196 results for 'filedAt:"2023-12-20"'.
J. Stegner finds that the trial court must revisit a property owner's claim that a city is liable for damage caused to its property when an excavator damaged the city's sewage lateral. The Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Act does not preclude standing for end users to bring claims against the city as an underground facility owner. A jury must determine if the city violated the duty created by the Act and is liable for negligence per se, or whether the city had a common law duty and is liable for negligence. Also, it was premature to grant the city discretionary function immunity before resolving the fact questions related to duty. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 49562, Categories: Property, Immunity, Negligence
Per curiam, the Supreme Court of Ohio finds the Cedar Point Police Department, created for and employed exclusively by a theme park, is required to respond to public records requests filed by news organizations. While it was not created by a state or local government, it serves as the functional equivalent of a public office through its law enforcement activity. Therefore, the news entities in this case are entitled to a limited writ of mandamus to compel production of documents related to incidents of alleged sexual abuse at the park's housing facilities, as well as reports related to an injury that occurred near one of the park's rollercoasters, but they will not be awarded attorney fees or statutory damages.
Court: Ohio Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-4593, Categories: Public Record, Attorney Fees
J. McCafferty grants a former special education teacher’s first motion to amend her complaint, while denying her other motions and granting education officials’ motions to dismiss. The former teacher fails to state a plausible claim of civil conspiracy but she does have the opportunity to amend her complaint, with the caveat that her addendum must have specific factual allegations.
Court: USDC New Hampshire, Judge: McCafferty, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv391, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Education, Employment, First Amendment
J. Ortega finds the trial court properly excluded evidence impeaching the victim. “Defendant’s proposed cross-examination of the victim was not relevant impeachment evidence because it would not have contradicted her testimony.” Affirmed.
Court: Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge: Ortega, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: A176889, Categories: Evidence, Robbery
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J. Kelly finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant on drug charges. Defendant raises two issues on appeal, that testimony from a narcotics detective should have been tossed and that a mistrial should have been declared when a robocall inadvertently played during trial. The testimony was relevant to the trial and did not infringe on defendant's trial rights, and the lower court properly handled the accidental call by immediately reminding the jury to ignore it. Affirmed.
Court: 10th Circuit, Judge: Kelly, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 22-1167, Categories: Drug Offender, Fair Trial
J. Cain denies a request by an insurer to dismiss bad faith claims by a small rural church against the self-described “leading insurer of religious organizations of all denominations.” The litigants have shown the insurer adjuster failed to inspect the roof or all buildings on the property after Hurricane Laura hit the Lake Charles area in 2020, despite being unable to confirm the source of water staining on ceiling tiles.
Court: USDC Western District of Louisiana , Judge: Cain, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv3551, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Settlements, Damages
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court improperly lifted a stay of litigation pending arbitration in class wage claims brought against a Manhattan strip club because arbitration had not occurred to affect the stay since the employer refused to pay the high filing fee, citing that the license agreement between the club and its entertainers provided equal sharing of arbitration costs.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 22-2959, Categories: Arbitration, Employment
J. Powers finds the trial court properly convicted defendant of 8 counts of first-degree murder after a retrial following several lengthy appellate processes. “The procedure followed here by the trial court for submitting enhancement facts to the jury during sentencing and the court’s imposition of an enhanced sentence based on those facts comport with both the statutes…and with the requirements of Apprendi and Blakely.” Affirmed.
Court: Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge: Powers, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: A173046, Categories: Murder, Sentencing
Per curiam, the appellate division finds that the lower court improperly denied the instructor's motion to dismiss a breach of contract action stemming from a grading dispute. The instructor is a Canadian citizen residing in Illinois and did not conduct business in New York by conducting virtual classes attended by a New York resident. Reversed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 06513, Categories: Jurisdiction, Contract
J. Watson declines to dismiss claims brought by parents against the government and its hospital for negligence during the labor and delivery of their daughter, resulting in injury to the child. The parents' claims are timely even though the claims were brought more than two years after the birth. Hospital staff did not inform the parents at the time of the birth that a caesarian delivery should have been performed and only told the parents that the birth was complicated by the child's size and that she would fully recover, so accrual of the claim did not begin until the child was older and the parents noticed the effect of the injuries.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Watson, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv300, NOS: Personal Injury - Medical Malpractice - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Government, Medical Malpractice
J. Greer finds that the lower court properly held that a motel was not responsible for injuries a guest sustained after being verbally and physically assaulted by other guests because the guest could not prove the assault took place, and the motel could not have foreseen such had it occurred. Affirmed.
