29 results for 'judge:"Tenney"'.
J. Tenney finds that police lacked reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop during which drugs were found. The officer testified that he did not see any traffic violations but stopped defendant because he had recently been stopped for driving without a license. However, the officer did not have any new information about his license status and the months-old citation did not give police reasonable suspicion to detain him. Reversed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: May 9, 2024, Case #: 20220313-CA, Categories: Drug Offender, Search
J. Tenney finds that the trial court properly ordered an ex-husband to reimburse an ex-wife the money she paid to satisfy a mortgage loan their divorce decree had required him to pay. The order to reimburse was an enforcement ruling, not a modification, since it gave effect to the decree's requirement that he be responsible for any loans on the residence. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: May 9, 2024, Case #: 20210902-CA, Categories: Civil Procedure, Family Law
J. Tenney holds that a company's former COO failed to preserve his challenge to the damages the trial court awarded after finding the company had violated securities law by misrepresenting stock options it had offered him as compensation. He was awarded damages based on the difference between value of his labor and his undercompensation in salary. He failed to argue at trial that he should have been awarded a value equal to the options' strike price multiplied by the number of shares offered. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: May 2, 2024, Case #: 20220733-CA, Categories: Employment, Securities, Damages
J. Tenney finds that the trial court properly dismissed a negligent hiring complaint against a university that hired a nurse who had a sexual assault conviction and went on to abuse several patients. The patients failed to provide the university with the notice of claim as required for a waiver of statutory governmental immunity. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Supreme Court, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 20230197-CA, Categories: Civil Procedure, Immunity, Negligence
J. Tenney holds that a city's challenge to a trial court easement decision is moot. The city failed to request a stay of the grant of an easement access to a city street pending appeal, during which time the property owner spent money to create a curb-cut, pour concrete and install gates.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 20220586-CA, Categories: Property
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J. Tenney finds that sufficient evidence supported a trial court ruling that a mother was neglectful for taking photos of her nine-year-old daughter's genitals for "documentation" purposes before and after the child had visitation with her father. The photos, which were not taken to document visible trauma, might have desensitized the child to the importance of safeguarding one's genitals and made the child suspicious of her father. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: April 11, 2024, Case #: 20230338-CA, Categories: Family Law
J. Tenney finds that counsel was not ineffective for deciding not to object to prior acts evidence in defendant's aggravated assault trial. The state made narrow use of probative evidence about similar instances where defendant was aggressive when he suspected his wife was unfaithful. And he failed to show he was prejudiced by counsel's decision not to object to other evidence. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: April 4, 2024, Case #: 20210774-CA, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Assault
[Amended.] J. Tenney changes one footnote with no change in judgment. Defendant’s counsel failed to ask for jury instructions that would define the serious bodily injury on his possession of a dangerous weapon counts. Defendant was not prejudiced for the convictions based on a chain with a padlock and an axe, but he was prejudiced to the conviction based on a turkey hook. The counsel properly chose not to move for a direct verdict on the paraphernalia count, because there is enough evidence to support that claim. Therefore, there only needs to be a new conviction regarding the weapon counts. Reversed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: March 7, 2024, Case #: 20220143-CA, Categories: Drug Offender, Weapons, Jury Instructions
J. Tenney finds defendant’s counsel failed to ask for jury instructions that would define the serious bodily injury on his possession of a dangerous weapon counts. Defendant was not prejudiced for the convictions based on a chain with padlock and an axe, but he was prejudiced to the conviction based on a turkey hook. The counsel properly chose not to move for direct verdict on the paraphernalia count, because there is enough evidence to support that claim. Therefore, there only needs to be a new conviction regarding the weapon counts. Reversed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: February 23, 2024, Case #: 20220143-CA, Categories: Drug Offender, Weapons, Jury Instructions
J. Tenney finds the district court properly dismissed an nivestment company’s lawsuit against the county, which denied the requested zoning change for a proposed landfill. The planning commission tabled the application due to public concerns; in the meantime, another company was awarded a conditional use permit to operate a landfill. This appeal challenges the court’s conclusions relating to the “similarly situated” and “animus” elements of equal protection. The proposals were filed at different times, and were considered by different commissioners, so they are not similarly situated. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: February 23, 2024, Case #: 20220433-CA, Categories: Civil Procedure, Government, Property
J. Tenney finds the district court properly dismissed this breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and unjust enrichment claims brought by an assignee. The business owner and his two sons argued the case was time-barred and that the statutes of limitation began running in 2009 after the business was dissolved. Because the assignee failed to file this suit until 2021, his claims are time-barred. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: February 15, 2024, Case #: 20210864-CA, Categories: Civil Procedure, Contract
J. Tenney finds that the trial court erred in giving a jury instruction on the classifications of defendant's drug and paraphernalia possession charges.
