Background: Amy Cross and her company Cross Ranch Land, LLC owned several parcels near those of neighbor Lisa Albright in Fremont County, Wyoming. The parties’ properties lay in a “scattered ownership pattern” that generated multiple disputes — over joint ownership of some parcels, access to ditches and headgates serving irrigation needs, and access to certain of…
Held: Affirmed on all issues.
Background: In the early morning hours of November 21, 2020, eighteen-year-old Zebadiah Soriano was at the home of his platonic friend, AC, where the two had agreed to take LSD. AC took one tab; Soriano took six — more than double his normal dose. After the drug took effect, Soriano removed his pants and underwear, forced…
Held: In a 6-1 opinion authored by Justice Thomas and joined by Chief Justice Cavanagh and Justices Zahra, Welch, Bolden, and Hood, the Michigan Supreme Court held that Soriano's Miranda waiver was not knowing and intelligent and that its admission was not harmless error, requiring a new trial. The Court reaffirmed that voluntary intoxication does not automatically invalidate a Miranda waiver,…
Background: Rhoda Shaw, an elderly widow with cognitive difficulties, owned a two-unit lakeside structure in Sandpoint, Idaho and a primary home in Pearce, Arizona. On September 7, 2021, Rhoda executed a quitclaim deed conveying her entire interest in the Idaho property to her son Bobby Shaw, who had lived on the property for decades. Bobby took…
Held: The Idaho Supreme Court affirmed the district court on all grounds. On the jurisdictional question, the court held that the "first-to-file rule" did not compel the Idaho court to yield to Arizona. Applying the two-part test from Klaue v. Hern, the court found that the original Arizona guardianship proceeding — which concerned only the appointment of a guardian and did…
Background: Tom Jordan brought employment-related claims against Murphys Garage Headford Ltd ("Old Co") and John Murphy for damages arising from events in 2010–2013. The proceedings commenced in November 2013, with the statement of claim delivered in February 2014. After years of delay and a failed strike-out application by defendants in 2023, the case was placed in…
Held: Justice Garrett Simons granted the plaintiff's motion to join New Co as a co-defendant. The court held that the plaintiff had established a stateable case—the threshold required at the joinder stage—and that New Co's presence was necessary to enable the court to adjudicate the existing controversy. The court rejected each of the defendants' objections.
Background: In May 2015, Scott Diana opened a credit card account with Credit One Bank and defaulted on a balance of $618.91. Credit One sold the debt to MHC Receivables, LLC, which then assigned it through a chain of entities — FNBM, LLC, Sherman Originator III LLC, and Sherman Originator LLC — before it ultimately landed…
Held: Writing for a unanimous Court, Justice Hoffman held that the CFLA does not contain an implied private right of action for a borrower to affirmatively void a loan contract. Applying the three-factor test drawn from Cort v. Ash, 422 U.S. 66 (1975), and adopted by New Jersey in R.J. Gaydos Insurance Agency, Inc. v. National Consumer Insurance Co., 168 N.J.…
Background: On January 15, 2017, two people were shot and killed in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. Two days later, a Texas sheriff's deputy stopped a vehicle in Wheeler County, Texas for a defective headlight. Adrian Causey was a front-seat passenger. After issuing a warning and returning the driver's documents, the deputy continued questioning and ultimately obtained…
Held: The New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the suppression order. The Court held that Article II, Section 10 of the New Mexico Constitution applies to defendants prosecuted in New Mexico courts, and that when the State proffers evidence gathered by another state's law enforcement in violation of that provision, the evidence is inadmissible in New Mexico state courts. The geographic…
Background: On the night of May 11, 1987, James Aren Duckett — then the sole patrol officer on duty in Mascotte, Florida — placed eleven-year-old Teresa McAbee in the front seat of his police cruiser. She was never seen alive again. Her body was recovered the following morning from a nearby lake; the medical examiner determined…
Held: The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court's summary denial of Duckett's fifth successive postconviction motion and denied his habeas corpus petition, then lifted the stay of execution. On the due process claim, the court held that whatever procedural concerns may have existed regarding the circuit court's premature denial of the motion were mooted by subsequent events: the court stayed…
Background: In early 2018, Yosef Levi and other apartment owners in a renovation and reconstruction project (under Israel's Tama 38/2 program) on Herzl Street 116 in Jerusalem entered into an agreement with Hod HaBira Projects Ltd. The agreement provided that replacement units would be allocated by lottery, but owners could upgrade to higher floors for an…
Held: The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed Hod HaBira's appeal seeking an award of costs. The court reaffirmed the principle that appellate courts rarely interfere with costs determinations made by trial courts, intervening only in "rare and extreme" cases involving legal error or substantial defects in judicial discretion. The court emphasized that trial courts possess broad discretion in awarding costs and attorney's…
Background: On June 23, 2020, landowner M. [T] promised to sell a rural parcel to M. [P] and Mme [G]. Following notification of this sale to the notary, the SAFER (Société d'Aménagement Foncier et d'Établissement Rural Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur)—a rural land development agency with statutory preemption rights—decided to exercise partial preemption on September 18, 2020. On that…
Held: The Court of Cassation partially reversed and held that the statute of limitations cannot run against an evicted buyer who has not received proper statutory notification of the SAFER preemption decision. Under Article R. 143-6 of the Rural and Maritime Fisheries Code, SAFER must notify the evicted buyer by registered mail with acknowledgment of receipt within 15 days of receiving…
Background: Michele and Craig Wilson divorced in 2010 after a marriage that began in 1980. As part of their divorce, the parties executed a Property Settlement Agreement (PSA) that was incorporated but not merged into the final judgment. Paragraph Fourteenth of the PSA required Craig to transfer one-half of his "fully vested retirement plan through his…
Held: The Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Family Court's order. On the statute of limitations, the Court held that Michele's cause of action did not accrue until June 1, 2015, when Craig began receiving pension benefits and failed to remit her share—not in May 2010 when the final judgment was entered. Because Michele filed her motion in December 2023, within ten…
Background: The plaintiff, S M Senarath Bandara Chanaka Senanayake, was admitted as a solicitor in New South Wales in 2004 and registered as a migration agent in 2010. In 2016, a complaint was made to the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) alleging that 10 protection visa applications he prepared were similar in wording and appeared to…
Held: Justice Elkaim dismissed the summons and ordered the plaintiff to pay the defendant's costs. The court conducted a de novo hearing on the merits under section 100 of the Legal Profession Uniform Law 2014 (NSW), focusing solely on whether the plaintiff had discharged the onus upon him to establish fitness to hold a practising certificate. The court found that the…
Background: Mark Hoggart was originally convicted and sentenced in February 2004 for three offences committed on 25 January 2003: wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, injuring with intent to injure, and threatening to kill. The offending involved his girlfriend and his mother's partner. After an escalating pattern of violence—including choking his girlfriend until she…
Held: Justice Downs declined to re-impose preventive detention, despite finding a clear pattern of serious offending directed at intimate partners across three decades (2001, 2003, and 2019). The judge acknowledged that Hoggart posed a real risk of future violent offending against women in relationships, particularly because his violence involved strangulation—behaviour the court noted as "inherently dangerous" and psychologically significant as it…