Opinion ID: 40549
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The City’s First Alleged Breach

Text: In 2000, acting pursuant to the Agreement, the Whitakers transferred approximately five acres of their land to the City for the future construction of Whitaker Road. At that time, however, the Whitakers were not the only parties advocating construction of a road in the area near the Whitakers’ property: Wal-Mart had decided to build a store on a parcel in the same vicinity, and it lobbied the City to construct a road connecting its property to the state highway running nearby. Wal-Mart’s lobbying efforts proved successful, and, over the Whitakers’ objection, the City voted in October 2000 to approve construction of a road on Wal-Mart’s property (“House-Carlson Drive”). To the Whitakers, the City’s approval of House-Carlson Drive breached the Agreement by violating the City’s obligation to make the future Whitaker Road the primary road in the vicinity of the Whitakers’ property. To remedy this perceived breach, the Whitakers took two parallel courses of action: (1) In October 2000, they filed a bill of exceptions with the Mississippi Circuit Court of Panola County,4 and (2) in April 2001, they filed the instant 4 In Mississippi, a bill of exceptions is the sole means available for seeking to overturn the administrative action of a municipality. The state court’s review “is limited to the record created by the bill of exceptions.” Lange I, 832 So. 2d at 1239. 3 action in the Northern District of Mississippi, which the district court stayed pending resolution of the state litigation.