15 results for 'judge:"Bunn"'.
J. Bunn grants as moulded the widow's writ prohibiting enforcement of the lower court's order appointing a special commissioner to obtain and submit evidence regarding the administration of her late husband's estate and sell the estate’s property. The trial judge exceeded his authority following an evidentiary hearing when he granted the step-children's motion for summary judgment, accepted the special commissioner's report and ordered him to sell any of the estate's property despite ambiguity as to its valuation and ownership.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 22-853, Categories: Civil Procedure, Wills / Probate
J. Bunn affirms the lower court's order dismissing the cable splicing technician's wrongful discharge suit after reporting to his supervisors suspected acts of sabotage of the telecommunication company's equipment that, due to disruption of services, constitutes a criminal offense under state law. The judge did not err in determining the technician failed to make a claim of how the reporting of his co-workers' wrongdoing violated a substantial public policy. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: 20-0040, Categories: Communications, Employment Retaliation
J. Bunn reverses the lower court's order denying defendant's motion to suppress a firearm seized at his T-shirt shop at his mother's home that became the centerpiece of his January 2022 conditional guilty plea to felony possession of a firearm by a prohibited person. The judge erred in denying the motion since the deputies who responded to the residence following a 911 call regarding a dispute between the man and a neighbor had no reason to suspect a firearm was in the house or that it would be a harm to them, and defendant's generalized "agitation" about their presence is not sufficient enough to support a warrantless search. Reversed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: 22-211, Categories: Firearms, Search
[Consolidated] J. Bunn vacates the lower court's order separately terminating the Wyoming County father's and mother's parental rights to their two children. It was error to adjudicate the father and mother as neglectful parents of their then-8-month-old daughter based on their silence on how they may have harmed her after an emergency room physician reported suspected bruising on her forehead when the mother sought treatment for her high fever. Also, nothing supports the judge's adjudication of the parents of abusing or neglecting their newborn son since he was removed from their custody by emergency order immediately following his birth. Vacated.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: 22-602, Categories: Evidence, Family Law, Government
J. Bunn grants the agency's writ seeking prohibition of the former nurse's Section 1983 claim against it and one of its investigator's moving forward after the lower court denied their motion to dismiss. The judge erred in determining the agency is vicariously liable for the acts or omissions of its employees. And while the agency and its investigator are not entitled to prosecutorial immunity, the judge failed to determine if the investigator was acting within the scope of his employment to determine if the agency is entitled to qualified immunity from vicarious liability on the nurse's malicious prosecution claim. Reversed in part.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: 22-779, Categories: Civil Rights, Government, Health Care
Want access to unlimited case records and advanced research tools? Create your free CasePortal account now. No credit card required to register.
Try CasePortal for Free
J. Bunn affirms the lower court's order revoking the probationer's supervised release from a 2018 sexual assault conviction, and sentencing him to two years imprisonment after he tested positive for cocaine and was charged with conspiracy to deliver crack cocaine following a traffic stop in November 2021. The trial judge did not abuse her discretion by conducting a hearing on the petition for revocation and making her own findings instead of empaneling a jury. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: November 7, 2023, Case #: 22-0197, Categories: Drug Offender, Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Bunn affirms the lower court's order sentencing the Mercer County defendant to an indeterminate term of 10-25 years in prison after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting his then-11-year-old half-sister in 2019 while he was still 17-years old. Since defendant's attorney did not address it at any of the dispositional hearings prior to sentencing and defendant failed to complete a sex offender program to determine his fitness for supervised probation, the trial judge committed no error by failing to discuss mitigating circumstances in the statute before imposing the sentence. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: October 30, 2023, Case #: 21-0904, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Bunn vacates the portion of the lower court's order sentencing defendant to a term of one to three years' incarceration for possession of pseudoephedrine in an altered state as part of a conditional plea agreement. The evidence provided by the prosecution failed to not only show the accused's intent to possess pseudoephedrine in an altered state, but also any acts toward committing the crime. Vacated.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: October 16, 2023, Case #: 22-0023, Categories: Drug Offender, Sentencing
J. Bunn reverses the lower court's April 9, 2021, order affirming the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicle's Office of Administrative Hearing's order revoking the Charleston man's driver's license for driving under the influence of a controlled substance. In addition to a negative blood test, the court finds OAH could not establish by a preponderance of the evidence the man was under the influence of any drugs when a Charleston police officer in the early morning of April 13, 2019, detained the man after observing him exiting his car that was parked diagonally across several spaces and while it was running, and then enter a convenience store and leave without making a purchase. Reversed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: 21-0371, Categories: Government, Transportation, Vehicle
J. Bunn affirms the lower court's March 20, 2020, and Sept. 15, 2021, orders protecting from discovery the specialty hospital employee's report on the condition of the room on Jan. 7, 2019, when the guest, during a visit to his girlfriend who was a patient, broke his femur after getting out of a recliner. The court finds no error in either the judge's order shielding the employee's report under the peer review privilege or in not directly answering the jury's questions about the potential existence of the report prior to rendering a verdict in the hospital’s favor. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: 21-0830, Categories: Health Care, Tort, Discovery
J. Bunn reverses the lower court's Nov. 19, 2021, order granting the joint motion of the mineral wool manufacturing company, one if its employees and three former members of the Jefferson County Development Authority to settle a Jefferson County activist's defamation suit, finding the judge erred by not holding an evidentiary hearing on the motion, but instead accepting the emails exchanged between the parties as proof of a binding agreement. Reversed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 21-1015, Categories: Environment, Government, Settlements
J. Bunn affirms the lower court's order entered Aug. 12, 2021, finding the West Virginia Division of Motor Vehicle's Office of Administrative Hearings properly reinstated both the Berkeley County man's personal and commercial driver's licenses. The court finds DMV could not establish by a preponderance of the evidence he drove a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol when he crashed his car into a tree in neighboring Jefferson County in the early morning of July 17, 2017, and left the scene. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 21-0726, Categories: Government, Transportation, Vehicle
J. Bunn grants the hospital’s writ prohibiting enforcement of the lower court’s order denying the hospital’s motion to dismiss a Mingo County couple’s claims of negligence on the grounds the court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction because the couple failed to a file the required pre-suit certificate of merit under the West Virginia Medical and Professional Liability Act. The court finds the Act applies since not only did the hospital obtain the fetal remains of the couple's stillborn baby during the mother's hospitalization, but also the handling and transfer of the remains to the funeral home “was an act or service performed or furnished by a health care provider.”
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 22-0439, Categories: Health Care, Negligence
J. Bunn, in response to the Monongalia County Circuit Court’s certified question as to whether a jury’s failure to unanimously decide the recommendation of mercy allows the court to impose the life sentence required for all first-degree murder convictions, answers “No.” The court holds in keeping with trial phase in a first-degree murder case a jury must reach a unanimous verdict and if it can’t, the court must declare a mistrial and empanel a new jury to determine mercy.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 21-0554, Categories: Jury, Murder, Sentencing
J. Bunn reveres Raleigh County man’s 2021 conviction for four felony charges stemming from a fatality that occurred during a bogus drug transaction. The lower court committed reversible error in its refusal to accept his stipulation at trial to his 2017 conviction for voluntary manslaughter which ultimately prejudiced him with the jury by permitting the state to admit evidence detailing his prior, similar offense.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bunn, Filed On: June 9, 2023, Case #: 21-0738, Categories: Firearms, Murder, Manslaughter