The Appellate Corner, 0713 ALBJ, 74 The Alabama Lawyer 258 (2013)
| Author | Wilson F. Green |
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\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Wilson F. Green is a partner in Fleenor & Green LLP in Tuscaloosa. He is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law and a former law clerk to the Hon. Robert B. Propst, United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. From 2000-09, Green served as adjunct professor at the law school, where he taught courses in class actions and complex litigation. He represents consumers and businesses in consumer and commercial litigation.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0By Marc A. Starrett
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Marc A. Starrett is an assistant attorney general for the State of Alabama and represents the state in criminal appeals and habeas corpus in all state and federal courts. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law. Starrett served as staff attorney to justice Kenneth Ingram and justice Mark Kennedy on the Alabama Supreme Court, and was engaged in civil and criminal practice in Montgomery before appointment to the Office of the Attorney General. Among other cases for the office, Starrett successfully prosecuted Bobby Frank Cherry on appeal from his murder convictions for the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0RECENT CIVIL DECISIONS
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0From the Alabama Supreme Court
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Arbitration; Nursing Home Contracts
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0SSC Montgomery Cedar Crest Operating Company, LLC v. Bolding, No. 1120122 (Ala. March 22, 2013)
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Means, an incompetent adult, was admitted to SSC nursing home by Pleasant, his daughter. Pleasant signed an arbitration agreement in which she represented that she had authority to bind Means; however, undisputed evidence showed that she did not have such authority. In negligence action brought on behalf of Means, SSC moved to compel arbitration, which the trial court denied. The supreme court affirmed, holding: (1) Pleasant lacked authority to bind Means to arbitration, and the contract's recital of such authority did not confer such authority; and [2] apparent authority did not apply because principal (Means) was incompetent, and thus he could not hold Pleasant out as having authority.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Personal Jurisdiction
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Ex parte Alamo Title Co., No. 1111541 (Ala. March 15, 2013)
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Held: out-of-state escrow agent's contacts with Alabama, in the form of calls and faxes, were insufficient to support specific jurisdiction under the "purposeful availment" standard, and (2) conspiracy allegations could not be relied upon because once movant supported its personal jurisdiction motion with testimony, the evidentiary burden shifted to plaintiffs to support jurisdictional allegations with some evidence.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Personal Representatives; Compensation
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Ex parte Rodgers, No. 1111509 (Ala. March 29, 2013)
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0PR was not entitled to a fee of a percentage of recovery of wrongful death proceeds under the "extraordinary services" provision in Ala. Code § 43-2-848(b), because wrongful death proceeds are not recoverable "for the estate, " as the statute requires. Justice Bolin concurred specially, noting the inequities of the situation and proposing that the personal representative could be compensated under the law of trusts.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Work Product
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Ex parte Mobile Gas Service Corp., No. 1120229 (Ala. April 5, 2013)
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Plaintiffs had not demonstrated a substantial need under the Rule 26(b)(5) test for materials beyond the raw data from certain environmental testing. Though it did not appear strictly germane to the materials in question, the court also discussed some federal cases which hold that work product in one litigation (a regulatory action) could maintain its work product character in separate but related litigation (private civil litigation).
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Medical Malpractice
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Hegarty v. Hudson, No. 1110578 (Ala. April 5, 2013)
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Judgment for plaintiff reversed in medical malpractice action; under the plain language of Ala. Code § 6-5-548(c] and (e), plaintiff's expert was disqualified for failure to maintain the same board certification as the defendant.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Fraud
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Target Media Partners Operating Co., LLC v. Specialty Marketing Corp., No. 1091758 (Ala. April 19, 2013)
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0On original submission (December 21, 2012), the court reversed in relevant part a fraud verdict for a commercial plaintiff, holding essentially that a fraud claim does not lie under Alabama law for misrepresentations made in connection with contractual performance, because such a claim is only in contract. On rehearing, the court withdrew its controversial decision on original submission, and affirmed without opinion the judgment for plaintiff.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Prepaid Tuition Case
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Perdue v. Green, No. 1101337 (Ala. April 19, 2013)
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0After remand from the supreme court, the circuit court held that a 2012 Act of the legislature needed to facilitate the settlement was...
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