12 results for 'judge:"Wooton "'.
[Consolidated.] J. Wooton affirms in part, and reverses in part the lower court's orders granting the university's motion for summary judgment in the two former campus police officers' suits alleging retaliatory discharge when the university terminated their employment after they both complained of a special arrangement between it and a county magistrate to automatically dispose of criminal charges involving student athletes by sentencing them to community service, and one for filing a complaint with the West Virginia Ethics Commission against a fellow officer for his personal use of campus police vehicle. The judge erred in finding the former officers failed to establish a prima facie case of retaliation since their complaints of wrongdoing, while not in close proximity to the time of their termination, were done in "good faith" and to the "appropriate authority" and could weigh in favor to a jury that the university's stated reasons for their termination were pretextual.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 22-609, Categories: Education, Employment, Whistleblowers
J. Wooton accepts the recommendation of the Judicial Hearing Board to publicly reprimand and impose other sanctions on the Morgan County family law judge for her role in drafting a letter on behalf of the West Virginia Family Law Judicial Association in support of a now-former family law judge facing disciplinary action in 2020. Despite her lack of candor in admitting any knowledge of the letter, the court finds the recommended discipline appropriate since her role in editing it "did not arise from performance of her judicial duties and related more to personal matters than public ones."
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton , Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 22-862, Categories: Government, Judiciary, Sanctions
J. Wooton reverses the lower court's Dec. 1 order granting the public library's and parks and recreation district's writ of mandamus compelling the Board to disburse funds withheld from fiscal years 2024 and 2025 from a 2018 excess levy. Since all other county boards of education can seek approval of excess levies without restrictions, the court finds the obligations to fund the library and district in the 1967 and 2011 legislative special acts violates the equal protection clause of the West Virginia Constitution. Reversed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton , Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 23-691, Categories: Education, Government, Tax
J. Wooton reverses in part the lower court's dismissal of the mother's wrongful death suit accusing first responders of failing to provide her instructions on how to provide CPR, and of not dispatching an ambulance to her home after she found her five-week old son unresponsive. Though the mother missed the general two-year statute of limitations to file the wrongful death suit, it could still survive under the minority tolling provision of the Government Tort Claims and Insurance Reform Act or the discovery rule. Reversed in part.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: November 8, 2023, Case #: 22-202, Categories: Government, Wrongful Death, Discovery
[Consolidated.] J. Wooton dismisses the Nicholas County mother's appeal of the lower court's order denying her motion for post-termination visitation of her infant daughter and affirms the court's order terminating the father's parental rights. Since there are still issues not yet ripe for adjudication, the court lacks subject-matter jurisdiction to hear the mother's appeal. Based on the judge's "very detailed and well-supported" dispositional order, there is no likelihood the conditions the father created that led to his daughter's abuse and neglect could be substantially corrected. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: November 8, 2023, Case #: 22-733, Categories: Family Law, Government
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J. Wooton reverses the lower court's order reversing the Office of Administrative Hearings' decision revoking the motorist's drivers license for five years for driving under the influence. The trial judge erred by focusing on two chemical breath tests that failed to show the presence of any alcohol or drugs in the motorist's system over the preponderance of the evidence offered by responding law enforcement officers that the motorist displayed signs of impairment and failed two field sobriety tests. Reversed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: November 6, 2023, Case #: 22-0223, Categories: Administrative Law, Government, Transportation
J. Wooton reverses the lower court's order denying a Wayne County couple's petition to adopt their 11-year-old daughter, who has lived with her biological mother and step-father from when she was two-months old, based on the finding that the biological father had not abandoned the child. Not only did the biological father have the step-father's telephone number for the past 10 years and spoke with both him and the mother 10 days prior to the adoption hearing, but also "the record clearly shows that despite clearly having the ability to communicate with R.L., [he] simply opted not to do so for more than two and-a-half years." Reversed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: November 3, 2023, Case #: 21-0766, Categories: Evidence, Family Law
J. Wooton affirms the lower court's orders granting summary judgment to the state agency and Board of Osteopathy in the osteopath's suit seeking money damages. The osteopath alleged the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health breached its duty of confidentiality and defamed him by issuing a press release claiming his clinic used unsafe injection practices, while he alleged the West Virginia Board of Osteopathy failed to provide him a hearing within 15 days of its order suspending his license related to the Bureau's allegations. The osteopath's claims from his 2016 suit are barred by res judicata since they "could have been asserted and litigated" in a 2014 injunction he filed seeking a court order to halt the Board's suspension of his license. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: October 26, 2023, Case #: 21-0902, Categories: Government, Health Care, Due Process
J. Wooton dismisses the Board���s appeal of two lower court orders ��� the latter denying its motion for summary judgment ��� in the suit brought by the parents of George Washington High School student claiming school administrators breached their duty to protect her from a fellow student how repeatedly groped her. Since the judge did not rule on any of the immunity issues, the court finds the Board cannot identify any ���error��� the court may grant relief.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: September 29, 2023, Case #: 22-0028, Categories: Education, Government, Negligence
J. Wooton affirms the lower court's March 3, 2021, order memorializing the jury's award to a customer's breach of contract suit against the bank for its failure in 2018 to redeem an unendorsed money market certificate of deposit originally purchased by her father in 1980 at a predecessor bank. The court finds no error in the jury's decision to deem the existence of a contract by weighing in favor of the customer's proof of the original CD against the bank's claim the account was closed in 2000 following the original bank's acquisition. Affirmed.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton , Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: 21-0913, Categories: Jury, Banking / Lending, Contract
J. Wooton grants the tribe���s writ prohibiting the lower court���s Sept. 30 order denying the tribe���s motion to transfer an abuse and neglect proceeding to its tribal court after a paternity test determined one if its members is the father of the child currently in foster care. The court finds the judge erred in relying on the ���existing Indian family��� exception to the Indian Child Welfare Act which applies only to a child removed from its custodial or existing Indian family or alternatively to the ���good cause��� exception under federal law due to the tribe���s late entry into the proceeding.
Court: West Virginia Supreme Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wooton, Filed On: June 12, 2023, Case #: 22-787, Categories: Government, Native Americans, Juvenile Law
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