Knoxville attorney and University of Tennessee (UT) College of Law Dean Emeritus and Professor Emeritus Douglas A. Blaze was honored last week with the prestigious William M. Leech Jr. Public Service Award. Named for former Attorney General William M. Leech and presented by the Fellows of the TBA Young Lawyers Division, the award is given to a Tennessee lawyer who has been of outstanding service to the profession, legal system and the community. Blaze joined the UT Law faculty in 1993 as the director of clinical programs. He also served as director of the Center for Advocacy and Dispute Resolution and interim associate dean for academic affairs. He was named dean of the law school twice and served from 2008-2015 and then again from 2020-2022. Blaze helped found the college’s Institute for Professional Leadership and served as its first director. He retired from full-time teaching in July 2022. The Leech Award was presented at the TBA Annual Convention in Knoxville during the Lawyers’ Luncheon. Read the TBA's full press release on the award.

CHAD A. READLER, Circuit Judge. Van Williams was pulled over for a traffic violation. A search of the car he was driving turned up cocaine and methamphetamine. Williams and his passenger, Jamar Bloom, unsuccessfully sought to suppress the drugs and other evidence on the theories that the officers’ traffic stop was unconstitutionally overlong and that one of the resulting arrests was unsupported by probable cause. Each then pleaded guilty to a federal drug crime, preserving the suppression issues for appeal. Seeing no error in the district court proceedings, we affirm.

The Petitioner, Raymon Muhammad, filed a post-conviction petition in the Shelby County Criminal Court, seeking relief from his conviction of first degree premeditated murder and resulting life sentence. The post-conviction court denied the petition, and the Petitioner appeals. Upon our review, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

The Defendant, Timothy Travis Jenkins, appeals the trial court’s order imposing confinement after finding that the Defendant violated his probation. The Defendant’s probation began in 2019, when he was convicted of sale of methamphetamine and given a six-year sentence to be served on supervised probation. In 2022, the trial court issued a probation violation warrant, the Defendant’s third, which alleged multiple violations. After a hearing, the trial court revoked the Defendant’s probation and ordered him to serve the remainder of his sentence in confinement. On appeal, the Defendant asserts that the trial court abused its discretion when it revoked his probation and when it ordered him to confinement. After review, we affirm the trial court’s judgment.

This case stems from an unpaid promissory note secured by real property that was sold in foreclosure. Wheelhouse Partners, LLC (“Wheelhouse”), the beneficiary under a second deed of trust on the subject property, sued Wilson & Associates, PLLC (“Wilson”), the substitute trustee under the first deed of trust on the subject property, and James G. Akers and Deborah L. Akers (the “property owners” or, together with Wilson, “Defendants”). Wheelhouse alleged that the foreclosure sale produced excess funds sufficient to satisfy its second deed of trust and promissory note after satisfying the first deed of trust, but that Defendants refused to deliver such funds to Wheelhouse. Wheelhouse also alleged breach of contract against the property owners. Wilson interpleaded the surplus funds into the court and, following a successful motion for summary judgment, Wheelhouse was awarded the balance of its promissory note as well as its attorney’s fees. Mr. Akers appeals. Because his appellate brief does not comply with Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 27, his issues are waived and the lower court’s judgment is affirmed. Because Wheelhouse’s deed of trust clearly provides for an award of attorney’s fees and Wheelhouse properly requested its appellate attorney’s fees, we award Wheelhouse said fees.

Keith S. (“Father”) appeals the termination of his parental rights to his son, Abraham S. (“the Child”). The Juvenile Court for Davidson County (“the juvenile court”) terminated Father’s parental rights based on several statutory grounds: abandonment by failure to visit and failure to support; abandonment by failure to establish a suitable home; persistent conditions; and failure to manifest an ability to assume legal and physical custody. The juvenile court concluded that one alleged ground for termination, substantial noncompliance with permanency plan, was not proven by clear and convincing evidence. Following our review of the record, we affirm the trial court’s ruling as to all but one ground for termination. Because the record contains scant evidence of help offered to Father regarding housing, we conclude that abandonment by failure to establish a suitable home was not proven by clear and convincing evidence. We affirm the juvenile court’s ruling as to the other statutory grounds, and we affirm the ruling that termination of Father’s parental rights is in the Child’s best interests.

The issue before us is whether the voluntary dismissal of a defendant in a multi-defendant case that is governed by the Governmental Tort Liability Act (“GTLA”) may be set aside and the claim against the dismissed defendant reinstated on the motion of a plaintiff pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 54.02. The plaintiff in this case initiated a healthcare liability action against a physician, a hospital, and two other defendants. Before any responsive pleading was filed by any defendant, the plaintiff filed an amended complaint, naming only the physician as a defendant. The plaintiff subsequently filed a notice of voluntary dismissal that dismissed all of the defendants except the physician, and the trial court entered an order of voluntary dismissal the following day. In his answer to the amended complaint, the physician argued that the lawsuit should be dismissed under the GTLA because the hospital, which was his employer and a governmental entity, was not a defendant. The plaintiff subsequently filed a motion to alter or amend in which he sought to set aside the trial court’s order voluntarily dismissing the hospital from the action. The trial court denied the motion to alter or amend. The trial court later dismissed the hospital from the action with prejudice and granted a motion for summary judgment filed by the physician. The Court of Appeals reversed, concluding that the trial court erred in denying the plaintiff’s motion to alter or amend the order of voluntary dismissal. Upon our review of this case, we do not reach the question of whether the voluntary dismissal order could be altered or amended pursuant to Rule 54.02. Because the plaintiff removed the hospital from the lawsuit when he filed his amended complaint, the plaintiff’s notice of voluntary dismissal and the trial court’s order of voluntary dismissal were of no legal effect. Accordingly, there was no valid order of voluntary dismissal to alter or amend. As a result, we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and remand the case to the Court of Appeals for consideration of the issues it deemed pretermitted as moot.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today placed four lawyers on disability inactive status. They are Davidson County lawyer Ronald André Stewart, Madison County lawyer James H. Wallace, Virginia lawyer Hannah Andrea Gribble and Mississippi lawyer Rhett R. Russell. They may not practice law while on inactive status but may petition the court for reinstatement to active status after showing their disability has been removed.

Belmont University will host the first televised Nashville mayoral debate tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. CDT at the Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Nine candidates will join co-moderator David Plazas from The Tennessean and Carrie Sharp from NewsChannel 5 for a 90-minute question and answer session. The event will air on NewsChannel 5. The debate series is sponsored by The Tennessean, NewsChannel 5 and the League of Women Voters of Nashville. Future events will take place on June 22, July 6 and Aug. 24. Read more from the school.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee continues to sign legislative proposals into law, recently approving new regulations on Delta 8 products, protecting gun manufacturers from lawsuits and reorganizing Nashville’s Music City Center convention board. Three members of the governor’s cabinet now have automatic non-voting seats on board, WPLN reports. One bill the governor has not yet signed is a measure restructuring local police oversight boards, according to News Channel 5.