The Tennessee Supreme Court transferred the law license of Georgia lawyer Robert Andrew Free to active status on Dec. 27, effective as of Dec. 19. Free had been placed on inactive status on Oct. 24 pending resolution of a disciplinary matter. The court reports that Free resolved the disciplinary matter on Dec. 19. Prior to being on inactive status, Free was on disability inactive status from fall 2022 to October 2024.

John P. Williams, currently of counsel with Tune, Entrekin & White, has recently published his first book, "Montgomery Bell: Tennessee Frontier Capitalist" (2024, Acclaim Press). It is the first-ever biography of Bell, Tennessee’s most successful ironmaster in the first half of the 19th century — a time when iron was the essential ingredient in products for the kitchen, the farm and the military. Williams’ biography of Bell traces his odyssey from his Pennsylvania roots during the American Revolution, through his 12 years as a Kentucky hatter, to his 50-year career in the iron business in Tennessee. Many Tennessee attorneys received their high school education at Montgomery Bell Academy, founded in 1867 with a bequest from Bell. The Bells Bend section of Davidson County is named for Montgomery Bell as a result of his ownership of 6,000 acres in that area for more than 30 years and his construction of a home, grist mill and sawmill in Bells Bend. Montgomery Bell State Park in Dickson County is also named for Bell because several of his iron furnaces were located in that county.

READLER, Circuit Judge. While purportedly transferring gasoline between vehicles, employees of Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc. unintentionally set fire to property the company was leasing from Airport Boulevard Associates, LLC (“ABA”). ABA’s commercial property insurer, Pioneer State Mutual Insurance Company, paid ABA on its resulting claim for losses. Pioneer then sought reimbursement from Mercedes and Mercedes’s general liability insurer, Allianz Global Risks US Insurance Company. We accordingly reverse the district court’s grant of summary judgment for Mercedes and remand for further proceedings.

BLOOMEKATZ, Circuit Judge. Mario Adams, a defendant with a history of mental health issues, challenges the district court’s decision to give him the statutory maximum sentence of 24 months’ imprisonment for violating the terms of his supervised release. Adams contends that this sentence was procedurally unreasonable because the district court improperly considered his mental health as an aggravating factor in its sentencing determination. The district court’s sentence was based on permissible factors, not on Adams’s mental health status, so we affirm.

Appellant filed this petition for recusal appeal without including either the motion to recuse filed in the trial court or the trial court’s order denying the motion to recuse. As such, we dismiss this appeal.

This is an appeal from a dispute over a piece of real estate in Shelby County, Tennessee. The property owner executed a quit claim deed transferring ownership of the property to his daughter, who was also his attorney-in-fact, shortly before he died in 2023. After his death, the man’s surviving spouse filed a petition to set the deed aside, claiming that the daughter obtained the deed by undue influence. The trial court held a bench trial and entered an order setting the deed aside. The daughter timely appeals to this Court. Discerning no error, we affirm.

Buyers of a residential home brought action against sellers for 1) breach of contract, 2) negligent misrepresentation, 3) negligence, 4) negligence per se, 5) gross negligence, 6) residential disclosures violations, and 7) fraud. The claims arise from the discovery of a sinkhole months after the sale. The sinkhole was not indicated “through the contour lines on the property’s recorded plat,” see Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-5-212(c) (2015), and the sellers insist they had no knowledge of a sinkhole on the property. For these reasons, they did not disclose the existence of the sinkhole on the Tennessee Residential Property Condition Disclosure form. Nevertheless, the proof at trial established that one of the sellers, Larry Baskin, while mowing the lawn, discovered a depression in the yard six months prior to listing the property for sale, which he believed to be caused by rotting roots from a tree that had been removed years earlier. He filled the depression with two four-by-four, pressure- treated, rot-resistant posts and topsoil. Because it was near a downspout, he also placed the plastic bag from the topsoil over the posts, which he covered with more soil and grass. The property was sold seven months later, during which time Mr. Baskin did not notice the area “concaving or dipping in any way” even though he mowed regularly over the area with his 500-pound riding mower. Following a bench trial, the court dismissed all claims except the negligence claim. Significantly, the court dismissed the claim for negligent misrepresentation because the purchase agreement contained an “as is” clause. However, the court held that Larry Baskin was liable under the claim for common law negligence, finding that he “breached the duty of reasonable care by not informing the Buyers of the existence of the hole prior to their purchase of the Property. The harm resulting from Mr. Baskin’s breach was damage to the value of the Property.” The court awarded the buyers compensatory damages of $55,000 for the diminution in value of the property. Additionally, finding the buyers to be the prevailing parties according to the purchase agreement, the trial court awarded them attorney’s fees and costs. This appeal followed, with the sellers challenging Mr. Baskin’s liability under the negligence claim and the buyers challenging the dismissal of the gross negligence claim. For the reasons explained below, we affirm the dismissal of the claim for gross negligence; however, we reverse the finding of Mr. Baskin’s liability based on the claim of negligence because “a seller’s liability for the failure to disclose such material facts in a real estate transaction is coextensive with a party’s liability for fraudulent or negligent misrepresentation.” Fayne v. Vincent, 301 S.W.3d 162, 177 (Tenn. 2009). Because we have affirmed the dismissal of the claim for gross negligence and reversed the ruling concerning the negligence claim, we also vacate the award of damages and attorney’s fees to the buyers. In that the sellers are now the prevailing parties, we remand with instructions to award the sellers the reasonable and necessary attorney’s fees and costs they are entitled to recover pursuant to the parties’ contract.

December 23, 2024 - December 27, 2024.

The Tennessee Supreme Court has two cases set for its Jan. 8, 2025, docket in Knoxville: Matthew Long v. Chattanooga Fire and Police Pension Fund, and Brett Houghton et al. v. Malibu Boats LLC. Read more about the cases in a press release from the Administrative Office of the Courts. The cases will be heard at the Tennessee Supreme Court building, 535-599 Main St. SW, Knoxville 37902, beginning at 9 a.m. EST and will be livestreamed to the TNCourts YouTube page.

Former President Jimmy Carter died Sunday at age 100. His legacy had a lasting impact in Tennessee, where his work with Habitat for Humanity and his influence on local industry and faith communities were felt, the Tennessean reports. Carter’s influence also extended to Tennessee’s economy. In 1983, his support helped Gov. Lamar Alexander open the state’s first auto plant, Nissan Manufacturing in Smyrna. The auto industry now employs nearly 143,000 Tennesseans. In 2019, Carter participated in the Carter Work Project, an initiative he created, helping build homes in Nashville with a group of volunteers. Carter's state funeral will be Jan. 9, 2025, at Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.