106 results for 'court:"Idaho Supreme Court"'.
J. Bevan holds that the trial court erroneously found that unlawful detainer law conflicts with the constitutional right to a jury trial. Repossession of under 5 acres of land is an equitable question that does not require a jury. However, the tenant's claim that she was evicted in retaliation for making repair requests is a legal question with issues of fact a jury must decide. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 49976, Categories: Jury, Landlord Tenant
J. Zahn finds that the Sex Offender Registry was within its discretion to rely on documents used to convict defendant of sexual abuse in Oregon to establish the substantially equivalent offense in Idaho for registration purposes. Also, the Registry was not required to consider whether the Oregon offense was a misdemeanor or felony in its equivalence determination. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: January 3, 2024, Case #: 49547, Categories: Sex Offender
J. Bevan finds that the Industrial Commission erred in concluding that an employer failed to show it fired an employee for misconduct. The standards of behavior test measures the subjective expectations of the employer, not the employee. The record shows that the employee's refusals to meet with a supervisor were insubordinate and she did not respond to warnings, so she is not entitled to unemployment benefits. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: December 28, 2023, Case #: 50045, Categories: Employment
J. Zahn upholds the trial court's evidentiary rulings in a trial that ended with defendant's conviction for assault on a police officer. It properly excluded evidence of his civil suit against the police department as irrelevant, admitted evidence that his gun fired after he was tased and excluded video evidence of police returning fire. And the exclusion of video showing that he did not fire his gun a second time was harmless error. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 48949-2021, Categories: Evidence, Assault
J. Stegner finds that the trial court must revisit a property owner's claim that a city is liable for damage caused to its property when an excavator damaged the city's sewage lateral. The Underground Facilities Damage Prevention Act does not preclude standing for end users to bring claims against the city as an underground facility owner. A jury must determine if the city violated the duty created by the Act and is liable for negligence per se, or whether the city had a common law duty and is liable for negligence. Also, it was premature to grant the city discretionary function immunity before resolving the fact questions related to duty. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: December 20, 2023, Case #: 49562, Categories: Property, Immunity, Negligence
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J. Stegner finds that the trial court lacked support to amend a no contact order to bar a father from all contact with his minor son for eight years. The trial court was required to explain a change in circumstance that would support the order. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: 49492, Categories: Restraining Order
J. Zahn finds that the trial court must allow a jury to consider whether yellow padding on a snow gun involved in a deadly collision met the statutory warning requirement. A jury must also determine whether a conspicuous notice was present at the top of the ski run, and whether the resort can use an assumption of risk defense. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: 49693-2022, Categories: Wrongful Death
J. Zahn finds that the trial court properly granted summary judgment to employers accused of having their store manager falsely arrested. The manager failed to show the employers had knowingly made a false statement to police, or that they were malicious when accusing him of grand theft. Also, he was an at-will employee so there was no breach of an enforceable employment contract. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: December 19, 2023, Case #: 49535-2022, Categories: Employment, Defamation
J. Moeller grants the public defender's petition for a writ of mandamus arising from the district court's refusal to allow him to appoint a defendant a new attorney due to a conflict of interest. The public defender has the authority to arrange counsel for indigent clients due to a conflict of interest or for any other reason. Other conflicts will be addressed by the newly appointed judge in the matter.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller , Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: 50987, Categories: Judiciary, Due Process
J. Bevan finds the district court improperly released the mechanic’s lien bond. The construction company filed the bond for release from a lien imposed by the rental company for failure to pay for equipment. The lien release bond was substitute security in a contest of priority over the lien rights of the interested parties and was not associated with the personal rights of the parties against the bond itself. Reversed and vacated.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan , Filed On: December 18, 2023, Case #: 49708, Categories: Construction, Contract
J. Bevan finds that a developer has standing due to an assignment of rights to challenge an easement on its property, despite a lack of contractual privity. But the contract between the developer's predecessor and a neighbor was an agreement to agree, not an enforceable contract to relocate a parking lot. Also, the developer waived its challenge to the district court's evidentiary rulings and an order denying equitable estoppel. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: December 8, 2023, Case #: 49679, Categories: Property, Contract
J. Bevan finds that the trial court was within its discretion to correct the date on an exhibit that was a judgment from a prior felony conviction. The correction was not an intervention or offer of extrajudicial facts that could be construed as witness testimony. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: December 6, 2023, Case #: 48939, Categories: Evidence, Sentencing, Vehicle
J. Brody finds that the trial court properly dismissed defendant's second successive petition for post-conviction relief on murder and arson convictions and a death sentence. His ineffective assistance claim is time-barred, and if the claim were allowed, his allegation that counsel should have used information about an affair between an investigator and a prosecutor to impeach the investigator was not material or prejudicial during the trial or at sentencing. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: December 5, 2023, Case #: 48677, Categories: Death Penalty, Murder
J. Stegner holds that the trial court's decision to livestream defendant's trial during the Covid-19 pandemic did not violate his constitutional right to a public trial since he never objected. Also, he failed to preserve his claim that his right to counsel was violated when he was required to remotely communicate with counsel during pretrial hearings. Evidence of his time as a fugitive was properly introduced to show a consciousness of guilt. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: December 5, 2023, Case #: 49207, Categories: Sex Offender
