Q:

Table in table height?

The wrong display is shown first. Note how the rows are not in line with the rest of them.  When the note is longer than one line I want the message to loop around and the height of the other two tables to be equivalent so that data is displayed correctly.
I saw a javascript solution on here but it did not seem to work in my code. Though it didn't seem different. Perhaps I just implemented it wrong. One of those would be fine as I don't really want to make some real complex css file or anything. 
Here is my unphp'd table code.
<table class="detail_status">
<tr>
    <th>Status History</th>
    <th>Outstanding Hours</th>
    <th>User Notes</th>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td>
        <form action="..." method=post>
            <select name="change_status">
                <option value="unset">Change Status</option><option value="New">New</option><option value="Remote Actions Completed">Remote Actions Completed</option><option value="On-Site Actions Completed">On-Site Actions Completed</option><option value="Company Tech Dispatched">Company Tech Dispatched</option><option value="Tech On Site">Tech On Site</option> </select>
                <input type="submit" name="change_status_button" value="Change">
        </form>
    </td>
    <td>&nbsp;</td> <!-- Yeah I know. I'm going to fix the CSS later. -->
    <td>
        <form method="post" action="...">
            <input type="submit" name="edit_notes" value="Edit Recent Note">
        </form>
    </td>
</tr>
<tr>
    <td class="status_1">
        <table class="tabInTab">
            <tr class="added"><td><b>Fixed by Contractor<b></td></tr>   <tr><td>Tech On Site</td></tr>  <tr><td>Remote Actions Completed</td></tr>  <tr><td>Company Tech Dispatched8</td></tr>  
            </table>
    </td>
    <td class="status_2">
        <table class="tabInTab">
            <tr><td>1 hrs 17 mins</td></tr> <tr><td>1 hrs 18 mins</td></tr> <tr><td>21 hrs 48 mins</td></tr>    <tr><td>21 hrs 49 mins</td></tr>
            </table>
    </td>
    <td  class="status_3">
        <table class="tabInTab">
                <tr><td>Long textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong text</td></tr><tr><td>None</td></tr><tr><td>None</td></tr><tr><td>None</td></tr>
            </table>
    </td>
</tr>

echo '<table class="detail_status">
                                <tr>
                                    <th>Status History</th>
                                    <th>Outstanding Hours</th>
                                    <th>User Notes</th>
                                </tr>';
                            if($row['resolution'] == '') {  
                        echo    '<tr>
                                    <td>
                                        <form action="'.$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'].'" method=post>
                                            <select name="change_status">
                                                <option value="unset">Change Status</option>';
                                                $status_list = "SELECT status FROM current_status";
                                                $result_status = mysqli_query($db, $status_list);
                                                while($stat = mysqli_fetch_array($result_status)) {
                                                    $status = $stat['status'];
                                                    echo "<option value=\"$status\">$status</option>";
                                                }
                                                echo' </select>
                                                <input type="submit" name="change_status_button" value="Change">
                                        </form>
                                    </td>
                                    <td>&nbsp;</td>';
                                    if(!isset($_POST['edit_notes'])) {
                                        echo'   <td><form method="post" action="'.$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'].'">
                                                    <input type="submit" name="edit_notes" value="Edit Recent Note">
                                                    </form>
                                                </td>';
                                    }
                                    else {
                                        echo'   <td><form method="post" action="'.$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'].'">
                                                    <input type="submit" name="save_notes" value="Save Note">                                       
                                                </td>';
                                    }
                                echo '</tr>';
                            }                       
                        if($statusPrev1 != '' && $statusPrev2 != '' && $statusPrev3 != '') {
                            $dispCount = 3;
                        }
                        else if($statusPrev1 != '' && $statusPrev2 != '') {
                            $dispCount = 2;
                        }
                        else if($statusPrev1 != '') {
                            $dispCount = 1;
                        }
                        else { //No status set
                            $dispCount = 0;
                        }
                        echo    '<tr>
                                    <td class="status_1">
                                        <table class="tabInTab">
                                            <tr class="added"><td><b>'.$currStatus.'<b></td></tr>';
                                            for($x=1;$x<=$dispCount;$x++) {
                                                echo'   <tr><td>'.getPrevious('status', $previous, $x).'</td></tr>';
                                            }
                                echo'   </table>
                                    </td>
                                    <td class="status_2">
                                        <table class="tabInTab">
                                            <tr><td>'.calcHoursOutstanding($status_timestamp).'</td></tr>';
                                            for($x=1;$x<=$dispCount;$x++) {
                                                echo'   <tr><td>'.calcHoursOutstanding(getPrevious('time', $previous, $x)).'</td></tr>';
                                            }
                                echo    '</table>
                                    </td>
                                    <td  class="status_3">
                                        <table class="tabInTab">';
                                            if(!isset($_POST['edit_notes'])) {
                                                echo '<tr><td>'.$notes.'</td></tr>';
                                                for($x=1;$x<=$dispCount;$x++) {
                                                    echo '<tr><td>'.getPrevious('notes', $previous, $x).'</td></tr>';
                                                }
                                            }
                                            else {
                                                    if(isset($_POST['note_text'])) { //Probably Unneccesary? 
                                                        echo '<input type="textbox" name="note_text" value="'.$_POST['note_text'].'">';
                                                    }
                                                    else {
                                                        echo '<input type="textbox" name="note_text" value="'.$notes.'">';
                                                    }
                                                    //End of Save note form. Have to end it here to have the note_text be POSTed
                                                    echo '</form>';                                         
                                                //Started index at 2 to skip first one which is displayed above.    
                                                for($x=1;$x<=$dispCount;$x++) {
                                                    echo'   <tr><td>'.getPrevious('notes', $previous, $x).'</td></tr>';
                                                }
                                            }
                                echo    '</table>
                                    </td>
                                </tr>
                            </table>';

A:

You should not be nesting tables the way that you are. You need to make sure that each row in your table has three cells. The way you're doing it, you are allowing individual tables to grow independently without respect to one another. 
See my on jsFiddle: http://jsfiddle.net/vzBrF/
This is what your row should look like:
<tr>
    <td class="status_1">Fixed by Contractor</td>
    <td>1 hrs 17 mins</td>
    <td>Long textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong textLong tex</td>
</tr>  

