Court Rulings

The Defendant, Ladarius Sankevious Foster, was convicted by a Madison County Circuit Court jury of failure to maintain lane, possession of drug paraphernalia, and theft of property, and the trial court imposed an effective sentence of eleven months and twenty-nine days, with the Defendant to serve ten days in jail and the remainder of his sentence on community corrections. See Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 55-8-123, 39-17-425(a), 39-14-103. On appeal, the Defendant argues: (1) the evidence is insufficient to sustain his convictions for possession of drug paraphernalia and theft of property, and (2) the trial court failed to conduct an independent assessment of the fines fixed by the jury in this case. After review, we affirm the trial court's judgments.

Appellants, purchasers of a residential property, filed an action against Appellees, sellers and owners of the residential construction company that built the subject property, for violations of the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act (the "TCPA") and intentional misrepresentation for failure to disclose water damage and substandard repairs to the property. Appellants also sued a termite inspection company for negligently failing to disclose termite damage to the property. Appellants settled with the termite company for $45,000.00 but proceeded to trial against Appellees. Although the trial court found that Appellees intentionally misrepresented the condition of the property to Appellants, it found that Appellants were not "consumers" under the TCPA, and that the Act did not apply to this real estate transaction. The trial court awarded Appellants a $43,811.00 judgment against Appellees, for intentionally failing to disclose the water damage to the property, but found that Appellants had been fully compensated for their loss from the settlement with the termite company. As such, Appellants were not entitled to further compensatory damages from Appellees. We conclude the trial court erred in finding that Appellants were not consumers under the Act and that the TCPA was not applicable to this real estate transaction. We remand for a determination of whether Appellees violated the Act, and, if so, whether Appellants are entitled to an award of attorney's fees and treble damages. The trial court's order is otherwise affirmed.

Breach of contract Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act R.C. 1435.01 et seq. Civ.R. 52 Civ.R. 53(D)(3)(ii) magistrate's decision findings of fact conclusions of law substantially comply manifest weight oral contract enforceable contract meeting of the minds definite and certain. Affirmed the trial court's judgment in favor of appellees on claims of breach of contract and violation of the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act. The magistrate's decision substantially complied with Civ.R. 53(D)(3)(a)(ii), and additional findings of fact and conclusions of law were not necessary because the trial court's decision, when considered with the rest of the record, formed an adequate basis for review. The trial court's judgment was not against the manifest weight of the evidence and the trial court did not commit error in its determinations. The additional tree work appellant requested was not included in the scope of the parties' oral contract, and there was never a meeting of the minds or a definite and certain contract for the additional tree work. The record did not show that any violation of the CSPA occurred.