Supreme Court of Alabama Decisions 2022
Date: December 22, 2022
Docket Number: 1210353
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Gulf Shores City Board of Education and Kelly Walker appealed a circuit court's dismissal of their complaint seeking certain declaratory and mandamus relief against the Superintendent of the Alabama State…
Date: December 16, 2022
Docket Number: 1210120
Justia Opinion Summary: Communications Unlimited Contracting Services, Inc. ("CUI") appealed a circuit court judgment that granted Steve Clanton's motion for a remand for clarification of arbitration award issued by Judicial Arbitration and…
Date: December 2, 2022
Docket Number: 1210235
Justia Opinion Summary: After Clifford Bufford, an employee of Borbet Alabama, Inc., injured his left arm in a workplace accident, he sued seven of his co-employees claiming that his injury was the result of their willful conduct. The…
Date: December 2, 2022
Docket Number: 2022-0422
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant-petitioner Sunset Digital Communications, Inc. ("Sunset") sought a writ of mandamus to direct an Alabama circuit court vacate its order denying a motion to dismiss the complaint filed by plaintiffs Point…
Date: December 2, 2022
Docket Numbers: SC-2022-0700, SC-2022-0701
Justia Opinion Summary: Milton Turner died on July 25, 2018. On September 20, 2018, Mildred Williamson petitioned for letters of administration of Turner's estate in the probate court. In her petition, Williamson asserted that Turner had died…
Date: November 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1210013
Justia Opinion Summary: Dennis Morgan Hicks was convicted of one count of capital murder for the killing of Joshua Duncan. The murder was made capital because Hicks committed it while he was under a sentence of life imprisonment. Hicks was also…
Date: November 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1210304
Justia Opinion Summary: Dalen Gaines sought monetary and equitable relief against Walker County law-enforcement officers for their role in what Gaines claimed was a delayed bond hearing. After Gaines failed to appear at the Walker Circuit Court…
Date: November 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1210309
Justia Opinion Summary: Joshua Greer, a student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville ("the University"), and Young Americans for Liberty, a student organization at the University ("the plaintiffs"), appealed a judgment dismissing their…
Date: November 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1210362
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Merlyn Clay appealed the grant of summary judgment in favor of plaintiff Charles Chavis, Clay's grandfather. The dispute concerned Clay's purchase of real property from Chavis and Clay's alleged failure to…
Date: November 18, 2022
Docket Number: SC-2022-0466
Justia Opinion Summary: Progressive Direct Insurance Company ("Progressive") appealed a circuit court order granting a motion for a partial summary judgment filed by Madison Keen and joined by Robert Creller and Alfa Mutual Insurance Company…
Date: November 18, 2022
Docket Number: 2022-0649
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal arose from a quo warranto action initiated by a February 2022 complaint filed Frederick A. Burkes, Sr., on the relation of the State of Alabama, in which he alleged that James Franklin "has unlawfully usurped…
Date: November 10, 2022
Docket Number: 1210359
Date: November 10, 2022
Docket Number: 2022-0884
Justia Opinion Summary: After being indicted by a grand jury for unlawful possession of a controlled substance -- delta-9- tetrahydrocannabinol (synthetic marijuana), Charlie Byrd filed a motion to suppress the evidence that was the basis of…
Date: November 10, 2022
Docket Number: 2022-0914
Justia Opinion Summary: T&J White, LLC, d/b/a Brown Heating & Cooling ("Brown Heating & Cooling"), and its employee, Bobby Morse ("the defendants"), appealed a circuit court’s denial of their motions seeking a judgment as a matter of law…
Date: October 28, 2022
Docket Number: 1210060
Justia Opinion Summary: Alicia Cochran appealed a circuit court order that granted her former employer, CIS Financial Services' motion for a preliminary injunction. CIS was engaged in the mortgage-origination business and employed Cochran as a…
Date: October 28, 2022
Docket Numbers: 2022-0520, 2022-0443
Justia Opinion Summary: Consolidated appeals stemmed from an action filed by The Citizens Bank ("Citizens Bank") against Steve Matherly ("Steve"); Sue E. Matherly a/k/a Sue Ellen Stratten, Steve's former spouse ("Sue"); and Penn Waters, LLC…
Date: October 21, 2022
Docket Number: 1210133
