65 results for 'court:"Rhode Island Supreme Court"'.
Per curiam, the Rhode Island Supreme Court vacates a lower court ruling prohibiting one neighbor from harassing another neighbor in a senior apartment complex. The hearing justice did not articulate a coherent basis for his decision to issue the preliminary injunction founded on four traditional factors. Vacated.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 22-287, Categories: Civil Procedure, Restraining Order
J. Goldberg finds that the lower court properly allowed a mother to permanently move to Massachusetts with the parties' child because evidence indicates that the finding serves the child's best interests. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Goldberg, Filed On: November 3, 2023, Case #: 22-269, Categories: Family Law
J. Suttell finds that the trial court improperly held that the parties had entered a valid purchase and sales agreement because the seller signed the agreement as an individual, not as trustee. Specific performance was prematurely ordered at summary judgment given discrepancies in the record, but the buyer was properly granted summary judgment in motions seeking declaratory judgment and anticipatory repudiation since her failure to appear at closing repudiated her obligations under the contract.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Suttell, Filed On: September 12, 2023, Case #: 22-74, Categories: Property, Real Estate, Contract
J. Long finds the trial justice properly upheld defendant town's enactment of an emergency moratorium ordinance, which paused the town’s review of the plaintiff’s solar-field projects. The solar-field submissions did not vest pursuant to Rhode Island law. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Long, Filed On: July 28, 2023, Case #: 20-244, Categories: Administrative Law
J. Prata finds the trial justice improperly granted defendant's motions to suppress evidence of approximately 94 pounds of marijuana seized from a vehicle during a traffic stop. There was reasonable suspicion to prolong the traffic stop after detecting a slight odor of marijuana. Vacated.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Prata, Filed On: July 27, 2023, Case #: 21-153, Categories: Drug Offender, Vehicle
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J. Long finds the trial justice properly denied plaintiff's motion for a new trial after being convicted of operating a vehicle in reckless disregard of the safety of others that resulted in a death. Evidence supported his conviction and because he did not to raise his evidentiary objection before the trial justice, he waived it. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Long, Filed On: July 26, 2023, Case #: 20-229, Categories: Vehicular Homicide
[Consolidated.] J. Suttell finds that the trial court properly suppressed evidence obtained during a traffic stop even though the issue of racial bias was improperly interjected sua sponte because, ultimately, state police lacked reasonable suspicion of criminal activity to detain defendants beyond the investigation of a traffic infraction. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Suttell, Filed On: July 20, 2023, Case #: 21-164, Categories: Evidence, Firearms, Search
J. Prata finds petitioner is entitled to the office of Chariho Regional School Committee member. However, petitioner Johnson cannot retain his membership on the school committee following his appointment to same by the council.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Prata, Filed On: July 18, 2023, Case #: 23-26, Categories: Agency
J. Goldberg finds that the trial court properly found for plaintiff in wrongful termination claims brought against the Woonsocket Police Department. The superior court had jurisdiction to issue declaratory relief, and plaintiff’s admission to certain facts in Massachusetts district court did not constitute a guilty plea. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Goldberg, Filed On: July 17, 2023, Case #: 21-332, Categories: Employment, Jurisdiction
J. Goldberg finds that the trial court improperly dismissed claims challenging the decision denying a refund exceeding $4.2 million for motor fuel taxes assessed on the purchase and sale of 300,000 barrels of oil. The decision imposing the tax after denying plaintiff a certificate as a motor fuel distributor provided standing, and the parties to the settlement lacked incentive to challenge the tax, since plaintiff was required to reimburse such under the terms of the contract. Meanwhile, the doctrine of administrative finality did not apply because such requires denial of the initial application for tax relief.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Goldberg, Filed On: July 14, 2023, Case #: 21-116, Categories: Administrative Law, Settlements, Tax
J. Robinson affirms a lower court ruling terminating the parental rights of a mother who argues that the trial justice erred by ruling that state welfare officials made reasonable efforts facilitate reunification between her and her child, specifically during a time when the mother was committed to a mental health facility. “While we acknowledge the significant mental health issues involved in this case, we are convinced that the trial justice did not err in determining that [the mother’s] parental rights should be terminated.” Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Robinson, Filed On: June 30, 2023, Case #: 22-77, Categories: Evidence, Family Law
J. Robinson affirms a trial justice’s conviction of a defendant for sexual assault, holding that she did not commit reversible error by allowing a nurse’s testimony regarding the incident as related to the nurse by the alleged victim. Regarding a portion of the nurse’s testimony that the lower court erroneously admitted into evidence, the high court ruling agreed that the error was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt” considering the accumulation of evidence against the defendant. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Robinson, Filed On: June 30, 2023, Case #: No. 21-216 , Categories: Evidence, Jury, Assault
[Consolidated.] J. Goldberg affirms a Superior Court ruling dismissing consolidated complaints against Roman Catholic bishops in Rhode Island by three alleged victims of sexually abusive priests as time-barred, after determining that the church officials fell within the state law classification of non-perpetrator, even if their conduct, as the litigants contend, would be subject to criminal prosecution. The alleged victims argue that the accused Catholic bishops are criminally responsible as perpetrators of the sex crimes committed against them, based on the officials’ own conduct. However, state legislators “deliberately drew a clear dichotomy between perpetrator and non-perpetrator defendants for retroactive application of the statute of limitations.” Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Goldberg, Filed On: June 30, 2023, Case #: 21-32, Categories: Sex Offender, Conspiracy, Child Victims
