106 results for 'court:"Idaho Supreme Court"'.
J. Moeller finds that the trial court improperly granted summary judgment to decedent's friend in a dispute over the disposition of a joint checking account. Differences between the testimony given by the friend and a bank employee who set up the joint account created credibility concerns and genuine issues of material fact about decedent's donative intent that cannot be resolved in summary judgment and require a trial. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 50039, Categories: Wills / Probate
J. Zahn finds that the district court was within its discretion to exclude evidence that the bicyclist who defendant struck with a vehicle was also under the influence, as that evidence did not constitute an intervening, superseding cause of the collision. The state was only required to show a causal connection between defendant's actions and the bicyclist's injuries to prove aggravated DUI. Also, the admission of defendant's blood alcohol content was supported by expert testimony about testing procedure, despite the lapsed certification of the officer who administered the test. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: May 1, 2024, Case #: 50701, Categories: Evidence, Dui, Experts
[Amended.] J. Meyer amends a previously published opinion to include the name of an additional attorney representing a neighbor in a dispute. The trial court properly ruled for a property owner who claimed his neighbor breached an agreement that settled their easement dispute. The neighbor refused to pay for an agreed-upon cattle guard and he placed a gate across an easement road, and then he failed to timely respond to the property owner's motion for summary judgment. However, the trial court erred in dismissing the neighbor's trespass claim on standing grounds. Also, an attorney fee award to the owner for pressing his summary judgment motion was proper but the owner was also entitled to fees for defending against the neighbor's motion for reconsideration. Vacated in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Meyer, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 49628, Categories: Property, Settlements, Attorney Fees
J. Moeller finds that the district court properly held that a Department of Water Resources enforcement action was not barred by a two-year limitations period. The period began to run when the department's director became aware that a landowner had not completed the streambank restoration required by a consent order. The landowner was involved in ongoing negotiations with the department over his compliance, so the director would have first known he did not plan to comply when he sought declaratory relief. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 50273, Categories: Environment, Water
J. Meyer holds that the trial court properly ruled for a property owner who claimed his neighbor breached an agreement that settled their easement dispute. The neighbor refused to pay for an agreed-upon cattle guard and he placed a gate across an easement road, and then he failed to timely respond to the property owner's motion for summary judgment. However, the trial court erred in dismissing the neighbor's trespass claim on standing grounds. Also, an attorney fee award to the owner for pressing his summary judgment motion was proper but the owner was also entitled to fees for defending against the neighbor's motion for reconsideration. Vacated in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Meyer, Filed On: April 17, 2024, Case #: 49628, Categories: Property, Settlements, Attorney Fees
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J. Brody finds that the district court properly rejected a challenge to recent legislation ending the acceptance of social security numbers and student identification cards at polls. While the challengers raised a constitutional issue sufficient for standing, the legislature has the authority to place qualifications and conditions on the right of suffrage and the new laws are reasonably related to preserving the integrity of the election process. The potential for additional burdens on some voters is not so great that the right of suffrage is annulled and the new laws' goal of creating uniformity does not violate equal protection rights. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 51227, Categories: Elections, Equal Protection
J. Zahn finds that the trial court properly set aside a transfer of real property from two Medicaid recipients to their grandchildren. The Department of Health and Welfare was authorized to seek reimbursement for Medicaid benefits paid and to set aside the transfer since the grandparents' estates did not receive adequate consideration for the property. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 50302-2022, Categories: Medicaid, Property, Wills / Probate
J. Brody finds the trial court properly excluded expert testimony from a trip-and-fall trial because the individual missed the disclosure deadline. Future non-economic damages were excluded from jury consideration because the individual repeatedly testified that her memory loss may have been due to old age. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: April 10, 2024, Case #: 49916, Categories: Damages, Negligence, Experts
