68 results for 'court:"West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals"'.
J. Walker affirms in part and reverses in part the lower court’s order denying the correctional agency and two officers’ motion to dismiss the former inmate’s civil suit claiming the state violated the Prison Rape Elimination Act when the officers passed word to other inmates that plaintiff was a sex offender, and later allowed those inmates to enter his cell, where they sodomized him with a broom stick, forced him to eat feces and drink urine and threatened to kill him. Since they are discretionary functions, the court finds the agency is entitled to qualified immunity on the former inmate’s negligent training and supervision claim, as he has failed to demonstrate how the agency violated a clearly established statutory or constitutional right in training or supervising the officers.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Walker, Filed On: June 9, 2023, Case #: 21-0905, Categories: Civil Rights, Government, Assault
J. Armstead reverses the lower court’s order granting the two public school teachers’ preliminary injunction keeping the governor from authorizing the West Virginia Professional Charter School Board from creating any public charter schools without a majority vote of the citizens in the county or counties where the school would be located. The court finds the teachers lack standing to seek the injunction since the governor does not have the ability to authorize charter schools. Reversed and remanded.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Armstead , Filed On: June 8, 2023, Case #: 22-0070, Categories: Education, Government, Injunction
J. Hutchison affirms the lower court’s order denying a Raleigh County couple’s motion to intervene in an abuse and neglect proceeding to adopt their niece, who was removed from her mother’s care after the mom tested positive for heroin. The judge committed no error in determining though the blood kin are suitable parents, the child’s best interests are served by her permanent placement with “fictive kin” — an adult 21 or older who is not a relative, but “who has an established, substantial relationship with the child.” Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Hutchison, Filed On: June 8, 2023, Case #: 22-0365, Categories: Family Law, Government, Juvenile Law
J. Hutchison denies the agency’s extraordinary writ seeking dismissal of wrongful death suit after the lower court denied its motion to dismiss the suit on the grounds the administratrix failed to file a certificate of merit under West Virginia Medical and Professional Liability Act. The court finds the judge committed no error in declining to dismiss, since the agency’s duty to the decedent inmate was “not that of health care provider to a patient, but of custodian to inmate to provide reasonable care and protection from reasonably foreseeable harm.” Writ denied.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Hutchison, Filed On: June 8, 2023, Case #: 22-777, Categories: Government, Wrongful Death, Prisoners' Rights
[Consolidated.] J. Walker vacates the lower court’s order terminating a Pennsylvania couple’s rights to their two adopted children and one biological child following an incident at a relative’s home where the mother became choked one of the adopted sons for singing a song. Though correct to assert temporary jurisdiction, the court finds the judge erred by failed to make a record of her communication with the Pennsylvania court declining jurisdiction prior proceeding to disposition and issuance of her order terminating the parent’s rights. Vacated and remanded with instructions.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Walker, Filed On: June 8, 2023, Case #: 22-0384, Categories: Family Law, Jurisdiction, Guardianship
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J. Armstead affirms the lower court’s termination of a mother’s parental and custodial rights to her infant daughter after determining she was not likely to “fully participate” in a post-dispositional improvement period due to her continued addiction to methamphetamine. The court finds despite testing positive for tuberculous which delayed the mother's admission into long-term rehabilitation, the daughter’s interests are not served by waiting months to determine if her mother can successfully complete a recovery program. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Armstead, Filed On: June 2, 2023, Case #: 22-0464, Categories: Family Law, Government
J. Armstead reverses the lower court’s order denying the financing company’s motion to compel arbitration after its customer filed a class-action counterclaim challenging the company’s practices in their suit to collect the unpaid balance on a retail installment contract for a Lincoln MKX. Based on the customer’s own admission, the retail installment contract is authentic, the court finds the judge erred when he determined the financing company “failed to meet this light evidentiary burden.” Remanded.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Armstead, Filed On: May 30, 2023, Case #: 22-0007, Categories: Arbitration, Debt Collection, Class Action
J. Wooton affirms the lower court’s decision granting the inmate partial relief on his habeas petition, ordering he be given credit for time served while on home confinement following his 2011 conviction for the 2008 assault and robbery of a Huntington attorney, but denying him relief on the four other grounds, including ineffective assistance of counsel. The court finds the habeas judge did not err in denying relief on the grounds of ineffective assistance of counsel since a potential argument of “diminished capacity” would have done more harm than good in light of unrefuted evidence presented at trial.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: May 15, 2023, Case #: 21-0536, Categories: Habeas, Robbery, Assault