Happy New Year! The courts are back in action so I am too. The first hand down list of 2023 has four opinions from the Mississippi Court of Appeals. Two are personal injury cases, one is a custody modification case, and the other is a PCR case.
Mallard v. State, 2022-CA-00152-COA (Civil – PCR)
Affirming the denial of a PCR motion, holding that the plaintiff’s right to a speedy trial was not violated and that a discrepancy in the sentencing order and transcript was a scrivener’s error not warranting reversal.
(10-0)
Yarborough v. Singing River Health Systems, 2021-CA-00668-COA (Civil – Personal Injury)
Affirming judgment in favor of the defendant hospital after a bench trial in a negligence suit stemming from a fall while the plaintiff was get onto a medical transport bus, holding that the duty owed was the duty owed to an invitee and there was no evidence that the steps to the bus were not reasonably safe, that the decision was not against the weight of the evidence, that the trial court did not err in excluding testimony that the driver was in the habit of of being late, and that an objective person could not find the judge biased based on a comment she made while stepping down from the bench.
(7-2-0: Judge Westbrooks and Judge McDonald concurred in the result only without separate written opinion; Judge Lawrence did not participate)
Moreland v. Spears, 2021-CA-00714-COA (Civil – Custody)
Affirming modification of custody and visitation, holding that the chancellor did not abuse his discretion by awarding the mother sole legal custody, by restricting the father’s visitation, or by not finding the mother in contempt for withholding visitation during March 2020 while the COVID “stay-home order” was still active.
(10-0)
COVID AND THE LAW – The father argued that the mother should be held in contempt for withholding a visitation that was due to occur during the March 2020 COVID shutdown. The mother testified that she tried to set up alternate times but the father refused. The Court of Appeals held that the particular facts of this case supported the chancellor’s decision of no contempt:
Cornell v. MDHS, 2021-SA-00784-COA (Civil – Personal Injury)
Affirming in part and reversing in part summary judgment in favor of MDHS in a case alleging that MDHS placed the plaintiff in foster care with a know pedophile, holding that MDHS is statutorily immune from suit regarding the investigation and licensing of the foster parents’ home but reversing the grant of summary judgment on the issues of whether MDHS’s failure to report allegations of abuse and MDHS’s failure to conduct required visits were the proximate cause of continued abuse.
(8-2: Judge Wilson concurred in part and dissented in part, joined by Chief Judge Barnes)
Other Orders
Edwards v. State, 2021-KA-00261-COA (denying rehearing)
Virden v. Campbell Delong, LLP, 2021-CA-00478-COA (denying rehearing)
Mississippi Appeals Blog 