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Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 6, 2021

Appellant filed a civil warrant in general sessions court seeking a refund of her payment to Appellee, a bondsman, because the bondee was never released from public custody. The general sessions court granted judgment in Appellee’s favor, and Appellant appealed to circuit court. Eventually, Appellee filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that Appellant was not entitled to a refund. In response, Appellant filed a motion to amend her civil warrant to clarify her theories. The trial court granted Appellee’s motion for summary judgment and denied Appellant’s motion to amend her civil warrant. Because Appellee’s failure to comply with Rule 56.03 of the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure prevents meaningful review of its motion for summary judgment, we reverse the trial court’s grant of summary judgment. We vacate the trial court’s denial of Appellant’s motion to amend.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 6, 2021

This case is about the requisite mental capacity to execute a power of attorney. After the death of Pagiel Hall Czoka (“Decedent”), Decedent’s estate initiated a lawsuit against several defendants affiliated with the Life Care Center of Gray (“Defendants”) in January of 2018. The estate’s claims arose from an alleged assault on Decedent while she resided in Defendants’ residential health-care facility in Gray, Tennessee. In response, Defendants sought to compel arbitration of all issues and claims based upon an arbitration agreement entered into by Defendants and Decedent’s power of attorney when Decedent was admitted to Defendants’ facility in 2015. The estate responded by asserting that Decedent lacked sufficient mental capacity to execute the power of attorney on the day it was signed and that the power of attorney and the arbitration agreement were therefore void. As such, the estate argued that Defendants’ motion to compel arbitration should be denied and that the case should proceed to trial. The Circuit Court for Washington County (the “trial court”) granted Defendants’ motion to compel arbitration and the estate sought and was granted permission for this interlocutory appeal. Because the evidence in the record does not preponderate against the trial court’s finding that Decedent had the requisite capacity to enter into the power of attorney on the date in question, we affirm.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 5, 2021

This case involves an action filed by heirs of a deceased debtor seeking to set aside a foreclosure sale and their claims for damages against multiple defendants involved with the sale. The trial court granted summary judgment to the substitute trustee who conducted the sale, granted motions to dismiss filed by five other defendants, and dismissed the two remaining defendants sua sponte. The plaintiffs appeal. We affirm and remand for further proceedings.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 4, 2021

Following a jury trial, the Defendant, Charvaris Donte Newsom, was convicted of felony murder, second degree murder, and especially aggravated robbery. The trial court merged the second degree murder conviction into the felony murder conviction and imposed an effective sentence of life imprisonment. On appeal, the Defendant challenges (1) the sufficiency of the evidence; (2) the admission of evidence of his other criminal acts; (3) the admission of hearsay evidence from a police report; (4) the prosecutor’s questioning of a detective and the Defendant regarding whether they believed witnesses were truthful; (5) the prosecutor’s questioning the Defendant regarding his invocation of his right to remain silent and his failure to produce evidence and witnesses at trial; and (6) the prosecutor’s comments during opening statements and closing arguments. The Defendant also seeks relief based upon cumulative error. Upon reviewing the record, the parties’ briefs and oral arguments, and the applicable law, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 4, 2021

Garrick Graham, Petitioner, appeals the post-conviction court’s denial of post-conviction relief. After a thorough review of the record and applicable law, we affirm.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 4, 2021

The defendant, Corey Anderson, appeals the Blount County Circuit Court’s order revoking his probation and ordering him to serve the balance of the two-year sentence imposed for his conviction of theft of property valued at $1,000 or more in confinement. Discerning no error, we affirm.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 4, 2021

Following the employee’s reporting of a work-related hand injury, she selected a treating physician from an employer-provided panel. The authorized provider’s report of the employee’s initial visit stated that the injury was “not considered to be a work-related injury.” The employee then sought unauthorized treatment and was diagnosed with trigger finger for which she underwent surgery. Afterwards, the operating surgeon indicated the employee’s condition was “likely related to her [workplace] injury.” Following an expedited hearing, the trial court denied benefits, concluding the employee was not likely to prevail at trial in establishing causation. The employee obtained further documentation from the operating surgeon and requested a second expedited hearing, after which the trial court again denied benefits, concluding the statements from the operating surgeon were insufficient to overcome the presumption of correctness afforded the authorized provider’s causation opinion. The employer subsequently filed a motion for summary judgment supported by the medical documents the parties had relied on in the expedited hearings. The trial court granted the employer’s motion, concluding the employer had negated an essential element of the employee’s claim. The employee has appealed. We reverse the trial court’s order granting summary judgment and remand the case.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 3, 2021

SUTTON, Chief Judge. The Prison Litigation Reform Act establishes what has come to be known as the three-strikes rule. See 28 U.S.C. § 1915(g). A prisoner accrues a strike when he brings a frivolous lawsuit. After three strikes, the Act prohibits inmates from filing those lawsuits without paying the initial court fee for bringing them. At stake in this appeal is who makes the call about a strike and when.

We affirm the judgment of the district court.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 3, 2021

ALICE M. BATCHELDER, Circuit Judge. A jury convicted defendant-appellant James Frei of eight counts of child-exploitation-related crimes, including four counts of sexual exploitation of a minor in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251. The district court sentenced Frei to a 318-month prison term and a life term of supervised release. On appeal, Frei argues that: (1) the district court’s jury instruction regarding § 2251 was misleading and erroneously omitted Frei’s proposed instruction; and (2) his sentence is substantively unreasonable. Both arguments are meritless. We AFFIRM.

Posted by: Karen Belcher on May 3, 2021

Defendant, Derrian Hill, was indicted with Co-Defendant, Miranda Barley, for aggravated kidnapping in count one and aggravated robbery in count two. Defendant then filed a Motion to Suppress the victim’s pretrial identification of Defendant, and the trial court denied the motion. Following a trial, the jury convicted Defendant as charged on both counts, and the trial court sentenced Defendant to concurrent terms of eight years’ incarceration with a one hundred percent release eligibility for count one and twelve years’ incarceration with an eighty-five percent release eligibility for count two. On appeal, Defendant argues that the trial court erred in denying his Motion to Suppress the victim’s pretrial identification of Defendant. After a thorough review, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.


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