January 08 , 2001 Volume 7 -- Number 005 What follows is the case style or name, first paragraph, author's name, and the names of attorneys for the parties of each opinion released eletronically today to TBALink. This Issue (IN THIS ORDER):   00 New Opinion(s) from the Tennessee Supreme Court 01 New Opinion(s) from the Tennessee Supreme Court Workers' Compensation Panel 00 New Document(s) or Proposed Rule(s) from the Tennessee Supreme Court 06 New Opinion(s) from the Tennessee Court of Appeals 03 New Opinion(s) from the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals 00 New Opinion(s) from the Tennessee Attorney General (PDF format) 00 New Judicial Ethics Opinion(s) 00 New Formal Ethics Opinion(s) from the Board of Professional Responsibility   There are three ways for TBALink members to get the full-text versions of these opinions from the Web: Do a key word search in the Search Link area of TBALink. This option will allow you to view and save a plain-text version of the opinion. Browse the Opinion List area of TBALink. This option will allow you to download the original version of the opinion. Click the URL at end of each Opinion paragraph below. This option will allow you to download the original document. Lucian T. Pera Editor-in-Chief, TBALink INGRAM BOOK COMPANY V. REBECCA ROWLAND Court:TSC - Workers Comp Panel Attorneys: D. Russell Thomas and Herbert M. Schaltegger, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for the appellant, Rebecca Rowland. D. Brett Burrow and Delicia R. Bryant, Brewer, Krause & Brooks, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Ingram Book Company. Judge: TURNBULL First Paragraph: This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel in accordance with Tenn. Code Ann. S50-6-225(e)(3) (1999) for hearing and reporting of findings of fact and conclusion of law. In this case, the employee contends the trial court erred in finding no causal connection between her injury and employment and no permanent partial disability. As discussed below, the panel has concluded that the evidence preponderates against the trial court's findings and reverses its decision. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TSC_WCP/ingram.wpd BOBBY F. CONLEE v. JUANITA RICE CONLEE Court:TCA Attorneys: J. Thomas Caldwell, for Appellant T. D. Forrester, for Appellee Judge: HIGHERS First Paragraph: This appeal involves a divorce ending a fourteen year marriage. The trial court granted the husband a divorce and divided the property. On appeal, the wife takes issue with the division of marital property, and the failure of the trial court to award her alimony or attorney's fees. For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment of the trial court in all respects. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/conleebobby.wpd MELISSA SUZANNE DEW v. PRO-TEMP, et al. Court:TCA Attorneys: Roger L. Ridenour, Clinton, Tennessee, for the Appellant, Melissa Suzanne Dew. Edward G. Phillips, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the Appellee, Pro-Temp. Judge: SWINEY First Paragraph: This appeal arises from a grant of summary judgment to Pro-Temp ("Defendant"), a temporary employment agency. Melissa Suzanne Dew ("Plaintiff") brought suit against her employer, Defendant, and Eagle Bend Manufacturing, Inc. ("Eagle Bend"). Defendant assigned Plaintiff to work in a temporary position at Eagle Bend where Plaintiff sustained a work-related injury. A few months later, Plaintiff received a reprimand from her Eagle Bend supervisor related to Plaintiff's work performance. Thereafter, Defendant terminated Plaintiff's assignment at Eagle Bend. Plaintiff claims Defendant terminated her employment in retaliation for exercising her worker's compensation rights. Plaintiff argues there are genuine issues of material fact which preclude the granting of summary judgment to Defendant. We affirm. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/dewms.wpd JOSEPH L. ELCAN, et al. v. LINDA AUGUSTINE, et al. Court:TCA Attorneys: J. Thomas Caldwell, for the Appellants T. D. Forrester, for the Appellees Judge: HIGHERS First Paragraph: This appeal involves a will contest concerning the last will and testament of Frank Elcan. Contestants are, among others, the brother and half sister of the testator. The proponents of the will are Linda Augustine and Jimmy Elcan. The complaint alleges that a paper writing dated December 1, 1995, previously admitted to probate in common form is not the lawful will of the testator because he lacked testamentary capacity and because he was unduly influenced by Linda Augustine. The proponent's answer denies the material allegations of the complaint. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/elcanjoseph.wpd BENNIE J. FAULKNER, et al. v. HOMER SKELTON, et al. Court:TCA Attorneys: James F. Schaeffer, Jr., Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellants, Bennie J. Faulkner, et al. Louis F. Allen, David A. McLaughlin, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellees, Homer Skelton, et al. Judge: LILLARD First Paragraph: This is a personal injury and wrongful death case involving an automobile accident. The plaintiffs, husband and wife, suffered injuries, and the wife's mother, a passenger in the car, died as a result of the accident. The driver of the other car was a sixteen-year old boy. The plaintiffs sued the boy's grandfather, and various corporate entities that he owned, alleging that they were the true owners of the car and had let the boy drive it for family and business purposes, and also alleging negligent entrustment. The trial court granted summary judgment to the defendants. We affirm, finding the evidence insufficient to support claims under any of these theories. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/faulknerbj.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE, Department of Children's Services, v. D. & G. M. Court:TCA Attorneys: Marty M. Stone, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for Appellant, D.M. