The Tennessee Supreme Court released a December 14 decision reviewing personal jurisdiction over non-resident defendants. First Community Bank, NA v. First Tennessee Bank, NA, No. 2012-01422-SC-R110CV (Tenn. Dec. 14, 2015). The case involved a Virginia bank's securities claims against a host of defendants, among them a couple Tennessee-resident firms and three non-resident Ratings Agencies having rated various collateralized-debt-obligation securities - some of which had Tennessee securities as a small portion of their underlying portfolio assets. The trial and ...
On June 5, the Tennessee Supreme Court rejected a per se rule of unconscionability for non-mutual arbitration clauses, holding them enforceable if not too-one-sided and commercially reasonable under the circumstances. Berent sued his mobile-home sellers in chancery court, arguing that foreclosure exceptions for the seller within a generally broad-form arbitration clause rendered it unconscionable and unenforceable. The trial and intermediate appellate courts agreed, under the Supreme Court's prior decision Taylor v. Butler, 142 S.W.2d 277 (TN 2004). The Sellers sought ...