Because the HIPAA authorizations included with a health care liability plaintiff’s pre-suit notice included limiting language, the authorizations did not comply with the HCLA and thus plaintiff’s medical malpractice claims were dismissed. In Curtis v. Sharp, No. E2023-01583-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Jan. 29, 2025), the plaintiff sent pre-suit notice of…
Day on Torts
Previous party brought back into suit under comparative fault statute.
When an amended answer asserted comparative fault against the city, which had previously been a party but had been voluntarily dismissed before the amended answer was filed, the plaintiff was allowed to add the city as a defendant within ninety days of the comparative fault allegation under Tenn. Code Ann.…
HCLA 120-day Extension Does Not Apply to Savings Statute
The 120-day extension of the statute of limitations granted to health care liability plaintiffs who give proper pre-suit notice under the HCLA does not apply to or extend the Saving Statute. The Tennessee Supreme Court addressed the interplay between pre-suit notice, the 120-day statute of limitations extension, and the Saving…
Ecclesiastical abstention doctrine not applied to defamation claim against Southern Baptist Convention.
Where the Southern Baptist Convention sent a letter stating that a church “may employ an individual with an alleged history of abuse,” the letter named one employee, and the letter asked if the church had received “allegations of sexual misconduct involving” the employee, the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine did not apply…
No tort liability in family business conflict.
In a case about the demise of a family business, the Court of Appeals reversed trial court rulings for the plaintiff on tort claims of intentional interference with business relationships and conversion. In Grubb v. Grubb, No. E2023-01358-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Jan. 8, 2025), the plaintiff and the defendant were…
Supreme Court affirms plaintiffs’ premises liability verdict arising from slippery pedestrian bridge.
The Tennessee Supreme Court recently affirmed a premises liability judgment for the plaintiff based on an apartment complex failing to maintain a pedestrian bridge properly. In Trentham v. Mid-America Apartments, LP, No. M2021-01511-SC-R11-CV, — S.W.3d — (Tenn. Jan. 8, 2025), the plaintiff was a tenant in the defendant’s apartment building.…
Court of Appeals reverses its overturning of bench verdict in pedestrian knock down case.
Where the trial court found the plaintiff more credible in a bench trial surrounding a pedestrian accident, the Supreme Court vacated the Court of Appeals opinion overturning a finding for the plaintiff on her negligence claim. The Court of Appeals subsequently affirmed the negligence ruling, but it vacated the allocation…
No negligence in home sale where seller did not know about sinkhole.
Where the seller of real property was found not liable for negligent misrepresentation, the trial court’s finding of liability for negligence was reversed, as “a seller’s liability for the failure to disclose such material facts in a real estate transaction is coextensive with a party’s liability for fraudulent or negligent…
Pickett County Tort Case Statistics and Outcomes – July 1, 2017- June 30, 2023
The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in Pickett County, Tennessee during the last six fiscal years ending June 30, 2023. BirdDog Law shares this information for every county in Tennessee. Click on BirdDog’s County Pages, go to the county of choice,…
Healthcare liability case barred by statute of repose.
In a Tennessee health care liability (HCLA)d case based on the defendants’ failure to disclose CT scan results to the plaintiffs, the plaintiffs could not rely on fraudulent concealment to toll the statute of repose where the defendants were unaware of the undisclosed test results. The plaintiff patient in…