employee damaged a pipe during sewer line work for the City of Macon. The trial court granted Perma Corp.'s motion for summary judgment, struck the plaintiffs' late-filed expert affidavit and supplemental designation, and dismissed the case with prejudice. The plaintiffs sought to reopen the appeal period after receiving delayed notice of the judgment but filed their notice of appeal more than seven days after that notice. The appellate court held that it lacked jurisdiction because timely notice of appeal is mandatory under Mississippi Rule of Appellate Procedure 4(h), and the plaintiffs missed the deadline, rendering all other issues moot.

proceduretorts & liability

The case involved surface owners suing a mineral lessee and its agents for damages to their land from oil well operations. The chancery court awarded damages and fees, but the Court of Appeals reversed, finding the lower court used an incorrect legal standard for liability. Under the proper standard, the evidence did not show that the defendants acted negligently or wantonly or used more surface land than reasonably necessary for their operations under the mineral lease. Therefore, the appeals court rendered judgment in favor of the oil company and its representatives.

propertybusiness & regulatorytorts & liability

The case involves the divorce proceedings between Charles W. Rush and Latresa A. Rush in Mississippi chancery court, where the husband sought divorce on grounds of adultery and equitable division of property including his one-third interest in an air conditioning business valued at $179,000. The chancellor granted the divorce to the husband, awarded the wife $89,000 as her share of the business (secured by a judicial lien on the marital home), granted primary physical custody of the minor child to the husband while ordering him to pay child support and periodic alimony to the wife, and found no portion of the business value attributable to personal goodwill. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the chancellor's rulings in full, holding that the business valuation and asset division complied with Mississippi law prohibiting inclusion of goodwill in marital property distribution, and that the support and alimony awards were within the chancellor's discretion. A partial dissent agreed on most issues but would have reversed the child support order given the husband's status as primary custodian.

family lawproperty

The case involved landowners, including the Town of Bolton and two individuals, suing Chevron Oil Company and related entities for alleged contamination of their property from oil and gas exploration and production activities, asserting claims such as negligence, nuisance, strict liability, breach of lease, fraud, and unjust enrichment, while reserving certain cleanup costs for administrative resolution. The circuit court dismissed the complaints without prejudice, finding that the plaintiffs had failed to exhaust available remedies before the Mississippi State Oil and Gas Board. On appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the Town's claims and most of the individuals' claims but reversed in part, holding that the common law claims for monetary damages should instead be stayed pending exhaustion of administrative remedies before the Board. The court reasoned that precedent required exhaustion of Board remedies for oil field pollution issues before seeking judicial relief on overlapping claims, though the Board could not award the requested money damages.

environmentpropertytorts & liabilityprocedure

In this Mississippi divorce case, Cynthia Lowrey sought relief from a final judgment of divorce based on a settlement agreement she signed, claiming it resulted from overreaching, duress, and lack of independent legal advice amid threats from her ex-husband Perrin. The chancery court denied her motion, finding the agreement adequate. On appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the agreement was not adequate and sufficient due to inequitable terms on custody, support, property division, and alimony, as well as evidence of overreaching in its procurement, and remanded for further proceedings on those issues.

family law

Gregory Elkins was convicted in the Circuit Court of Oktibbeha County of fondling his stepdaughter, P.B., based on her testimony and other evidence, and was sentenced to ten years in custody plus five years of post-release supervision. On appeal, Elkins challenged the admission of a social worker's testimony regarding her forensic interview with P.B. under the tender years hearsay exception and the exclusion of certain impeachment evidence aimed at showing the victim's alleged motive to lie. The Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed the conviction, holding that the social worker's testimony was properly admitted as it did not directly opine on the victim's truthfulness and met the requirements of the tender years exception, and that the excluded impeachment evidence was inadmissible hearsay that could not be introduced through improper impeachment of the defense's own witness. The court found no violation of Elkins's confrontation rights or fair trial rights in these evidentiary rulings.

criminal lawprocedure

James Leatherwood, a Frito-Lay delivery driver, injured his back through yard work in 1999 and later fell from his truck multiple times during a delivery in December 1999, after which he underwent back surgery and became unable to work. He sought workers' compensation benefits, which his employer denied; an administrative law judge rejected his claim for lack of medical proof linking the work fall to his disability, but the Full Commission awarded benefits and the circuit court affirmed. The Court of Appeals affirmed the award, concluding that substantial evidence, including medical testimony that the fall was consistent with his worsened condition, supported a causal connection even without absolute certainty or initial disclosure of the fall to his doctor.