Court: Iowa Court Of Appeals, Judge: Greer, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 22-1999, Categories: Negligence
J. Livingston finds that the district court properly dismissed civil rights claims in which plaintiff, a transgender woman who had been sentenced for crimes committed as a man, contends she had been sexually assaulted by a Connecticut prison guard. Plaintiff sought equitable tolling due to the trauma of the assaults and her then-undisclosed gender dysphoria, but her testimony was found to constitute "rationalizations" designed to buttress tolling. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Livingston, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 22-302, Categories: Civil Procedure, Lgbtq, Prisoners' Rights
J. Hull finds that the district court properly ruled in favor of the insurer in a declaratory judgment action arising after the insurer denied a damages claim for two residential homes destroyed by a wildfire while under construction. The district court also ruled in favor of the insurer on the insured’s breach of contract counterclaim. The district court correctly found that the policy did not cover the construction of the homes because they were not related to the insured’s underground utility work or site development work. Affirmed.
Court: 11th Circuit, Judge: Hull, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 22-13547, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Duffy finds the trial court erroneously denied defendant's motion for reconsideration of his sentence on the grounds it lacked jurisdiction over the filing. The 90-day deadline for the reconsideration motion began to run on the date the sentencing judgment was entered, not the date it was orally imposed by the court. Additionally, defendant's failure to include evidence not available at the time of his original sentencing was not fatal to the motion because state law imposes no such requirement, and while it may affect the validity of defendant's motion, it did not preclude the court from considering the merits of his claims. Reversed.
Court: New Mexico Court of Appeals, Judge: Duffy, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: A-1-CA-37868, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Sentencing, Jurisdiction
J. Molaison finds that the trial court properly found for a parish on a truck driver's claim that his truck flipped over due to potholes on a road. The parish presented evidence that the potholes are located within the US Highway 90 right-of-way, and the truck driver did not show that the parish had control over that area. However, the trial court should not have found for the landfill company that is located on US Highway 90 because the truck driver presented evidence that the company repaired potholes on and around the accident site. Affirmed in part.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Molaison, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 23-CA-21, Categories: Evidence, Property
J. Powers finds the juvenile court properly denied a father’s motion to dismiss dependency jurisdiction over his six-year-old child. The court found “that the conditions and circumstances relating to both sex abuse and substance abuse continued to pose a current threat of serious loss or injury to [the child] that is reasonably likely to be realized.” Affirmed.
Court: Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge: Powers, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: A181150, Categories: Family Law
J. Joseph denies the school district and superintendent's motion to dismiss a lawsuit from a teacher claiming she was fired for objecting in her personal capacity to elementary school students being prohibited from singing "Rainbowland" by Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton at a school concert because of a school board policy banning "controversial issues" in the classroom. The teacher has sufficiently alleged her First Amendment retaliation claims against both the district and the superintendent to survive the motion to dismiss, and the superintendent is not entitled to qualified immunity at this time.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Wisconsin, Judge: Joseph, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv1169, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, First Amendment
J. Geraci dismisses claims contending police officers used "intimidating tactics" to serve a quarantine order against a broadcaster and her child during the Covid-19 pandemic because the amended complaint does not plausibly allege the existence of a municipal policy that would have led to misconduct, and evidence does not indicate the broadcaster's speech had been chilled due to the officers' conduct. Meanwhile, nothing indicates defendants conspired to interfere with her civil rights.
Court: USDC Western District of New York, Judge: Geraci , Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 6:23cv6201, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Covid-19
Per curiam, the appellate division finds that the lower court properly denied the former employee's request that a substantiated report of abuse and neglect be sealed. The allegations stated that the employee struck a disabled client with a shovel and/or sprayed disinfectant into his eyes while attempting to restrain him because he had become physically violent. Hearsay evidence can be the basis of an administrative determination. Affirmed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 06524, Categories: Administrative Law, Employment
J. Boardman denies a subcontractor’s motion to dismiss a surety’s third-party complaint in this Miller Act claim for contractual indemnification as unripe. Under the indemnification agreement liability cannot be transferred to subcontractor to enforce the Miller Act and the prevention doctrine is considered a non sequitur. The court cannot determine at this stage if the claims in fact are covered by the indemnification agreements.
Court: USDC Maryland, Judge: Boardman, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 8:22cv2789, NOS: Miller Act - Contract, Categories: Construction, Indemnification, Contract
J. Whitney denies a health care system’s motion to dismiss medical malpractice claims brought by a patient and his wife after a nurse administered a medication that caused the patient to suffer a second stroke. The patient and his wife’s amended complaint does satisfy federal rules, so the system is denied its motion. Also, the system is only partially entitled to summary judgment. While it correctly asserts that it was in no way responsible for the treatment given the patient, questions as to the patient’s negligent hiring and supervision claim and his wife’s loss of consortium claim still stand due to remaining disputes of material facts.
Court: USDC Western District of North Carolina, Judge: Whitney, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv317, NOS: Personal Injury - Medical Malpractice - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Health Care, Negligence, Medical Malpractice
J. Johnson finds that the trial court properly imposed a final default judgment quieting a tax title in favor of a tax sale purchaser. In this case, the tax title purchaser presented a certified copy of the tax sale certificate for the property, and the property owner's name was not listed on the tax
sale certificate. The property owner did not take any action to annul the tax sale. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 23-CA-155, Categories: Evidence, Property