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Friday, January 14, 2011

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New leaders selected at 3 bar groups

Three Tennessee bar associations have recently selected new leaders.

-- The Maury County Bar Association has elected Edward Lancaster with the Tennessee Farm Bureau as its president and David Kozlowski with the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee & the Cumberlands as its vice president.

-- At the Bristol Bar Association, Ricky Curtis has taken office as president, Brian Rife with Penn Stuart & Eskridge has taken over as vice president and Wes Edens with Icenhour & Edens has assumed the posts of secretary and treasurer.

-- The Hawkins County Bar Association has elected Douglas T. Jenkins of Rogersville as its new president and Dana Scott of Mount Carmel as its new vice president.

TODAY'S OPINIONS
Click on the category of your choice to view summaries of today’s opinions from that court, or other body. A link at the end of each case summary will let you download the full opinion in PDF format. To search all opinions in the TBALink database or to obtain a text version of each opinion, go to our OpinionSearch page. If you have forgotten your password or need to obtain a password, you can look it up on TBALink at the TBA's Membership Central.

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You can obtain full-text versions of the opinions two ways. We recommend that you download the Opinions to your computer and then open them from there. 1) Click the URL at end of each Opinion paragraph below. This should give you the option to download the original document. If not, you may need to right-click on the URL to get the option to save the file to your computer. 2) 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.

STATE OF TENNESSEE FOR THE USE AND BENEFIT OF WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ET AL. v. JESUS CHRIST'S CHURCH AT LIBERTY CHURCH ROAD, ET AL.

Court: TCA

Attorneys:

Charles Phillip Maxwell, Nashville, Tennessee, Pro Se

S. Madison Roberts, IV, Franklin, Tennessee, for the appellees, State of Tennessee for the use and benefit of Williamson County, on relation of Walter J. Davis, Trustee of said County, et al.

Judge: DINKINS

Landowner appeals trial court's grant of summary judgment to county in action to enforce delinquent tax lien. Finding no error, we affirm the judgment of the trial court.

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2011/maxwellc_011411.pdf

BETTY ROSE v. COOKEVILLE REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER AUTHORITY, ET AL.

Court: TCA

Attorneys:

James L. Harris, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Betty Rose.

Thomas Michael O'Mara, Cookeville, Tennessee, for the appellee, Cookeville Regional Medical Center Authority d/b/a Cookeville Regional Medical Center.

Judge: DINKINS

Plaintiff, a lactation consultant formerly employed by Cookeville Regional Medical Center, sued the hospital for common law retaliatory discharge and violation of the Tennessee Public Protection Act; plaintiff also asserted a claim for punitive damages. The case was tried before a jury. At the close of plaintiff's proof, the court granted the Medical Center['s motion for directed verdict on the Protection Act and punitive damages claims; the common law retaliatory discharge claim was allowed to proceed to the jury. The jury found for the Medical Center. Plaintiff appeals, asserting error in the trial court's grant of directed verdict and its rulings on evidentiary issues. Finding no error, we affirm.

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCA/2011/roseb_011411.pdf

STATE OF TENNESSEE v. JAMES TODD

Court: TCCA

Attorneys:

Robert W. Jones, District Public Defender; J. Mark Alston, and Michael J. Johnson, Assistant Public Defenders, Memphis, Tennessee, for the Defendant-Appellant, James Todd.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Lacy E. Wilbur, Assistant Attorney General; William L. Gibbons, District Attorney General; and Stacey M. McEndree, Assistant District Attorney General, for the Appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge: MCMULLEN

Defendant-Appellant, James Todd, was convicted by a Shelby County Jury of one count of attempted first degree murder, a Class A felony, and one count of aggravated assault, a Class C felony. Todd received a twenty-five-year sentence at thirty percent for the attempted first degree murder conviction and a consecutive ten-year sentence at thirty-five percent for the aggravated assault conviction, for an effective sentence of thirty-five years in the Tennessee Department of Correction. On appeal, Todd argues that (1) the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress his statement; (2) the trial court erred in allowing the victim to testify at trial that she previously identified Todd as the perpetrator at a prior hearing;(3) the trial court erred in admitting unauthenticated and unfairly prejudicial photographs at trial; (4) the trial court erred in adding language to the jury instruction on duress; (5) the evidence was insufficient to support his convictions; and (6) the trial court erred in imposing an excessive sentence. Upon review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/toddj_011311.pdf

PAUL JAY VASSALLO v. STATE OF TENNESSEE

Court: TCCA

Attorneys:

Rolfe A. Straussfogel, Sevierville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Paul Jay Vassallo.