He was convicted of the paraphernalia count but not the possession count, and he failed to show that he would have received a more favorable outcome without the improper instructions. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 20210552-CA, Categories: Drug Offender, Jury Instructions
J. Tenney finds that the trial court properly granted summary judgment to a lender facing a borrower's attempt to have its loans declared null and void. Under the election of remedies doctrine, an underlying New York judgment barred the attempt since the borrower failed to raise its claim in the New York action that the loans were invalid. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: 20210448-CA, Categories: Civil Procedure, Banking / Lending
J. Tenney finds that defendant was properly convicted of two counts of sodomy on a child and one count of dealing material harmful to a child. Counsel was not deficient for deciding not to rely on a partial recantation by the victim, or for not challenging the admission of testimony by two other children who claimed he had abused them. The trial court's findings supported its decision to allow the victim to testify remotely, and technical problems with that testimony did not prejudice him. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: January 25, 2024, Case #: 20180319-CA, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Sex Offender
J. Tenney finds that victim testimony and a recorded pretext call between the victim and defendant supported her conviction for aggravated sexual abuse of a child. Counsel's decision to not file a motion to exclude the pretext call was sound since there was no basis to argue it was a coerced confession. While counsel's choice to accept her admissions but argue that the victim had initiated many of their sexual encounters was problematic, counsel had only bad strategic choices to work with. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: January 19, 2024, Case #: 20200255-CA, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Sex Offender
J. Tenney finds that the district court properly ruled in favor of the Utah Jazz and visiting player Russell Westbrook on defamation and emotional distress claims made by two Jazz fans. Westbrook's after-game comments that he believed one of the fans said something racist to him cannot be considered defamatory because it was a constitutionally protected statement of opinion that cannot be proven true or false. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: December 29, 2023, Case #: 20210414-CA, Categories: Defamation
J. Tenney holds that a contractor's preliminary lien notice was not timely but the trial court must determine the value of work it performed after the notice, which may support a claim under the savings statute. On remand, the trial court may consider the lien, as well as any related contract claims, in determining the prevailing party for any attorney fee award, and it should use the flexible and reasoned approach. Reversed in part.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: December 29, 2023, Case #: 20210847-CA, Categories: Construction, Attorney Fees, Contract
J. Tenney finds that ample evidence supported the conclusion that a minor caused the injuries and subsequent death of an infant in his care. The infant died from a violent brain injury that would have been apparent very quickly and the minor was the only person alone with the infant just before the symptoms appeared. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: November 16, 2023, Case #: 20210291-CA, Categories: Evidence, Juvenile Law, Murder
J. Tenney upholds the trial court's termination of a mother's parental rights based on evidence that she made false allegations of abuse against her children's father and twice kept them when she lacked custody. Termination was in the children's present-tense best interest, and supervised visitation was not viable. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: October 13, 2023, Case #: 20220774-CA, Categories: Family Law
J. Tenney finds that the district court was within the discretion provided by the supreme court on remand to determine the scope of a prescriptive easement and to limit the servient estate to "reasonable" and "minor" changes to the location of the road it provided. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: October 5, 2023, Case #: 20220195-CA, Categories: Property
J. Tenney finds that the trial court had discretion to deny homeowners the attorney fees they sought after the trial court dissolved a temporary restraining order on their construction project due to inaction by a homeowners' association. A reasonable person could find that the injunction halting their project for nonconformance with CC&Rs was not wrongful. However, the trial court must consider whether they are due attorney fees under a prevailing party provision in the CC&Rs. Reversed in part.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: 20220356-CA, Categories: Property, Damages, Attorney Fees
J. Tenney finds that the trial court improperly denied an escrow agent's motion to compel arbitration of fraud, conspiracy and contract claims made by real estate buyers. The escrow agent is a third-party beneficiary because it was expressly named in the purchase contracts and because the buyers' claims against it are tied to the underlying transactions, so it can enforce the contracts' arbitration provisions. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: 20220047-CA, Categories: Arbitration, Fraud, Real Estate
J. Tenney finds that the court hearing defendant's petition for postconviction relief properly denied his requests for appointment of counsel. The appointment of counsel in postconviction cases is discretionary and neither the complexity of ineffective assistance claims nor the hurdles of postconviction procedures require appointment. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: August 24, 2023, Case #: 20210145-CA, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Sex Offender
J. Tenney finds that the district court properly upheld a county council rejection of a property owner's request to build an accessory building on his ridgeline lot. The proposed structure would require site grading in addition to the completed grading that already exceeded the general plan's limit for development in the area. Also, the county council's denial was within its discretion and its decision was adequate for appellate review. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: August 24, 2023, Case #: 20220338-CA, Categories: Property, Zoning
J. Tenney holds that the Labor Commission properly upheld an administrative court order for an employer to pay for an injection as part of an injured employee's ongoing treatment for a workplace knee injury that happened years earlier. The employer failed to marshal record evidence that would challenge the Commission's findings that the employee's knee pain was related to the workplace injury.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 20220191-CA, Categories: Workers' Compensation
J. Tenney holds that a hearing officer must revisit the review of a teacher's firing and apply the proportionality and consistency standard instead of the "shocks the conscience" framework. The appeals court has jurisdiction to make the holding because an amendment to the statute controlling school board decisions was procedural not substantive and may be applied retroactively.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: July 20, 2023, Case #: 20210155-CA, Categories: Employment, Jurisdiction
[Amended.] J. Tenney adds analysis to a previously published opinion with no change in judgment, finding that the district court must revisit the parties' arguments over the attorney fee provision in a promissory note. A lender incurred fees defending the terms of a note secured by real property after the borrower sought to invalidate the debt and the trust deed. The provision is ambiguous about the extent to which the lender is entitled to recoup the costs and expenses of litigation over the debt and the trust deed. Reversed in part.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: 20210258-CA, Categories: Property, Banking / Lending, Attorney Fees
J. Tenney finds that the trial court must revisit several of its rulings in a divorce case. It must enter more detailed findings to support its conclusions regarding the values of real property assets, the wife's income and earning capacity, the wife's financial condition and needs, and the nature of the couple's marital debts. Vacated in part.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tenney, Filed On: June 8, 2023, Case #: 20210455-CA, Categories: Family Law