124 results for 'court:"Massachusetts Supreme Court"'.
J. Budd confirms a former employee’s eligibility for unemployment benefits after she was fired by her employer for refusing the Covid-19 vaccines on religious grounds. The employee did not engage in deliberate misconduct because she tried to comply with her employer’s policy by using its application process in place to apply for a religious exemption. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Budd, Filed On: March 4, 2024, Case #: SJC-13440, Categories: Employment, Covid-19
J. Kafker finds that it is correct to allow a university’s special motion to dismiss various claims brought by a developer against the university for intending to build a dormitory on a sub-parcel of land where it originally planned to build a hotel with the developer. The university attempted to advance the hotel project multiple times with the developer unsuccessfully before moving forward to benefit itself by creating a dormitory instead. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Kafker, Filed On: February 29, 2024, Case #: SJC-13405, Categories: Anti-slapp, Real Estate, Contract
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Per curiam, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirms a judgment denying relief to a woman charged with violating a harassment prevention order. The rulings she’s challenging can be addressed through an appeal if she is convicted, but the denial of a motion to dismiss in a criminal case isn’t appealable until after the trial has concluded. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: February 23, 2024, Case #: SJC-13508, Categories: Speedy Trial, Harassment
J. Wendlandt denies the defendant’s motion for a new trial, after he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after he and two others attempted to rob a victim, who fought back and then was shot and killed by the defendant. The court decided not to apply its abolition of felony-murder, as an independent theory of liability for murder in the first and second degrees, retroactively to the defendant’s case or any other case. This does not violate his equal protection rights because, even though the theory was abolished for disproportionately adversely affecting racial minorities, its impact cannot be “traced to a discriminatory purpose.” Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Wendlandt, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: SJC-12405, Categories: Murder, Robbery, Equal Protection
J. Kafker finds discretion was not abused in the denial of Massachusetts’s motion to admit its expert testimony on frequent location history data. “The purpose of rule 15 is to provide an avenue for interlocutory review of rulings that would otherwise terminate a criminal proceeding,” so expansions of this rule are only allowed where they support this purpose. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Kafker, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: SJC-13499, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Experts
J. Lowy affirms defendant’s murder conviction for killing his wife. The defendant claims his daughter’s murder and the testimony of two latent print examiners should not have been allowed in evidence, that not enough was done to rule out the possibility of a different culprit, and that there wasn’t enough evidence to identify him as the culprit or establish his crimes’ premeditation, but he fails to substantiate any reversible error. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Lowy, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: SJC-12420, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Due Process
J. Lowy finds that the defendant’s constitutional rights to due process were violated by his involuntary commitment. It is unconstitutional for a pretrial defendant to be detained for an evaluation and observation of competency without a judge finding via clear and convincing evidence that there are no less restrictive means to determine the defendant’s competency to stand trial.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Lowy, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: SJC-13455, Categories: Constitution, Due Process, Commitment
J. Gaziano orders a district attorney’s office to disclose to two criminal defense organizations, two defense attorneys, and two former criminal defendants, all of the categories of documents reviewed by the United States Department of Justice to determine whether the district attorney’s office failed to properly investigate and disclose police misconduct and its impact on criminal prosecutions. This is necessary to adjudicate cases of misconduct on a case-by-case basis.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Gaziano, Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: SJC-13386, Categories: Due Process, Legal Malpractice, Police Misconduct
Per curiam, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts affirms the denial of a woman’s petition for a change of venue. She fails to explain why she’s petitioning during the provisional phase of trial court proceedings and not at their conclusion. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: SJC-13349, Categories: Vehicle, Venue
J. Lowy vacates the defendant’s murder conviction. The strongest piece of physical evidence used to convict the defendant was a bloody leather jacket combined with witness testimony supporting that the blood belonged to the murder victim, but DNA testing 20 years after the conviction proved that the blood was not the victim’s. Vacated.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Lowy, Filed On: January 12, 2024, Case #: SJC-13399, Categories: Dna, Evidence, Murder
J. Budd reverses a sentence of life without parole for a defendant convicted of murder. The defendant was 18 when he committed the crime and 18-to-20-year-olds — emerging adults — are more neurologically similar to 17-year-olds than to people age 22 and older. So even though an 18-year-old is an adult, a statute determining that sentencing juveniles to life without parole constitutes cruel and unusual punishment also applies to emerging adults. Vacated.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Budd, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: SJC-11693, Categories: Juvenile Law, Murder, Sentencing
J. Budd affirms the defendant’s conviction of murder and denies his motion for a new trial, but remands his case for resentencing. There was sufficient evidence to support his conviction but it is not constitutional for him to be imprisoned for life without possibility of parole because he was only 19 at the time of the crime. Affirmed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Budd, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: SJC-09265, Categories: Constitution, Murder, Sentencing
[Consolidated.] J. Cypher determines that the evidence before a grand jury was sufficient to support that a foster parent couple committed involuntary manslaughter and reckless endangerment of a child. One of their foster children died of complications from strep throat, bronchopneumonia and fluid collecting in his lungs because they failed to obtain medical care for him. Reversed.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Cypher, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: SJC-13408, Categories: Manslaughter, Child Victims
J. Georges affirms a decision granting a town’s motion for summary judgment against some of the town’s residents who brought suit against the town to compel it to transfer municipal land to its conservation commission. However, the disputed land is designated for affordable housing and cannot be used for another purpose unless the town’s select board determines it isn’t needed for affordable housing.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Georges, Filed On: January 5, 2024, Case #: SJC-13410, Categories: Municipal Law, Zoning, Housing
J. Wendlandt determines that enforcement of a Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act lien against a MassHealth member is only allowed if the property encumbered by the lien is sold during the member’s lifetime. However, the three-year statute of repose of the Massachusetts Uniform Probate Code does not retroactively bar MassHealth from recouping medical benefits from a member who died before the probate code became effective.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Wendlandt, Filed On: December 13, 2023, Case #: SJC-13439, Categories: Debt Collection, Health Care, Medicaid
J. Budd transfers a case from Housing Court to the Superior Court of Massachusetts. Based on the plain language of a statute, the Housing Court does not have jurisdiction over this case because the landlord being sued for pregnancy discrimination chose to have the complaint against him heard in court, rather than by commission, and when such an election is made, the Superior Court is the designated court.
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Court, Judge: Budd, Filed On: December 6, 2023, Case #: SJC-13438, Categories: Employment, Jurisdiction, Employment Discrimination