Cockrell v. City of Southaven

730 So. 2d 1119, 1998 WL 909550
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 31, 1998
Docket97-CA-01073-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 730 So. 2d 1119 (Cockrell v. City of Southaven) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cockrell v. City of Southaven, 730 So. 2d 1119, 1998 WL 909550 (Mich. 1998).

Opinion

730 So.2d 1119 (1998)

Billy Hughey COCKRELL, Carolyn Virginia Cockrell and William Jeffrey Cockrell, a minor child
v.
CITY OF SOUTHAVEN, State of Mississippi.

No. 97-CA-01073-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

December 31, 1998.

*1120 Appellants, Pro Se.

Mark Sorrell, Southaven, Attorney for Appellee.

Before PRATHER, C.J., and BANKS and McRAE, JJ.

McRAE, Justice, for the Court:

¶ 1. Billy Hughey Cockrell, Carolyn Virginia Cockrell and William Jeffrey Cockrell appeal the September 4, 1997 judgment of the DeSoto County Circuit Court affirming the issuance of an order of removal by the County Court of DeSoto County pursuant to a judgment entered by the Special Court of Eminent Domain awarding the Cockrells just compensation for their property and vesting ownership of the property in the City of Southaven, Mississippi. Finding no merit to the assignments of error now raised, we affirm the opinion of the court below.

I.

¶ 2. By letter dated July 31, 1987, the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority's Noise Compatibility Program advised some 1,3000 households in the vicinity of the airport subject to noise levels in excess of 75 Ldn that they were eligible for relocation under a five-year $100 million Property Acquisition Program. The Cockrells were among the families affected by the program. On June 4, 1987 and December 28, 1988, they transferred title to their two lots to their infant son, William Jeffery Cockrell.

¶ 3. Apparently, the Airport Authority donated some fifty-nine acres of land it had acquired through the Noise Compatibility Program to the City of Southaven for use as a public park. The City then sought to acquire, through eminent domain proceedings, three remaining parcels of land which the Airport Authority had been unable to obtain through its negotiated "buy-out" program, including the Cockrell residence, to eliminate non-conforming property usage within the designated park area. Thus, eminent domain proceedings were instituted by the City of Southaven.[1]

¶ 4. A jury of the Special Court of Eminent Domain awarded the Cockrells compensation and damages in the amount of $66,000 for their house at 8767 Woodbine Place in the Greenbrook Subdivision of DeSoto County, with judgment entered on March 3, 1995. The Airport's Noise Compatibility Planning Manager sent a check for $68,438.03 to the City's attorneys, payable to the Circuit Court of DeSoto County, for judgment and costs in the Cockrells' case. Although noting that their motion for a new trial or j.n.o.v. was neither timely filed nor in proper form, the Special Judge of the Special Court of Eminent Domain granted the motion on March 31, 1995 because of an unqualified juror. That order was set aside by the Special Court in an April 12, 1995 order granting the City's motion to reconsider and holding the March 3, 1995 judgment to be in full force and effect.

¶ 5. Subsequent to the decision of the Special Court of Eminent Domain, the Cockrells filed a series of actions in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi against the Airport, the City, the Court of Eminent Domain, and various City and Airport officials, alleging a panoply of civil rights violations. Some of these actions were dismissed on January 11, 1996, while the remaining claims were dismissed by the District Court in an opinion and order filed June 5, 1996. The District Court's various orders were appealed to the Fifth Circuit, where two of the Cockrells' appeals were dismissed[2] and in two others, the court affirmed the lower court's orders without written opinion. Cockrell v. Memphis Shelby, 125 F.3d 851 (5th Cir.1997); Cockrell v. Cates, 121 F.3d 705 (5th Cir.1997).

¶ 6. The City filed an Affidavit of Eviction pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 89-7-27 on *1121 February 7, 1996. An Order Setting Return Date of Eviction was entered nunc pro tunc September 13, 1996, with a motion hearing and trial set in County Court for October 2, 1996. The County Court, fearing a conflict in interest between the minor child and his father, appointed a guardian ad litem and attorney for him. On October 7, 1996, the County Court entered an Order of Removal, ordering the Cockrells to put the property in the possession of the City of Southaven by January 17, 1997. At the same time, an order denying the Cockrells' various motions for recusal, dismissal, summary judgment and a jury trial was entered.

¶ 7. The Cockrells appealed the County Court decision to the Circuit Court of DeSoto County, which, by order dated September 4, 1997, affirmed the lower court's decision and directed that court to issue a warrant of removal not before October 4, 1997, so as to allow the Cockrells time for appeal and to petition to this Court for emergency relief pursuant to M.R.A.P. 8.

II.

¶ 8. The Cockrells first assert that the lower courts did not have subject matter jurisdiction over 49 CFR §§ 24.101(a)(3)(A), (B) and (C), which, they contend, protects them from condemnation or eviction. Thus, they assert, "Mississippi's condemnation and eviction law must yield to federal law." They present some six pages of quotations regarding general principles of subject matter jurisdiction and the Supremacy Clause of the United States Constitution and from these disparate sources conclude that "as no Mississippi money was used to purchase the said Cockrell property then the three Mississippi courts below wholly lacked subject matter jurisdiction over 49 CFR PART A,B, C [subpart B § 24.101(a)(3)] and the final orders in each said court are void and of no effect."[3] The Appellees do not address the issue. Had the eminent domain and eviction proceedings been brought by a federal agency, jurisdiction would have been proper in federal court. However, the City of Southaven, and not the Airport Authority, initiated the eminent domain proceedings to acquire the Cockrell property. Further, the Cockrell property was not part of the parcel acquired by the Airport pursuant to the Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisitions Policies Act of 1970, 42 U.S.C. § 4601, the federal law to which the Cockrells refer, and later donated to the City. The issue of whether the lower courts had jurisdiction over the federal law, therefore, is not even relevant.

III.

¶ 9. The Cockrells next appear to assert that the taking of their property was a fraudulent conveyance because neither the State nor the City of Southaven had legal authority to do so because Mississippi has no geographical boundaries pursuant to Miss. Code Ann. §§ 3-3-1 and 3-3-3, which, they contend, dissolved the state boundaries and removed and dissolved the counties "within the dissolved state previously known as Mississippi." In federal court, the Cockrells alleged that the taking was unauthorized since the City of Southaven was not a municipality because it had defective charter.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Champluvier v. State
942 So. 2d 145 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 2006)
Deborah Champluvier v. State of Mississippi
Mississippi Supreme Court, 2004

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
730 So. 2d 1119, 1998 WL 909550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cockrell-v-city-of-southaven-miss-1998.