Day on Torts

OCTOBER 31, 2022

Where an HCLA plaintiff’s expert testified at his deposition that he was not very familiar with Kingsport and that he had only reviewed information about Kingsport the night before the deposition, rather than before forming his medical opinions, the trial court did not err by excluding the expert based on the locality rule.

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Day on Torts

FEBRUARY 2, 2023

City of Clarksville, Tennessee , No. This suit followed, asserting several contract and property claims, as well as a tort claim for intentional interference with business relationships. The trial court dismissed the tort claim against the City pursuant to the GTLA, and dismissal was affirmed on appeal. In Robinson v.

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Day on Torts

DECEMBER 5, 2022

Plaintiff responded by arguing that defendant had waived this argument and that there was material evidence to support the verdict, and the Court of Appeals agreed on both points. First, the Court of Appeals found that defendant waived his argument that the evidence supporting fraud was not legally sufficient.

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Day on Torts

SEPTEMBER 9, 2022

The trial court eventually granted the motion for summary judgment, agreeing that defendant owed no duty here, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Court began its negligence analysis by considering whether defendant owed a duty under the contract. Code Ann. §

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Day on Torts

AUGUST 2, 2022

Defendant argued that plaintiffs knew about the alleged conversion in October 2009 and that the claim was therefore time-barred, but the trial court found that the statute of limitations did not begin to run until after the father’s death. On appeal, this ruling was reversed. Code Ann. § internal citation and quotations omitted).

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Day on Torts

SEPTEMBER 14, 2022

After discovery, DSS filed a motion for summary judgment, which the trial court granted. The trial court ruled that plaintiff had asserted a premises liability claim, and that “DSS did not owe Plaintiff a duty of care under premises liability.” Plaintiff then amended his complaint to assert claims against DSS as well.

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Day on Torts

MAY 11, 2022

April 14, 2022), plaintiff filed an HCLA claim against several defendants, including the State of Tennessee as the employer of Dr. Landry, who was allegedly negligent. On appeal, that ruling was reversed. The Court of Appeals began by looking at Tenn. Code Ann. §

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Day on Torts

FEBRUARY 16, 2022

Defendants Goodall and the City both filed motions for summary judgment, which the trial court granted, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. Regarding the claims against Goodall, the trial court had found in part that the claim was barred by the applicable statute of repose found in Tenn. . § internal citation omitted).

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Day on Torts

MAY 18, 2022

Plaintiff asserted various claims against defendants, including breach of contract, fraud, intentional misrepresentation, and negligence, all of which the trial court dismissed as untimely pursuant to the three-year statute of limitations applicable to claims of injuries to real property. Code Ann. § 28-3-105.) internal citation omitted).

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Day on Torts

DECEMBER 8, 2022

Where plaintiff filed a notice of voluntary dismissal in his defamation case before defendants filed their petition to dismiss under the TPPA, the trial court erred by granting defendants’ petition for dismissal and awarding them attorneys’ fees and sanctions after plaintiff’s nonsuit. These rulings were reversed and vacated on appeal.

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Day on Torts

FEBRUARY 7, 2022

City of Algood, Tennessee , No. At the close of plaintiff’s proof, defendant moved for involuntary dismissal of plaintiff’s claims pursuant to Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 41.02(2), 2), which the trial court granted. In Cryer v. M2020-01063-COA-R3-CV, 2022 WL 150854 (Tenn. Ervin , 438 S.W.2d 2d 733 (Tenn. 20, 2015)).

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Day on Torts

MAY 3, 2022

Perry County, Tennessee , No. The County filed a motion to dismiss based on the GTLA discretionary function exception and/or the public duty doctrine, which the trial court granted, but the Court of Appeals reversed. The Court reasoned: We conclude that the acts alleged in the complaint are operational. In Haynes v.

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Day on Torts

FEBRUARY 8, 2022

The trial court denied the motion to dismiss, holding that “Plaintiffs’ claims for medical battery and intentional misrepresentation were based on false statements the Defendants made to [plaintiff] before they established a doctor-patient relationship,” and the Court of Appeals affirmed this “temporal analysis” on interlocutory appeal.