Justia Opinion Summary: The Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission ("the JIC") filed a complaint against Judge John Randall "Randy" Jinks, the Probate Judge for Talladega County, Alabama, alleging that he had violated the Alabama Canons of…
Date: October 21, 2022
Docket Number: 1210200
Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Helena ("Helena") appealed the issuance of a preliminary injunction by the Shelby Circuit Court in favor of the Pelham Board of Education ("the Board") and its officers and/or members, in their official…
Date: October 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1210250
Date: October 14, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1210248, 1210250, 1210251
Justia Opinion Summary: John Bodie, as guardian ad litem for G.A., D.P., and M.P. ("the children"), has filed three separate petitions for the writ of certiorari, one on each child's behalf, regarding a decision of the Court of Civil Appeals…
Date: October 7, 2022
Docket Number: 2022-0518
Justia Opinion Summary: Christopher Ellis worked for CSX Transportation, Inc. as a remote-control foreman at CSX's Montgomery yard. While riding on the ladder of a railcar during the course of his employment with CSX, Ellis was struck in the…
Date: September 30, 2022
Docket Number: 1210106
Justia Opinion Summary: Charles Edward Rainwater, Jean Rainwater Loggins, The Lem Harris Rainwater Family Trust, and the Rainwater Marital Trust appealed a circuit court's final judgment enforcing a settlement agreement in the litigation…
Date: September 30, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1210122, 1210064, 1200798
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2017, the State of Alabama sued, among others, Epic Tech, LLC ("Epic Tech"); K.C. Economic Development, LLC, d/b/a VictoryLand ("KCED"); and Sheriff Andre Brunson, in his official capacity as sheriff of Macon County…
Date: September 30, 2022
Docket Number: 1210140
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit certified a question of law to the Alabama Supreme Court. Dr. Dino Ferrante, a gastroenterologist, prescribed LIALDA, which is manufactured by Shire U.S., Inc.,…
Date: September 23, 2022
Docket Number: 1200500
Justia Opinion Summary: American Cast Iron Pipe Company ("ACIPCO") petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court to review the Court of Civil Appeals' decision to reverse a circuit court's dismissal of a workers' compensation action. Suit was filed by…
Date: September 23, 2022
Docket Number: 1200892
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Cathedral of Faith Baptist Church, Inc., and Lee Riggins appealed a circuit court judgment dismissing their complaint against Donald Moulton, Sr., and Broken Vessel United Church ("the Broken Vessel…
Date: September 23, 2022
Docket Number: SC-2022-0447
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Cathedral of Faith Baptist Church, Inc., and Lee Riggins appealed a circuit court judgment dismissing their complaint against defendants Donald Moulton, Sr. and Broken Vessel United Church on grounds that the…
Date: September 16, 2022
Docket Number: 1210194
Justia Opinion Summary: In January 2018, Whitney Jones, an inmate in the Mobile County Metro Jail and a participant in the jail's work-release program, left her work-release job and did not return to the work-release barracks. As a result,…
Date: September 16, 2022
Docket Number: 1210194
Justia Opinion Summary: In January 2018, Whitney Jones, an inmate in the Mobile County Metro Jail and a participant in the jail's work-release program, left her work-release job and did not return to the work-release barracks. As a result,…
Date: September 9, 2022
Docket Number: 1210129
Justia Opinion Summary: Robert Owen died 11 days after being transferred from Huntsville Hospital to the University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital ("UAB Hospital") for cardiac treatment. His widow Gloria Owen, as the personal representative…
Date: September 2, 2022
Docket Number: 1200333
Justia Opinion Summary: Gwendolyn Barnett and Robert Lee Hull, Jr. were siblings and the sole legal heirs of their father, Robert Lee Hull, Sr. ("Robert"), who died testate. Pursuant to Robert's will, Hull and Barnett were listed as…
Date: September 2, 2022
Docket Number: 1210066
Justia Opinion Summary: Martha and Kevin Smith purchased and lived in a house that had a plumbing system composed of polyethylene ("PEX") tubing manufactured by NIBCO, Inc. The PEX tubing failed, which allowed water to leak into the house,…
Date: September 2, 2022
Docket Number: 1210119
Justia Opinion Summary: Sidetrack Plaza, LLC, Rajvinder Singh, Maninder Pruthi, Parminder Pruthi, and Union Track Plaza, LLC ("the petitioners"), petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court…