labor & employment

Shawn Hubbard, who had been convicted of selling cocaine and placed on supervised probation with a suspended sentence, was found by police at a residence where marijuana was being used and a bag of marijuana was discovered under his chair. The Circuit Court of Warren County revoked his suspended sentence for violating the probation condition to avoid persons or places of disreputable or harmful character. Hubbard filed a motion for post-conviction relief alleging judicial bias, improper waiver of a preliminary hearing, and insufficient evidence, but after an evidentiary hearing the trial court denied the motion. The Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed, finding some claims procedurally barred for failure to raise them earlier, no merit to the recusal argument, and sufficient evidence supporting the revocation based on Hubbard's presence in a location with obvious marijuana use.

criminal lawprocedure

Jessie Johnson, serving a life sentence for homicide plus additional time for aggravated assault, challenged the Mississippi Parole Board's repeated denials of his parole requests without a hearing, citing the same reasons each time and alleging discriminatory treatment compared to his co-defendants. The Sunflower County Circuit Court dismissed his petition for writ of habeas corpus, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The court held that inmates have no constitutionally protected interest in parole, so no due process hearing is required, and the parole board's discretionary decisions are subject only to rational basis review, which was satisfied here given Johnson's additional offense while incarcerated.

criminal lawprocedurecivil rights

Bildrick Jackson was convicted of murder in Mississippi circuit court after evidence showed he killed his girlfriend Natalia Little, the mother of his child, to collect on a $250,000 life insurance policy naming him as beneficiary; the key testimony came from Tavares Love, who had mental health issues and participated in disposing of the body. Jackson appealed on multiple grounds, including the denial of cross-examination and records regarding Love's mental condition, alleged prosecutorial misconduct, ineffective assistance of counsel, speedy trial violations, failure to hold a Frye hearing, lack of proof of corpus delicti, and an allegedly cruel sentence. The Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed the conviction and life sentence, ruling that the trial court committed no reversible errors, that Love's testimony was sufficient to establish the corpus delicti through circumstantial evidence, and that the sentence was the only one permitted by statute for murder.

criminal lawprocedure

This case involves neighboring landowners in Mississippi where Conrad Mallette sought continued access across a strip of land owned by Troy and Irene Delancey to reach his forty-acre farming property, which he had used for over forty years until the Delanceys installed a gate in 2001. Mallette filed suit for an injunction and easement, while the Delanceys counterclaimed that his cattle operations created a nuisance near their home. The trial court granted an implied easement to Mallette, but the Court of Appeals reversed that ruling on the grounds that the necessary elements for an implied easement were not proven, remanded for further proceedings on a potential prescriptive easement, and affirmed the denial of the nuisance claim along with the other issues.

propertytorts & liability

In Everett v. Everett, a Mississippi couple divorced after nearly 30 years of marriage with no children, and the trial court divided their marital assets after they could not agree on a property settlement. The chancellor classified various assets including a home, annuities, stocks, and accounts as marital property, awarded the marital home and some assets to the husband while giving the wife others, and ordered an equal division with the husband paying the wife to equalize her share of the home. On appeal, the wife challenged the home award and an annuity credit to the husband, while the husband cross-appealed the classification of his stocks as marital and the equal split. The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the chancellor's findings were supported by substantial credible evidence under the Ferguson factors, which account for each party's contributions to the marriage, needs based on age and health, and other circumstances. The topics are family law and property.

family lawproperty

In this case, Boston George Grace, who had pleaded guilty to drug possession and received a suspended sentence with probation conditions including reporting to a supervising officer, violated those conditions by failing to report as directed after transitioning from earned-release to post-release supervision. The Circuit Court of Harrison County revoked his probation following a hearing where Grace admitted the violations and imposed a four-year prison sentence, after which Grace's petition for post-conviction relief was denied. On appeal, Grace argued that the circuit court lacked jurisdiction over the revocation because it involved earned-release supervision matters under the Mississippi Department of Corrections and that his counsel provided ineffective assistance by not raising this claim. The Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed the denial, reasoning that circuit courts retain jurisdiction over the full original sentence term regardless of supervision type and that the absence of a valid jurisdictional issue meant counsel's performance was not deficient.

criminal lawprocedure

Herbert Richardson pled guilty to aggravated assault and shooting into an occupied dwelling and received concurrent nine-year prison terms plus five years of post-release supervision under Mississippi Code Section 47-7-34, after the court suspended portions of the maximum statutory sentences of twenty and ten years. He sought post-conviction relief, claiming the total sentence including suspended time and supervision could exceed the combined thirty-year maximum. The Court of Appeals of Mississippi affirmed the denial of relief, holding that the sentence as imposed did not violate statutory limits. The court reasoned that post-release supervision periods are not counted as time served, and any future revocation or imposition of suspended time could be adjusted to avoid exceeding the maximum, making the current sentence legal under precedents like Brown v. State.

criminal lawprocedure