J. Zahn holds that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to modify defendant's sentence for a felony DUI conviction. A stay pending an appeal that failed did not toll the clock on his modification motion, which came three years after sentencing. His original sentence of six years with one year fixed is reinstated. Vacated.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: April 3, 2024, Case #: 50765-2023, Categories: Sentencing, Dui, Jurisdiction
J. Bevan finds that the Industrial Commission properly awarded medical benefits to an employee based on the full invoiced amount for the employee's medical expenses. Under this court's decision in Neel, the full invoiced amount is due if the workers' compensation surety denies a claim that the Commission subsequently finds is compensable. The employer and surety argued that Medicaid recipients should be excluded from the Neel full invoice doctrine, but doing so would pose a hardship for the most vulnerable employees. Also, the employee is not entitled to attorney fees on appeal because the appeal by the employer and surety was not frivolous. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: April 2, 2024, Case #: 49940, Categories: Medicaid, Attorney Fees, Workers' Compensation
J. Bevan finds the trial court properly refused to suppress methamphetamine found during a traffic stop. Police had a sufficiently reasonable suspicion of improperly secured hazardous materials to pull over defendant's semitrailer for safety purposes. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: April 1, 2024, Case #: 48808, Categories: Drug Offender, Search
J. Brody finds that the district court properly reversed the magistrate court and ordered a new trial on a debt collection complaint. Disputed issues of material fact exist, the debt collector's failure to provide a transcript of magistrate court proceedings bars its argument that a new trial is needed, and the debt collector failed to show the debtor is not entitled to attorney fees on intermediate appeal. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: March 25, 2024, Case #: 49755, Categories: Debt Collection, Attorney Fees
J. Bevan, in answer to a question certified from the U.S. District Court, holds that wage discrimination claims under the Human Rights Act begin to accrue when an employer makes a pay-setting decision and informs the employee. Wage discrimination claims under the Equal Pay Act begin to accrue when the employee receives each discriminatory paycheck.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 50703, Categories: Employment
J. Brody finds the trial court properly upheld a county's denial of a developer's preliminary application for a subdivision. The denial was supported by evidence that a single, gated point of egress would pose a danger for residents seeking to evacuate in an emergency. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: March 5, 2024, Case #: 50197, Categories: Property, Zoning
J. Bevan finds that the trial court was within its discretion to admit evidence of a misdemeanor theft conviction for its probative value in determining defendant's truthfulness in a domestic battery trial. The evidence was not unfairly prejudicial since it did not suggest defendant had a history of violence, but rather that he was lying about assaulting his girlfriend. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: February 29, 2024, Case #: 50026, Categories: Evidence, Domestic Violence
J. Zahn finds that the district court properly rejected challenges to a roadway easement and a shared well easement. A boundary line adjustment was valid and no prescriptive easement to land subject to the new boundary line was established. An order to remove a spite fence was proper because the fence interfered with easement rights. A partial award of attorney fees was based on a consideration of the entire history of litigation. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: February 27, 2024, Case #: 49773-2022, Categories: Property, Attorney Fees
J. Brody finds the district court properly dismissed a tenant’s Idaho Consumer Protection Act counterclaim against the landlords and decisions concerning certain setoffs against property damages awarded to landlords. The tenant claims the lease was a lease to own a mobile home agreement. The landlords alleged violations of the agreement, then initiated an eviction action. The tenant failed to challenge the court’s findings. The landlords are entitled to attorney fees and cost. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 49801, Categories: Landlord Tenant, Attorney Fees
J. Brody finds that defendant's confrontation right was not violated by the admission of testimony from a detective about data that the FBI obtained by extracting it from defendant's cell phone. The detective's personal knowledge and experience of cell phone extractions was sufficient to support his testimony and independent conclusions about the extraction file. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 49079, Categories: Confrontation, Drug Offender
