Mississippi Court of Appeals Hand Downs for February 8, 2022

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Mississippi v. Brown and Brown of Mississippi, LLC, 2020-CA-1414-COA (Civil – Contract/Garnishment)
Brown obtained two judgments against a BCBS insurance agent, enrolled the judgments, and then filed suit to enforce the judgments and suggestions for writs of garnishment against BCBS and others. BCBS denied it was indebted to the agent. The circuit court ordered BCBS to tender the agent’s commissions to Brown. BCBS appealed, and the court of appeals reversed the circuit court and rendered judgment in favor of BCBS, finding that the agent had assigned her interest in the commissions to a third party long before the writ of garnishment was served. The court of appeals also held that BCBS was entitled to its costs under section 11-35-45 and remanded to the circuit court to address that issue.

Ladner v. State, 2020-KA-299-COA (Criminal – Felony)
Affirming a conviction of possession of a firearm by a felon, holding that it was harmless error for the the circuit court to exclude non-hearsay testimony under the hearsay rule and that the circuit court did not err admitting body cam footage. The opinion lists a claim of ineffective assistance of counsel as one of the issues raised, but there is no discussion of that in the majority opinion, the special concurrence, or the dissent.

Nowell v. Stewart, 2020-CA-728-COA (Civil – Domestic Relations/Child Support)
Affirming the chancellor’s judgment increasing the child support modification based on a material change in circumstances.

Mangum v. State, 2020-CP-1205-COA (Civil – Post-Conviction Relief)
Affirming the circuit court’s dismissal of a motion for PCR based on the statute of limitations and the successive-motions bar.

United Services Automobile Association v. Moffatt, 2020-CA-1391-COA (Civil – Insurance/UM UIM)
The county court granted summary judgment in favor of a UM carrier, finding that the amended complaint naming the UM carrier was time barred because it was filed more than three years after the accident. The plaintiff appealed to the circuit court and the summary judgment was reversed. The UM carrier appealed to the court of appeals and the court of appeals affirmed the circuit court and remanded the case to the county court. The court of appeals held that there was a genuine fact issue for a jury as to when the plaintiff’s UM claim accrued based on when it could be reasonably known that the damages suffered exceed the limits of insurance available to the alleged tortfeasor.

Lowe v. State, 2019-KA-1621 (Criminal – Felony/Confrontation Clause)
Affirming a conviction of the sale of cocaine and sentencing as a habitual offender, holding that an officer’s testimony that a non-testifying confidential informant said she had bought drugs from the defendant in the past violated the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment but was harmless error.

Other Orders
6 Rehearing Denials

Link to Hand Down List

Introduction to Mississippi Appeals

I recently started a Twitter account (@MS_Appeals) where I tweet short summaries of the opinions handed down by the Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesdays and by the Mississippi Supreme Court on Thursdays. The response to that effort has been kind, and I have been encouraged to post these summaries on a blog as well. This blog will make the summaries available to more people and it gives me space to write more detailed summaries of cases that strike me as interesting and to expound on other items if so inclined.

My goal is to post roughly tweet-length summaries of the Tuesday and Thursday hand downs. The idea is to provide a snapshot of each opinion to help you decide if you should go read the opinion for yourself. I will provide links to the opinions so, with apologies to LeVar Burton, you don’t have to take my word for it. In addition to regular blogging of the hand downs, I plan to provide occasional commentary and other content pending inspiration and motivation.

I hope this blog will be helpful. I have enjoyed and benefited from many of the great, but now “retired” Mississippi law blogs (Mississippi Litigation Review, Jane’s Law Blog, Mississippi Appellate Law & Commentary, and The Better Chancery Court Practice Blog, to name a few that come immediately to mind). Brushing aside this probative evidence that I am a fool, rushing in where angels fear to tread, my sense is that I am stepping into space that is no longer occupied to provide a service that may be useful to the bench, the bar, and others.

A little bit about me: For the past ten years and counting I have been practicing law in Mississippi, handling liability matters and workers’ compensation claims from as early as the date of the incident through resolution or final appeal. I am admitted to the bar in Mississippi (all state and federal courts), North Carolina (all state and federal courts), and Tennessee (all state courts). I am also admitted to the United States Courts of Appeals for the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits. I have been practicing at the Baxter Law Firm, PLLC since 2018. I graduated from Ole Miss Law in 2011 and before that I graduated from Wheaton College (IL) with a biology degree. I am a native of Brookhaven and my wife and I live in Madison with our three wonderful boys.