Edwin L. Pittman

This case involved customers suing check cashing companies over fees charged on renewed or extended delayed-deposit transactions under the Mississippi Check Cashers Act, with the companies moving to compel arbitration pursuant to signed agreements governed by the Federal Arbitration Act. The trial court denied the motions, ruling that the FAA did not apply, the agreements lacked mutuality of obligation, and the customers had not knowingly waived their jury trial rights. The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed, holding that the FAA governed because the transactions involved interstate commerce and the parties agreed to its application, that valid consideration supported the agreements without requiring mutuality, and that the conspicuous arbitration provisions established knowing and voluntary waivers. The cases were remanded for the trial court to grant the motions to compel arbitration.

business & regulatoryprocedure

Marcus Ricardo Bennett pled guilty to two counts of selling cocaine within 1500 feet of a church and received consecutive sentences of 10 and 5 years in prison. He filed a direct appeal challenging the sentence enhancement on grounds that it was not properly set out in the indictment or plea agreement. The Mississippi Supreme Court dismissed the appeal for lack of jurisdiction under Miss. Code Ann. § 99-35-101, which prohibits direct appeals after guilty pleas, and determined that precedents allowing review of sentences imposed after pleas did not apply because the claims concerned the validity of the plea itself. The court further observed that the enhancement was in fact stated in the indictment, plea agreement, and sentencing colloquy.

criminal lawprocedure

The case involved over 350 plaintiffs who sued insurance companies and their agents for fraud, fraudulent inducement, breach of contract, negligence, violations of the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act, and related claims arising from the marketing and sale of fire, life, and health insurance policies to low-income consumers. The suit, which sought damages as well as equitable remedies like an accounting, constructive trust, and injunction, was filed in chancery court; the chancellor denied the defendants' motion to transfer the case to circuit court. On interlocutory appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court reversed and ordered transfer, reasoning that the claims sounded in tort and contract rather than equity, the primary remedies sought were legal damages, and jurisdiction under the state constitution therefore lay in circuit court.

business & regulatoryproceduretorts & liability

Sandra Cockrell sued the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act after a District security officer arrested her for suspected DUI, then engaged in unwanted physical contact and embraces with her while transporting her to jail and later at the patrol office. The trial court granted summary judgment to the District, dismissing the claims with prejudice. On appeal, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the officer's actions were outside the course and scope of his employment because they were undertaken to satisfy personal urges rather than to further the District's interests. The court reasoned that an employer is not liable under the MTCA for employee conduct that deviates from employment duties in this manner, and it therefore did not reach the question of whether the conduct constituted a criminal offense.

criminal lawproceduretorts & liability

This case is the second appeal in a discovery dispute arising from a wrongful death lawsuit filed after a 1994 train-car collision in Mississippi that killed three people. The railroad company was held in civil contempt for failing to produce executives for court-ordered depositions, and on remand from the first appeal the trial court awarded the plaintiffs approximately $5,900 in attorney fees and expenses. The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed that award, holding that the expenses were reasonable, well-documented, and directly caused by the railroad's noncompliance with the discovery order. The court rejected the argument that the plaintiffs failed to mitigate damages by traveling to the scheduled depositions, noting they reasonably relied on the trial court's denial of a protective order.

proceduretorts & liability

The case involved three sisters challenging the validity of unrecorded warranty deeds executed by their deceased mother that purported to convey interests in two tracts of real property in Lafayette County, Mississippi, to the siblings. The DeSoto County Chancery Court dismissed the sisters' claims as barred by the three-year statute of limitations, but the Mississippi Supreme Court held that the deeds attempting to convey the Highway 30 property and the sisters' 3/5 interest in the Highway 6 property were void ab initio. The court reasoned that delivery is essential to a deed's validity and that the deeds here were never delivered or accepted, and that the mother's powers of attorney did not authorize her to convey the sisters' interests to their brother without any benefit to them. As a result, no action to set aside the deeds was necessary and no statute of limitations applied.

propertyfamily law