Alabama Supreme Court Appellate Alert: Decisions from October 31, 2025

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The Alabama Supreme Court issued its weekly release list on Friday, October 31, which included the following orders and opinions of interest to the Alabama business community:

• Ex parte TheraTrue: in this summary order, the Court denied certiorari review of a Court of Civil Appeals decision allowing the medical-cannabis licensing process to go forward. The order is also notable due to Justice McCool’s special concurrence, joined by Justice Cook, encouraging parties to raise the issue of whether the Court should follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s lead in abrogating Chevron­-style deference to administrative agencies’ interpretations of Alabama statutes. Justice McCool reasoned that this case was not an appropriate vehicle “to revisit those precedents because it does not appear to me that the outcome of TheraTrue's appeal would be any different if we overruled them.” (Disclosure: Maynard Nexsen represents a party in related trial-court proceedings.)
• Nissan v. Henderson-Brundidge: by a 9-0 vote, the Court reversed the trial court’s denial of the defendant’s motion for new trial after an $8.5 million personal-injury verdict. The trial court stated that it would have granted the new trial based on juror nondisclosures during voir dire. But the trial court believed that two of the Supreme Court’s precedents left it with no choice but to deny the motion. In an opinion by Justice Cook, the Court held that those two decisions did not deprive the trial court of discretion to grant the motion. The Court thus remanded to allow the trial court to exercise that discretion. (Disclosure: Maynard Nexsen represents Appellants in this case.)
• Ex parte Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church: The Court, in a decision written by Justice Cook and joined by 5 other justices, ruled that the ecclesiastical-abstention doctrine prevented a court from ordering the Auburn United Methodist Church to vote on whether to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church. This action was brought by a nonprofit composed of members of the local church. The ecclesiastical-abstention doctrine prohibits courts from “adjudicat[ing] disputes that are ecclesiastical in nature, including matters of church doctrine, polity, or internal governance.” The three justices who did not join the majority opinion recused themselves from the case.
• Of further note, Justice Bill Lewis voted in the cases decided on Friday and had—as of that time—not yet resigned from the Supreme Court to accept his commission to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, to which the Senate confirmed him earlier in the week.

If you have questions about this decision or want to discuss any other matters relating to Alabama appellate law, please do not hesitate to reach out to any member of Maynard Nexsen’s Appellate Group.