The twist in this case is that Caskeyâs estate claims Daniels was texting at the time of the crash â and the judge has ruled that evidence of texting is sufficient to allow the jury to consider PUNITIVE damages as well as the usual compensatory damges. This is, it is claimed, a case of first impression in the United States.
When Tennessee became a state in 1796, Knoxville became the first state capital. UT, as it is known in Tennessee, traces its origins to Blount College, which was founded in Knoxville in 1794. Only a year before that time, the settlement of Knoxville had been attacked by Native Americans and 13 people were killed.
Memphis is the state's largest city, with a population of 653,450. The state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, and later part of the Southwest Territory. Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1, 1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War in 1861.