Which Laws Apply to Broker-Dealers? Federal Laws? State Laws? Both? General Principles Leading to an Answer

TAMAR FRANKEL

BU Law emerita professor Tamar Frankel explains the law of preemption as it pertains to broker-dealers and their investor clients. She predicts, among other things, that either the clients will demand that broker-dealers adhere to a fiduciary duty, or else that states will impose that duty on them.

Read More

Wolfe v. Delta Discount Drugs, Inc.

Citation: 2019-CA-00160-SCT

Opinion Date: March 5, 2020

Judge: Chamberlin

Areas of Law: Civil Procedure, Health Law, Personal Injury

In May, 2015, Spencer Wolfe was being treated for high blood pressure and was prescribed two milligrams of hydralazine two times a day. Some time between May 20, 2015, and May 27, 2015, Wolfe had this prescription filled at Delta Discount Drugs. Delta, however, allegedly mis-filled Wolfe’s prescription with twenty-five milligram tablets of hydroxyzine, rather than the prescribed two milligram tablets of hydralazine. Less than a month later, on June 19, 2015, Wolfe was hospitalized after he had blacked out while driving. The issue this case presented for the Mississippi Supreme Court's review was whether a claim asserted against a pharmacy for allegedly mis-filling a prescription was subject to the two-year professional-malpractice statute of limitations in Mississippi Code Section 15-1-36 or the three-year catch-all statute of limitations in Mississippi Code Section 15-1-49. The Circuit Court ruled that Section 15-1-36 applied to Wolfe’s claims against Delta Discount Drugs and granted Delta’s motion to dismiss with prejudice because Wolfe’s claims were filed beyond the two-year statute of limitations found in Section 15-1- 36. Aggrieved, Wolfe has timely appealed to this Court. After review, and finding no reversible error in that decision, the Supreme Court affirmed.

Dickerson v. Mississippi

Citation: 2018-CA-00710-SCT

Opinion Date: March 5, 2020

Judge: Chamberlin

Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

A jury convicted David Dickerson of capital murder, arson and armed robbery and sentenced him to death for capital murder. He was sentenced to twenty years for arson and forty years for armed robbery, to run consecutively. Dickerson appealed his convictions and sentences, and the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed. Dickerson then sought post-conviction collateral relief proceedings, claiming however that he was incompetent to proceed with the post-conviction proceedings; so the Court remanded the case and ordered the trial court to determine whether Dickerson was competent to proceed in post-conviction proceedings. The trial court found Dickerson competent. Dickerson then appealed that finding. The Mississippi Supreme Court found the trial court’s determination that Dickerson was competent to proceed in post-conviction collateral relief proceedings was not manifestly against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

Pitts v. Mississippi

Citation: 2019-KA-00275-SCT

Opinion Date: March 5, 2020

Judge: Chamberlin

Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

Cody Pitts was convicted by jury on one count of touching a child for lustful purposes, for which the circuit court sentenced him to a ten year sentence at the Mississippi Department of Corrections without the possibility of parole or early release. Pitts appealed his conviction and sentence, arguing: (1) the trial court abused its discretion by admitting evidence under Mississippi Rule of Evidence 803(25)—the tender-years exception to the rule against hearsay; and (2) the trial court abused its discretion by giving jury instruction S-6: an instruction concerning the uncorroborated testimony of a sex-crime victim. After review, the Mississippi Supreme Court found the trial court did not abuse its discretion, and affirmed.

Stewart v. Mississippi

Citation: 2018-KA-00764-SCT

Opinion Date: March 5, 2020

Judge: Leslie D. King

Areas of Law: Constitutional Law, Criminal Law

Albert Stewart was convicted of felony fleeing and of possession of a controlled substance. The trial court sentenced Stewart to serve five years for the felony-fleeing count and a consecutive three-year term for the possession count. Because the Mississippi Supreme Court found no merit in the issues Stewart raised on appeal, it affirmed his convictions and sentences.