Background: The Utah Supreme Court left intact a permanent total disability award for former Granite School District special education teacher Robyn Young, rejecting the district’s challenges to the medical-panel process, the closing of the evidentiary record, the sufficiency of the disability findings, and the denial of a subrogation credit. The decision gives Utah employers and workers’…
Held: The court, in an opinion by Justice Nielsen, declined to disturb the Commission’s order. It first held that the medical panel was properly instructed. The ALJ expressly asked the panel to separate the effects of the two workplace accidents from non-industrial stressors, and the panel answered that the accidents caused Young’s permanent restrictions while the other stressors produced only temporary…
Background: Jose Ramos and Luis Sanchez were residents of a Springfield shelter when a dispute between them ended in Sanchez’s fatal stabbing. Ramos first reported the conflict to shelter staff, who told him that someone would intervene. Instead of waiting, Ramos went to the basement, put on a leather jacket containing a knife, beckoned Sanchez to…
Held: The Supreme Judicial Court unanimously affirmed the conviction and the denial of a new trial. Applying the especially protective review available in first-degree murder cases under General Laws chapter 278, section 33E, the court held that counsel’s tactical choice was not manifestly unreasonable. The victim’s child sexual-assault convictions had little probative value on whether he was likely to introduce deadly…
Background: Rosa Herrera sued Angel Gutierrez-Zacatenco after he rear-ended her at a stoplight in 2019. Gutierrez-Zacatenco admitted liability, leaving causation and damages for trial. His defense focused on whether Herrera’s claimed spinal injuries and later treatment instead arose, at least in part, from a similar 2017 automobile accident. Herrera had produced medical records from that earlier…
Held: The en banc Nevada Supreme Court reversed for a new trial. Writing for the court, Justice Cadish held that NRS 52.325 governs a records custodian’s response to a subpoena but is not the exclusive method for authenticating medical records. Because Gutierrez-Zacatenco obtained these records from Herrera in discovery rather than by subpoenaing Align Med, Nevada’s general authentication rule, NRS 52.015,…
Background: The petition arose from the investigation into the leaking of a video from the Sde Teiman detention facility. An initial opinion by the Justice Ministry’s legal adviser concluded that certain law-enforcement officials, principally the Attorney General, could not then supervise the matter. In an earlier judgment, the Supreme Court held that the Minister of Justice…
Held: The Court unanimously rejected the request to control the investigation’s conduct. It held that courts do not serve as “investigating judges” and do not replace law-enforcement authorities’ professional judgment by ordering particular investigative measures.
Background: Daniel S. Nickels shot and killed Esmeralda Vargas in a hotel room after paying her for sex. Nickels testified that Vargas became angry when he tried to leave, grabbed his collar, blocked the exit, and appeared to reach into a backpack where he had previously seen a handgun. Although he did not see a gun…
Held: The Nebraska Supreme Court held that the district court properly rejected Nickels' requested instruction, which would have removed the retreat requirement entirely. Nebraska law excuses retreat from an actor's dwelling, including the actor's place of lodging, but the evidence did not compel a finding that the hotel room was Nickels' lodging. He had rented it for Vargas, did not sleep…
Background: William Frances Silvia was sentenced to death for murdering his estranged wife, Patricia Silvia, and was also convicted of attempting to murder her mother. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed his convictions and sentence on direct appeal. In 2012, after a detailed judicial colloquy, Silvia validly waived postconviction proceedings and discharged collateral counsel, acknowledging that the…
Held: The Florida Supreme Court affirmed. It held that Silvia’s valid waiver permanently barred collateral attacks on his judgment and sentence, notwithstanding a 2022 rule amendment requiring appointment of counsel for prisoners who had previously discharged counsel. Because the State agreed that claims limited to the execution process could be considered, however, the Court addressed Silvia’s two claims on their merits.
Background: Five universities challenged the government’s classification of full-time undergraduate courses requiring extensive home study and in-person attendance every weekend, but no weekday attendance, as “distance learning courses” under the Education (Student Support) Regulations 2011. That classification makes students generally ineligible for maintenance loans and grants, although tuition-fee support remains available.
Held: Mr Justice Johnson refused permission to claim judicial review on every ground. Regulation 2(1) expressly provides that a requirement to attend “on a weekend” does not satisfy the requirement to be in attendance. Read naturally and with the Interpretation Act 1978, that language covers repeated attendance on multiple weekends, not merely attendance on one isolated weekend. Once all weekend-attendance requirements…
Background: Sea-Dragon Marine Services Pte Ltd provided boat-chartering services pursuant to orders placed by Tag Marine Services Pte Ltd. Although Sea-Dragon invoiced Tag Marine, payments were made by Trans Arctic Global Marine Services Pte Ltd, a company owned and controlled by Mansoor s/o Tayabbhai Gandhi. Services were rendered from about December 2021 to December 2022, but…
Held: The High Court found Mansoor personally liable for fraudulent misrepresentation. He had made false representations, knowing them to be false, to induce Sea-Dragon to continue accepting orders and providing services through Tag Marine, which was a shell entity without an active director, assets, employees, or other business operations. The court also held Mansoor liable under s 2(1) of the Misrepresentation…
Background: After a near collision on Eastern Avenue in Northeast Washington, a driver left his gray Maserati and fired approximately seven shots at Shadonna Nance’s car, injuring her arm. Her two children were inside, and the shooter also fired toward vehicles behind him before driving away. Police identified Kenneth M. Davis as the shooter through evidence…
Held: The District of Columbia Court of Appeals affirmed all convictions. It held that the Maserati dealership service director’s identification testimony was permissible lay opinion based on his personal experience with Davis’s car and other Maseratis he had encountered. Although the photo array was assumed to be impermissibly suggestive, Nance’s identification was sufficiently reliable under the totality of the circumstances. The…
Background: Perpetual lent about $2.53 million to Colevski Pty Ltd in October 2022. The loan refinanced an earlier, higher-interest Charub loan and was secured by mortgages over three family homes at Wattle Grove, Edmondson Park and Casula, with guarantees from Valentina Colevski and six relatives. The loan fell into default, and Perpetual obtained default judgments and…
Held: Faulkner J dismissed the defendants’ amended motion to set aside the default judgments, possession writs and related orders. The Court held that the defendants had not shown a useful purpose in reopening the case because their proposed Contracts Review Act case against Perpetual was speculative rather than reasonably arguable.
Background: Disciplinary counsel asked the Supreme Court of Ohio to order attorney Brent Clark Stobbs to show cause why he should not be held in contempt and suspended for failing to comply with an April 13, 2026 order issued by a panel chair of the Board of Professional Conduct.
Held: The court granted disciplinary counsel’s motion, found Stobbs in contempt, and immediately suspended him from practicing law in Ohio. The suspension will remain in effect until he files proof that he complied with the panel chair’s April 13 order and satisfies the governing reinstatement requirements, including compliance with all applicable court orders and bar rules and entry of a reinstatement…
Background: Friends of Māhāʻulepū sought review in the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court after proceedings in the Intermediate Court of Appeals and the Circuit Court of the Fifth Circuit. The Kauaʻi Planning Commission was the nominal appellee, and RP21 Coco Palms LLC and Coco Palms Hui LLC were intervenor appellees.
Held: The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court exercised its discretion under Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes § 602-59(a) and accepted Friends of Māhāʻulepū’s June 15, 2026 application for a writ of certiorari.