Champ Lyons

This case involved Alabama boat dealership companies and their guarantors who were sued by or brought claims against Textron, Inc., Textron Financial Corporation, and an individual executive over financing agreements for boat inventory. The Textron defendants petitioned the Alabama Supreme Court for a writ of mandamus to compel the St. Clair Circuit Court to dismiss the claims based on forum-selection clauses in the 2006, 2007, and 2008 credit and security agreements, which designated Rhode Island courts as the exclusive forum. The court granted the petition in part, holding that the clauses were valid and enforceable against the corporate plaintiffs Ryan Creek Acquisitions, Alabama Boating Centers, and Logan Martin Boating Center, requiring dismissal of their claims without prejudice. It denied the petition as to the individual guarantors and Ryan Creek Boating Center, Inc., finding insufficient basis to dismiss their claims under the clauses. The core reasoning focused on the clear language of the forum-selection provisions and the plaintiffs' consent to Rhode Island jurisdiction in the contracts.

business & regulatoryprocedure

In this case, Darryl Clayton sued LLB Timber Company and driver William George Henderson for negligence after Henderson's parked truck rolled into Clayton's truck at a truck stop, injuring Clayton. The trial court gave a jury instruction on mechanical failure as a defense over Clayton's objection, and the jury returned a verdict for the defendants. The Alabama Supreme Court reversed and remanded for a new trial, holding that the mechanical-failure instruction was improper because no evidence supported the occurrence of any mechanical failure.

torts & liabilityprocedure

The case Nix v. Wick involved buyers Martha Nix and Charles Upham who, after purchasing a house and 4.5 acres from Skip and Christie Wick under an April 2008 contract, sought to enforce a related addendum and April 22 contract granting an option to buy at least five adjacent acres at $32,500 per acre. The buyers sued the Wicks and joint owner James Robert Oldfield for specific performance of the land option, breach of contract, and fraudulent misrepresentation, and alternatively for rescission of the house sale due to alleged misrepresentations about the location and availability of the adjacent land. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's summary judgment for the defendants, holding that the option agreement was unenforceable under the Statute of Frauds because it lacked a sufficient legal description of the land and could not be located from the writing alone. The court also rejected the rescission claim, concluding that the buyers had no basis to unwind the completed house purchase based on the separate, unenforceable promise.

propertyprocedure

Dean Edwards sued Baldwin Mutual Insurance Company for breach of contract, alleging that the insurer failed to include a 20% amount for contractor overhead and profit when calculating the actual cash value of damage to his home from Hurricane Katrina under his homeowner's policy. Edwards sought to represent a class of other Alabama policyholders with similar claims. The trial court certified a revised version of the proposed class after an evidentiary hearing. The Alabama Supreme Court reversed the certification, holding that the revised class definition materially differed from the one considered at the hearing and that the trial court failed to hold a new evidentiary hearing or conduct a rigorous analysis as required by Alabama Code § 6-5-641.

procedurebusiness & regulatory

Several Alabama legislators who were employed or sought employment in the two-year college system sued the State Board of Education to challenge two policies it adopted in 2007: Policy 609.04, which required employees to use personal, annual, or unpaid leave for outside employment or activities during normal work hours, and Policy 220.01, which generally prohibited the system from employing elected state officials, entering personal-services contracts with them, or contracting with entities in which they held significant financial interests, while also imposing resign-to-run requirements. The trial court declared both policies void under various statutes and constitutional provisions and permanently enjoined their enforcement. The Alabama Supreme Court reversed, concluding that the policies were lawful internal-management rules that did not violate the Administrative Procedure Act, the Fair Dismissal Act, section 17-1-4, or constitutional separation-of-powers and office-qualification provisions, and were consistent with established precedent upholding resign-to-run requirements for public employees.

electionslabor & employment

In Walker v. City of Huntsville, Julia Huff Walker sued the City of Huntsville, its former police chief, and two officers after her 2002 arrest for DUI and improper vehicle stopping, which occurred while she was actually suffering from a brain aneurysm; she brought federal constitutional claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 along with state-law tort claims including false arrest, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, negligence, and others. The federal district court granted summary judgment on the § 1983 claims, and after remand the state trial court granted summary judgment on the remaining claims. The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the state claims were barred by collateral estoppel based on the federal ruling, that the individual officers were protected by state-agent immunity, that the City was entitled to municipal immunity, and that Walker failed to present substantial evidence supporting her claims.

civil rightscriminal lawproceduretorts & liability