Tennessee Supreme Court Decisions 2019

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of criminal appeals concluding that Rader Bonding Company, Inc. should have been relieved from forfeiture on a $7,500 bond in connection with Defendant's DUI charge…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed in part the judgment of the court of criminal appeals affirming Defendant's arson conviction but reversing his conviction for presenting a false or fraudulent insurance claim, holding that the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court concluded that the fair report privilege does not apply to a nonpublic, one-on-one conversation between a newspaper reporter and a detective of a county sheriff's department, who also served as the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of criminal appeals vacating Defendant's sentence and remanding for entry of a sentence reflecting a conviction of a Class D felony, rather than a Class E felony,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of criminal appeals vacating Defendant's sentence and remanding for entry of a sentence reflecting a conviction of a Class E felony, rather than a Class A misdemeanor,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed in part the court of criminal appeals' judgment vacating Defendant's sentence, holding that the amended theft grading statute was properly applied by the trial court even though the offense…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of criminal appeals affirming the judgment of the trial court granting Defendants' motion to suppress, holding that the warrantless search of a probationer's residence…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of five separate misdemeanor thefts aggregated into a single Class D felony, holding that the separate misdemeanor thefts were properly aggregated into a single felony…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of criminal appeals affirming Defendant's conviction of being a felon in possession of a handgun, holding that the trial court erred in denying Defendant's request for…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this declaratory judgment action, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals reversing the judgment of the trial court denying a claimant's motion to set aside a default judgment in favor of an…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court finding, among other things, that Employee was not permanently and totally disabled after suffering an injury to her left shoulder and awarding temporary total…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Defendant, who represented Plaintiff in her divorce, and dismissing Plaintiff's legal malpractice action, holding that the trial court…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of criminal appeals reversing the trial court's ruling that Defendant's statements during a post-polygraph interview were inadmissible pursuant to Tenn. R. Evid. 403,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the Court of Criminal Appeals declining to grant the State's request to abandon the doctrine of abatement ab initio, holding that, due to changes in Tennessee's public policy in…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals affirming the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of felony reckless endangerment, which is not a lesser-included offense of…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals affirming the decision of the trial court granting summary judgment to an architect firm seeking to recover its design fees from a development company,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of criminal appeals affirming the judgment of the trial court ruling that certain portions of the Public Safety Act of 2016 (the PSA) were facially unconstitutional on…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeal reversing the judgment of the trial court in favor of Defendant in this wrongful death action, holding that, under the circumstances of this case, Defendant…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals reversing the circuit court's denial of Mother's motion seeking relief available under Tenn. R. Civ. P. 60.02(3) as to Father's post-divorce petition…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the court of appeals reversing the circuit court's denial of Mother's motion seeking relief available under Tenn. R. Civ. P. 60.02(3) as to Father's post-divorce petition…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court denying Defendant's motion to suppress evidence obtained from Defendant's computer pursuant to a search warrant, holding that Tenn. Code Ann. 39-17-1007 does not…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case regarding the proper distribution of liquor-by-the-drink (LBD) tax proceeds between a county and a municipality within the county, the Supreme Court affirming the decision of the court of appeals affirming…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case regarding the proper distribution of liquor-by-the-drink (LBD) tax proceeds between a county and a municipality within the county, the Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the court of appeals affirming…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case regarding the proper distribution of liquor-by-the-drink (LBD) tax proceeds between a county and a municipality within the county, the Supreme Court affirmed the court of appeals' decision reversing the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case regarding the proper distribution of liquor-by-the-drink (LBD) tax proceeds between a county and a municipality within the county, the Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Appeals' decision affirming the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case regarding the proper distribution of liquor-by-the-drink (LBD) tax proceeds between a county and a municipality within the county, the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeals reversing…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case in which the district court certified a question of law to the Supreme Court regarding the interpretation of two insurance policies the Supreme Court answered that, under Tennessee law and based on the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the court of appeals affirming the trial court’s judgment granting a bank’s motion to dismiss this action brought by Plaintiff, holding that the allegations of the complaint…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this defamation action, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the court of appeals reversing the trial court’s order granting Plaintiff’s motion to compel Defendants, a media outlet and a reporter, to respond to…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this appeal from the grant of Defendant’s motion to suppress, the Supreme Court Court adopted the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule set forth by the United States Supreme Court in Herring v. United States,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the order of the trial court denying Employer’s motion to dismiss Employee’s action seeking workers’ compensation benefits for injuries she received from Employer’s failure to use its automated…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions of the premeditated and felony murder of Clarence James and the premeditated and felony murder of Lillian James and Defendant’s sentences of death, holding that no…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the ruling of the trial court that documents containing communications between a corporation’s legal counsel and a property management property were protected under the attorney-client…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this breach of contract case, the Supreme Court held that, in interpreting a fully integrated contract, extrinsic evidence may be used to put the written terms of the contract into context, but it may not be used to…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed Defendant’s conviction of attempted especially aggravated sexual exploitation of a minor, holding that the evidence was insufficient to support an inference that Defendant intended to record,…