Background: Luis Contento Suquilanda suffered catastrophic injuries after falling from a roof at Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock. Skyway Roofing, Inc. had contracted with the resort to replace the roof and was named as the general contractor on the building permit. Skyway then subcontracted the roofing work to MBT Construction Corp., Suquilanda's employer. The subcontract…
Held: The SJC held first that Skyway did not owe Suquilanda a duty under Massachusetts's retained-control rule. Under Corsetti v. Stone Co., a general contractor that retains control over part of an independent contractor's work, including safety measures, must exercise that control reasonably. A jury usually decides whether control was retained, but summary judgment remains appropriate when the record could not…
Background: Mahmoud Abd al-Rahim Taha built a residence without a permit in the village of al-Dik in the Tulkarm district. After receiving a stop-work order in May 2022, when the project was described as a one-story, approximately 120-square-meter block structure, he sought a retroactive building permit. The planning authorities denied the application, maintained a final stop-work…
Held: The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the appeal on the written record. President Yitzhak Amit held that the District Court correctly found a lack of clean hands because Taha continued and completed the unlawful construction despite the stop-work order, taking advantage of the suspension of enforcement granted while his permit request was considered. The Court rejected his contention that he had…
Background: Six wind farms located in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Iowa applied to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio for certification as eligible Ohio renewable-energy-resource-generating facilities. Certification permits qualifying facilities to sell renewable energy in Ohio. Because the facilities are in states not contiguous to Ohio, they had to show that their electricity was…
Held: The Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed the commission’s order. The court held that sufficient evidence supported the finding that each wind farm’s electricity was deliverable into Ohio and that the commission correctly applied the Koda test. The record included PJM power-flow studies meeting Koda’s numerical thresholds, staff analysis of the full studies, and testimony that PJM could obtain the information…
Background: West London National Health Service Trust sought possession of a house on the Broadmoor Hospital estate occupied by Keith Douglas Palmer, a retired nurse, together with his wife, daughter and grandchild. Palmer had received the monthly tenancy in 1988 because he worked at Broadmoor and understood that its continuation depended in part on his remaining…
Held: The High Court held that the tenancy was not protected by the Rent Act 1977. The asserted status of being a tenant whose landlord was the Crown or a government department was not an “other status” for Article 14 purposes under the applicable domestic authorities. In any event, Palmer was not in a position analogous to a private tenant because…
Background: Jamar J. Myers entered a single plea agreement resolving charges under separate indictments arising from a pharmacy homicide and a 7-Eleven robbery. He pleaded guilty to felony murder in the Pharmacies case and armed robbery in the 7-Eleven case. The agreement expressly preserved his right to appeal both a ruling admitting evidence from the 7-Eleven…
Held: The Supreme Court unanimously reversed. It held that Rules 3:5-7(d) and 3:9-3(f), rather than the ordinary plea-withdrawal framework from State v. Slater, governed Myers’s motion. Because Myers expressly reserved the right to appeal the suppression ruling and prevailed on that appeal, the conditional-plea rule required that he receive an opportunity to withdraw his plea.
Background: Oon Koon Cheng, through Sin Hong Hwa Pte Ltd, sold the shares of Koon Cheng Development Pte Ltd to a company in the USP Group for $32 million. The consideration comprised $24 million in cash and $8 million in USP Group Limited shares. Koon Cheng Development owned industrial properties, including a profitable foreign-worker dormitory that…
Held: The High Court allowed the claim and held that the letter of undertaking was a valid and enforceable contract. Li was bound by his personal promise to repurchase the shares. The court rejected his attempts to characterize the document as legally ineffective and rejected his defenses based on uncertainty, lack of consideration, misrepresentation, and illegality. It found that the parties…
Background: Jah’Heam Taylor pleaded guilty in 2023 to possession of a firearm by a person prohibited, drug dealing, and breach of release. The Superior Court imposed prison terms that were suspended for probation. After an initial probation violation, Taylor remained on probation with GPS monitoring.
Held: The Delaware Supreme Court granted the State’s motion to affirm and upheld the Superior Court’s judgment. It explained that the Superior Court has broad discretion in probation-revocation proceedings and need only be reasonably satisfied that the probationer’s conduct fell short of what the conditions of probation required.
Background: A mother and her two minor children, a Traveller household qualified for social housing support, challenged Limerick City and County Council’s decision to exclude them from housing allocations for 12 months. The Council treated the family’s January 2024 surrender of a supported tenancy as a second refusal of a reasonable housing offer under regulation 12…
Held: Mr Justice Simons extended time for the judicial review and determined the principal issue despite its technical mootness. The applicants’ precarious living conditions, caring responsibilities and unsuccessful efforts to obtain legal assistance explained the delay; critically, the Council conceded that the disqualification was unlawful and no prejudice to third parties was shown.
Background: A jury convicted Michael Scott Rodger of murdering Richard Leman at a Rangiora address on 11 April 2023. The Court found that Rodger arrived armed with a loaded .22 firearm, argued with Leman, shot him first in the thigh and then, while he was incapacitated, shot him in the chest, causing his death.
Held: Eaton J sentenced Rodger to life imprisonment, the mandatory presumptive sentence for murder under s 102 of the Sentencing Act 2002. The issue was the minimum period of imprisonment before Rodger could become eligible to apply for parole.
Background: Uttara Chavan was the sole director and shareholder of Maverick HR Pty Ltd. Maverick had bought a web-hosting and web-design business, but a dispute arose with the sellers, who retook control of the business. Maverick obtained a Magistrates Court judgment against the sellers in 2016. Ms Chavan repeatedly complained to Queensland Police that the sellers…
Held: Ryan J gave summary judgment for the State of Queensland. Although the formal order appears to contain an inconsistency, the reasons and costs disposition make clear that judgment was for the defendant State and that Ms Chavan was to pay its standard costs unless further directions were sought.
Background: Insys Therapeutics marketed Subsys, a fentanyl spray approved for breakthrough cancer pain, through a speaker program that purportedly paid physicians to educate other medical professionals. According to the trial evidence, the program instead rewarded high-prescribing physicians with honoraria in exchange for writing more Subsys prescriptions, while sham or poorly attended events and inaccurate sign-in sheets…
Held: The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the convictions. It held that overwhelming evidence allowed a rational jury to find that Chun, Tondre, and Insys personnel agreed to exchange speaker payments for Subsys prescriptions. Adopting the Fifth Circuit’s interpretation of the Anti-Kickback Statute’s federal-healthcare element, the court held that the government need only show the defendant knowingly agreed to accept remuneration for referrals…
Background: Cory Hoffman, as administrator of Trisha Lyn Hoffman’s estate and in his own right, settled wrongful-death and survival claims against Norfolk Southern Railway Company and the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. Because the litigation involved interests protected through Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure 2039 and 2206, the Dauphin County Court of Common Pleas approved the…
Held: The Commonwealth Court vacated and remanded. President Judge Cohn Jubelirer explained that the party seeking access bears an initial burden when it attacks a final sealing order that was never appealed. The nonparty must present evidence that the privacy interests supporting the original seal have changed or otherwise demonstrate good cause to modify the order. That allocation respects both finality…