21 results for 'judge:"Hodge"'.
J. Hodge finds that the trial court properly held that defendants possess a valid easement for vehicle access to a property because the easement had been created prior to their ownership with the proper authority. Affirmed.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: April 23, 2024, Case #: 2023-0015, Categories: Property
J. Hodge finds the former lawmaker and the taxpayer's lawsuit against the Virgin Islands Legislature and its president over the lawmaker's expulsion from the Legislature after an investigation into his alleged sexual harassment of a female employee must be dismissed. The "speech or debate clause" of the Revised Organic Act bars all claims against the president on immunity grounds, as well as the claim for money damages against the Legislature due to that body's sovereign immunity. Remaining claims against the Legislature in the lawsuit not barred on those immunity grounds must be dismissed because they are non-justiciable, as allowing them to proceed would violate the Legislature's authority to "administer its own affairs as a co-equal branch of government," including with regard to actions disciplining or expelling its members.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 2024 VI 13, Categories: Constitution, Government
J. Hodge finds the superior court improperly reversed a lower court's decision in the tenant and landlord's dispute over a commercial lease ordering restitution to the landlord and the release to her of rent money held in escrow. The superior court incorrectly dismissed the landlord's lawsuit on subject-matter jurisdiction grounds, in part because the relevant Virgin Island statutes, including the one relating to "forcible entry and detainer" actions to recover possession of a premises, do not prohibit inquiries into the validity or existence of lease agreements. The portion of the tenant's appeal relating to the restitution of the premises is now moot because he vacated the premises in 2021, but the portion of the superior court's order awarding escrowed rent money to the landlord is reversed and vacated. Reversed in part.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 2024 VI 12, Categories: Landlord Tenant, Jurisdiction, Contract
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J. Hodge finds the superior court erred in awarding summary judgment to the holding company in a lawsuit from a citizen who slipped and fell on the vehicle ramp at a property the holding company leased but had sub-leased to the owner of the construction company occupying the property when the citizen fell. The superior court incorrectly concluded the holding company had no legal duty to the citizen, as it is unclear in the record whether they legally "possessed" the property such that they could have entered it and performed maintenance, making it unclear whether they could be on the hook for premises liability. The superior court's order is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings. Reversed.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: January 18, 2024, Case #: 2024 VI 8, Categories: Tort, Premises Liability
J. Hodge finds the superior court partially erred in its rulings in a more than 15-year dispute between the restaurant owners and their landlords in part alleging breach of contract, fraud and defamation, including allegations that one of the landlords publicly smeared the owners after a disagreement over their lease in which the landlord said he did not like the direction the restaurant was heading and wanted it to operate more like a "white, middle-class restaurant." In part, the portions of the superior court's order vacating the jury's verdict for the owners on their defamation claims as to one of the landlords are vacated and those portions of the jury's verdict are reinstated; the portion of the lower court's order vacating damages awarded for breach of contract is reversed; and the portion setting aside the jury's awards on other defamation claims and punitive damages is affirmed. On remand the superior court is ordered to determine post-verdict pre-judgment interest the owners are owed. Affirmed in part.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 2024 VI 1, Categories: Damages, Defamation, Contract
J. Hodge finds the superior court partially erred in granting defendant's motion for bail modification with an order that lowered his bail from $1 million to $250,000 for offenses related to his alleged rape of a minor. The superior court, without being asked, improperly relied on allegations of defendant's violent and threatening nature in his court-appointed attorneys' motions to withdraw without giving defendant a right to be heard, so the bail modification order is reversed on that basis and the matter is remanded for defendant to have an opportunity to be heard. Defendant's motion for transfer to a different detention facility is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. Reversed in part.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: 2023 VI 16, Categories: Sex Offender, Bail
J. Hodge finds the superior court properly granted a preliminary injunction to the property owner in her lawsuit claiming her neighbor has been trespassing by cutting paths across her property to a nearby beach. Although the superior court did not conduct the necessary analysis to determine what elements the property owner needed to prove in order to show she was reasonably likely to succeed on the merits of her trespass claim, this error is "overlooked" in the interest of judicial efficiency. In conducting the analysis separately, it is determined the evidence "clearly supports" the superior court's findings, including that the property owner has a reasonable likelihood of success, she would suffer irreparable harm absent an injunction and the neighbor would not be irreparably harmed by an injunction. Affirmed.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: 2023 VI 14, Categories: Property, Injunction
J. Hodge finds a lower court improperly ruled in favor of a holding company on the tax authority's claims that its executive failed to properly pay income tax. The executive of the holding company argued that he was not subject to income tax after he acquired a securities option. However, the tax authority sufficiently showed in court that the executive is obligated to pay income tax based on his status as an employee. Reversed.