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Day on Torts

MAY 31, 2022

When that friend could not find a Tennessee lawyer to take her case before the statute of limitations ran out, he sent her a sample pre-suit notice form. The trial court agreed, ultimately dismissing the complaint with prejudice, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. defense it is answer, by failing to file a Rule 12.02

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Day on Torts

MARCH 28, 2022

The trial court agreed that defendant had affirmatively negated the elements of duty and notice and therefore granted summary judgment, which the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Court ruled that this response was insufficient and that the statement was thus admitted, explaining: Rule 56.03

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Day on Torts

APRIL 29, 2021

Defendants moved to dismiss, arguing that the HCLA required plaintiff to send a pre-suit notice before this second suit was filed, and the trial court agreed, dismissing the case. This conclusion is most aligned with Tennessee law and public policy. On appeal, dismissal was affirmed. Code Ann. § Internal citations omitted).

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Day on Torts

AUGUST 12, 2021

Where defendant doctor was an employee of a governmental entity and plaintiffs failed to name the employer in their HCLA suit, dismissal under the Tennessee GTLA was affirmed. WTMG is a governmental entity under the definitions in the Governmental Tort Liability Act. In Braylon W. Walker , No. W2020-00692-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Code Ann. §

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Day on Torts

JANUARY 29, 2021

After a bench trial, the trial court awarded plaintiff $200,000 in damages, which included approximately $64,000 in medical expenses. The Governmental Tort Liability Act (GTLA) governs suits against governmental entities in Tennessee, removing immunity for governmental entities only in certain situations. Code Ann. §

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Day on Torts

MARCH 30, 2021

Where the other driver in a car accident case died before suit was filed and the plaintiff failed to “timely file his tort action against the personal representative within the applicable statute of limitations,” summary judgment for the personal representative was affirmed. Luethke , No. E2020-00317-COA-R3-CV (Tenn.

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Day on Torts

MARCH 12, 2021

Where plaintiff alleged that defendant attorney fraudulently charged a higher hourly rate than what was agreed upon, the trial court should have engaged in a three-factor analysis to determine whether the written fee agreement could be used to defeat the fraud claim. In Vazeen v. M2019-01395-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. internal citation omitted).

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JonathanTurley

APRIL 23, 2021

There is an interesting and difficult free speech controversy brewing at Tennessee Tech University. The board rejected the proposal and Donadio, an assistant professor of nursing at Tennessee Tech as well as a local county commissioner , applauded loudly. Your hate & hypocrisy are not welcome at Tennessee Tech.

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Day on Torts

JANUARY 11, 2021

Dyer County Tennessee , No. 16, 2020), plaintiff filed suit under the Governmental Tort Liability Act (GTLA) after he was injured in a car accident. The trial court granted the motion to dismiss, relying in part on the Public Duty Doctrine, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. In Kimble v. W2019-02042-COA-R3-CV (Tenn.

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Day on Torts

AUGUST 9, 2021

The trial court found, based on the testimony of the parties, that the purpose of the annuity was to ensure that the mother would eventually qualify for Medicaid benefits. After denying defendant’s motion for summary judgment, the trial court held a bench trial. internal citation and quotation omitted). internal citations omitted).

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Patently O

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

ten years ago—at least in part due to longstanding common law rules on champerty, maintenance, [3] and patent law’s relative high risk—today third-party litigation funding (TPLF) [4] undergirds about 30% of all patent litigation, by conservative estimates. [5] Patent assertion finance today is a multibillion-dollar business. [2]

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Day on Torts

OCTOBER 19, 2021

The Court of Appeals first considered plaintiff’s claim that defendant created a “temporary nuisance by diverting water onto his property.” The Court also noted that defendant introduced evidence showing that the dog runs did not increase the water flow and that any excess water in that area was actually vacuumed out each day.

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JonathanTurley

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Here is my annual list of Halloween torts and crimes. Halloween has everything for a torts-filled holiday: battery, trespass, defamation, nuisance, product liability and more. However, my students and I often discuss the remarkably wide range of torts that comes with All Hallow’s Eve. In another June 2023 decision in Munoz v.

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