Where defendants filed a motion to dismiss under the TPPA and plaintiff thereafter filed a voluntary dismissal of one of the defendants, but the trial court denied the voluntary dismissal, defendants did not have the right to automatically appeal the voluntary dismissal denial under the TPPA, as the TPPA…
Day on Torts
Practical Procedure and Evidence Blog
My other blog is Practical Procedure and Evidence. This is where I share new case law and practical tips on using the rules of procedure and evidence in your Tennessee law practice. By way of example, today’s post addresses the issue of whether a plaintiff who is facing a motion…
HCLA dismissal based on statute of limitations partially reversed.
Where plaintiff’s HCLA complaint cited alleged negligent acts that occurred at different times over a period of a few months, the trial court’s dismissal of the complaint as time-barred was affirmed in part and reversed in part. Dismissal of the claims related to the care plaintiff received less than one…
No negligence per se where tenant had co-extensive knowledge of dangerous condition.
Where plaintiff was an employee of the company that leased a building, and she brought a negligence and negligence per se claim against the owner of the building after she fell off a staircase that allegedly was not up to code, summary judgment for the building owner was affirmed; plaintiff,…
No joint and several liability? No credit for other tortfeasor’s payments
Where a trial court’s judgment did not include a finding of joint-and-several liability, a defendant against whom a judgment was entered could not be credited with payments made by another defendant or by a non-party. In Gerrish & McCreary, P.C. v. Lane, No. W2022-01441-COA-R3-CV (Tenn. Ct. App. Dec. 5, 2023),…
Impact of noncompliant HIPAA authorization
Where an HCLA plaintiff sent pre-suit notice to a hospital and two doctors, the hospital had all the relevant documents, the doctors were independent contractors of the hospital who could only access the records for treatment purposes, and plaintiff’s HIPAA form was noncompliant and only allowed records to be released…
Notice – Actual or Constructive – Required in Fall Down Cases
Where claimant tripped on a laptop cord while participating in a class activity, but she had no evidence showing how long the cord had been there or who put the cord there, the Claims Commission’s finding that the professor of the class was not negligent was affirmed. In Bryant v.…
Tennessee’s Discovery Rule Applied by the Court of Appeals
Where there was a question of fact regarding when plaintiff was put on notice of his potential HCLA claim, and plaintiff provided an expert affidavit in support of his claims, summary judgment based on the statute of limitations and a lack of proof on causation and damages was reversed. In…
3000th Post on this Blog
On February 17, 2005, this blog offered its first post. Almost 19 years later, this post represents the 3000th post that has appeared on this site. That’s right – 3000 posts. In that time period, both of my older children have finished grade school, high school, and college. They are…
Black Boxes in the Operating Room?
Every time there is a airplane crash, we hear about the efforts to locate “the black box.” The “black box” is a flight data recorder – a device that constantly gathers information from dozens of sources about the operation of the airplane. There is also a cockpit voice recorder, which…