THE APPELLATE CORNER
Wilson F. Green
By Wilson F. Green Wilson F. Green is a partner in Fleenor & Green LLP in Tuscaloosa. He is a summa cum laude graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law and a former law clerk to the Hon. Robert B. Propst, United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. From 2000-09, Green served as adjunct professor at the law school, where he taught courses in class actions and complex litigation. He represents consumers and businesses in consumer and commercial litigation.
By Marc A. Starrett Marc A. Starrett is an assistant attorney general for the State of Alabama and represents the state in criminal appeals and habeas corpus in all state and federal courts. He is a graduate of the University of Alabama School of Law. Starrett served as staff attorney to Justice Kenneth Ingram and Justice Mark Kennedy on the Alabama Supreme Court, and was engaged in civil and criminal practice in Montgomery before appointment to the Office of the Attorney General. Among other cases for the office, Starrett successfully prosecuted Bobby Frank Cherry on appeal from his murder convictions for the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s Sixteenth Street Baptist Church.
Marc A. Starrett
UPCOMING DECISIONS OF NOTE One introductory note is included before we review the appellate decisions from the last several months of 2012. The November 2012 AL featured two articles on the current state of Alabama law regarding dispositions of excess proceeds from property tax sales–an issue which turns on the construction of Ala. Code § 40-10-28. Since that time, the court of civil appeals decided First United Security Bank v. McCollum, No. 2110828 (Ala. Civ. App. Nov. 30, 2012), in which the court held that a mortgagee which foreclosed after a tax sale was not the “owner” of the real property entitled to the excess proceeds from the tax sale (the proceeds, instead, were to be paid to the former owner and mortgagor). The mortgagee in McCollum has now filed a petition for certiorari review to the Alabama Supreme Court (Case No. 1120302). This area of law continues to shift under our feet. We will continue monitoring developments in the area and will report new decisions as they arise.
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MARCH 2013 | www.alabar.org