A Tennessee Supreme Court ruling on the residency of municipal judges has a number of local courts scrambling.
The opinion says municipal judges have to live in their municipality.
Some city judges here do live within the confines of their towns - such as Gary Humble of Signal Mountain, Stevie Persinger of Lookout Mountain and Marty Lasley of Soddy Daisy, but others don't.
Those living outside the limits include East Ridge City Judge Tracy Cox, Red Bank Judge Johnny Houston and longtime Collegedale Judge Kevin Wilson.
Affected judges are conferring with their town attorneys and other legal authorities to see what happens next.
The decision also is having an effect in General Sessions Court that often relies on the municipal judges to fill in as needed.
And the Sessions judges are starting to have to go out to hear cases in the smaller courts.
For the East Ridge Court tonight (Tuesday), court officials said two General Sessions judges were helping out since Judge Cox apparently could not sit. General Sessions Court Judge Tori Smith was handling custody and traffic cases and Judge Larry Ables taking care of East Ridge criminal cases.
In Red Bank, City Manager Martin Granum said it is not yet clear which judge will be sitting for court next Monday in place of Judge Houston.
Mr. Granum said Judge Houston could continue to hear the 1:30 p.m. docket of municipal cases, including traffic and animal cases. However, Judge Houston apparently would not be eligible to hear the 2 p.m. docket of the more serious state cases that include felonies.
"There are dozens of those cases," Mr. Granum said.
The case before the high court was brought by a municipal judge in Lenoir City, Robin McNabb, who was defeated by Gregory Harrison when she ran for re-election. She filed suit, saying the election winner did not live in the town. The high court ruled in her favor.
The ruling says, "For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the term “district” in Article VI, Section 4 refers to the geographical area where the court has territorial jurisdiction, or in other words, the area to which the judge is assigned. Therefore, we find that Article VI, Section 4 of the Tennessee Constitution requires a municipal judge to be a resident of that municipality for a period of one year prior to election. We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand to Chancery Court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. The costs of this appeal are taxed to the appellee, Gregory Harrison."