Date: September 2, 2022
Docket Number: 2022-0470
Justia Opinion Summary: Premier Plastic Surgery, P.C. ("Premier") petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Jefferson Circuit Court to vacate its order denying Premier's motion for a change of venue in this…
Date: September 2, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1200333, 1200437
Justia Opinion Summary: Gwendolyn Barnett appealed orders granting relief to Robert Lee Hull, Jr. Barnett and Hull are siblings and the sole legal heirs of their father, Robert Lee Hull, Sr. ("Robert"), who died testate. Pursuant to Robert's…
Date: August 26, 2022
Docket Number: 1210006
Date: August 26, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1210081, 1210065
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal and cross-appeal involved a residential lease agreement with an option to purchase executed by Tony Hiett, Sr., and his wife Kelly ("the tenants") and Beverlye Brady ("the landlord"). The landlord leased to…
Date: August 26, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1210065, 1210081
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal and cross-appeal involved a residential lease agreement with an option to purchase executed by Tony Hiett, Sr., and his wife Kelly Hiett ("the tenants") and Beverlye Brady ("the landlord"). According to the…
Date: August 19, 2022
Docket Number: 1200843
Justia Opinion Summary: Ball Healthcare Services, Inc. ("Ball Healthcare"), appealed a circuit court order denying its motion to compel arbitration in Ledell Flennory's wrongful-death suit against it. Because the Alabama Supreme Court…
Date: August 19, 2022
Docket Number: 1210003
Justia Opinion Summary: Lord Genesh, Inc. ("Lord Genesh"); Bay Inn & Suites, LLC, of Foley ("Bay Inn"); and Rasik Patel (referred to collectively as "defendants"), appealed the grant of summary judgment in favor of Valley National Bank. The…
Date: August 19, 2022
Docket Number: 1210125
Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from the serial fraud of Brandy Murrah, the former owner of a drug-screening laboratory who was in prison for falsifying test results. The plaintiffs, Angel Avendano and Sandy Knowles, claimed to be…
Date: August 12, 2022
Docket Number: 1210222
Justia Opinion Summary: Gary and Shiela Womble appealed a circuit court’s dismissal of their tort action against Collie Moore, III based on their failure to prosecute the action. In March 2018, the Wombles were injured as the result of a…
Date: August 12, 2022
Docket Number: 1210268
Justia Opinion Summary: The HuffingtonPost.com, Inc. ("HuffPost"), petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to direct a circuit court to vacate its order denying HuffPost's motion for a summary judgment based on the immunity…
Date: August 12, 2022
Docket Number: 2022-0540
Date: July 15, 2022
Docket Number: 1210044
Justia Opinion Summary: Frederick Burkes, Sr. appealed a circuit court judgment entered in favor of James Franklin in an action initiated by Burkes. In March 2020, Burkes defeated Franklin, the incumbent, in a primary election for the office of…
Date: July 8, 2022
Docket Number: 1210058
Justia Opinion Summary: The Mobile County Board of Equalization ("the Board") petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Mobile Circuit Court ("the trial court") to dismiss, for lack of subject-matter…
Date: June 30, 2022
Docket Number: 1200841
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2003, the Alabama Legislature and the citizens of Greene County voted to allow nonprofit organizations in that county to operate bingo games for fundraising purposes. Greenetrack, Inc. ("Greenetrack"), which was not a…
Date: June 30, 2022
Docket Number: 1210104
Justia Opinion Summary: Alabama Power Company ("Alabama Power"), B&N Clearing and Environmental, LLC ("B&N"), and Jettison Environmental, LLC ("Jettison") petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Montgomery…
Date: June 24, 2022
Docket Number: 1200759
Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Warrior ("Warrior") and the Town of Trafford ("Trafford") petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to direct a circuit court to vacate its order denying their motions for a summary judgment…
Date: June 24, 2022
Docket Number: 1200851
Justia Opinion Summary: Larry Lang appealed the grant of summary judgment in favor of Cabela's Wholesale, LLC ("Cabela's"), in his product-liability action against Cabela's based on the alleged failure of a hunting tree stand. On November 29,…
Date: June 17, 2022
Docket Number: 1210010
Justia Opinion Summary: Warren Averett Companies, LLC, sought a writ of mandamus to direct a circuit court to vacate its order denying Warren Averett's motion to strike the jury demand asserted by Gerriann Fagan and to enter an order granting…
