This submit was authored by Amy Lavine, Esq.
A Mississippi case determined in 2021 addressed adjustments to the statutory necessities for pleading and course of service in instances difficult selections made by county boards of supervisors.
Previous to the legislative amendments, aggrieved events have been required to file a invoice of exceptions in an effort to provoke an attraction, however the Mississippi Supreme Courtroom reviewed this requirement in 2018 and overruled it primarily based on the historical past of payments of exceptions and “in an effort ‘ to revive equity and sensibility to the invoice of exceptions course of[.]’” The state legislature then revised the statute in 2019 to take away the invoice of exceptions requirement and change it with a requirement for submitting a discover of attraction. Deciphering this requirement was due to this fact a matter of first impression for the Mississippi Supreme Courtroom when the problem was raised in American Tower Asset Sub, LLC v. Marshall County.
The particular problem earlier than the court docket was whether or not American Tower’s discover of attraction was well timed the place it had filed the discover throughout the prescribed 10 day interval nevertheless it didn’t ship a replica to the president of the board of supervisors and as a substitute served the chancery clerk, who additionally served because the clerk to the board of supervisors. The county claimed that this defect was jurisdictional, however the court docket disagreed. Because it defined, jurisdiction was established upon submitting the discover of attraction, not service, and whereas the amended statute required a replica to be “delivered” to the president of the board of supervisors, “the statute doesn’t specify the precise methodology of service or supply that’s required.” As a procedural slightly than jurisdictional defect, American Tower’s service of course of might due to this fact be cured, and it was reversible error for the circuit court docket to have dismissed the attraction.
American Tower Asset Sub, LLC v. Marshall County, 324 So. 3d 300 (Miss. 9/2/21).