59 results for 'court:"New Hampshire Supreme Court"'.
J. Donovan affirms the defendant’s convictions for being a felon in possession of a deadly weapon and for attempted murder. The trial court did not err by admitting evidence of the defendant’s prior convictions or by not disclosing some of the victim’s mental health records, but the defendant’s prior convictions do not fall within the 10-year limitation his defense claims and none of the undisclosed mental health records could plausibly have changed the outcome of the trial.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Donovan, Filed On: November 14, 2023, Case #: 2022-0106, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Weapons
[Consolidated.] J. Marconi vacates the denial of the defendant’s motion to suppress evidence against her obtained through a police traffic stop used to convict her for driving after suspension and disobeying a police officer. The officer did not have a reasonable suspicion to justify the traffic stop.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Marconi, Filed On: November 2, 2023, Case #: 2022-0253, Categories: Search, Vehicle
J. Hicks affirms the reapproval of a developer’s plan to construct three multi-family apartment buildings with 152 dwelling units in total after its previous approval was undone by a prior appeal. A conditional use permit does not require the unnecessary hardship standard of a variance and what the opponents of the plan propose as an alternative is not the same project in a different area, but a smaller project. The developer’s plan meets the criteria necessary to be granted a conditional use permit to build in a wetland zone.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Hicks, Filed On: October 12, 2023, Case #: 2022-0182, Categories: Environment, Zoning
J. Bassett finds that the lower court improperly granted a maternal grandfather's request for grandparent visitation. A grandparent lacks standing to petition for visitation unless the only condition that led to them seeking visitation is a divorce, death, end of parental rights, or other absence of a nuclear family. In this case, the grandfather's access to his grandchildren was restricted because of conflicts between the grandfather and his daughter prior to her divorce. Reversed.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Bassett, Filed On: September 19, 2023, Case #: 2021-0587, Categories: Family Law, Guardianship
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J. Donovan partially affirms a ruling in favor of the owner of abutting property in a case where a couple filed a petition to quiet title. The field monuments do not determine the couple’s property’s boundaries and they did not establish boundaries by acquiescence. However, the decision regarding adverse possession of the couple’s driveway and parking area is partially reversed because they were used exclusively by the couple and another party for over 20 years.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Donovan, Filed On: August 23, 2023, Case #: 2022-0234, Categories: Property, Real Estate
J. MacDonald affirms the granting of an individual’s request for records from a city covered by Right-to-Know Law. While some of the emails the individual requested are deleted, they are on backup tapes which are accessible to the city’s IT Department, and the city’s argument that the backup tapes are not accessible to their assessing department is unpersuasive.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: MacDonald, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 2022-0237, Categories: Public Record, Discovery, Technology
J. Hicks affirmed granting a motion to dismiss filed by the Department of Transportation, but reversed motions for summary judgment granted to two construction companies against a couple who sued them for failing to clear a clogged catch basin, which caused flooding that led to the couple hydroplaning and suffering a car accident in which they were injured. The orders striking the couple’s expert reports are also reversed. The department is immune from liability in this case because there is no evidence that it knew of the clogged basin and flooding before the accident, and the fact that it owns the highway where it occurred does not make it liable. The opinions of two engineers were struck and the companies’ motions for summary judgment granted because the opinions were considered speculative but the opinions don't have to be flawless. Even if someone else could come to a different conclusion with the information the experts had, a reasonable person could have come to the same conclusions as they did.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Hicks, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 2022-0101, Categories: Vehicle, Experts, Premises Liability
J. Marconi affirms the Compensation Appeals Board’s decision to grant an insurance carrier’s request to reduce an individual’s temporary total disability benefits to the diminished earning capacity rate. The testimony of the individual and the experts who treated her were inconsistent with each other, so an independent expert’s opinion was honored over their opinions.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Marconi, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 2021-0153, Categories: Health Care, Insurance, Experts
J. Donovan reverses summary judgment against a former student who sued the high school she attended as a minor, where she was sexually assaulted by a teacher. While her complaint fell outside the statute of limitations, she had only learned recently that the school had hired the teacher who assaulted her while fully aware that the teacher had been convicted of unlawful sexual conduct with a minor female student in Maine. Reversed and remanded.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Donovan, Filed On: August 10, 2023, Case #: 2022-0259, Categories: Education, Due Process, Assault
J. Hicks affirms the denial of a trust’s motion for preliminary injunctive relief against a condominium, and that condominium’s dismissal of the trust’s motion. The trust wanted to prevent the condominium from incurring debt by purchasing land for additional parking spots but the condominium is allowed by the Condominium Act to purchase land.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Hicks, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 2021-0385, Categories: Real Estate, Trusts, Injunction
J. Hicks finds the trial court properly denied the trust’s request for preliminary injunctive preventing the association’s board of directors from purchasing land outside the condominium to add guest parking spaces, also alleging that the “Association has asserted that … the additional land shall become part of the … common area.” The Condominium Act allows the association to purchase land and the complaint fails to state a claim. Affirmed.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Hicks, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 2021-0385, Categories: Property, Contract