Date: June 17, 2022
Docket Number: 1210172
Justia Opinion Summary: Hunter Halver Brown petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for certiorari review in which a circuit court had denied Brown's motion to dismiss the indictment against him notwithstanding the State's purported failure to…
Date: June 10, 2022
Docket Number: 1210011
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Terri Anderson appealed the grant of summary judgment entered in favor of the defendants. At issue was an agreement to purchase certain residential property located on Ono Island in Baldwin County, Alabama…
Date: June 10, 2022
Docket Number: 1200775
Justia Opinion Summary: The Wilcox County Board of Education ("the Board") and individual Board members were defendants in a lawsuit filed by Jane Doe. Defendants petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Wilcox…
Date: May 27, 2022
Docket Number: 1200362
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant-petitioner Lisa Mestas petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus directing the circuit court to vacate its order denying her motion for a summary judgment in this…
Date: May 27, 2022
Docket Number: 1200623
Justia Opinion Summary: Icylene Pearce, as the personal representative of the estate of her late husband, Dewitt Ray Pearce, appealed a judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of the defendants in her wrongful-death action against the…
Date: May 27, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1210098, 1210096
Justia Opinion Summary: Susan Hoff ("Susan") and Eliot Hoff ("Eliot") were mother and son and the purported beneficiaries under a will executed by Susan Bibb Kidd ("Kidd"), Susan's mother. Probate was initiated in 2011. In 2020, Eliot filed a…
Date: May 20, 2022
Docket Number: 1200621
Justia Opinion Summary: Dahlia McKinney, M.D., a defendant in the wrongful-death/medical negligence action, petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus directing the Jefferson Circuit Court to vacate an order compelling Dr.…
Date: May 20, 2022
Docket Number: 1210124
Justia Opinion Summary: James P. Key, Jr. appealed a circuit court order denying his motion to compel arbitration of his claims against Warren Averett, LLC, and Warren Averett Companies, LLC (collectively, "WA"). Key alleged that he was a…
Date: May 13, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1200846, 1200854
Justia Opinion Summary: The Terminix International Co., L.P., and Terminix International, Inc. (collectively, "Terminix"), and Ken Stroh, an agent and employee of Terminix, appealed court orders appointing arbitrators, which were entered in two…
Date: May 2, 2022
Docket Number: 1200563
Justia Opinion Summary: Robert Robinson sued several timber companies for cutting timber on land, located between two creek beds, that Robinson alleged was his. The trial court entered a summary judgment in favor of the timber companies.…
Date: March 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1200554
Date: March 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1200629
Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Trussville ("the City") appealed a circuit court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Personnel Board of Jefferson County ("the Board") in the City's action seeking a judgment declaring that it had the…
Date: March 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1200814
Justia Opinion Summary: Robert Louis Dill appealed a circuit court judgment entered on a jury verdict in favor of Douglas Dill in Douglas's action contesting the purported will of Walter Dill, Jr. Walter and his wife Alva purchased a house…
Date: March 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1200847
Justia Opinion Summary: In response to economic conditions related to the spread of COVID-19, Congress established several programs that made additional federal funds available to the states for providing enhanced unemployment-compensation…
Date: March 11, 2022
Docket Number: 1200647
Justia Opinion Summary: Susan Runnels petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to direct the trial court to enter a summary judgment in her favor of a spoliation-of-evidence claim asserted against her by Amir Fooladi, as…
Date: March 11, 2022
Docket Number: 1200739
Date: March 11, 2022
Docket Number: 1200810
Date: March 11, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1200825, 1200831
Justia Opinion Summary: In May 2018, Howard Cole Burton ("Cole") and Nicholas Hood ("Nicholas") were Auburn University students enrolled in the field-camp course offered by the Department of Geosciences. As part of that geology course, students…
Date: March 11, 2022
Docket Number: 1200831
Date: March 4, 2022
