APPELLATE COURT OPINIONS

The appellant, Paul J. Swanson, appeals the sentencing decision of the Grainger County Criminal Court following his guilty pleas to three counts of attempted aggravated sexual battery, class C felonies. Pursuant to the terms of the negotiated plea agreement, the appellant agreed to an effective six year sentence. The agreement further provided that the manner of service of the sentences was to be submitted to the trial court for determination. The trial court ordered total confinement. The appellant appeals this decision contending that the trial court erred in failing to grant alternative sentences and in failing to credit the appellant with time spent in a residential sexual offender treatment center prior to entry of his guilty pleas.

The defendant, Travis E. Sharpe, appeals as of right from the judgment of the Hamblen County Criminal Court. The defendant pleaded guilty to aggravated robbery and was sentenced to eight years as a Range I standard offender, with a release eligibility date of thirty percent. The defendant appeals the trial court’s sentencing decision, arguing the trial court erred in not sentencing him as an especially mitigated offender pursuant to Tenn. Code Ann. § 40-35-109 (1997). Based upon our review of this matter, we affirm the sentencing decision of the court below.

David Aaron Goodman (“Husband” or “Appellant”) appeals the judgment of the trial court which awarded a divorce to Halle Lynn Goodman (“Wife” or “Appellee”), found Wife to be incapable of being rehabilitated and ordered Husband to pay the sum of $2,200.00 per month to Wife as alimony in futuro, and the sum of $16,961.25 as alimony in solido for Wife’s attorney fees, and further ordered Husband to pay credit card debt in the amount of $22,000.00 incurred by Wife after separation.

This personal injury case arose when Plaintiff Barbara Cornett sustained injuries while operating a lawn mower manufactured by Defendant Deere & Company and sold by General Equipment and its owner Vernon Keith. Ms. Cornett sued, alleging negligence, breach of warranty, and strict liability. She also sought punitive damages. The first trial concluded with a directed verdict for the defendants at the conclusion of the evidence. The trial court, however, granted Ms. Cornett a new trial.1 In the second trial, the court granted directed verdicts to Vernon Keith on all issues, to both General Equipment and Deere & Company on the issues of negligence and punitive damages and to General Equipment on the strict liability claim. The jury returned a defense verdict on the remaining breach of warranty and strict liability claims. Ms. Cornett appeals, alleging ten errors. We affirm.

This appeal involves a law firm’s efforts to enforce a statutory attorney’s lien on the proceeds of a post-verdict personal injury settlement. After the law firm withdrew from representing the plaintiff because of a dispute arising from the settlement, the Circuit Court for Robertson County, the court where the underlying personal injury action had been tried, granted the law firm’s motion for a lien on the settlement proceeds for its fee and costs advanced on the plaintiff’s behalf. Thereafter, the trial court granted the law firm’s motion to execute on the lien and directed the plaintiff to pay her former law firm $51,091.99. On this appeal, the plaintiff asserts that the trial court erred by directing her to pay her former law firm because the lien was not properly perfected and because the procedure followed by the trial court did not permit her to assert her available claims and defenses against her former law firm. While we have determined that the law firm properly perfected its lien, we find that the trial court did not have the authority to adjudicate the fee dispute between the law firm and its former client. Accordingly, we reverse the portion of the trial court’s order granting the motion for execution of the attorney’s lien.

This appeal arose after the trial court rejected Appellant Barry Shawn Ralston's ("the father") petition to reduce child support on the basis of his reduced actual income. In his sole issue on appeal, the father argues that the trial court misapplied Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-5-101 (a) (1), which he claims mandated the modification of child support on a showing of a significant variance between the amount of child support required by application of the Child Support Guidelines to his current actual income and the previously-ordered support obligation. Appellee Gina Ione Holloway Ralston ("the mother") responds that the father remains intentionally underemployed and that the trial court properly considered the father’s potential income in denying the requested reduction. For the reasons set out herein, we vacate and remand for further proceedings.

Plaintiff filed a pro se complaint ["Torts Suit"] for damages suffered as a result of Defendants' removal of a dwelling he constructed on Young-Graham family cemetery property, and for back wages as a maintenance worker at the cemetery and punitive damages. The Trial Court, after consideration of the pleadings and Affidavits filed by the parties, entered an Order granting the Defendants summary judgment, which judgment the Plaintiff appeals. The appeal was submitted on briefs and addressed only the Defendants' removal of the dwelling the Plaintiff constructed on cemetery property. For the reasons herein stated, we affirm the Trial Court's dismissal of the Plaintiff's complaint.
 

This is a child support case. Respondent/Appellant, Jeffrey Allen Dill (Father), appeals the trial court’s order modifying the amount of child support to be paid to Petitioner/Appellee, Shawn Michelle (Stewart) Dill (Mother).

This is a suit initiated in the General Sessions Court for Davidson County by Alexander & Associates, Inc., an insurance agency, seeking to recover from Debra Bond-Owens, its former employee, reimbursement for payments made to her which it contends were “unearned advanced salary in the amount of $5701.37, plus interest.”
 

This is a construction case. The defendant owner hired the plaintiff contractor to build a movie theater. The contract contained an arbitration clause. The owner terminated the contractor before the construction was completed. The contractor filed suit against the owner regarding an amount of money required to be held in escrow pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated § 66-11-144, which permits the contractor to seek “any remedy in a court of proper jurisdiction . . . .” The trial court stayed the proceedings and ordered the parties to arbitration. We reverse and remand.

This case involves a petition for termination of parental rights. The Respondent/Appellant, James Bostick Osborne, appeals from an order of the Juvenile Court of Davidson County terminating his parental rights as the biological father of Sherry Money Hendren. We affirm the judgment of the Trial Court.

This case originated as a paternity action. Shannon Rea Roberts (“Ms.  Roberts”) sought to establish that Creig McLaughlin (“McLaughlin”) was the father of her child, Dylan Daniels Roberts (“Dylan”) (DOB: February 14, 1997). The part of the case now before us concerns the petition to  intervene filed in that proceeding by Janice Roberts (“Grandmother”), who is the mother of Shannon Rea Roberts and the grandmother of Dylan. In her petition, Grandmother seeks court-ordered “reasonable visitation  rights” with Dylan. McLaughlin moved to dismiss Grandmother’s petition, relying on Rule 12.02(6), Tenn.R.Civ.P., and asserting that the petition  “fail[s] to state a claim upon which relief can be granted.”¹ Id. The trial court granted McLaughlin’s motion, finding² that T.C.A. § 36-6-306 (Supp. 1998) does not authorize an award of grandparents’ visitation under the undisputed material facts of this case. Grandmother appeals, arguing that the trial court erred in dismissing her petition.  We affirm.

This case is before the court on interlocutory appeal from the Chancery Court of Davidson County under Tennessee Rules of Appellate Procedure Rule 9. The trial court order granting the interlocutory appeal presents a single issue: "1. Whether the defendant Gregory's affirmative defenses of waiver, laches and estoppel, abandonment, and breach of duty of good faith and fair dealing are matters of law to be decided by the court and not material facts in dispute, which would be decided by the jury in the case."

The plaintiff petitioned the court for a declaration that she was entitled to a one-half interest in a farm that had been part of her father’s estate. Her brother responded by claiming to be the sole owner under the provisions of their father’s will, or in the alternative, under a theory of adverse possession. The trial court found that the effect of the will was to divide the property equally between the siblings, and that the brother failed to prove ownership by adverse possession. We affirm the trial court.