J. Goldberg finds the trial judge abused her discretion by allowing the sole remaining physician sued for malpractice by a deceased patient’s estate to compel production of a complete, unredacted settlement agreement with a Rhode Island hospital and his fellow doctors. The amount that the settling doctors agreed to pay is not relevant to a determination of the remaining physician’s liability at trial.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Goldberg, Filed On: June 27, 2023, Case #: 2022-22, Categories: Settlements, Discovery, Medical Malpractice
J. Suttell affirms the trial court’s denial of a restaurateur’s request for a new trial after a jury convicted him of sexual assault with a knife against a waitress employed at his restaurant. The defendant argued that the trial justice committed an error of law when he permitted state prosecutors to introduce evidence that the waitress was molested as a child to explain the woman’s delay in reporting her boss’s attacks to the police. The defendant’s contention that her testimony about her childhood was irrelevant because it failed to connect the earlier incident to the later alleged assault has no merit. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Suttell, Filed On: June 26, 2023, Case #: 2021-71, Categories: Sex Offender, Child Victims, Jury Instructions
J. Suttrell vacates a civil jury award against the nephew of a deceased uncle in the amount of $1,560,909 in favor of his aunt’s estate on the claim the younger man conspired to illegally convert his uncle’s inheritance. The trial justice erred by permitting a witness, a notary, to testify at trial despite knowing in advance that she would invoke her Fifth Amendment privilege. Her potentially explosive assertion of her Fifth Amendment privilege impermissibly tipped the scales in favor of the aunt’s estate and against the nephew by allowing the jury to draw adverse inferences against him for the possible criminal conduct of the notary. Vacated and remanded.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Suttell, Filed On: June 22, 2023, Case #: 21-56, Categories: Constitution, Jury, Privilege
J. Long affirms a lower court ruling in favor of a city tax assessor and against a limited liability corporation. The lower court correctly held that a three-month statute of limitations barred the LLC’s challenge to the tax official’s assessment of its property taxes.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Long, Filed On: June 22, 2023, Case #: 21-38, Categories: Civil Procedure, Government, Tax
J. Long affirms a family court ruling that distributes 50% of a retired government employee’s pension benefits, financial assets and property to his ex-wife, further holding that the trial justice did not err by sanctioning him $50,000, ordering a $16,000 credit to his former spouse and rejecting as baseless his assertions of a “double-standard” by the lower court. The ex-husband does not include any legal basis for his arguments. “Simply stating that the trial justice made a mistake does not amount to a legal argument.”
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Long, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: 21-19, Categories: Civil Procedure, Pensions, Property
J. Long vacates a family court’s decision awarding a Coventry woman half of her ex-husband’s state pension 24 years after finalization of their divorce. The woman’s request of the family court was “clearly untimely.” Having decided that the woman did not know about her former husband’s pension from the state department of corrections until 2017, the trial justice erroneously held that the woman’s request was not time-barred and ordered him to pay her a total amount of $83,284. The matter is remanded to the family court for further proceedings. Vacated.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Long, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: 21-328, Categories: Civil Procedure, Family Law, Property
J. Goldberg affirms on appeal a trial justice’s rulings against a defendant arising from his conviction for multiple armed robberies. The defendant argued the trial justice erred by failing to exclude certain statements he made regarding firearms, which he characterized as “hammers,” during a post-arrest police interview. The trial justice noted that the transcript of the interview was “filled with and interspersed with [defendant] talking about buying and selling a gun or guns; a hammer, as he calls it.” The trial justice explained that “these are statements from the defendant’s own mouth,” which “cuts against him.” The justices see no abuse of discretion by the trial court in admitting the statements into evidence. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Goldberg, Filed On: June 20, 2023, Case #: 2021-218, Categories: Evidence, Fair Trial, Firearms
J. Goldberg affirms a trial court’s evidentiary rulings against a defendant ultimately convicted of auto theft and being a probation violator, rejecting the defendant’s assertion the trial justice erred by failing to suppress certain evidence collected as a result of a warrantless search that police homicide detectives conducted of his real-time cell-site location information (CSLI). The trial justice “clearly erred” in determining how much time it would have taken the detectives to obtain a warrant for defendant’s real-time CSLI, “we conclude that there was a ‘compelling necessity for immediate action’ that would not brook the delay of obtaining a warrant.” Based on additional evidence, any error in denying defendant’s request to suppress his CSLI was “harmless beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Goldberg, Filed On: June 20, 2023, Case #: 2019-388, Categories: Constitution, Murder, Search
J. Robinson affirms a lower court ruling dismissing medical malpractice claims against a hospital by a patient who claims a surgeon improperly placed hardware in his spine. The patient failed to provide expert testimony evidencing any causal link between the surgeon’s alleged breach of the standard of care and the patient’s alleged injuries. Affirmed.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Robinson, Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: No. 22-235 , Categories: Evidence, Health Care, Medical Malpractice
J. Robinson vacates a lower court ruling in favor of Verizon New England, dismissing a consumer’s fraud and contract claims that the phone company should not have continued charging him until 2021 for a burglar alarm linking his residence to the Barrington Police station, after the station was demolished some time in the 2000s. Conflicting statements on when exactly the service line terminated and when the station was demolished reflect genuinely disputed issues of material fact. Vacated.
Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court, Judge: Robinson, Filed On: June 13, 2023, Case #: 2022-32-A, Categories: Communications, Evidence, Contract