142 results for 'judge:"Miller"'.
J. Miller finds the trial court properly convicted defendant of criminal mischief following a non-jury trial over a road rage incident. Defendant's challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction fail, as the record shows defendant intentionally swung a golf club at another motorist's car three times after the motorist retreated. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 22-2140, Categories: Evidence
J. Miller-Lerman finds the county court properly granted summary judgment against the daughter and heir. The heir from the late-mother’s trust provision bequeathing $5 million to each of her children says she has not received the full amount. Gifts the daughter had received during her mother's lifetime were not intended to be separate from the "countable assets" bequests made in the trust instruments, and they reduce the amount received under the provision. Affirmed.
Court: Nebraska Supreme Court, Judge: Miller-Lerman, Filed On: May 3, 2024, Case #: S-23-354, Categories: Trusts, Wills / Probate
J. Miller finds that the trial court properly concluded that a doctor did not have a right to a hearing before his application for privileges at two hospitals was denied. The doctor had a history of unprofessional behavior at other hospitals and was the subject of a disciplinary order and public reprimand by the state medical board. The hospitals' agreement with the doctor's medical group, which established the eligibility requirements, disallowed staff privileges for doctors with such histories, and the hospitals have quasi-legislative authority to establish the requirements. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: A166748, Categories: Employment, Due Process, Contract
J. Miller finds the trial court properly granted the maternal grandmother's motion for permanent custody and determined the father had abandoned the child. Not only had he failed to visit the child while the mother was still alive, the mother had been granted a protection order against the father, while the grandmother also agreed to allow limited visitation, which prevented a full termination of his rights. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 22, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-1535, Categories: Evidence, Family Law
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J. Miller finds the trial court properly ordered the marital home be sold as part of the couple's divorce. The wife failed to produce evidence she was able to refinance the property to remain there with the children, while there is also no requirement for a court to allow a party to keep the marital home. Meanwhile, although the husband used retirement funds prior to the parties' divorce, he did so to support himself, not as a way to intentionally harm the wife; therefore, the court properly denied the wife's motion to find he committed financial misconduct. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 22, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-1533, Categories: Evidence, Family Law
J. Miller-Lerman finds the workers compensation court improperly dismissed a nurse liaison's petition. The liaison, while working for the hospital, contracted Covid-19 and sought benefits for “occupational disease” arising in the course of employment. However, a genuine issue of fact remains. The court erroneously reasoned that, given the prevalence of Covid-19 at the time, the infection contracted at hospital facilities was a non-compensable "ordinary disease of life." Reversed.
Court: Nebraska Supreme Court, Judge: Miller-Lerman, Filed On: April 19, 2024, Case #: S-23-022, Categories: Health Care, Covid-19, Workers' Compensation
J. Miller finds that the lower court properly denied the insurer's motion to dismiss fraud claims based on its alleged sale of an unlawful workers' compensation insurance program based on a forum-selection clause. The forum selection clause of an illegal insurance policy is not enforceable, and New York companies cannot be forced to litigate in Nebraska to vindicate their rights. Affirmed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 02032, Categories: Fraud, Insurance, Jurisdiction
J. Miller finds the lower court improperly determined the amount of attorney fees to be awarded to an insurance company. USAA Insurance prevailed in litigating a personal injury protection case, and attorney fees were awarded, but the lower court found the attorneys were operating under a verbal flat rate agreement and reduced the fee judgment accordingly, and failed to award appellate fees in their entirety. The instant court finds no testimony presented that USAA worked under a flat rate agreement, and it is entitled to recover reasonable attorney fees. The matter is remanded to the lower court to determine and award reasonable fees, taxable costs and expert fees. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 2022-2032, Categories: Insurance, Attorney Fees, Contract
J. Miller finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of aggravated child molestation and child molestation. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions, including defendant's own admission to his wife that he had sex with one victim. The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion for a new trial. Defendant failed to vigorously assert his right to appeal and cannot show that he was prejudiced by the 20-year delay between his convictions and the resolution of his motion for a new trial. Three pro se filings made by defendant between 2005 and 2009 did not specifically claim that his due process rights were violated by the delay. Defendant did not first assert a due process violation until 2022. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 9, 2024, Case #: A24A0344, Categories: Sex Offender, Due Process, Child Victims
