The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in Weakley 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, and click on Court Statistics.
Click on the link for more information on the Weakley County court system.
Plaintiff’s legal malpractice claim accrued when he received the order stating that some of his claims in a previous case were dismissed with prejudice.
In Abdou v. Clark, No. M2023-01461-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. July 3, 2024), plaintiff hired defendants to represent him in a lawsuit against several individuals. During the course of that litigation, plaintiff grew unhappy with defendants’ actions on his behalf. Plaintiff terminated defendants as his attorneys in July 2022, and he filed this pro se legal malpractice claim in February 2023. The trial court dismissed the legal malpractice action based on the statute of limitations, and the Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal.
In its opinion, the Court of Appeals reviewed multiple allegations on which plaintiff’s legal malpractice claim was based. First, it affirmed dismissal of plaintiff’s claim that defendants violated a Rule of Professional Conduct, noting that the Rules of Professional Conduct do not provide a basis for civil liability.
A real estate professional who served as HOA president and who assisted with the development of a residential community qualified as a limited public figure for purposes of a google review about changes to the development.
In Charles v. McQueen, No. M2021-00878-SC-R11-CV (Tenn. July 3, 2024), plaintiff worked as a local real estate professional. The company developing Durham Farms, a planned community, hired plaintiff to assist with the community development. In addition to working for Durham Farms, plaintiff served as the HOA president at Durham Farms and ran homeowners’ meetings.
Defendant purchased a home in Durham Farms in 2017. In the following years, Durham Farms changed several features of its community. Lot size requirements were reduced in 2019, then in 2020 Durham Farms announced plans to add over 160 rental-only units. After this announcement, controversy grew as homeowners opposed the new plans. As part of the opposition effort, several Durham Farms residents left google reviews on the developer’s page. Defendant wrote a google review expressing her frustration with the “bait and switch” tactics and the “multiple changes to our development.” Defendant’s review was the only one that used plaintiff’s name, as it stated: “Bill Charles, especially, uses misleading tactics to lure in home buyers only to deceive them.”
The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in Lincoln 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, and click on Court Statistics.
Click on the link for more information on the Lincoln County court system.
The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in Cocke 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, and click on Court Statistics.
Click on the link for more information on the Cocke County court system.
Thinking about not filing a certificate of good faith in a health care liability action in Tennessee? Read this opinion to learn the potential issues when one raises the “common knowledge” exception to the general rule requiring experts in such cases and the “extraordinary cause” required to avoid dismissal if you don’t file a certificate of good faith.
In Ruff v. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, No. M2022-01414-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 25, 2024), plaintiff filed a health care liability suit based on his previous eye surgery. Plaintiff alleged that the two surgeons failed to properly position his left eye back in its socket, causing his eye to bulge.
Although plaintiff complied with the HCLA pre-suit notice requirements, he failed to file a certificate of good faith with his complaint. Defendant moved to dismiss, which the trial court granted, and the Court of Appeals affirmed.
Where a premises liability defendant failed to file an answer and first participated in the case seven years after it was commenced, denial of his motion to set aside the default judgment was affirmed.
In Crutcher v. Ellis, No. M2023-00283-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 4, 2024), plaintiff was shot at point-blank range in a nightclub. Plaintiff filed this premises liability case against several defendants in 2015, but the only defendant at issue in this appeal was the owner and operator of the nightclub.
Defendant failed to respond to the complaint, and plaintiff obtained a default judgment. Defendant made no appearance whatsoever in the case until February 2022, when he appeared at the hearing on plaintiff’s motion to set a date to determine damages. The damages hearing was set for August 2, 2022. Defendant filed a motion for continuance the day before that hearing, which was denied.
A premises liability plaintiff must have evidence that a dangerous condition existed and that defendant had notice (actual or constructive) of the condition to survive summary judgment.
In Farmer v. Wal-Mart Stores East, LP, No. W2023-00468-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. May 29, 2024), plaintiff slipped and fell while getting a shopping cart in defendant store. Plaintiff wore sandals, and she asserted that “her slip-on sandal caught on a floor mat.”
Defendant filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing that plaintiff could not prove her case. In its statement of undisputed material facts, defendant asserted that plaintiff believed the edge of the mat was not flat, but that plaintiff did not see the mat until after her fall. Plaintiff did not dispute these assertions. Plaintiff admitted that she did not know if anyone from defendant store did anything to the mat or knew about the alleged dangerous condition of the mat before her fall. She also admitted that she did not know how long the alleged dangerous condition had existed.
The following graphs demonstrate the resolution of personal injury, wrongful death, and other tort cases in Dyer 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, and click on Court Statistics.
Click on the link for more information on the Dyer County court system.
Poor pleading of conversion in a case involving trust required dismissal of conversion claim. Particularity in pleading is required for such claims.
In Stalnaker v. Cupp, No. M2023-00404-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. June 18, 2024), plaintiff was the sole beneficiary of a residual trust, and plaintiff and defendant were co-trustees. A related surviving spouse trust existed, and when the surviving spouse passed away, defendant was the executor of her estate and her sole beneficiary.
Three years after the surviving spouse’s estate was closed, plaintiff had a stroke that left him impaired for several years. When he regained his mental faculties, he requested an accounting of the residual trust from defendant, but defendant did not respond to the request. Plaintiff eventually filed suit in California, which was dismissed, then later filed this suit in Tennessee. The trial court dismissed plaintiff’s claims for breach of fiduciary duty and conversion, and the Court of Appeals affirmed dismissal.
