Background: Boston took the land that became Franklin Park by eminent domain in 1883 expressly for use as a public park. Frederick Law Olmsted designed the park, including the Playstead, an area intended for recreation, athletic events, ceremonies, and other large gatherings. Decades later, the city transferred a fourteen-acre portion of the Playstead to the George…
Held: The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed. Article 97 protects land acquired or dedicated for conservation and recreation and generally requires a two-thirds legislative vote before protected land may be disposed of or converted to another use. The stadium parcel was unquestionably parkland when Boston took it in 1883. But Article 97 was ratified in 1972, so the decisive question was whether…
Background: Majlis al-Iskan, a development company, owns parcels in Jerusalem’s Beit Hanina neighborhood and is pursuing a residential project under Local Outline Plan 11448. The plan calls for an 18-meter-wide public road serving the company’s parcels and nearby residents. In April 2018, the company paid the Jerusalem Municipality approximately NIS 7.7 million in road-paving and drainage…
Held: The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the appeal without requiring a response from the municipality. Deputy President Noam Sohlberg held that the undisclosed undertaking was plainly material because, on its face, the company had waived claims concerning both the timing and manner of the roadworks and the development levies. An administrative petitioner must present the complete relevant factual record; the municipality’s…
Background: The Department for Work and Pensions conducted a procurement for a strategic video-channels solution. Involve Visual Collaboration Ltd, the incumbent audiovisual-services provider, submitted a solution using its SQOD platform. Bidders had to achieve a minimum score of 4 on each technical-merit question before their commercial tenders would be evaluated.
Held: Mrs Justice O’Farrell held that DWP was entitled to reopen the moderation and that treating URL masking as incapable of satisfying Question 6.4 was not manifestly erroneous. On an objective interpretation, the question required the service to be integrated and consumed from within DWP or GOV.UK webpages, whereas Involve proposed redirecting users to its third-party platform while masking the non-GOV.UK…
Background: Philip Denis Leach was compulsorily examined by the Australian Taxation Office in 2010. The examination was later supplied to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions and used in preparing and conducting a prosecution for financial and dishonesty offences. Leach was convicted on all counts in 2017 and sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment, but the Queensland…
Held: McCafferty J dismissed the application because Leach had not established the threshold requirement that it was in the interests of justice for the Supreme Court to intervene through its exceptional supervisory jurisdiction rather than allow the District Court proceedings to follow their ordinary course. The Court did not determine the merits of Leach’s arguments about the continuing legal effect of…
Background: Wilmington Police Sergeant Deshaun Ketler saw Jarrod Penn in a high-crime, high-drug area near an ongoing traffic stop. Penn’s right jacket pocket hung substantially lower than the left, suggesting to Ketler, based on his training and experience, that it contained a handgun. Ketler then watched Penn nervously monitor the traffic stop from a park bench…
Held: The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed. It held that Ketler had reasonable and articulable suspicion before even the earliest point at which Penn claimed the encounter became a seizure. Viewed together, the sagging pocket, Penn’s nervous surveillance of the traffic stop, his effort to remain out of the officers’ sight, the location, and Ketler’s training and experience supported suspicion that Penn…
Background: George Brinkman Jr. murdered his friend Suzanne and her adult daughters, Taylor and Kylie, in their North Royalton home in June 2017. He restrained the women before killing Suzanne with a knife, suffocating Taylor, and strangling Kylie. After an eight-hour standoff, Brinkman surrendered to police and confessed.
Held: The Supreme Court of Ohio overruled all 22 propositions of law and affirmed Brinkman’s convictions and three death sentences. Among other rulings, the court held that a panel judge’s initial misstatement of the capital-sentencing standard did not constitute outcome-determinative plain error. The panel reconvened the next day, stated the correct standard, and confirmed that its deliberations had applied that standard:…
Background: Nine plaintiffs alleged that a part-time counselor at the Boys and Girls Club of Hudson County sexually abused them between 1976 and 1984, both during club-sponsored activities and at his apartment. After New Jersey amended its Child Sexual Abuse Act in 2019 to revive certain previously time-barred claims, the plaintiffs sued the Hudson County club,…
Held: The New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the State’s courts lacked specific personal jurisdiction over BGCA. Although BGCA had contacts with New Jersey—including providing the local club with sample programming, organizational support, professional-development opportunities, and training, while receiving membership dues and requiring use of its name and logo—the plaintiffs’ claims did not arise out of or relate to those…
Background: Lasa Extract operated a hemp cultivation and processing business in a large building on residentially zoned property in Suffield. The property historically had been used for tobacco farming and processing before the town adopted zoning regulations, making that historic use a protected legal nonconforming use. In 2019, the town’s zoning enforcement officer determined that hemp…
Held: The Connecticut Supreme Court affirmed. A different state licensing or regulatory scheme is relevant evidence in deciding whether a proposed activity impermissibly expands a legal nonconforming use, but it is not dispositive. The governing inquiry remains fact-specific and compares the original and proposed uses’ purpose, nature, kind, character, and neighborhood effects under the factors stated in Zachs v. Zoning Board…
Background: Martin McDonagh was charged with assault causing harm following an allegation that he stabbed another man during an altercation on 10 August 2026. He was presumed innocent. The District Court refused bail on 11 August, finding a probable risk that he would evade justice, and remanded him in custody.
Held: Mr Justice Simons held that the 11 August District Court proceedings did not amount to a hearing cognisable in law and therefore could not lawfully sustain McDonagh's detention. The applicable threshold was a fundamental denial of justice or fundamental flaw in the decision-making process, rather than an ordinary error capable of correction through a High Court bail application.
Background: The Attorney Grievance Commission and Jason D. Lamm jointly petitioned for corresponding Maryland discipline based on Arizona disciplinary proceedings.
Held: The Supreme Court of Maryland granted corresponding discipline under Maryland Rules 19-736 and 19-737. It suspended Lamm from practicing law in Maryland for 30 days, effective August 19, 2026.
Background: The Indiana Tax Court affirmed the Department of Local Government Finance’s approval of Lake County’s 2023 land order, rejecting challenges to the order’s timing, valuation methods, supporting data, and public-hearing procedures. A land order is the county assessor’s schedule of base land values for different neighborhoods and property classes. Those base rates are starting points…
Held: Judge McAdam held that neither challenger carried the burden of showing that the DLGF’s determination was arbitrary, capricious, contrary to law, an abuse of discretion, or unsupported by substantial evidence. The January 1 assessment date is a valuation date, not a deadline for completing a land order. Indiana’s system necessarily permits assessors to analyze prior-year sales and finish valuation work…
Background: Two brothers acquired Suffolk County land as tenants in common in 1969 and later subdivided it. The parcel now at issue is approximately 17.41 acres of undeveloped residential or agricultural land containing a pond and cultivated field. One brother transferred his half interest to Sagland, LLC, managed by his daughter; the other transferred his half…
Held: The Second Department reversed. Writing for the court, Justice Donna-Marie E. Golia held that a trust and a limited liability company are not ‘individuals’ within RPAPL 993. Property wholly owned by those entities, with no individual cotenant who acquired title from a relative, therefore cannot satisfy the statutory definition of heirs property.