John M. Barham, Jr., Marsha B. Price, Gregory P. Brady, William J. Ross, James E. Gunn a/k/a Ed Gunn and Douglas J. Gunn v. Mississippi Power Company – transfer to chancery/Surface Mining Act – Barham, et al. filed suit in circuit court seeking a declaratory judgment that they owned lignite under a Mississippi Power Company plant built on land MPC had purchased. MPC turned around and filed a suit to confirm and quiet in chancery. MPC also moved to transfer the circuit-court suit to chancery court which the circuit granted. The chancellor then granted summary judgment on MPC’s claim that the Surface Mining Act deprived the families of the right to mine the lignite deposits. The Surface Mining Act requires that before one can engage in surface coal mining without a permit issued by the permit board, one must have a conveyance that expressly grants or reserves the right to extract the lignite by surface mining methods. MCA § 53-9-33(2)(e). Here both sides agree that the conveyance did not reserve the right. On appeal, Barham claims that it was error to transfer the circuit court case to chancery and the summary judgment was error. The MSSC affirms.
In Re: Timothy Allen McCoy – pcr – This is McCoy’s second pcr motion. The Court dismisses it and cautions “that any future filings deemed frivolous may result not only
in monetary sanctions, but also in restrictions on filing applications for post-conviction
collateral relief (or pleadings in that nature) in forma pauperis. See Order, Dunn v. State,
2016-M-01514 (Miss. Nov. 15, 2018). “