J. Donovan finds that the lower court properly denied the father's request to hold the mother in contempt for violating a parenting plan because she took their children out of school a few days early for a vacation. The decision to take the children out of school early was made with proper arrangements with the children's school and was not a willful violation of the parenting plan. Affirmed.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Donovan, Filed On: July 25, 2023, Case #: 2022-0517, Categories: Contempt, Family Law
J. Hicks affirms a summary judgment in favor of an insured company against its insurer, who didn’t cover water damage from an overflow of water from a shower drain, which it claimed was a condition falling under an exclusion from coverage. However, the exclusion was worded ambiguously and didn’t include the word “shower,” so it was unclear that the exclusion applied to the insured’s situation.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Hicks, Filed On: July 20, 2023, Case #: 2021-0376, Categories: Insurance, Water, Damages
J. Bassett finds that the lower court did not err in ordering the defendant to be involuntarily admitted to the Secure Psychiatric Unit (SPU) of the state prison for three years with a conditional discharge if clinically appropriate. Even if her past attempts at harming others were unsuccessful, she has established that she poses a high likelihood of being dangerous to others in the future, because in the past she created explosive devices and put them in people’s cars and attempted to enter the house of someone she was not allowed to contact as a condition of her bail equipped with hypodermic needles, OxyContin, pliers, a screwdriver and a boxcutter.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Bassett, Filed On: July 13, 2023, Case #: 2021-0525, Categories: Commitment
J. Bassett supports a finding of delinquency against a juvenile defendant for harassment. Even though the defendant and victim only had one encounter, the defendant repeatedly swore at the victim with the intent to annoy or alarm him and sent him over 22 messages within a four-minute span. Even though the communications were over the course of one in-person interaction, that does not prevent the communications from being considered repeated. Affirmed.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Bassett, Filed On: July 13, 2023, Case #: 2021-0560, Categories: Juvenile Law, Harassment
J. MacDonald finds that a mother who failed to properly address conditions of neglect, such as failing to keep her and her children's home clean by throwing away trash and preventing a fly infestation, should not be her two minor children's legal guardian, but also should not have her parental rights terminated completely. Despite her limitations, the mother and her children still share a bond and it would not be in her children's best interest to be separated from her or their older siblings completely, but rather that her role should be changed from guardian to temporary child support.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: MacDonald, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: 2022-0543, Categories: Family Law, Negligence, Guardianship
J. Hicks finds the lower court properly issued civil stalking protective order against the defendant, after he publicly posted animations he created depicting individuals who looked like the plaintiff, including some he identified with the plaintiff's name, being the victim of violence or depicted naked. He also made sexual and threatening comments towards plaintiff, including that he was sexually aroused by her and desiring that she be "gang-banged, raped or shot." The right to free speech is not intended to allow citizens to make threats, including threats where the person uttering the threat doesn't actually intend to carry it out. Affirmed.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Hicks, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: 2022-0114, Categories: Evidence, Restraining Order, First Amendment
J. Hicks finds that the lower court properly denied the sex offender's motion for earned time credits. The programs he completed were not designed to offer a reduced sentence based purely on inmates' behavior in prison and ignore their underlying offenses, so the court did not err by considering his crimes in making their decision not to reduce his minimum sentence. The statute regarding the implementation of the programs includes specific language about the sentencing court's right to use discretion that negates the defendant's claim that the statute mandates all prisoners who complete the programs and receive a commissioner's recommendation be awarded earned time credits. Affirmed.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Hicks, Filed On: June 29, 2023, Case #: 2021-0605, Categories: Constitution, Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Donovan finds the Department of Health and Human Services correctly decided that the petitioner is ineligible for developmental disability services because it is entitled to use its discretion. It did so with feedback from a clinical neuropsychologist who is also a licensed psychologist, as well as from a consultant with experience with agencies serving high-risk individuals with developmental disabilities. The department’s delay in setting up a hearing and making a final decision was not a violation of scheduling requirements because it was due to the global pandemic and out of its control.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Donovan, Filed On: June 7, 2023, Case #: 2022-0181, Categories: Health Care, Due Process, Covid-19
J. Bassett finds an arbitrator's decision that the city wrongfully fired an officer and that the officer is entitled to 26 months of backpay from the city is incorrect. J. Bassett agrees with the city that the arbitrator made a legal error by failing to correctly apply the after-acquired evidence doctrine in determining the amount of the award owed to the officer. Reversed in part.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Bassett, Filed On: June 7, 2023, Case #: 2021-0511, Categories: Arbitration, Employment
J. Marconi affirms the dismissal of a lawyer’s claims against the New Hampshire Democratic Party for libel and defamation because its statements that the lawyer committed theft by extortion are true. However, the court agrees with the lawyer that, because his criminal conviction was annulled, it should be treated as if he were never arrested, convicted or sentenced. Affirmed in part.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Marconi, Filed On: June 1, 2023, Case #: 2021-0551, Categories: Defamation, Attorney Discipline
J. Donovan finds that the superior court correctly determined that defendant’s planning board was right to approve a site plan allowing a developer to work on and consolidate two pieces of land. Plaintiffs failed to present a strong argument that the development would make a regional impact or that its approval would break any laws. Affirmed.
Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court, Judge: Donovan, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 2021-0410, Categories: Administrative Law, Construction, Zoning