Background: The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the termination of a father’s parental rights and clarified the remedies available for violations of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The court held that alleged defects in an earlier foster-care placement action do not require invalidation of a later, separate termination action when the termination itself complied with ICWA…
Held: The supreme court first rejected the discovery challenge. OCS had repeatedly resent discovery by email and mail, the superior court postponed trial to provide review time, and it barred OCS from using documents served after a specified date. Dash pointed only to his assertions that materials were missing and did not identify evidence showing that OCS failed to send them.…
Background: After Thomas Hawley Tuberville won the 2026 Republican primary for governor, the Alabama Republican Party certified him as its nominee. A primary opponent challenged his eligibility under Article V, § 117 of the Alabama Constitution, which requires a governor to have been an Alabama resident citizen for the seven years preceding election. The party’s State…
Held: The Alabama Supreme Court affirmed in a per curiam opinion. Section 17-16-44, Alabama’s election jurisdiction-stripping statute, prevents courts from examining the legality, conduct, or results of an election unless another statute specifically supplies authority. The Legislature supplied a detailed contest process for primary elections, including ineligibility as a permitted ground and an evidentiary hearing before the political party’s executive committee.…
Background: The defendant was charged with three counts of rape and multiple counts of forcible indecent acts against a complainant with whom he had maintained an intermittent relationship, including a sexual relationship, during the preceding four years. The indictment alleged that, after the complainant ended contact, the defendant entered her apartment and committed sexual acts by…
Held: Justice Ofer Grosskopf rejected the challenge to the prima facie evidentiary finding. Although the case was substantially one person’s word against another’s, a single account may establish the evidentiary potential required at the detention stage when it contains no material and readily apparent defects. The defense’s allegations concerning fabrication, revenge, prior complaints, and the complainant’s conduct primarily raised credibility questions…
Background: SCI [Etablissement 1], managed by Gescopi, developed three condominium buildings whose units were sold before completion. The project participants included Agence Balhadere architectes as design project manager, Gescopi as scheduling and coordination manager, Mas BTP as the principal structural contractor, Sobebat as Mas BTP’s subcontractor, and Aquisols as the tiling contractor. The relevant building was…
Held: The Court rejected Gescopi’s and Acte IARD’s argument that a corporate project owner’s ability to perceive an apparent defect must be assessed by reference to the expertise of its legal representative or the individual directing that representative. It held that whether a defect was apparent is assessed exclusively from the project owner’s perspective at acceptance. When the owner is a…
Background: Samuel Jason Derrick was convicted of first-degree murder after Rama Sharma was found stabbed to death near the general store Sharma owned. Derrick’s friend testified that Derrick admitted killing Sharma, and Derrick confessed to police and again in his wife’s presence. The Florida Supreme Court affirmed the conviction but vacated the initial death sentence because…
Held: The Florida Supreme Court affirmed. It held that the postconviction court did not err in finding that Keesling’s statements failed to satisfy the statement-against-penal-interest exception. Evidence supported the finding that several statements were boasts made in a community where a reputation for violence carried social value, rather than statements so contrary to Keesling’s interests that a person in his position…
Background: Timothy Harris sought judicial review of Natural England’s response to nutrient pollution at Catfield Fen, part of the Ant Broads and Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest and the wider Broads Special Area of Conservation. Harris owns the eastern part of the Fen. He alleged that phosphate- and nitrogen-laden runoff from neighbouring farmland crossed Fenside…
Held: Mrs Justice Lieven rejected Harris’s argument that Natural England automatically breached its duties as soon as it learned of a risk and did not immediately remedy it. Regulation 9(1) of the Conservation of Habitats and Species Regulations 2017 and Article 6(2) of the Habitats Directive give the regulator time to investigate and exercise professional judgment about appropriate steps. The precautionary…
Background: Dogo Media Limited and Tempest Tech Limited entered into a Search Distribution Agreement in July 2023. Dogo distributed internet-search products through Tempest’s monetisation platform in return for a share of the resulting revenue. The dispute arose after Tempest paid only part of Dogo’s November 2023 invoice and paid none of its December invoice, asserting that…
Held: Ms. Justice Siobhán Phelan refused to exclude or strike out Tempest’s counterclaim. The earlier order converting the proceedings to plenary form did not expressly restrict the issues or preclude a counterclaim. Moreover, the counterclaim substantially overlapped with the defence: both depended on the same alleged traffic defects, contractual provisions, Microsoft-related quality concerns, and events surrounding the November and December 2023…
Background: Alton Cannon, who was designated a lifetime Tier III sex offender after a 1998 conviction for first-degree unlawful sexual contact, was convicted in 2025 of two counts of failing to report as a registered sex offender. The Superior Court imposed a suspended prison term and Level II probation, during which the Department of Correction required…
Held: The en banc Delaware Supreme Court affirmed. It held that Section 4121(u) unambiguously requires any Tier III sex offender supervised at Level IV, III, II, or I to wear a GPS ankle bracelet as a condition of probation. The provision turns on the offender’s Tier III status and supervision level, not on whether the probation arises from the sex offense…
Background: Disage owned approximately 16 hectares at North Rothbury, New South Wales. A riparian corridor divided the property into eastern and western portions. Stonebark and Disage signed a heads of agreement on 24 April 2021 concerning a proposed subdivision and Stonebark’s contemplated purchase of the eastern portion. Stonebark subsequently paid Disage a total of $170,000 and…
Held: McGrath J held that the heads of agreement was not binding or enforceable. Because the parties had not agreed on the subject matter to be bought and sold, they could not have intended to be immediately bound. The document was an archetypal agreement to agree rather than an enforceable contract, including under the asserted fourth category of Masters v Cameron.
Background: Ten Oklahoma citizens filed a timely constitutional protest against State Question 843, Initiative Petition 455. The proposed statutory amendment to 68 O.S. § 2890 would phase out ad valorem taxation on homesteads over three years and fully exempt homesteads in the third year.
Held: The Oklahoma Supreme Court assumed original jurisdiction and granted the protestants’ requested relief. It declared that State Question 843, Initiative Petition 455 clearly and manifestly violated the Oklahoma Constitution, preventing the proposal from proceeding to the signature-gathering phase.
Background: Joshua W. Nolan was convicted of first-degree murder and use of a deadly weapon to commit a felony in connection with the 2009 shooting death of Justin Gaines. The prosecution presented testimony from several witnesses who identified Nolan as a shooter or as a man fleeing the area. After Nolan’s direct appeal, the Nebraska Supreme…
Held: The Nebraska Supreme Court affirmed. It held that trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to call an eyewitness-identification expert. Under Nebraska precedent governing at the time of Nolan’s 2010 trial, such testimony was considered inadmissible because eyewitness reliability was within the jury’s competence. The court also found no reasonable probability that expert testimony would have changed the suppression ruling,…
Background: Max Amyda spent the evening drinking with Clara at her sister’s house. After Clara refused his request for sex, she fell asleep fully clothed in her bedroom. About a month later, Clara received a video showing her asleep in that room while a man’s hand sexually abused her. She identified the room, furnishings, clothing, her…
Held: The Iowa Supreme Court unanimously held that the district court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the video. Iowa Rule of Evidence 5.901 permits authentication through distinctive characteristics and surrounding circumstances; it does not require either a firsthand witness to the recorded event or testimony establishing the reliability of the recording process. Clara’s detailed identification of the private setting,…