Court: Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: October 25, 2023, Case #: 2023UKSC37, Categories: Employment, Tax
J. Hodge finds the superior court erred in its decision ordering the former husband to pay his former wife support including $350,000 in attorney fees, $7,500 in monthly cash alimony and $5,000 credit card access per month pending the remainder of their divorce litigation. Seeing as how the divorce proceeding is in such a late stage, as the petition for divorce was filed in 2016, a divorce decree was entered in February 2022 and the former wife petitioned for alimony and fees pending litigation for the first time in March 2022, the superior court did not have authority to award the alimony and fees, in part because its decree did not explicitly retain jurisdiction permitting a future claim for spousal support. The superior court's order is reversed, and the case is remanded for it to consider only the division of marital assets. Reversed.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: October 13, 2023, Case #: 2023 VI 12, Categories: Family Law, Jurisdiction
J. Hodge grants an administrative assistant’s motion for default judgement in this case against her boss, who hired her to work out of his home office, then walked around naked and propositioned her for sex. An award of damages is appropriate based on the severity of evidence the assistant presented.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: October 5, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv3131, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Damages, Assault
J. Hodge finds the superior court improperly denied defendant's petition for a writ of habeas corpus arriving seven years after an amended judgment increased his sentence for second-degree murder from 10 years to 20 years, running consecutively with a separate 10-year sentence for voluntarily manslaughter. Defendant has made a case for ineffective assistance of counsel based on his lawyer's failure to respond to prosecutors' motion to increase defendant's sentence for around nine months before the motion was granted, and the superior court was wrong to determine there was no reasonable probability that the outcome of defendant's proceeding would have been different if defendant's lawyer had opposed the motion. Because the relief sought by the state to increase defendant's sentence also violates the Fifth Amendment's double jeopardy clause, defendant's habeas petition is granted, and the case is remanded to the superior court to vacate the order modifying his sentence and reinstate his original sentence.
Court: Virgin Islands Supreme Court, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: September 8, 2023, Case #: 2023 VI 10, Categories: Habeas, Ineffective Assistance, Double Jeopardy
J. Hodge grants the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s (PPA) motion to dismiss in this matter concerning parking violations. A citizen had outstanding parking violations and her vehicle was impounded. When she went to pay the tickets and fines to retrieve the vehicle, instead of being assessed the amount of violations pertaining to the vehicle, she was presented with a list of violations under her name totaling $3,705, which included violations by her mother, who shares the same name, going back decades. The citizen went through the process of attending an administrative hearing where they affirmed that she must pay the fines before retrieving the vehicle, but did not notify the citizen of the corrected amount of $1,063; her vehicle was subsequently sold at auction. While the court grants dismissal to the PPA, as it acted properly, as well as all individual defendants, it denies dismissal to the City of Philadelphia. The citizen sufficiently argued that the Bureau of Administrative Adjudication (BAA), as part of the City of Philadelphia, may have violated her constitutional right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Hodge, Filed On: June 27, 2023, Case #: 22-1155, NOS: Constitutionality of State Statutes - Other Suits, Categories: Constitution, Government, Municipal Law