Under Tennessee law, a will (or any other testamentary document for that matter), can be invalidated if the testator lacked testamentary capacity, i.e., lacked mental capacity. In the past, people have contacted my firm believing that someone’s will should be invalidated because they had a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s or dementia…
In Youree v. Recovery House of East Tennessee LLC, a case involving a breach of a lease contract signed by a limited liability company, a Tennessee trial court ruled that the Plaintiff could pierce the corporate veil to hold two LLCs related to the LLC which breached the lease liable…
Recently, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee issued an opinion in the case of Vidafuel, Inc. v. Kerry, Inc., which gives Tennessee commercial litigators further guidance on the contours of the economic loss doctrine in Tennessee. To review, in the seminal 2021 case of Milan Supply Chain Solutions, Inc. v.…
In a recent Tennessee limited liability company case, a twenty-nine percent (29%) member was awarded nearly $900,000 against the other two members of the LLCs at issue for those members’ conduct in wrongfully terminating his membership and shutting him out of the operation of the LLCs. The opinion is instructive…
Under Tennessee law, the prevailing party in a lawsuit, with some exceptions, cannot recover a judgment from the opposing party in the case for the attorney’s fees the prevailing party incurred in prosecuting or defending the case. By far, the two most prevalent exceptions to that rule are: (1) When…
In a recent breach of contract case involving a construction subcontract, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee held that the contract at issue was enforceable even though the parties never signed a written agreement. This case is a reminder that a legally enforceable contract may, in some cases, be created…
Liens lis pendens are, often, a critical tool in real estate and commercial litigation in Tennessee. There are two important questions about liens lis pendens that are completely unanswered by the Tennessee lien lis pendens statute. (In fact, a plain reading of that statute would give a lawyer the wrong…
Many, if not most, legal claims of an LLC must be filed directly by the LLC itself and cannot be filed by someone acting on its behalf. The Tennessee Revised Limited Liability Company Act, however, permits a member of an LLC, in certain circumstances, to bring a derivative action on…
In every initial meeting or phone conference which I have had with a potential client about a will contest case, I inevitably am asked whether the potential client has a good case to set aside the will at issue, or, the other hand, to uphold it in the face of…
Under Tennessee law, many claims arising from business disputes are barred if they are not filed with a court within four years (claims related to the sale of goods under the UCC) or six years (breach of contract claims not governed by the UCC). Those time periods begin to run,…