Background: The Council on Judicial Complaints investigated Tulsa County District Judge Sharon Holmes after learning that she had met privately with a criminal defendant and then declined to recuse. The investigation expanded to cover other alleged ex parte communications, failures to disqualify, undignified conduct, and concerns about fairness and impartiality in the Arise Program, a specialty…
Held: The Oklahoma Supreme Court adopted the Council’s findings and conclusions that Holmes violated Rules 1.2, 2.2, 2.6, 2.8, 2.9, 2.11, and 2.16 of the Code of Judicial Conduct. It concluded that her ex parte communications and nondisclosure impaired the parties’ right to be heard and created an appearance of impropriety; her failures to disqualify called her impartiality into question; her…
Background: Eli Kahana was the sole owner of Eli Kahana Holdings Ltd., which owned all the shares of Achim Eisenberg Ltd. Kahana had worked for Eisenberg for approximately 40 years and was its dominant active figure. Eisenberg acted as an Israeli sales agent in the electron-microscope business for a company in the FEI group.
Held: The Supreme Court unanimously dismissed the appeal. It disagreed with the District Court on the first step of the governing two-stage inquiry, finding that Kahana’s personal noncompete agreement was authentic. Evidence showed that the purchaser demanded Kahana’s separate commitment as a material condition of the transaction, and the purchaser had a genuine commercial interest in obtaining an express contractual promise…
Background: Dahir Ibrahim, a Muslim prisoner at HMP Birmingham, was prescribed Codeine for knee pain. Because Codeine was considered unsuitable for prisoners to possess, it was dispensed under supervision at medication hatches operating during fixed daytime hours. During Ramadan 2019, those hours fell within the period when Ibrahim was fasting. He therefore had to choose between…
Held: Mr Justice Soole dismissed the Trust’s appeal. The challenged treatment fell within the ambit of Articles 8 and 9 because it had a more than merely tenuous connection to the core values protected by those provisions. Ibrahim did not have to prove a violation of the substantive rights or a detrimental physical effect for Article 14 to apply. Requiring him…
Background: Runbuk Inc brought trademark-related proceedings against Ice Cap Adventures and David Kelly in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida. The dispute concerned Ice Cap Adventures’ Great World Race, a seven-marathons-on-seven-continents event that Runbuk alleged used marks identical or similar to those associated with its World Marathon Challenge. Richard Donovan, who previously…
Held: Mr Justice Barry O’Donnell refused Mr Donovan’s motion. The Court held that both the California proceedings and the Florida stay should have been disclosed during the ex parte application. The failure to disclose the stay was particularly serious, and the decision by Runbuk’s US lawyer to treat it as immaterial was a serious error of judgment. Nevertheless, the omissions did…
Background: The Secretary of the New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice applied on behalf of proposed adoptive parents Renée and Gerard Morrel for orders adopting brothers Edmund and Albert Wilmore. The brothers had lived continuously with the Morrels as their foster carers since August 2020, after their father died while the family was visiting…
Held: McGrath J ordered that Edmund and Albert be adopted by Renée and Gerard. The Court found that all formal statutory requirements were met and that adoption would promote each brother’s best interests. Because both were over 12 when they gave informed consent, their birth mother’s consent was not required and did not need to be dispensed with. Although the proposed…
Background: The Roe Corporation, 267 Partners, LLC and Buhm Jung Roe appointed Berhero Pty Ltd, trading as Acuity Funding, to arrange up to approximately US$280 million in financing for a New York condominium project. After Global Wise Investment Pte Ltd issued a conditional offer that Roe did not sign, Acuity commenced SIAC arbitration for its 4%…
Held: The High Court dismissed the appeal. An application by a party for specific documents, including documents mentioned in pleadings or affidavits, falls under O 11 r 3 of the Rules of Court 2021. Order 11 r 4 concerns production ordered by the court on its own initiative, while O 3 r 2(2) does not apply where an express rule governs…
Background: While incarcerated at the privately managed Northeast Ohio Correctional Center, L’Ddaryl Ellis sent 73 requests over ten days seeking 2023 or 2024 records-retention schedules, records-retention policies, and public-records policies from numerous offices and employees associated with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, the prison, and private contractors. He later filed an original mandamus action…
Held: The Supreme Court of Ohio denied the writ, holding that Ellis failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that the department-specific policies and schedules he sought existed. The general ODRC policies applied across departments and addressed records including medical, educational, and food-services records. Because nonexistent records are not public records, Ellis could not establish a clear legal right to…
Background: A jury found Audrey Hinetau Thompson guilty of murdering Arthur Tahere after rejecting her claim of self-defence. Thompson met Tahere, the partner of her friend Sunday Howard, for the first time at a gathering in Kaitaia on 7 September 2024. During an argument between Howard and Tahere, Thompson smashed a beer bottle on a concrete…
Held: The Court sentenced Thompson to life imprisonment, as required for murder unless that sentence would be manifestly unjust. Thompson did not seek to displace the statutory presumption, and both parties agreed that life imprisonment was appropriate.
Background: Company [3] supplied a crane to company [6] for lifting pallets at a construction site. Boards fell during the operation, killing employee [S] [A] and seriously injuring employees [B] [W] and [P] [G]. Company [3] was placed under formal investigation for work-related involuntary homicide and injuries.
Held: The Court of Cassation partially vacated the judgment as to company [1] and its insurer, company [2]. It reaffirmed that, despite the rule that no person is criminally liable except for that person’s own conduct, an absorbing company may be punished for the absorbed company’s conduct when the merger was intended to enable the absorbed company to escape criminal liability…
Background: Kris Taylor and Kevin Ball co-owned Alpha Sod, Inc. Their business relationship deteriorated after Taylor and others accused Ball of embezzling company money. Ball later retained attorney Patrick Davis in related criminal and civil litigation. After the State dismissed the criminal charges against Ball, Davis gave an interview to EastIdahoNews.com about the dispute.
Held: The Idaho Supreme Court held that Idaho continues to recognize defamation per se for statements imputing conduct, characteristics, or conditions that bear on a person's fitness to properly conduct that person's business, trade, or profession. The Court rejected the district court's conclusion that later Idaho decisions had eliminated that category.
Background: Bryant Gibbs appealed from proceedings in the Delaware Superior Court but did not file an opening brief by the Delaware Supreme Court’s July 31, 2026 deadline. On August 10, the Chief Deputy Clerk sent Gibbs a notice of brief delinquency.
Held: The Delaware Supreme Court dismissed Gibbs’s appeal under Supreme Court Rules 3(b)(2) and 29(b). The court deemed dismissal unopposed under the circumstances.
Background: Hope Louise Cermelj sought certiorari review of proceedings identified as CAAP-24-0000640 and District Court case No. 3DTC-24-219562. She filed her application for a writ of certiorari on August 14, 2026.
Held: The Supreme Court of Hawaiʻi accepted Cermelj’s application for a writ of certiorari. The order did not resolve the merits of her claims.