Background: John Robert Allen was charged with six counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor in Laramie County. The Wyoming Public Defender was appointed to represent him, but after Allen posted a $100,000 surety bond, his public defender moved to reconsider the appointment on the theory that a defendant who could post that amount might…
Held: Reversed and remanded, with Chief Justice Boomgaarden writing for the majority. The court rejected both threshold arguments and held the district court exceeded its statutory authority by requiring Allen to liquidate an asset in advance to secure public defender fee reimbursement.
Background: Florence Tosch leased her home near Trego, Montana to Edward and Catherine Kahle under a written one-year lease beginning June 2017, which converted to month-to-month when it expired. Florence died of cancer in May 2021, leaving the property in trust for her two daughters. When the Estate moved to terminate the tenancy and sell the…
Held: The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in full. On the fraud issue, the Court held that the District Court correctly applied the actual-fraud framework of § 27-1-221, MCA, and that clear and convincing evidence supported the finding that Edward forged the 2019 Lease/Option. The Court explained that forgery — a false writing purporting to be the writing of another…
Background: Mohammed Abdulla is a commercial truck driver who was injured in December 2020 when the tractor-trailer he was operating collided with another tractor-trailer in Missouri. He was hauling cargo from Michigan to Texas. The tractor he drove was titled to Tornado Trucking, LLC — a Michigan limited-liability company of which Abdulla was the sole member…
Held: In a unanimous opinion by Justice Zahra, the Michigan Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and held that Abdulla was an "owner" of the tractor within the meaning of MCL 500.3101(3)(l)(i). The Court applied the standard from Twichel v. MIC Gen. Ins. Corp., 469 Mich 524 (2004), which directs courts to focus on the nature of a person's right…
Background: Madelon Brogdon owns approximately eighteen acres in Tremont, Maine. The front portion of her property, which contains a former inn now used as a single-family residence, lies within the Commercial Fishery/Maritime Activity (CFMA) zone. The undeveloped rear portion lies within the Residential-Business (RB) zone, where campgrounds are a permitted use. Brogdon sought approval to construct…
Held: The Maine Supreme Judicial Court vacated the BCD's judgment and remanded with instructions to affirm the Planning Board's denial. Reviewing the Board's decision directly — and giving substantial deference to the Board's mixed findings of law and fact — the court held that the Board's classification of the existing way as a driveway was reasonable and supported by competent evidence…
Background: Reagan Marine Construction, LLC was the general contractor for the expansion of Church Street Marina in Bristol, Rhode Island. In November 2021, Reagan entered into a subcontract with Costa Companies, Inc. — signed by Victor Costa as CEO — for electrical work on the project. The subcontract required timely written notice of delays and included…
Held: The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed the default judgment in full. On the notice and service issue, the Court held that defendants waived the argument under the state's raise-or-waive rule. Because defendants never filed a Rule 60(b) motion to vacate — the procedurally required vehicle to present a notice challenge after a default order — the trial justice was never…
Background: On May 11, 2018, a storm drove rainwater through the walls of James Ropicky's Wisconsin home, causing what appeared at first to be localized water damage. Cincinnati Insurance Company's retained engineer, Donald Krizan, concluded that the water had entered through a one-inch gap constituting a construction defect present since the house was built in 2005,…
Held: The Wisconsin Supreme Court, in a 4-3 decision authored by Justice Hagedorn, held first that rainwater constitutes an "ensuing loss" within the meaning of the policy's Ensuing Loss Exception to the Construction Defect Exclusion. Even if a construction defect set the stage for water intrusion, the resulting physical damage caused by the rainwater itself is a covered ensuing loss. The…
Background: In December 2015, two employer organizations—the Union nationale des syndicats de détaillants en fruits, légumes et primeurs (UNFD) and Syndicat Synadis bio—concluded a protocol agreement whereby UNFD (later renamed Union des syndicats professionnels saveurs commerce) committed to distribute, beginning in 2016, funds received from the "fonds paritaire" (parity fund) among its member syndicates proportionally to…
Held: The Court of Cassation rejected the appeal. The court confirmed that while French labor law restricts direct access to parity fund credits to organizations representative at the national-interprofessional or sectoral levels, the law does not prohibit a representative employer organization from redistributing such funds to its member syndicates or from determining the method of redistribution. Accordingly, a representative employer organization…
Background: In December 2019, Shawn and Tanya Maywald were struck head-on by a northbound driver who fell asleep and drifted across the center line on State Route 77. Shawn suffered major injuries. The Maywalds sued Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota Motor North America, Inc., and the dealership Overtyme, Inc., asserting strict liability for design defect, negligent design,…
Held: The court vacated the court of appeals' decision and reinstated the trial court's summary judgment for Toyota. Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Beene reaffirmed Arizona's two-element strict liability standard: a plaintiff must prove (1) the product was sold in a defective condition, and (2) the defect rendered the product unreasonably dangerous. The court disapproved prior court of appeals decisions—Dillon…
Background: CP Holdings Limited and its subsidiaries sought to claim €10 million in business interruption (BI) losses arising from COVID-19 closures under a 2018 Global Master Policy issued by Assicurazioni Generali. The claimants' underlying rectification claim—seeking to reform the 2019 renewal to include 2018 policy terms—had failed in the main judgment handed down on 29 June…
Held: Justice Baker held that the €150 million Policy Loss Limit and the €10 million Disease Clause sub-limit both operated as "per loss" limits, not annual aggregate limits. The court rejected the defendants' argument that General Clause 5 converted these into aggregate caps applying across all claimants. The mere existence of multiple insureds did not trigger an annual aggregate limit; such…
Background: Glenda Young was convicted after a bench trial of first-degree murder and armed criminal action for the shooting death of her husband and was sentenced on July 28, 2020, to concurrent terms of life without parole and 30 years. The prosecution's evidence showed the victim was shot around 11:00 a.m. on January 20, 2017, leaving…
Held: The Supreme Court of Missouri affirmed the motion court's judgment in full, though it corrected several subsidiary errors along the way. First, it held the motion court clearly erred in finding Young's pro se motion untimely: because the motion was filed prematurely while her direct appeal was pending, Rule 29.15(b) deemed it filed on the date the court of appeals'…
Background: Three defendants face serious criminal charges stemming from events in early 2024. On February 28, 2024, the defendants allegedly conspired with two other individuals to carjack a vehicle by using forged license plates, forcing a black Skoda to stop at gunpoint, and forcing the driver to flee before driving away in the stolen car. Approximately…
Held: Justice Yael Wilner, writing for the Court, acknowledged that the pace of the main trial proceedings has been unsatisfactory and that no evidentiary hearings have yet occurred. However, she concluded that the balance between the defendants' right to liberty and the state's interests in public safety and the integrity of criminal proceedings favors continued detention. The Court emphasized that the…
Background: Victoria H. Smith died leaving a holographic will that disinherited two of her three children and left everything to her son Vernon K. Smith, Jr., a licensed attorney. The will was successfully challenged by Vernon's brother on grounds of undue influence, and the court determined Victoria died intestate. Ford Elsaesser was appointed Personal Representative (PR)…
Held: The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed all challenged orders and the district court's 2017 Rule 70(b) judgment without reaching the merits of any issue. The court held that Smith's briefing failed to satisfy the requirements of Idaho Appellate Rule 35(a) in four independently disqualifying ways: his table of contents omitted the required argument outline; his statement of the case merely listed…