The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down four opinions today. There is a divorce case, an adoption case, and two felony convictions.
Edwards v. Edwards,2023-CA-01334-SCT (Civil – Domestic Relations) Affirming judgement of divorce awarding ex-husband primary physical custody, holding that the trial court did not err in its Albright analysis, did not err in denying the motion for new trial, and did not err in denying a motion for recusal. (8-0: Branning for the Court; Coleman did not participate)
Practice Point – The Court discussed the failure to make specific findings of fact when conducting an Albright analysis:
Mayfield v. State, 2024-KA-00822-SCT (Criminal – Felony) Affirming conviction of sexual battery, holding that the conviction was supported by sufficient evidence and that the verdict was not against the overwhelming weight of the evidence. (9-0: Branning for the Court)
Moody v. State, 2025-KA-00022-SCT (Criminal – Felony) Affirming conviction of possession of methamphetamine, holding that the conviction was supported by sufficient evidence. (9-0: Maxwell for the Court)
Note – Here is the Court’s preview of the evidence.
Hines v. Caldwell, 2024-CA-00921-SCT (Civil – Adoption) Affirming the chancery court’s decision granting foster parents’ petition for adoption, holding that the adoptive parents were not contractually barred from seeking adoption before exhaustion of family placement with CPS and that judicial estoppel did not apply. (9-0: King for the Court)
Other Orders
In Re: The Rules of Civil Procedure, 89-R-99001-SCT (denying letter motion)
In Re: Local Rules, 89-R-99015-SCT (granting motion seeking approval of revisions to the Local Rules for the Fifth Chancery Court District)
Ramsey v. State, 2023-CT-00440-SCT (denying cert petition as untimely)
Foote v. Memorial Hospital at Gulfport, 2023-CT-00504-SCT (denying cert)
Watkins Construction, Inc. v. Mississippi Department of Revenue, 2024-SA-00662-SCT (denying rehearing)
The Mississippi Supreme Court handed down six opinions today with subject matter covering capital murder conviction and death penalty, UM/UMI coverage, election contests, appellate procedure, wills, and judicial estoppel.
Johnson v. Brock, 2020-EC-00982-SCT (Civil – Election Contest/Summary Judgment) Affirming summary judgment dismissing the plaintiffs’ contest the results of a city counsel election, holding that the plaintiffs failed to satisfy their burden in opposing summary judgment where the plaintiffs’ briefs relied upon affidavits that were not in the record and they otherwise failed to come forward with evidence that there were voting irregularities that led to their election losses. (Justice King did not participate.)
Bufkin v. Geico Insurance Agency, Inc., 2021-CA-00251-SCT (Civil – Insurance/UM/UIM) Affirming summary judgment in favor of the UM carrier, declining to overrule precedent holding that an employee is not legally entitled to make a claim under their employers’ underinsured motorist coverage. (All justices concurred.)
Note – The plaintiff argued Mississippi’s law on this question of statutory interpretation was the minority approach and urged the Supreme Court to adopt the majority view. The Supreme Court declined to do so:
McRae v. Mitchell, 2021-IA-00101-SCT (Civil – Other/Interlocutory Appeal/Appellate Procedure) Dismissing an appeal from a non-final judgment of the chancery court, explaining that the Mississippi Supreme Court treated the notice of appeal as a petition for interlocutory appeal and granted the petition, but held that it lacked jurisdiction since the notice of appeal was not filed within 21 days of after the entry of the non-final judgment. (Chief Justice Randolph did not participate.)
Clark v. State, 2019-DP-00689-SCT (Criminal – Death Penalty – Direct Appeal) Affirming conviction of capital murder and sentence to death by lethal injection for the slaying of a convenience store clerk in Canton, Mississippi. The issues raised on appeal that the Mississippi Supreme Court addressed were:
(Justice Kitchens dissented, joined by Justice King and Justice Ishee. Justice King dissented, joined by Justice Kitchens and Justice Ishee.)
NOTE – The majority opinion is 99 pages long plus 13 pages of appendices. There are 34 pages of dissents. The curt summary above does not do this opinion justice because I simply do not have the bandwidth to tackle the details of this opinion at this moment.
Estate of Bakarich v. Bakarich, 2020-IA-00339-SCT (Civil – Wills, Trusts, and Estates/Interlocutory Appeal) Affirming the chancellor’s denial of the co-executrices’ request based on a fee-shifting provision in the will seeking to make a challenger pay the estate’s attorney’s fees in defending challenges to the co-executrices’ actions, but reversing the the chancellor’s decision directing the co-executrices to personally pay the estate’s costs and attorney’s fees associated with the underlying motions and petitions. (Justice King concurred in part and dissented in part, joined by Justice Kitchens. Justice Beam did not participate.)
Jones v. Alcorn State University, 2020-CA-01238-SCT (Civil – Other/Judicial Estoppel) Affirming the dismissal of the plaintiff’s breach of contract lawsuit, holding that the plaintiff’s lawsuit was barred by the doctrine of judicial estoppel because the plaintiff failed to reveal his lawsuit in two bankruptcy filings. (Justice Maxwell [1] wrote a special concurrence, joined by Chief Justice Randolph (who wrote the majority opinion)[2], Justice Coleman [3], Justice Beam [4], and Justice Chamberlin [5], and by Justice Griffis in part. Justice Griffis concurred in part and dissented in part, joined by justice Kitchens.)
Question – What is the effect of a five-justice special concurrence from a nine-member court? Anything other than letting future litigants know that a majority of the court agrees whatever propositions are in the special concurrence? I will look into it later, but I do not know the answer off the top of my head.
Other Orders
Augustine v. State, 2019-CT-01467-SCT (denying motion for rehearing) Johnson v. State, 2019-CT-01801-SCT (dismissing cert petition) Figueroa v. State, 2020-CT-00114-SCT (denying cert petition) Piccaluga v. State, 2020-CT-00346-SCT (denying cert petition)
One more thing – At some point early this morning this blog had its 1,000th unique visit and passed 1,800 total hits in the three months since I launched it. Many thanks to those who have visited, subscribed, and shared the blog and to those who have provided encouragement and helpful feedback. I hope that it has been and continues to be a useful resource.
Mississippi Appeals Blog 