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter, and Douglas Earl Dimond, Assistant Attorney General, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellee, State of Tennessee, Department of Children's Services. Judge: FRANKS First Paragraph: The Trial Judge terminated mother's parental rights to her three minor children. We affirm. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/stvdgm.wpd WILLS & WILLS, L.P. v. RAYMOND B. GILL, III Court:TCA Attorneys: Richard M. Carter and Curt R. Soefker, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellants, Wills & Wills, L.P. James W. Surprise, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellee, Raymond B. Gill, III. Judge: FARMER First Paragraph: Owners of adjacent properties entered into negotiations and a subsequent agreement regarding issues concerning their properties. Dispute between the parties arose after one owner began construction of a Walgreens store in an area one party contended was other than that designated for the location of future buildings on the plat configuring the parties' properties. The other party alleged that the parties did not have an agreement between them concerning the location of future buildings on the adjacent properties. The trial court determined that the parties only had a meeting of the minds as to drainage improvements and further determined that the agreement was a contract only for drainage in that the agreement did not contain specific, written restrictive covenants as to the location for future buildings. We affirm. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/willswills.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. ROBBY J. COX Court:TCCA Attorneys: Leslie S. Hale, Assistant Public Defender, for the appellant, Robby J. Cox. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Clinton J. Morgan, Counsel for the State; H. Greeley Wells, Jr., District Attorney General; and Jack Lewis Combs, Jr., Assistant District Attorney, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WILLIAMS First Paragraph: The defendant pled guilty to facilitation of the sale of cocaine under Tennessee Code Annotated section 39-17-417. The defendant was sentenced to a six-year term at the Department of Correction, as a Range I offender, and fined $2000. The defendant requested alternative sentencing but, after a review of the defendant's background by the trial court, the request was denied. The defendant now appeals his sentence contending that the trial court erred by denying him alternative sentencing. After a thorough review of the record, we find that the trial court did not err in denying the defendant alternative sentencing. The defendant's sentence is affirmed. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/coxrj.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JERRY WAYNE ELLIOTT Court:TCCA Attorneys: George Morton Googe, District Public Defender; Michael D. Rasnake, Assistant Public Defender, Jackson, Tennessee, for the appellant, Jerry Wayne Elliott. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; J. Ross Dyer, Assistant Attorney General; Jerry Woodall, District Attorney General; William R. Martin, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee Judge: WOODALL First Paragraph: The Defendant, Jerry Wayne Elliott, pled guilty to three counts of aggravated assault, reserving his right to appeal a certified question of law, pursuant to Tenn. R. Crim. P. 37(b)(2)(i). Defendant had filed a Motion to Suppress evidence obtained from an allegedly unconstitutional search and seizure of Defendant, which the trial court denied following an evidentiary hearing. The denial of this Motion to Suppress is the basis of the certified question of law. After review of the record and the briefs we affirm the judgment of the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/elliottjw.wpd AARON BERNARD GRAY v. STATE OF TENNESSEE Court:TCCA Attorneys: Pamela J. Drewery, Jackson, Tennessee, for the appellant, Aaron Bernard Gray. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; J. Ross Dyer, Assistant Attorney General; Jerry Woodall, District Attorney General; and Al Earls, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee Judge: WELLES First Paragraph: The Defendant, Aaron Bernard Gray, appeals as of right from the dismissal of his petition for post- conviction relief. On appeal, he asserts that he should have been granted post-conviction relief because he was denied the effective assistance of counsel at trial, because the trial court abused its discretion by finding the victim competent to testify, and because the trial court abused its discretion by failing to grant a mistrial. We hold that the Defendant has failed to establish that he was denied the effective assistance of counsel and that his other two issues are either waived or previously determined. Thus, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/grayab.wpd PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL! Feel free to forward this Opinion Flash on to anyone you know of with an e-mail address. GET A FULL-TEXT COPY OF AN OPINION! See the intrsuctions at the beginning of this edition of Opinion Flash. JOIN TBALink! While Opinion Flash is a free service of the Tennessee Bar Association, you must be a subscriber to TBALink, the premier Web site for Tennessee attorneys, in order to access the full-text of the opinions or enjoy many other features of TBALink. TBA members may join TBALink for just $50 per year. To join, go to: http://www.tba.org/join.html/ SUBSCRIBE TO OPINION FLASH! Would you like to receive the TBALink Opinion Flash free each day by e-mail? Anyone, whether a TBA member or not, is welcome to subscribe ... it's free! For the Plain Text Version: 1) Send an e-mail message to: Opinion-Flash@tba.org 2) In the SUBJECT of the message type: SUBSCRIBE 3) Leave the body of the message blank For the HTML Text Version: 1) Send an e-mail message to: Opinion-Flash@tba.org 2) In the SUBJECT of the message type: SUBSCRIBE HTML 3) Leave the body of the message blank UNSUBSCRIBE TO OPINION FLASH? ... SURELY NOT! To STOP receiving TBALink Opinion-Flash: 1) Send an e-mail message to: Opinion-Flash@tba.org 2) In the SUBJECT of the message type: UNSUBSCRIBE 3) Leave the body of the message blank © Copyright 2001 Tennessee Bar Association