The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down two opinions today. The first addresses the applicable standards for taking testimony of minors 12 or older in custody disputes. The other is a 5-4 split on whether a minor can be bound by a noncompete that covers intellectual property and provides for liquidated damages under the exception for contracts “affecting personal property.”
Denham v. Denham, 2020-CT-00675-SCT (Civil – Custody)
Affirming and part and reversing in part a chancellor’s rulings in a custody dispute, holding that the chancellor applied the incorrect legal standard in deciding that the children could not testify and erred by failing to record the in-chambers interviews, that a parent does not have an absolute right to call an unemancipated teenager to testify in open court, and that if one parent is permitted to present evidence of adultery the other parent must also have the opportunity to present such evidence.
(9-0)
NOTE – This opinion has an interesting discussion of the tender years exception as it applies to teenagers on page 13:
Watercolor Salon, LLC v. Hixon, 2021-IA-01151-SCT (Civil – Contract)
Affirming the trial court’s denial of a salon’s motion for TRO and preliminary injunction against a former employee who was 20-years-old when she signed a noncompete, holding that it was not fundamentally a contract affecting personal property and that it was unenforceable since the former employee disaffirmed the contract.
(5-4: Chief Justice Randolph concurred in part and dissented in part, joined by Justice Chamberlin, Justice Ishee, and Justice Griffis.)
NOTE – Here is the Court’s summary of its rationale for its holding that the employment contract was not a contract “affecting personal property”:
Other Orders
Loden v. State, 2002-DP-00282-SCT (granting motion to set execution date)
Brewer v. Bush, 2020-CT-00214-SCT (denying cert)
Gordon v. Dickerson, 2020-CT-00601-SCT (denying rehearing)
Seals v. Stanton, 2020-CA-00741-SCT (denying rehearing)
Pipkin v. State, 2021-CT-00517-SCT (denying cert)
Pickle v. State, 2021-CT-00972-SCT (denying cert)
Luster v. State, 2022-M-00248 (granting application for leave to proceed on filing petition for post-conviction collateral relief in the trial court)
Mississippi Appeals Blog 