Robert E. Cooper, Jr., Attorney General and Reporter; Sophia S. Lee, Assistant Attorney General; James Dunn, District Attorney General; and George Ioannides, Assistant District Attorney General, for the appellee, State of Tennessee.

Judge: WELLES

On January 12, 2009, the Defendant, Paul Jay Vassallo, pleaded guilty to three counts of forgery, one count of aggravated burglary, and one count of theft of property valued under $500. Pursuant to the terms of the plea agreement, he received a sentence of two years at 30% for each forgery conviction, a sentence of four years at 30% for the aggravated burglary conviction, and a sentence of eleven-months and twenty-nine days at 75% for the theft conviction. These sentences were concurrent terms, resulting in an effective four-year sentence at 30%. Thereafter, the Defendant filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, and the motion was denied. The Defendant now appeals, contending that his guilty plea was made based upon a gross misrepresentation by the prosecutor. After our review, we affirm the judgments of the Sevier County Circuit Court.

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/TCCA/2011/vassallop_011411.pdf

Corporate Contributions to Political Action Committees under 2010 Tenn. Pub. Acts Ch. 1095

TN Attorney General Opinions

Date: 2011-01-14

Opinion Number: 11-7

http://www.tba2.org/tba_files/AG/2011/ag_11_7.pdf

TODAY'S NEWS

Legal News
Tenn. Government
General Assembly News
Disciplinary Actions
Career Opportunities
TBA Member Services

Legal News

Judge to lawyer: Your side needs more help

U.S. District Court Judge John Nixon noticed that representation on two sides of a case were out of balance, and asked the plaintiffs' attorney to get more help. Nixon told Larry Woods to seek assistance from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund as a way to bring additional resources to the case -- an argument hinging on the allegation that the district's student assignment plan adopted last year has re-segregated students along racial lines. "This is an extremely important case," Nixon told the courtroom. A status conference has been rescheduled for Jan. 20, and the hearing will pick back up Jan 26.

Read the City Paper's story

Calif. judge will hear Tucson shooting trial

A federal judge in California with experience in death-penalty trials has been tapped to preside over the trial of the suspect in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting spree that left six people dead and 14 injured. U.S. District Judge Larry Alan Burns of San Diego was selected after all the federal judges in Arizona recused themselves because one of the victims, U.S. District Judge John Roll, was a colleague. Jared Lee Loughner is accused of killing Roll and five others, and shooting U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who remains hospitalized.

The ABAJournal tells you more

Security tight for Judge Roll's funeral

Security was tight this morning for the funeral service for 63-year-old U.S. District Judge John Roll, who was shot and killed, along with five others, last week in Tucson. As the hearse entered the church parking lot, U.S. marshals checked the IDs of everyone entering the lot. Four big coach buses brought dozens of judges who knew Roll over the years.

The Jackson Sun has this AP story

TBA closed for MLK holiday

The Tennessee Bar Association will be closed on Monday, Jan. 17, for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, and will reopen at 8 a.m. Jan. 18.

Tenn. Government

Watch the inauguration Saturday morning

Governor-elect Bill Haslam will be sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Connie Clark on Saturday. The ceremony begins at 11 a.m. on Legislative Plaza in Nashville.

WSMV.com will carry it live

Hunter, Davis named commissioners

Tennessee Governor-elect Bill Haslam has named Rebecca Hunter commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Human Resources. She has been the human resources director for Hamilton County government for the past six years. Haslam also named Karla Davis as commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Since 2006, Davis has been Director of Urban Strategies Memphis Hope, managing and overseeing the Community and Supportive Services Program for three U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) HOPE VI public housing redevelopment projects and two HUD ROSS Grant projects in Memphis.

General Assembly News

Harwell replaces subcommittees, names chairs

Speaker of the House Beth Harwell on Thursday replaced more than two dozen specialized subcommittees with smaller groups. There will be one subcommittee for each standing committee, a shift that could radically alter the workings of the House. Harwell also also carried out pledges to place Republicans at the head of all 14 House committees. Knoxnews.com has the House committee assignments made by Harwell, including State Rep. Eric Watson as chair of the Judiciary Committee.