J. Moeller finds that the trial court improperly admitted video evidence of recorded interviews with defendant's alleged victim by a social worker in his trial for lewd conduct and disseminating harmful material to a minor. The purpose of the social worker's questioning was not only diagnostic, as she sought details about the perpetrator to build a criminal case and was partially guided by an investigator monitoring the interview over a closed-circuit monitor. The forensic component of the interview transformed it from medical to investigatory, and the video evidence into testimony subject to confrontation. Vacated.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 50523, Categories: Confrontation, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Zahn finds that the district court improperly relied on a modern confluence of creeks for its injury analysis in a water rights dispute. The historic confluence must be used for the injury analysis since the diversionary ditch that created the modern confluence was not claimed in the Snake River Basin Adjudication and was therefore not authorized. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: 50000-2022, Categories: Water
[Consolidated.] J. Brody finds that one of two trial courts hearing aspects of the same dispute over allegedly poached employees and trade secrets abused its discretion when it increased an award from $1 million to $2.3 million, as the award was not the result of passion or prejudice, and its injunctive order was overly broad. The second trial court properly held that the preliminary injunction was overly broad and unenforceable since it restrained lawful conduct. Reversed in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: February 2, 2024, Case #: 49418, Categories: Trade Secrets, Damages, Interference With Contract
J. Wootton finds that the trial court properly denied a patient's motions for more time to respond to motions for summary judgment on her medical malpractice claims. She failed to explain what additional discovery she planned or how more time would otherwise allow her to show any genuine issue of material fact that would preclude summary judgment. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: February 1, 2024, Case #: 49915, Categories: Discovery, Medical Malpractice
J. Moeller finds that the district court properly denied defendant's motion for a new trial for first-degree murder after he alleged that a juror had been asleep during part of the original trial. The district court observed the juror briefly nodded off and was promptly aroused by a bailiff, while defendant failed to provide clear and convincing evidence of juror misconduct. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: January 31, 2024, Case #: 49266, Categories: Jury, Murder
J. Zahn holds that state administrative agencies properly invoked the Supreme Court's jurisdiction to determine whether provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act that require legislative approval of pending administrative fee rules are constitutional. The State Athletic Commission and the Division of Occupational and Processional Licenses have standing to allege that the refusal by the state Administrative Rules Coordinator to publish their pending rules prevented them from fulfilling their statutory duties. However, the Commission and the Division are not entitled to mandamus relief because the Act requirement for legislative approval does not violate the Idaho Constitution's separation of powers provision. The authority of the executive branch to engage administrative rulemaking is not a constitutional power, as it was granted by the legislature.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: January 29, 2024, Case #: 51211, Categories: Administrative Law, Constitution, Jurisdiction
J. Stegner finds that the trial court properly dismissed a homeowners' association's contract claims against property owners over allegedly unpaid assessments since the association failed to show they had violated its covenants, conditions and restrictions. On remand, the trial court must revisit its partial award of attorney fees to the association. Attorney fees may be awarded to a non-prevailing party if the party is entitled to them under a contractual provision and the party prevailed on a discrete contractual claim. Reversed in part. Vacated in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: January 12, 2024, Case #: 49371, Categories: Property, Attorney Fees, Contract
J. Stegner finds that the district court was not barred from granting a developer declaratory relief on its zoning challenge by the developer's concurrent but separate petition for review under the Local Land Use Planning Act. The district court properly refused to admit a site plan that was recorded after a planned unit development plat was approved. However, the district court should have granted the developer's motion to order the county to record the plat. And the district court must revisit whether it was bound by a settlement agreement before ruling on a breach of contract claim. The developer is due attorney fees on appeal as the prevailing party on all issues. Reversed in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: 49487, Categories: Administrative Law, Zoning, Attorney Fees
J. Zahn finds that the district court properly held that a fire protection district did not owe a duty in tort to the owner of a sawmill and lumber yard that was destroyed in a wildfire. Likewise, the owner failed to show that a tort duty was created by a special relationship between the fire protection district and the owner since the district did not exercise custody or control over the sawmill and lumber yard. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: 49279, Categories: Tort