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Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 26, 2022

This appeal involves an employment termination case in which an employee of the City of Memphis witnessed the signing of a will, but after the decedent’s death, the probate court determined that the will submitted to probate did not bear the genuine signature of the decedent. Following an administrative appeal, the Civil Service Commission for the City of Memphis unanimously affirmed the decision of termination. The employee filed a petition for judicial review with the chancery court. The chancery court reversed the termination of the employee finding that the Civil Service Commission’s decision to sustain her termination was arbitrary and capricious. The chancery court reinstated the employee with full backpay and benefits. The City of Memphis appeals. We affirm.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 26, 2022

On May 1, 1992, Barbara Matthews Law (“Wife”) and Halbert Grant Law, Jr. (“Husband”), executed a prenuptial agreement. They married the following day. Wife filed for divorce in the Chancery Court for Hamilton County in December of 2017. The parties disputed, inter alia, the enforceability of the prenuptial agreement, as well as the classification and division of several assets. Trial was held over multiple days in 2019 and 2020, and the trial court entered its final decree divorcing the parties on July 31, 2020. The trial court held that the prenuptial agreement was valid and enforceable, classified the parties’ assets, and divided the marital estate. Wife was awarded the parties’ family home and $4,500.00 per month in alimony in futuro. Husband appeals, challenging the classification of the parties’ home as marital property, as well as the classification of one bank account. Wife cross-appeals, challenging the enforceability of the prenuptial agreement and the classification of several assets. Wife also requests increased alimony. We affirm the trial court’s finding that the parties’ prenuptial agreement is valid and enforceable. We reverse the trial court’s classification of three assets – the parties’ home, a checking account, and an investment account. We vacate the trial court’s decision as to those three assets and remand for proceedings consistent with this opinion. In light of the changes in classification of several major assets, we also vacate and remand the trial court’s award of alimony for reconsideration.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 26, 2022

A guest sued a landlord for negligence after the guest was injured by a vicious animal while visiting the landlord’s tenant. The landlord filed a motion for summary judgment that the trial court granted. Because the undisputed facts establish that the landlord did not breach any duty owed to the guest, we affirm.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 26, 2022

This appeal concerns a claim of legal malpractice. Xingkui Guo (“Plaintiff”) filed a lawsuit for legal malpractice in the Circuit Court for Davidson County (“the Trial Court”) against his former attorney Jon David Rogers (“Defendant”). Defendant filed an answer denying Plaintiff’s allegations as well as a counterclaim alleging that Plaintiff failed to pay him in full pursuant to the terms of their agreement. Defendant later filed motions for summary judgment as to both Plaintiff’s complaint against him and his counterclaim against Plaintiff. The Trial Court granted Defendant’s motions for summary judgment. Plaintiff appeals. We hold, inter alia, that there is no genuine issue of material fact necessitating trial. The undisputed material evidence shows that Plaintiff’s loss in the underlying lawsuit was not due to negligence in Defendant’s representation. The undisputed material evidence shows further that Plaintiff breached his retainer agreement with Defendant by failing to pay him in full pursuant to the terms of the agreement. We affirm the judgment of the Trial Court.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 26, 2022

In this divorce action, the husband appeals the trial court’s distribution of the marital estate, denial of the husband’s request for alimony in futuro, grant to the wife of sole decision-making authority over the parties’ minor child, and grants to the wife of attorney’s fees and discretionary costs. The husband, who received disability benefits for a prior mental health diagnosis, also appeals the trial court’s finding that he was voluntarily unemployed and the court’s denial of his motion to strike certain expert witness testimony. Having determined that an unspecified portion of the discretionary costs awarded to the wife for fees related to three expert witnesses, one vocational rehabilitation consultant and two psychiatrists, were not allowable under Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 54.04(2), we vacate the trial court’s award of discretionary costs as to the fees for these three experts’ work with the exception of $2,070.00 in demonstrably allowable fees paid to the vocational consultant. We remand for a specific determination of the fees for these three experts allowable, if any, as an award of discretionary costs to the wife under Rule 54.04(2). We also modify the trial court’s award of discretionary costs to the wife for court reporter fees to reduce them slightly pursuant to Rule 54.04(2). We otherwise affirm the trial court’s judgment. We deny the wife’s request for an award of attorney’s fees on appeal.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 25, 2022

JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and its Benefit Plan brought federal and common law claims against Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM or Blue Cross) for failing to fulfill its fiduciary duties in administering tribal health insurance plans. When we first encountered this dispute three years ago, we reversed the district court’s dismissal of the Tribe’s claims based on Blue Cross’s alleged failure to insist on “Medicare-like rates” for care authorized by the Tribe’s Contract Health Services program and provided to tribal members by Medicare-participating hospitals. On remand, the district court granted summary judgment to Blue Cross, concluding that the Tribe’s payments for qualified CHS care through the Blue Cross plans were not eligible for Medicare-like rates. The district court interpreted the relevant federal regulations as limiting the requirement of Medicare-like rates to payments for care that was authorized by CHS, provided to tribal members by Medicare-participating hospitals, and directly paid for with CHS funds. Based on the plain wording of the applicable regulations, we REVERSE and REMAND the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 25, 2022

KAREN NELSON MOORE, Circuit Judge. Decades of pollution in western Michigan led the EPA to designate the Kalamazoo River and Portage Creek as a high priority for cleanup. Decades of litigation followed, including many actions filed under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (“CERCLA”). In this dispute, two parties found liable on a CERCLA contribution claim raise a statute of limitations defense. Holding that defense to be meritorious, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 25, 2022

NALBANDIAN, Circuit Judge. This case is about a drug-trafficking conspiracy that distributed more than 100 kilograms of powder and crack cocaine in Southwest Michigan from 2017 to 2018. The conspiracy involved dozens of actors across the states of Michigan, Texas, and Arkansas. But only eight members of the operation play a relevant role here. The first, Howard Mayfield, served as the Grand Rapids-based ringleader of the drug-trafficking organization. The second, Wilbert Gentry, supplied Mayfield from Houston, Texas, with kilogram quantities of cocaine. The next six players—Donald Gardner, Martinellus Nix, Ryan Brown, Douglas Emmanuel Carey, Marvin Nix, and Salena Kolarich—acted as money couriers, wholesale distributors, and street-level dealers in the Grand Rapids area.

Federal prosecutors indicted a grand total of 27 coconspirators in 2018. And all were convicted for their various roles in the conspiracy. These appeals are brought by six of those coconspirators—Gardner, Brown, Carey, Kolarich, Marvin Nix, and Martinellus Nix. Together, their consolidated appeals present 17 issues, ranging from the denial of their motions to suppress wiretap evidence to sentencing errors. We take each in turn, affirming the district court on all but one issue.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 25, 2022

Petitioner, Antywan Eugene Savely, appeals the denial of his post-conviction petition, arguing the post-conviction court erred in finding that he received the effective assistance of counsel at trial. More specifically, Petitioner asserts that trial counsel was ineffective for failing to present any proof on his behalf. Following our review of the entire record and the briefs of the parties, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

Posted by: Tanja Trezise on Apr 25, 2022

The Defendant, Jackie Dean Miller, was convicted by a Marshall County Circuit Court jury of aggravated burglary, a Class C felony, and two counts of theft of property valued at $10,000 or more but less than $60,000, a Class C felony. See T.C.A. 39-14-403 (2018) (subsequently repealed, replaced by 39-14-1003 (Supp. 2021)) (aggravated burglary), 39-14-103 (2018) (theft), 39-14-105 (2018) (subsequently amended) (grading of theft). The trial court merged the theft convictions and imposed an effective ten-year sentence to be served in the Department of Correction. On appeal, the Defendant contends that: (1) the evidence is insufficient to support his convictions, (2) he was denied a fair trial because jurors may have seen the Defendant in a sheriff’s car, and (3) the trial court abused its discretion in imposing consecutive sentences. We affirm the judgments of the trial court.


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