20 results for 'judge:"Stegner"'.
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. 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
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. 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
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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. Stegner upholds the lower court’s decision and finds that two neighbors’ agreed-upon boundary between their properties — which differs from the boundary described in one of the properties’ deeds — is legitimate. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: October 3, 2023, Case #: 49488, Categories: Property
J. Stegner finds that the lower courts erred in refusing to suppress the drugs police found during an inventory search of a car they impounded. Defendant preserved her argument that the reasons police gave for towing her car, that it was both unlocked and in a disabled space, were pretexts to conduct a criminal investigation after a police dog failed to alert to drugs during a perimeter search in a parking lot. On remand, the trial court must analyze whether the reasons to impound were reasonable and the analysis must include an examination of the officers' subjective intent. Vacated.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: September 29, 2023, Case #: 50470, Categories: Drug Offender, Search
J. Stegner holds that the trial court erred in granting an independent contractor summary judgment in a personal injury action filed by a worker who was injured when a stair railing failed. The independent contractor that built the railing was not the worker's co-employee under the Worker's Compensation Act, so the independent contractor is not entitled to the tort immunity that the Act provides an employer's contractors and subcontractors. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: September 15, 2023, Case #: 48900, Categories: Tort, Immunity, Workers' Compensation
J. Stegner finds that the trial court properly held that a property owner cannot argue his tenants breached property leases because he failed to present any issues of fact that show that the parties did not act in accordance with oral modifications to property leases. Text messages and emails detailed the modifications and the parties' annual reconciliations of debits and credits supported the conclusion that the parties had a meeting of minds to modify the leases. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: September 15, 2023, Case #: 49354, Categories: Agriculture, Property, Contract
J. Stegner holds that the district court properly dismissed defendant's claim that counsel coerced him to plead guilty to possessing a sharp, pointed weapon in jail. He failed to overcome the presumption that he was truthful when he swore during a change of plea hearing that he had not been coerced. He was not entitled to an evidentiary hearing on his claim that counsel gave him bad advice about a persistent violator enhancement, or on his claim that testimony from fellow inmates could have countered evidence that he was seen sharpening a spoon into a weapon. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: September 11, 2023, Case #: 50430, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Weapons
J. Stegner finds that the trial court properly compelled arbitration of a construction contract dispute. The builder did not waive its right to arbitration by first engaging in discovery and discussions about mediation. The right to seek arbitration is a contractual right subject to traditional contract interpretation, and the builder expressly preserved its right to arbitrate throughout the dispute. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: September 8, 2023, Case #: 49637, Categories: Arbitration, Construction, Contract
J. Stegner finds that the trial court should have made its own independent review of the record in a dispute over the accounting and dissolution of a joint dairy operation before adopting a special master's report. The trial court also erred in dismissing contract and fraud claims without analysis. It also misplaced the burden of proving fraudulent accounting. Vacated.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 49342, Categories: Fraud, Contract
[Substitute opinion.] J. Stegner finds that testimony and a certified judgment of conviction in a previous case were sufficient for the district court to find that defendant had been convicted of a prior felony and therefore unlawfully possessed a firearm. Also, defendant received a persistent violator sentencing enhancement on the basis of a second felony which the district court then acknowledged had not been proven. The enhancement stands because defendant did not accept the district court offer of a new trial as a remedy. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 48825, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing
J. Stegner finds that the district court properly granted summary judgment to a commercial tenant, requiring a property owner to honor the tenant's lease option to purchase the property. A declaration by the the tenant that the owner never provided notice of default was properly admitted, and the record shows the owner waived their rights to impose late fees. However, the trial court erred when it awarded the owners a credit for loss of use of the purchase price during litigation, and the tenant is entitled to an equitable award if it can show that the delay in purchasing the property increased its costs. Reversed in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: August 18, 2023, Case #: 49094, Categories: Property, Contract
J. Stegner finds that the trial court properly determined that a trust indenture was drafted in a way that allowed it to supersede the statute that requires court approval for a property sale that presents a clear conflict of interest. However, issues of fact about whether a trustee fulfilled his duties under the trust indenture should have precluded summary judgment. The trial court must determine if the trustee violated his fiduciary duty when he approved the sale of trust property to a corporation of which he was a member. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: June 27, 2023, Case #: 49189, Categories: Property, Trusts, Fiduciary Duty
[Substitute.] J. Stegner finds that the district court properly denied defendant's successive post-conviction petition for relief from the death sentence on a murder conviction. He waived his arguments for judicial notice of the entirety of the records from his previous criminal cases as well as his argument that he was wrongly denied a discovery motion. His claims of ineffective assistance at the trial, sentencing and post-conviction phases fail because he did not show that counsel should have raised cumulative error, discovery or other issues. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: June 22, 2023, Case #: 47871, Categories: Death Penalty, Murder
J. Stegner finds that the district court properly granted a city summary judgment on the civil rights claims of two ticketholders who were denied entry to a concert because they carried firearms. The private tenant that rented a city park to hold the concert was entitled to enforce its own rules against the possession of firearms. The ticketholders' Second Amendment rights were not implicated because they were not deprived of a constitutional right by a government actor. And their equal protection claims repeat their failed Second Amendment claims. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: June 22, 2023, Case #: 48975, Categories: Civil Rights, Landlord Tenant, Firearms
J. Stegner finds that the trial court erred in barring an ex-husband's claim that his interest in property jointly owned with his ex-wife was greater than 50%. The couple's divorce proceedings did not result in a final judgment on ownership of the property, so his claim is not subject to issue preclusion or claim preclusion. Joint tenancy is a rebuttable presumption that the ex-husband can overcome with evidence of a greater ownership interest.
Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: 49605, Categories: Family Law
J. Stegner finds that the trial court erred in dismissing claims that two utility companies' operating properties were taxed in a disproportionate and non-uniform way. The federal 4-R Act does not preempt Idaho's obligation to tax the utilities' operating properties the same way that it taxes the operating properties of railroads and other entities in the state. The trial court must determine by a preponderance of the evidence whether the state failed to equalize the assessments of the companies' operating properties. Reversed in part.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Stegner, Filed On: May 17, 2023, Case #: 49126, Categories: Property, Preemption, Tax