Docket Number: 1200144
Date: March 4, 2022
Docket Number: 1200331
Date: March 4, 2022
Docket Number: 1200733
Date: March 4, 2022
Docket Number: 1200821
Date: March 4, 2022
Docket Number: 1210176
Date: February 25, 2022
Docket Number: 1200264
Justia Opinion Summary: Equivest Financial, LLC, bought property owned by Mark Stiff and Jim Stiff at a tax sale. The Alabama Supreme Court later declared that sale void. After the case was remanded for further proceedings, including…
Date: February 25, 2022
Docket Number: 1200645
Justia Opinion Summary: Cahaba Riverkeeper, Inc., Cahaba River Society, David Butler, and Bradford McLane ("the conservation parties") appealed a circuit court's dismissal of their action for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Water…
Date: February 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1200046
Date: February 18, 2022
Docket Numbers: 1200755, 1200787
Justia Opinion Summary: These consolidated appellate proceedings arose from a quo warranto action filed by the State of Alabama, on the relation of Charles Driggars, challenging Governor Kay Ivey's appointment of James Naftel II to the office…
Date: February 18, 2022
Docket Number: 1200787
Date: February 11, 2022
Docket Number: 1190945
Date: February 11, 2022
Docket Number: 1200240
Justia Opinion Summary: Richard Glass appealed a circuit court judgment upholding the constitutionality of a municipal ordinance and a corresponding local act that authorized automated photographic enforcement of traffic-light violations within…
Date: February 11, 2022
Docket Number: 1200598
Date: February 11, 2022
Docket Number: 1200606
Date: February 4, 2022
Docket Number: 1190976
Justia Opinion Summary: Yulanda Haddan appealed the grant of summary judgment entered in favor of Norfolk Southern Railway Company and Norfolk Southern Corporation (collectively referred to as "Norfolk Southern"). She also sought review of a…
Date: January 21, 2022
Docket Number: 1200562
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Alabama Supreme Court's review was one of first impression. Yamil Alexsander Hare and Jose Sosa filed a state-court action to recover personal property that a Gulf Shores police…
Date: January 21, 2022
Docket Number: 1200666
Justia Opinion Summary: After sustaining injuries in a one-vehicle accident, Terry and Jane Pruitt filed a complaint against several defendants, including AAA Interstate Transportation, LLC ("AAA"), in the Walker Circuit Court. The court…
Date: January 21, 2022
Docket Number: 1200671
Justia Opinion Summary: Howard Moore and Charles Lloyd were judgment creditors in the aggregate amount of $185,000. In 2012, Moore and Lloyd obtained a writ of execution and the property, in which Mikul had an ownership interest, was sold at an…
Date: January 21, 2022
Docket Number: 1200681
Justia Opinion Summary: David Miles appealed a circuit court order denying his postjudgment motion seeking to alter, amend, or vacate a judgment appointing a guardian for Nadine Chalmers. The administration of the guardianship was purportedly…
Date: January 21, 2022
Docket Number: 1200764
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2018, pursuant to a premises search warrant, police in Mobile, Alabama searched the residence of Joshua Moyers, seeking evidence of drug activity. Although Moyers was referenced in the affidavit supporting the…
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1190236
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1200220
Justia Opinion Summary: A circuit court entered a judgment divorcing Jason Grimmett from April Grimmett on the ground of adultery by Jason, and divided the couple's marital property. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment without an…
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1200242
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1200274
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1200303
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1200389
Justia Opinion Summary: Montgomery Piggly Wiggly, LLC ("Piggly Wiggly"), and Scott Scoggins appealed a circuit court order denying their motion to quash a garnishment proceeding filed by Accel Capital, Inc. ("the judgment creditor"). The…
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1200493
Justia Opinion Summary: In the first action ("the 2014 action"), The Gardens at Glenlakes Property Owners Association, Inc., Lake View Villas Association, Inc., Lake View Estates Property Owners Association, Inc., Glenlakes Unit One Property…
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1200525
Date: January 14, 2022
Docket Number: 1200676
Date: January 7, 2022
Docket Number: 1200061
Date: January 7, 2022
Docket Number: 1200663
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