Opinion FlashDecember 08, 2003Volume 9 — Number 223 Following this index are summaries of each case, including its name, first paragraph, author's name, and the names of attorneys for the parties of each opinion. This Issue (IN THIS ORDER):
TBA members can get the full-text versions of these opinions three ways detailed below. All methods require a TBA username and password. If you have forgotten your password, you can look it up on-line at http://www.tba.org/getpassword.mgi . If you are a TBA member, but do not have a username and password, you can receive one online at http://www.tba.org/signup.mgi. Here's how you can obtain full-text version. Click the URL at end of each Opinion paragraph below. This option will allow you to download the original document. Howard H. Vogel LINDA MEADOWS v. WAUSAU INSURANCE COMPANY Court:TSC - Workers Comp Panel Attorneys: David C. Nagle, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the appellant, Wausau Insurance Company Michael A. Wagner, Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the appellee, Linda Meadows Judge: BYERS First Paragraph: This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court in accordance with TENN. CODE ANN. S 50-6-225(e)(3) for hearing and reporting to the Supreme Court of findings of fact and conclusions of law. In this appeal, the defendant, Wausau Insurance Company, insists that the trial court erred in determining Wausau was liable for the plaintiff's compensation, and that the trial court erred in allowing the plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss co-defendant, Legion Insurance Company. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TSC_WCP/meadowsl.wpd SUPREME COURT OF TENNESSEE SUPREME COURT DISCRETIONARY APPEALS Court:TSC - Rules http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TSC_Rules/certlist_1208.wpd CHARLES F. KNIGHT v. RAMONA D. KNIGHT Court:TCA Attorneys: Betty Stafford Scott, Jackson, Tennessee, for the Appellant Ramona D. Knight. Bob G. Gray, Selmer, Tennessee, for the Appellee Charles F. Knight. Judge: KIRBY First Paragraph: This is a child custody case. The mother alleged abuse by the father and the father alleged that mother had psychological problems, failed to prepare nourishing meals, and had difficulty establishing her authority as a parent. The trial court designated the father as the primary residential parent for the parties' minor son. We affirm, finding no abuse of discretion by the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/knightcf.wpd LARRY JOE MANUS v. COUNTY OF OBION FACILITY ADMINISTRATOR WILLIAM SUDBURY, ET AL. Court:TCA Attorneys: Larry Joe Manus, Pro Se. James I. Pentecost and Brandon O. Gibson, Jackson, Tennessee, for the appellees, William Sudbury and Sheriff Danny Cunningham. Judge: FARMER First Paragraph: The Plaintiff broke a tooth while an inmate in the Obion County Jail. He sued the Defendants alleging that he was deprived of medical care. The trial court granted the Defendants' motion for summary judgment and Plaintiff appeals. We affirm. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/manus.wpd RUSSELL A. SIEGFRIED v. THE GRAND KREWE OF SPHINX, ET AL. Court:TCA Attorneys: Louis R. Lucas, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Russell A. Siegfried. B. J. Wade and C. Michael Becker, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellees, The Grand Krewe of Sphinx, Donald M. Keith, Gary Bilderback, Nancy Bilderback, Eric Bogenschneider, Lois Bogenschneider, Tom Broderich, Travis Burlison, Dianne Burlison, Virginia Byrd, Barney Byrum, Jim Crow, Shirley Crow, Martha Cruz, Larry Dagan, Leanna Dagan, Timothy Decent, Kathleen Decent, Bobby Deshields, Mary Deshields, Judy Finley, Mack Fulwood, Richard Gallaher, Teresa Gallaher, Ron Storm Hendren, Barbara Keith, Henry Littleton, Jr., Jeanne Littleton, Bob Lowry, Paul Mattila, Margaret Mattila, Jere Orman, Ronald Ray, Dianne Ray, Robert Richey, Linda Richey, Annelle Roachell, Allen Roberts, Darleen M. Russ, Bob Smith, Barbara Smith, Tammy Turner and Beth Vaughn. Judge: FARMER First Paragraph: This case involves an appeal from the trial court's grant of defendants' motion for summary judgment. The trial court dismissed the plaintiff's complaint for failing to meet the publication element required for a prima facie claim of defamation/libel. We affirm. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCA/siegfrie.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. BOBBY BLAIR Court:TCCA Attorneys: William B. Lockert, III, District Public Defender; and Richard D. Taylor, Jr., Assistant District Public Defender, for the appellant, Bobby Blair. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Helena Walton Yarbrough, Assistant Attorney General; Dan Mitchum Alsobrooks, District Attorney General; and Lisa Carol Donegan, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: TIPTON First Paragraph: The defendant, Bobby Blair, appeals as of right the sentence imposed by the Humphreys County Circuit Court following his plea of nolo contendere to the sale of methamphetamine, a Class B felony. The trial court sentenced him as a Range I, standard offender to ten years in the Department of Correction consecutive to an effective sixteen-year sentence for prior convictions for manufacturing methamphetamine and felonious possession of methamphetamine. The defendant contends that the trial court erroneously imposed consecutive sentences. We affirm the trial court's judgment of conviction. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/blairbobby.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. CARLOS CURRY Court:TCCA Attorneys: Virginia Lee Story, Franklin, Tennessee, for the appellant, Carlos Curry. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Kim R. Helper, Assistant Attorney General; Ron Davis, District Attorney General; and Mary Katharine White, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: SMITH First Paragraph: The Appellant, Carlos A. Curry, was convicted by a jury of first offense driving under the influence of an intoxicant. However, the jury acquitted the Appellant of four counts of vehicular homicide. Following a sentencing hearing, the trial court ordered the Appellant to serve eleven months and twenty-nine days in the county jail. Because we find that the trial court did not err in sentencing the Appellant, we affirm the judgment of the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/currycarlos.wpd THOMAS E. DUNN v. STATE OF TENNESSEE Court:TCCA Attorneys: Thomas E. Dunn, Brushy Mountain Regional Correctional Facility, Wartburg, Tennessee, Pro Se. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; John H. Bledsoe, Assistant Attorney General; and Randall E. Nichols, District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: GLENN First Paragraph: The petitioner appeals the summary dismissal of his petition for post-conviction relief as time- barred, arguing that he made out a prima facie case of mental incompetence and should therefore have been granted an evidentiary hearing to determine whether due process required that the statute of limitations be tolled. Based on our review, we affirm the post-conviction court's dismissal of the petition. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/dunnthomas.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. SYLVESTER GAILES, JR. Court:TCCA Attorneys: Randall B. Tolley, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Sylvester Gailes, Jr. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Jennifer L. Bledsoe, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; and Perry S. Hayes and Kimkea Lashea Harris, Assistant District Attorneys General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: RILEY First Paragraph: The defendant pled guilty to fourth offense driving under the influence (DUI-fourth offense), a felony, and received a two-year sentence with all but 150 days suspended. Pursuant to a plea agreement reserving a certified question of law, he contends that Tennessee Code Annotated section 55-10-403(a)(3), the statute setting forth the method of determining prior convictions, is unconstitutional as applied to his case. We dismiss the appeal for lack of jurisdiction after concluding the certified question of law is not dispositive of the case. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/gailes.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JOSEPH SCOTT HAYES Court:TCCA Attorneys: John H. Henderson, District Public Defender; Eugene J. Honea, Assistant Public Defender, for the appellant, Joseph Scott Hayes. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; P. Robin Dixon, Jr., Assistant Attorney General; Ronald L. Davis, District Attorney General; and Mary Katherine Harvey, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WOODALL First Paragraph: Defendant, Joseph Scott Hayes, was indicted for two counts of aggravated assault, one count of stalking and one count of coercion of a witness. Following a bench trial, Defendant was convicted of two counts of aggravated assault and one count of coercion of a witness. The trial court found the evidence insufficient to sustain a conviction on the charge of stalking. The trial court sentenced Defendant to four years imprisonment on each count of aggravated assault and three years imprisonment for his conviction for coercion of a witness. The trial court ordered Defendant's sentences for aggravated assault to run consecutively, and his sentence for coercion of a witness to run concurrently with his aggravated assault convictions for an effective sentence of eight years. Defendant now appeals challenging the sufficiency of the convicting evidence. Following a review of the record, we affirm the trial court's judgments. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/hayesjosephscott.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. SHAWN HODGE Court:TCCA Attorneys: Brandt Davis, Knoxville, Tennessee, for the Appellant, Shawn Hodge. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Braden H. Boucek, Assistant Attorney General; Randall E. Nichols, District Attorney General; and Marsha Mitchell, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WITT First Paragraph: Convicted by a jury of first degree murder, the defendant, Shawn Hodge, appeals and claims (1) the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction, (2) the trial court erred in denying a jury view of the crime scene, (3) the trial court erroneously excluded evidence of a threat made against a defense witness, (4) the defendant was prejudiced by an attempt by the state to pay a prosecution witness, (5) the court inadequately instructed the jury on the elements of the offense, and (6) the court erroneously admitted the testimony of an allegedly incompetent defense witness. We affirm the lower court's judgment. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/hodgeshawn.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. FRED ELLIOT HUNTER Court:TCCA Attorneys: Tony L. Maples, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, for the appellant, Fred Elliot Hunter. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; P. Robin Dixon, Jr., Assistant Attorney General; Victor S. Johnson, District Attorney General; and John Zimmerman, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: SMITH First Paragraph: The appellant, Fred Elliot Hunter, was convicted by a jury of conspiracy to possess with the intent to deliver three hundred (300) grams or more of a substance containing cocaine, a Class A felony. The appellant was sentenced to twenty-one (21) years as a Range I Standard Offender and fined $2,000. The trial court denied the appellant's motion for new trial, and he appeals, arguing: (1) that the trial court erred in failing to grant the appellant's motion for judgment of acquittal; (2) that the trial court erred in failing to grant the appellant's motion to dismiss for want of a speedy trial; (3) that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the conviction; (4) that the trial court erred in admitting the appellant's manslaughter conviction; (5) that the trial court erred in failing to consider appropriate mitigating factors in sentencing; and (6) that the trial court failed to order alternative sentencing. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/hunterfred.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. CHARITY H. KEITH Court:TCCA Attorneys: John H. Henderson, District Public Defender; Eugene J. Honea, Assistant Public Defender, for the appellant, Charity H. Keith. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Jennifer L. Bledsoe, Assistant Attorney General; Ronald L. Davis, District Attorney General; and Derek K. Smith, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WOODALL First Paragraph: Defendant, Charity H. Keith, appeals from the revocation of her probation, arguing that the trial court erred in ordering her original sentence to run consecutively to her subsequent sentences in Davidson County. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/keithcharityh.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. DEWAYNE M. McDANIEL a/k/a ANTHONY McDANIEL Court:TCCA Attorneys: Lee A. Filderman, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, DeWayne M. McDaniel. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Thomas E. Williams, III, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; and Steve Jones, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: SMITH First Paragraph: The appellant, Dewayne A. McDaniel, a/k/a Anthony McDaniel, was convicted by a jury of theft of property. Specifically, the jury convicted the appellant of the second charge contained in the indictment, exercising control over property with a value of $10,000 but less than $60,000 without the consent of the owner, a Class C felony. The trial court sentenced the appellant to fifteen years as a Range III, persistent offender. The appellant's motion for new trial was denied by the trial court in an order entered May 10, 2001. The trial court entered an order granting a delayed appeal on June 28, 2002. The trial court's order granting the delayed appeal indicates that the request for the delayed appeal was made by the appellant's attorney, even though no motion for a delayed appeal appears in the technical record before this Court. The notice of appeal was not filed until September 13, 2002. Because of the untimeliness of the filing of the notice of appeal the appeal is dismissed. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/mcdaniel.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. RASHE MOORE Court:TCCA Attorneys: Mark Mesler and Howard B. Manis, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Rashe Moore. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; John H. Bledsoe, Assistant Attorney General; Robert Wilson Jones, District Attorney General; and Stephen P. Jones, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WILLIAMS First Paragraph: The defendant was found guilty of six counts of aggravated rape, seven counts of especially aggravated kidnapping, five counts of aggravated robbery, and one count of aggravated burglary. The defendant contends on appeal that (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress the photographic identification, (2) the evidence was insufficient to support the convictions, (3) the trial court erred in excluding evidence of a scar upon the defendant's abdomen, (4) the trial court erred in not requiring the State to make an election of offenses as to the aggravated rape convictions, (5) the trial court did not properly instruct the jury on lesser included offenses, and (6) the sentence was improper. Finding no reversible error, we affirm the judgments of the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/moorer.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. MORGAN L. RAY Court:TCCA Attorneys: Donna Leigh Hargrove, District Public Defender, and Andrew Jackson Dearing, III, Assistant Public Defender, for the appellant, Morgan L. Ray. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Jennifer L. Bledsoe, Assistant Attorney General; William Michael McCown, District Attorney General; and Michael D. Randles, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WILLIAMS First Paragraph: The defendant pled guilty to driving while under the status of a habitual motor offender; two counts of driving under the influence, seventh offense; two counts of driving on a revoked license, eighth offense; and violation of the implied consent law. The trial court gave the defendant an effective sentence of nine years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. The defendant contends on appeal that the trial court erred by not granting him alternative sentencing. Plain error requires us to vacate the judgment of conviction for driving on a revoked license (count three) because of double jeopardy prohibitions. The other judgments from the trial court are affirmed in all respects. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/rayml.wpd DAVID L. ROBINSON, JR. v. STATE OF TENNESSEE Court:TCCA Attorneys: Kevin R. Bryant, Crossville, Tennessee, for the appellant, David L. Robinson. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General and Reporter; Christine M. Lapps, Assistant Attorney General; William Edward Gibson, District Attorney General; and Eric D. Christiansen, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: TIPTON First Paragraph: The petitioner, David L. Robinson, appeals the Putnam County Criminal Court's denial of his petition for post-conviction relief from his conviction for first degree murder and resulting sentence of life imprisonment. He claims he received the ineffective assistance of counsel because his trial attorneys (1) failed to challenge the fact that no African-Americans were on the jury, (2) failed to appeal an issue properly regarding a state witness's testimony, (3) failed to file a motion to sever his case from his codefendant's case, and (4) failed to call a potential defense witness to testify. We affirm the trial court's denial of the petition. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/robinsondavidl.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JAMIE JOHN SCHRANTZ Court:TCCA Attorneys: Michael D. Rasnake, Jackson, Tennessee, for the Appellant, Jamie John Schrantz. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Elizabeth B. Marney, Assistant Attorney General; James G. Woodall, District Attorney General; and Jody S. Pickens, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: WITT First Paragraph: The defendant, Jamie John Schrantz, appeals from his Madison County Circuit Court jury conviction of assault. He claims that the evidence is insufficient to support the conviction, that the trial court erred in limiting the defendant's cross-examination of a prosecution witness, and that the trial court erred in ordering the assault sentence served consecutively to prior sentences. We affirm the lower court's judgment. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/schrantz.wpd STATE OF TENNESSEE v. TRENT STARK Court:TCCA Attorneys: Garland Ergueden (on appeal) and William Johnson (at trial), Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, Trent Stark. Paul G. Summers, Attorney General & Reporter; Kathy D. Aslinger, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; and Patience Branham, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee. Judge: SMITH First Paragraph: The appellant, Trent Stark, was convicted by a jury of first degree murder. As a result, the jury sentenced the appellant to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The appellant appealed after the denial of a motion for new trial. The only issue raised on appeal is the sufficiency of the evidence. We conclude that the evidence was sufficient to support a finding of guilt and therefore affirm the decision of the trial court. http://www.tba.org/tba_files/TCCA/starkt.wpd PLEASE FORWARD THIS E-MAIL! GET A FULL-TEXT COPY OF AN OPINION! JOIN THE TENNESSEE BAR ASSOCIATION! SUBSCRIBE TO OPINION FLASH! UNSUBSCRIBE TO OPINION FLASH? ... SURELY NOT! But if you must, visit the TBALink web site at: http://www.tba.org/op-flash.mgi Home • Contact Us • PageFinder • What's New • Help |
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