J. Miller finds defendant's attorney did not provide ineffective assistance of counsel when she suggested he take a plea deal. Although she told him the county of the trial court was predominantly white and that a jury could include biased members, such communications did not represent coercion or prevent defendant from making an informed decision about how to proceed. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 9, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-1334, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Assault, Plea
J. Miller finds the trial court erred by not granting Facebook's motion to dismiss a lawsuit from an ammunition manufacturer over damages it sustained when an impostor created a clone of the manufacturer's Facebook account and used it to conduct business as the manufacturer. The allegations in the lawsuit are not enough to establish specific jurisdiction in a Florida court over Facebook, whose parent company is a Delaware corporation headquartered in California, in part because there is no tort claim alleged against Facebook. The trial court's order is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 3, 2024, Case #: 23-0948, Categories: Tort, Jurisdiction
J. Miller finds the trial court improperly granted summary judgment to the president of the laborer's corporate employer in the laborer's lawsuit claiming the president is responsible for failing to provide proper safety equipment to the laborer, causing him to fall while securing a tarp to a second-story roof. In part because there is evidence in the record showing the president personally gave the order to apply the tarp to the roof the laborer was working on, the laborer has at least sufficiently pleaded his claim such that summary judgment should not have been granted. The case is remanded for further proceedings. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 3, 2024, Case #: 23-0175, Categories: Construction, Negligence
J. Miller finds that the trial court properly concluded the son lacked standing to challenge the benefits of homestead granted to the daughter in a probate dispute over the deceased father's estate, in part because the son was not a beneficiary under the disputed will. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: March 27, 2024, Case #: 23-0975, Categories: Wills / Probate
J. Miller finds that because the right to confrontation does not apply to a juvenile defendant's amenability hearing, the juvenile court properly admitted statements made by defendant's co-delinquents without any cross-examination during its determination of whether to transfer the case to adult court. Meanwhile, the juvenile court's thorough analysis of all nine amenability factors, seven of which favored a transfer to adult court, satisfied due process and allowed it to transfer the case. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-1108, Categories: Confrontation, Juvenile Law, Due Process
J. Miller finds the trial court did not err in its decision authorizing the disbursement of proceeds from the partition and sale of two condo units the ex-boyfriend and ex-girlfriend shared during their relationship. The trial court was not mandated by statutes to handle the sale proceeds in any other way than the way it handled them, that is by placing certain fees due to the ex-girlfriend in trust and dispersing the ex-boyfriend his remaining share. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 23-1095, Categories: Property, Contract
J. Miller finds that the district court properly entered summary judgment for the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) in an action brought by two investor-owned utilities who allege that they are entitled to compensation for having to relocate their equipment from public streets to allow for the construction of a streetcar line. The utilities companies were not entitled to compensation under the takings clause because they did not have a property interest under California law in maintaining their facilities at their specific locations in the face of OCTA’s efforts to construct a streetcar line. Affirmed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Miller , Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: 22-55498, Categories: Municipal Law, Property
J. Miller finds the trial court properly ordered defendant to be civilly committed as a sexually violent predator, as none of the cases defendant cites trumps the fact that he was found to have violated multiple aspects of his plea agreement that conditionally suspended civil commitment. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: 22-2047, Categories: Sex Offender, Commitment
J. Miller finds the trial court did not violate defendant's confrontation rights when it admitted the victim's testimony from a pretrial hearing during defendant's case on assault and abduction charges. Although the victim was unable to testify at trial, defendant thoroughly cross-examined him during the hearing. Meanwhile, the trial court properly denied defendant's motion to admit evidence he was cleared of a false accusation of assault against the same victim because the victim did not make the accusation and, therefore, defendant could not impeach his testimony. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-886, Categories: Confrontation, Evidence, Assault
