The Appellate Corner, 1115 ALBJ, 76 The Alabama Lawyer 404 (2015)
| Author | Wilson F. Green, Marc A. Starrett, J. |
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0By Wilson F. Green
\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\xA0Probate; Bond
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Rogers v. Hansen, No. 1140257 (Ala. Aug. 14, 2015]
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0The court dismissed the appeal of a personal representative on movant's motion to remove the PR, for PR's failure to post the bond required by Ala. Code 12-22-24. Under that section, "[n]o appeal can be taken from any order of the probate court removing an executor or administrator unless the applicant gives either a cash bond or a bond with at least two good and sufficient sureties, payable to the probate judge and in the amount fixed by him, not less than the amount of his bond as executor or administrator. . . " The PR argued that the nature of the challenge was in the form of a will contest, which was not raised in the circuit court within six months of admission of the will to probate, and that such failure created a want of subject matter jurisdiction. The court rejected that argument.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0State Agent Immunity
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Ex parte Walker, No. 1131448 (Ala. Aug. 28, 2015]
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Inmate working in a DOC work release program sued his DOC carpentry supervisor for injuries sustained in fall from scaffolding on DOC worksite. The circuit court denied summary judgment to the supervisor, who was claiming state-agent immunity. The supreme court granted mandamus relief and directed dismissal, reasoning that the supervisor's role in the injury required use of discretionary authority in allocation of resources and materials.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Arbitration
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Troy Health & Rehab. Center v. McFarland, No. 1140090 (Ala. Aug. 28, 2015]
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0In a plurality opinion, the court reversed the circuit court's denial of arbitration of wrongful death claims; PR failed to offer substantial evidence that decedent was mentally incompetent when he signed a POA conferring on Mashburn the authority to transact his affairs (Mashburn later signed the arbitration agreement).
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Taxation; Exhaustion of Administrative Remedies
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Bonedaddy's of Lee Branch, LLC v. City of Birmingham, No. 1131338 (Ala. Sept. 4, 2015]
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Under Russell Petroleum, Inc. v. City of Wetumpka, 976 So.2d 428 (Ala. 2007), actions for recovery of municipal sales taxes are subject to the Taxpayer Bill of Rights [TBOR], and municipality's failure to comply with the TBOR notice requirements in conjunction with assessment against individual operator deprived the circuit court of subject-matter jurisdiction over that aspect of a tax enforcement action.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Wills and Trusts
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Butler v. Butler, No. 1140683 (Ala. Sept. 18, 2015]
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Provisions in a decedent's family trust did not constitute a "contract, " for purposes of Ala. Code § 43-8-250, under which decedent agreed not to revoke her "pour-over will" (under which the assets of her estate poured over into the trust). Such a contract under section 43-8-250 was not present because neither trust nor will contained "material provisions" under which decedent agreed not to revoke the will.
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Arbitration
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Chen v. Russell Realty, LLC, No. 1140651 (Ala. Sept. 18, 2015]
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0In a panel opinion joined by three justices, the court held that the trial court failed to compel arbitration in the manner provided in the agreement (the agreement required mediation then arbitration; trial court ordered only mediation then entered default judgment).
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Same-Sex Marriage and Adoption Rights; Full Faith and Credit
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0Ex parte E.L., No. 1140595 (Ala. Sept. 18, 2015]
\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0\xA0The court refused to grant full faith and credit to the judgment of a Georgia trial court, which had granted parental rights to a non-biological parent whose relationship to the children arose from a long-term same-sex relationship with the biological parent. The court reasoned that the Georgia court entering the judgment lacked subject-matter jurisdiction because the Georgia court's adoption did not terminate the rights of the biological parent, as required by Georgia law (even though Ga. Code Ann. § 19-8-18(e) bars any challenge to...
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