The TBA Health Law Section will provide a plated lunch for section members at its annual forum on Friday, Oct. 18. At this lunch business meeting, we will recognize and celebrate the leadership of Section Chair Ian Hennessey and formally vote on leadership for the 2024–2025 bar year.

This free event is open to ALL section members regardless of forum attendance. A link to RSVP is included below. Space is limited and the form will close once attendance is at max capacity. Please contact Section Coordinator Jarod Word with any additional questions. 

Thanks to Barnes & Thornburg for sponsoring this year's section lunch!

When: Friday, Oct. 18, 12:15-1:15 p.m. CDT
Where: Embassy Suites Cool Springs, 820 Crescent Centre Dr., Franklin 37067

RSVP NOW

Don’t miss this week’s Health Law Forum, taking place Oct. 17-18 in Cool Springs. The must-attend event for Tennessee health care lawyers features top experts providing essential updates and discussion on issues affecting the practice area. Topics for this year’s forum include digital health, cybersecurity, litigating enforcement actions, provider/payor disputes, AI in health care, regulatory fraud and abuse, transactions, Tennessee legislative updates, a state case review, ethics and more. View the agenda and register here.

Former Memphis police officers Tadarrius Bean and Justin Smith Jr. each filed motions Friday requesting their convictions in the Tyre Nichols federal criminal case be reversed, reports the Commercial Appeal. Bean and Smith were convicted last week of witness tampering related to a cover-up of the beating of Nichols, but acquitted of civil rights charges. The motions allege a lack of evidence that adequately established that Bean and Smith were attempting to lie or mislead their MPD supervisors.

CHAD A. READLER, Circuit Judge. Following an accident, Jeremy Marchek sued his auto insurer, United Services Automobile Association, claiming that the company breached the terms of the policy it issued to Marchek. According to Marchek, USAA wrongfully failed to compensate him for sales taxes and mandatory fees necessary to purchase a replacement vehicle after USAA declared his vehicle to be beyond repair. The district court dismissed the complaint on the basis that USAA was not contractually obligated to compensate Marchek for taxes and fees. Because the plain language of the contract plausibly requires USAA to compensate Marchek for those costs, we reverse and remand for further proceedings.

JANE B. STRANCH, Circuit Judge. Laurie DeVore retired from her post at the University of Kentucky rather than comply with its COVID-19 test-or-vaccinate policy. She then filed this lawsuit, alleging that the Policy conflicted with her sincerely held religious beliefs and that the University’s failure to accommodate those beliefs violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The district court granted summary judgment for the University. We AFFIRM.

Petitioner, Lacy L. Austin, appeals from the Montgomery County Circuit Court’s denial of his petition for post-conviction relief related to his convictions for two counts of possession of twenty-six grams or more of methamphetamine with the intent to sell or deliver within 1,000 feet of a school zone; possession of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony; possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a felony drug offense; possession of a firearm by a person convicted of a felony involving the use of force or violence; simple possession of marijuana; and possession of drug paraphernalia. Petitioner argues that the post-conviction court erred in denying relief based upon his claims that he received ineffective assistance of trial and appellate counsel. After a thorough review of the record, we affirm the judgment of the post-conviction court.

Appellant/Mother appeals the trial court’s entry of a parenting plan naming Appellee/Father primary residential parent, awarding him sole decision-making authority, and awarding Mother 80 days of visitation. Because the trial court did not engage in a best-interest analysis as required under Tennessee Code Annotated section 36-6-106, and because the trial court’s orders are too vague to allow this Court to conduct a meaningful review of its decisions, we vacate the trial court’s judgment and remand for further proceedings.

This is a wrongful death negligence action arising out of a fatal automobile collision that occurred on Long Lane, a public road in Franklin, Tennessee, which abuts a TA Travel Center. On October 6, 2016, Kenneth Page (“Mr. Page”) was traveling northbound on Long Lane in a vehicle with his wife as passenger. As he began to turn left into the entrance of the TA truck stop marked for semi-trailer trucks (“the trucks only entrance”), where there was a limited view of oncoming traffic due to a hill that crested shortly ahead, Mr. Page was hit by Rondell M. Mershon (“Mr. Mershon”), who was traveling southbound on Long Lane on a motorcycle. The collision occurred on Long Lane before Mr. Page could enter the TA Travel Center. Mr. Mershon died soon after the collision. Mr. Mershon’s wife, Melba P. Mershon, brought a wrongful death negligence action on behalf of herself and her two daughters (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) against Mr. Page. She later amended the complaint to add the owner and operator of the TA Travel Center, HPT TA Properties Trust and TA Operating LLC d/b/a Travel Centers of America (collectively “the TA Defendants”), alleging that the TA Defendants created a hazardous condition by failing to display clearly visible signage at the “trucks only” entrance of the TA truck stop directing passenger vehicles to the proper entrance located a short distance down Long Lane. Thereafter, Plaintiffs settled their claims against Mr. Page, leaving the TA Defendants as the only defendants in the case. In 2017, the trial court granted the TA Defendants’ Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 12.02(6) motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, finding that they owed no duty of care to Mr. Mershon. Plaintiffs appealed. In the first appeal of this action, we reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded the case for further proceedings.1 On remand, the TA Defendants filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that Plaintiffs could not come forward with any evidence to show that they “owed a duty of care to Mr. Mershon related to the applicable sight distances and visibility of signs on TA’s property and that TA Defendants breached that duty.” The trial court granted the motion for summary judgment, finding that Plaintiffs failed to present any genuine issues of material fact, and that the TA Defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law because Plaintiffs could show no evidence that the TA Defendants owed a duty to Mr. Mershon or that any act or omission of the TA Defendants constituted a cause in fact or proximate cause of Mr. Mershon’s injuries. Plaintiffs appeal the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the TA Defendants. For the reasons stated below, we affirm.

Shrinking hospital capacity in Tennessee leaves at-risk communities more vulnerable to extreme heat, a new study finds. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association revealed that government officials' tools for measuring heat vulnerability often don't consider access to health care. By including hospital bed capacity in calculations, the study found a "major increase" in vulnerability for many Tennessee counties, the Tennessee Lookout reports. The article notes that the study has limitations and mainly focuses on the population of people aged 65 and older. One of the study’s main researchers expressed hope the study will encourage elected officials and policy makers to consider health care accessibility and hospital capacity as one of the main factors of heat vulnerability and ask how their constituencies can be better prepared.

According to a data report released Friday by the U.S. Labor Department, the legal services industry added 1,600 jobs in September, reversing a decline that began in April. Lawyer Monthly reports there has been "robust" demand for legal professionals in the U.S. from both corporations and large law firms over the past four months. The department's statistics include lawyers, paralegals and assistants working for law firms, corporations and other organizations. In the first half of 2024, U.S. law firms reported strong financial performance, with average revenue up 11.4% compared to the same period a year earlier. Demand for transactional practices is increasing after nearly three years of lackluster performance, the article reports.