J. Miller finds that the trial court improperly awarded $492,945 to the former university football coach who sued after he was terminated for violating NCAA recruiting rules when he visited with a prospect in person during a Covid-19 "dead period" and gave the student LSU gear. There was no requirement in the employment agreement that a final decision by the NCAA was a prerequisite for finding cause existed for the coach's termination. Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: 2023CA0127, Categories: Education, Employment, Covid-19
J. Miller finds that the trial court properly ruled in favor of the amusement park in a negligence action brought by the guest arising from injuries she suffered while exiting a ride. The trial court did not commit any error in excluding portions of the guest's affidavit testimony. The trial court was clear enough in denoting which portions of the guest's affidavit testimony contradicted her deposition testimony. The contradictions included the guest's recollections as to how many park employees were at the ride and whether the ride basket rose as she exited. The guest failed to offer an explanation for the contradictory testimony. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: A23A1431, Categories: Negligence
J. Miller finds that the trial court improperly awarded $110,000 in loss of use damages to a homeowner in a negligence, fraud and breach of contract action against a specialty window seller. The homeowner alleges that her decks were demolished, her sunroom was not completed and the windows were not delivered. The trial court incorrectly calculated the damages. However, the trial court otherwise ruled properly in favor of the homeowner. There was sufficient evidence to allow the trial court to exercise personal jurisdiction over the window seller, including evidence showing that the seller transacted business in Georgia through its retention of an Atlanta-area agent. Reversed in part.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: March 1, 2024, Case #: A23A1262, Categories: Damages, Contract
J. Miller finds that the trial court improperly ruled in favor of the disability support coordination agency and the employee in a wrongful death and negligence action brought by the mother arising from her developmentally disabled daughter's death from aspiration pneumonia. Genuine issues of fact exist as to the mother's negligence claims. There are questions of fact as to whether the employee's failure to observe and correct deficiencies in the care home's records pertaining to the use and administration of thickener in the daughter's liquids proximately caused her death. Issues of fact also exist as to whether the agency breached a duty of care to the daughter. Reversed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: February 26, 2024, Case #: A23A1609, Categories: Negligence, Wrongful Death
J. Miller finds that defendant was properly convicted of counts including second degree murder and first degree feticide for a drive-by shooting that killed a woman and her unborn child. Defendant's motion for mistrial was correctly denied since he was not prejudiced by a sergeant's testimony about the contents of surveillance video that was inadvertently destroyed. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 2023KA0361, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Jury, Murder
J. Miller finds the trial court properly adjudicated defendant delinquent in his battery case and sentenced him to one year of supervision by the Department of Juvenile Justice. The trial court did not err by admitting into evidence surveillance video of defendant punching another resident at the group home where they lived, as a group home employee and a police officer acting as witnesses authenticated the video and vouched for what it depicted. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 22-1697, Categories: Evidence, Juvenile Law, Battery
J. Miller finds that the trial court properly ruled that it was in the child's best interest to return to his home country of Guatemala in an order adjudicating the child dependent. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that reunification with the child's mother was viable. There is no evidence that the child or his family were personally targeted or harmed by the gangs and crime in Guatemala or that his mother failed to protect him from harm. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: A23A1764, Categories: Family Law, Immigration
J. Miller finds that despite defendant's claim he did not assault the victim to steal her phone, the state was not required to prove his mental state to convict him of robbery. Rather, it was required to prove he threatened or inflicted serious physical harm on the victim and, therefore, his conviction was supported by sufficient evidence because he took the phone immediately after he punched and dragged the victim. Meanwhile, the failure by defendant's attorney to object to potential hearsay testimony from a detective about inconsistencies in the victim's story did not prejudice defendant or rise to the level of ineffective assistance of counsel. The victim's testimony alone was sufficient to convict defendant of all three offenses. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Miller, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-629, Categories: Evidence, Ineffective Assistance, Robbery