The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down three opinions today. One involves where an employee of a police department was entitled to a probable cause hearing, another is a trusts decision on cert that turned on the validity of statute of limitations arguments made for the first time on appeal, and the third is an intentional tort/First Amendment case stemming from a case that was the subject of a popular podcast. The Supreme Court also granted cert in one case.
Wallace v. State, 2022-CA-00119-SCT (Civil – Other)
Affirming the circuit court’s decision denying a probable cause hearing after a police department employee was charged with simple assault of a minor, holding that a law enforcement officer who is not certified under section 45-6-11(3)(a) is not entitled to a probable cause hearing under section 99-3-28(1)(a)(i) and that the defendant was not entitled to a probable cause hearing because he was not within the scope of section 45-6-3(c).
(9-0)
Parker v. Ross, 2020-CT-01055-SCT (Civil – Wills, Trusts & Estates)
Affirming in part and reversing in part the Court of Appeals in a trusts case, holding (1) the trial court did not err by granting a motion to dismissed based on the three-year statute of limitations and that the Court of Appeals erred by reversing that decision based on the ten-year statute of limitations that was raised for the first time on appeal and (2) that the trial court did err in finding that the statute of limitations was not tolled due to disability, affirming the Court of Appeals’ reversal based on sufficiency of evidence of disability.
(8-0: Kitchens did not participate.)
Wagner v. Andreacchio, 2021-IA-01199-SCT (Civil – Torts)
Reversing the trial court’s denial of the defendant’s motion to dismiss claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence, invasion of privacy, and civil conspiracy stemming from the defendant’s publication of portions of an investigative file related to the plaintiffs’ son’s death, holding that the defendant’s publication of public records is constitutionally-protected speech.
(8-1: Griffis dissented)
NOTE – This is the case stems from the death of Christian Andreacchio that was the subject of the first season of the Culpable podcast.
Other Orders
In Re: State Intervention Courts Advisory Committee, 89-R-99039-SCT (appointing or reappointing E. Gregory Snowden, Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, as Chair of the State Intervention Courts Advisory Committee and the following as members through December 31, 2023: Judge Michael M. Taylor, Judge Winston L. Kidd, Judge Robert Helfrich, Judge Charles E. Webster, Judge Kathy King Jackson, Melody Madaris, Representative Angela Cockerham, Mark Smith, Judge Randi P. Mueller, and Nathan Blevins)
Dampier v. State, 2021-CT-00280-SCT (granting cert)
Scruggs v. Farmland Mutual Insurance Company, 2021-CA-00877-SCT (denying rehearing)
Jarvis v. State, 2021-CT-00930-SCT (denying cert)
Wallace v. State, 2021-CT-01149-SCT (denying cert)
Keys v. Rehabilitation, Inc., 2021-CT-01338-SCT (denying cert)
Mississippi Appeals Blog 