J. Brody finds that the Industrial Commission properly concluded that a widow was entitled to death and medical benefits after the death of her husband. She proved that his death was the result of workplace stroke, which is a compensable industrial accident. Her failure to respond to discovery requests did not bar her from asserting the presumption that his death arose from his employment. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: November 29, 2023, Case #: 49452, Categories: Discovery, Workers' Compensation
J. Brody finds that the magistrate court must revisit a wife's claim that she was in a common law marriage prior to January 1, 1996, when Idaho quit recognizing them. She did not preserve her challenge to the magistrate court decision to hold an evidentiary hearing, but the magistrate court should not have excluded evidence of the parties' conduct after December 31, 1995. Reversed in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: November 29, 2023, Case #: 49859, Categories: Family Law
J. Moeller holds that the trial court erred in granting summary judgment in a foreclosure action that it found was time-barred. Any payment of principal and interest, whether before or after the initial lapse of the statute of limitations, removes the time bar. A factual dispute over the nature of a payment and whether it was made by a mortgage obligor should have precluded summary judgment. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: November 29, 2023, Case #: 49419, Categories: Foreclosure
J. Moeller finds that no dispute of fact existed to prevent the trial court from granting a city summary judgment in a slip and fall case. The city did not have knowledge about a small icy patch at the airport that was an isolated incident and not the result of a flawed operating method that created recurring hazards. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: November 28, 2023, Case #: 49606, Categories: Negligence
J. Moeller finds that the trial court properly entered a default award in favor of homebuyers who sued a builder for construction defects and other causes. But the homebuyers did not plead a specific damages amount in their complaint and the trial court failed to support its award with sufficient evidence, so the builder's challenge to the amount may proceed. Vacated in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: November 28, 2023, Case #: 48954, Categories: Construction, Damages, Contract
J. Stegner finds that the district court properly held that it lacked the authority to seal court records regarding charges that defendant had dismissed under a plea agreement and which were later expunged from police records. Defendant relied on a recent statute which represents overreach by the legislature. He may try again to have the records sealed by invoking the law that gives this court the sole authority to create it own rules to govern the records of the judicial department. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: November 17, 2023, Case #: 49358, Categories: Criminal Procedure, Plea
J. Zahn finds that the trial court properly declined to suppress drug evidence found by a drug-sniffing dog. Police developed a reasonable suspicion of drug activity early in the traffic stop, based on defendant's appearance and story, and did not prolong the stop by pursuing unrelated activities. Also, his objection to the trial court's reduction of his peremptory challenges is not constitutionally supported. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Zahn, Filed On: November 9, 2023, Case #: 48839-2021, Categories: Drug Offender, Search, Due Process
J. Bevan finds that the trial court properly ordered the removal of five children from their father's home. The trial court verbally provided sufficiently detailed findings of fact. The order was supported by substantial evidence that the children were being manipulated by their parents, who were unable to exchange custody without fighting each other. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: November 3, 2023, Case #: 50875, Categories: Family Law
[Substituted.] J. Bevan finds that the trial court properly dismissed defendant's post-conviction claims of actual innocence and Brady violations related to his aiding and abetting aggravated battery and kidnapping convictions. His petition was untimely and the Supreme Court Schlup decision cannot toll the clock since it is inapplicable to Idaho post-conviction cases, as actual innocence claims in non-capital state cases are limited to DNA and fingerprints. And the Brady claim did not warrant an evidentiary hearing because of his unreasonable delay in raising it. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: October 27, 2023, Case #: 48846, Categories: Battery, Kidnapping
[Consolidated.] J. Brody finds that the trial court properly took judicial notice of factual findings from two prior Child Protective Act cases involving a child's parents when determining that the child was at risk of abuse, neglect or abandonment. The noticed facts were not disputed and were established by the same trial court that made the subject risk determination, which was supported by substantial evidence of an unstable home and a lack of protection for the child. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: October 27, 2023, Case #: 50868, Categories: Evidence, Family Law
J. Brody reverses the trial court's grant of a prescriptive easement across a property owner's rural land. The trial court was right that the use of a road by the predecessors of the owner's neighbor was permissive because the land was was wild, unenclosed and unimproved back then. But the neighbor failed to prove that the permissive use of the road had changed to adverse use, as required for a prescriptive easement. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: October 26, 2023, Case #: 50143, Categories: Property
J. Bevan upholds the trial court determination that Idaho law established the limitations period on a commercial landlord's breach of contract cause of action on claims against its tenant that it bought from a third-party creditor, and that the period was stayed by a bankruptcy proceeding. But the trial court should have held that the bankruptcy stay also applied to the landlord's claims against the tenant related to the lease and tenancy. Vacated in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Bevan, Filed On: October 26, 2023, Case #: 49633, Categories: Bankruptcy, Civil Procedure, Contract
J. Moeller vacates the lower court’s judgment in favor of a trust because the suing trust did not have standing to assert their claims objecting to the establishment of an affordable housing project on county land designated for public use. Costs, though not attorney fees, are issued to the sued housing authority, housing trust and county.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: 48799, Categories: Trusts, Housing
J. Moeller finds that the trial court properly provided the jury instructions for felony battery on a police officer and denied defendant's request for instructions on either misdemeanor resisting an officer or misdemeanor battery. Resisting arrest is not a lesser included offense of battery and the evidence showed that her kick to the officer's stomach was a felony "strike." Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: 49255, Categories: Resisting Arrest, Battery, Jury Instructions