Background: Mohammad Harush was sentenced on February 16, 2025, to nine months’ imprisonment to be served through community service, together with additional penalties. After he began serving the sentence, the community-service arrangement was administratively terminated. Harush filed a prisoner petition challenging that development, but the petition was dismissed with his consent on May 10, 2026, and…
Held: President Isaac Amit denied leave to appeal. The Court reiterated that leave to appeal from a decision in a prisoner petition is granted only in exceptional cases presenting a question of principle extending beyond the parties’ dispute or when necessary to prevent a miscarriage of justice. Harush’s application met neither condition.
Background: Robin McClain was charged with forcible rape and substantial-impairment rape arising from a 2010 incident. The victim, S.G., testified that after taking a sip of a drink at a bar, she remembered nothing until awakening injured in a distant parking lot with her pants unzipped and vaginal soreness. She testified that she had not consented…
Held: The Supreme Court of Ohio held that the State presented sufficient evidence of every element of substantial-impairment rape. The Eighth District applied too demanding a standard by asking whether the State had proved McClain’s knowledge beyond a reasonable doubt rather than whether, viewing the evidence most favorably to the prosecution, the State produced adequate evidence of each element. S.G.’s memory…
Background: Dauphiné Isolation Environnement (DIE) granted Bio Clean the exclusive right to distribute products sold under the “Ecolift Cleaner” brand, including floating-structure lifting docks and consumables. Bio Clean bought an Ecolift from DIE and resold it to Bio Lift. The original sale included a retention-of-title clause under which ownership was reserved until the price had been…
Held: The Court of Cassation upheld the admissibility of Bio Clean and Bio Lift’s appeal. The trial judgment had incorrectly identified the opposing company, and the appellants repeated that court-generated error in their initial notice of appeal. A litigant cannot be held responsible for an error attributable to the court where dismissal of the appeal would impair access to a tribunal.…
Background: Mark Victor Guest and Anne Claire Middleton held a half interest in a Sunrise Beach property as joint tenants, while Mark Guest’s sister, Michelle Nicole Guest, held the other half as tenant in common. The property, purchased in August 2021 for $750,000 and occupied by Michelle Guest, was sold under contract for $1.195 million.
Held: Treston J ordered that selling expenses be paid first, after which the applicants would receive 47.5% of the balance. Liabilities secured by registered mortgages were then to be discharged, and the remaining 52.5% was to go to Michelle Guest, less her secured liability. The 2.5-percentage-point adjustment from an equal division was a modest allowance for her actual outgoings and physical…
Background: Soh Yuan-Yi, a former Credit Suisse relationship manager, pleaded guilty to 20 forgery charges and ten charges for dealing with benefits from criminal conduct. A further 123 charges were taken into consideration. Between 2006 and 2013, she forged at least 112 client instruction letters and carried out unauthorised transactions involving 22 accounts belonging to 15…
Held: The High Court allowed the appeal and reduced the global sentence to 10 years and 7 months' imprisonment. It held that the District Judge had wrongly declined to account for the Amanusa property's value when calculating Soh's net benefit, and should not have given weight to Credit Suisse's compensation figure because it included losses from uncharged trades and could not…
Background: Allen Reese pleaded guilty in July 2021 to first-degree and second-degree sexual abuse of a child by a person in a position of trust. The parties agreed to recommend thirteen years of unsuspended Level V incarceration and completion of the Department of Correction’s Transitions program during that incarceration. The Superior Court imposed thirty-three years at…
Held: The Delaware Supreme Court granted the State’s motion to affirm and upheld the Superior Court’s denial of Reese’s request. The court concluded that the appeal was manifestly without merit on the face of Reese’s opening brief.
Background: Revenue sought summary judgment against Paul Howard and Úna McClean for unpaid tax assessments, principally concerning rental income and capital gains arising from a property portfolio. The assessments dated from 2015, had been unsuccessfully challenged before the Appeals Commissioners, and had become final and conclusive. After final demands issued in 2021 were not met, Revenue…
Held: The Supreme Court rejected the challenge to Revenue's solicitor-fee arrangements and upheld Revenue's entitlement to judgment on the tax debts. Section 149(1) of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 answered the challenge to the conditional uplift fee. The Court also confirmed the settled position that “no foal no fee” arrangements are permitted in Ireland.
Background: Spencer Rhoda and Dr. Saif Rehman were candidates for Maryland House of Delegates in Legislative District 9A. Rehman, an independent candidate, submitted a nomination petition to obtain a place on the 2026 general-election ballot.
Held: The Supreme Court of Maryland affirmed the circuit court’s dismissal with prejudice of Rhoda’s petition for judicial review. Under the Election Law Article, a challenge to an election official’s determination concerning a nomination petition must be brought by the earlier of ten days after the determination or the 69th day before the election.
Background: A North Carolina crane company supplied emergency equipment and crews to New-Indy’s South Carolina paper mill after a lime-kiln crack. The parties disputed payment of more than $1.4 million and whether purchase orders sent after work began incorporated a South Carolina forum-selection clause.
Held: The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of New-Indy’s venue motion. The agreement was formed when the North Carolina representative approved the purchase order, so it was entered in North Carolina. Even assuming incorporation, G.S. 22B-3 made the out-of-state forum clause void and unenforceable.
Background: Canary Reed, a Black woman, worked the night shift as a Body Form Technician at Remington Ammunition’s facility in Lonoke, Arkansas. She alleged that predominantly white male coworkers repeatedly shut down her machines before her shifts, discarded a handmade productivity tool, incorrectly recorded her as absent, and blamed her for workplace problems. In April 2023,…
Held: The Eighth Circuit affirmed. On discrimination, the court held that Reed did not establish circumstances supporting an inference of race or sex discrimination. Her proposed comparator had the same job and shift but lacked a comparable disciplinary history, and there was no evidence that supervisors had observed him sleeping at work or that he had engaged in a similar confrontation…
Background: Timothy Tarver was tried in Delaware County on charges arising from sexual abuse reported by A.H., who was eleven when police first interviewed her and fifteen by the time of trial. A.H. described three incidents, beginning when she was seven or eight, and testified that Tarver forced sexual contact on her. The jury also watched…
Held: The Superior Court affirmed the conviction. Judge Nichols explained that A.H.’s testimony, if believed, established every element of indecent assault. A verdict need not be internally consistent across separate counts, and an acquittal cannot be used to impeach a conviction that rests on sufficient evidence. The jury was free to accept parts of the testimony and reject others, so its…
Background: John Owens and his sister-in-law, Connie Owens, each owned an undivided one-half interest in Benton County property containing Connie’s residence and tillable farmland. After John died, his interest passed to his estate. In 2023, the Estate brought a partition action involving that property and eight other parcels. The parties entered a partition exchange agreement intended…
Held: The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed the summary judgment. It held that, under the case’s particular facts, the partition agreement and the January 2024 order approving it constituted a final judgment on the merits for claim-preclusion purposes. The agreement was intended to resolve all issues in the partition action, the Estate executed it without reserving rights, and the Estate neither…