Background: A jury convicted Timothy R. Christensen of one count of second-degree sexual abuse of a minor after a fifteen-year-old girl reported that he had vaginal and anal intercourse with her at his home. The girl disclosed the incident to her mother the following night, repeated the account during a sexual-assault examination, and later described it…
Held: The Wyoming Supreme Court unanimously affirmed. Justice Jarosh explained that Rule 801(d)(1)(B) permits a witness's prior consistent statement when the witness testifies, is subject to cross-examination, the earlier statement is consistent with the trial testimony, and the statement rebuts an express or implied charge of recent fabrication, improper influence, or improper motive. An accusation of fabrication need not appear as…
Background: Virginia Pass used a Care@Home C7000 medical-alert system at her Nevada home. Her family alleged that she fell in 2021, the device failed to summon help, and she remained on the floor for 36 hours before being found; she died a week later. Her estate and children sued New Jersey-based Essence USA, which facilitated North…
Held: The en banc Nevada Supreme Court affirmed. It reaffirmed Nevada's “pure” stream-of-commerce test rather than the more demanding stream-of-commerce-plus approach used in some jurisdictions. Under Nevada's test, a nonresident defendant purposefully avails itself of the forum when it places products into commerce expecting them to reach Nevada and that conduct produces a regular and anticipated flow of products into the…
Background: Marcelo Aita worked for NCB Management Services under a compensation arrangement that included monthly retention bonuses. NCB paid 12 of those bonuses late, but eventually paid the full wages plus six percent interest in 2017. By the time Aita sued in 2019, no earned wages remained unpaid. His complaint instead sought liquidated damages and attorney…
Held: Justice Mundy wrote for the Court in reversing. Section 260.9a(b) authorizes an employee to maintain an action “to recover unpaid wages and liquidated damages.” Reading that language together with the remainder of the section, the Court concluded that liquidated damages supplement a viable claim for unpaid wages; they do not create an independent cause of action after all wages have…
Background: David Ekukpe was charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and related offenses. Nine months after his arrest, he sought dismissal under CPL 30.30, New York's statutory speedy-trial rule. Supreme Court denied the motion. Ekukpe then pleaded guilty under a negotiated disposition and executed an appeal waiver whose terms expressly covered the speedy-trial ruling.
Held: The Court of Appeals affirmed. CPL 30.30(6) says that an order finally denying a statutory speedy-trial motion remains reviewable on appeal notwithstanding a guilty plea. The Court read that language as abolishing the former forfeiture rule tied automatically to the plea itself. Nothing in the text addresses a separately negotiated waiver of appellate rights.
Background: The military commander ordered the confiscation and demolition, under Regulation 119 of the Defence (Emergency) Regulations, 1945, of the apartment occupied by Abdullah Mahmoud Saud al-Khatib, his wife Israa Abu Adi, and their two minor children. Al-Khatib was charged with offenses arising from a cell’s attempt to launch rockets at the Israeli city of Modi’in…
Held: The Court unanimously dismissed the petition and allowed the apartment-specific demolition order to stand. Justice Yael Wilner’s lead opinion held that the Court’s precedents had repeatedly rejected the petitioners’ general challenges to the legality of Regulation 119. Although demolition orders ordinarily follow attacks causing death or serious injury, the regulation is not categorically limited to successful attacks. In an administrative…
Background: Eunice Asiedu-Baning, a registered midwife, faced disciplinary charges arising from an agency night shift at Milton Keynes University Hospital on 3–4 November 2017. The Nursing and Midwifery Council’s Fitness to Practise Committee found that she had made inaccurate records concerning blood-glucose readings and observations for newborn babies and had acted dishonestly. It rejected some other…
Held: Mr Justice Kolinsky dismissed the appeal. Although the delay of more than seven and a half years was excessive and the committee could have managed the hearing more effectively, much of the delay had reasonable explanations, including the Rule 7A review, the COVID-19 pandemic, the recusal of an earlier panel chair, and difficulties relisting the part-heard case. The critical question…
Background: Annsca Energy Pty Ltd was formed to develop patented processes intended to reduce the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing. Its sole director and majority shareholder, Romolo Lorenzo Bertani, agreed in 2014 to transfer a 10% interest to Dr Amir Moezzi in recognition of his work developing the technology. Although the transfer was not registered until…
Held: Nixon J held that the alleged conduct, considered individually and cumulatively, was not oppressive, unfairly prejudicial, or unfairly discriminatory. The delay in registration caused no established commercial prejudice: Moezzi and Bertani had proceeded on the basis that Moezzi owned the interest, he had been treated as a valued shareholder, and no dividend or other shareholder benefit had been denied. Nor…
Background: Green Cross of MS, LLC, applied to operate a medical-cannabis dispensary in Oxford, Mississippi. Its survey identified a nearby childcare facility, from which Green Cross obtained a waiver, but did not identify any church property within the statutory distance. ABC later learned that Wellspring Church had begun holding services 99 feet from the proposed dispensary…
Held: The Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the license denial. Reading the Act according to its plain language, the majority held that a church need not own its premises in fee simple to qualify for the distance restriction. The statute applies when a church exists or has acquired necessary real property for its operation, and Wellspring existed at the location before Green…
Background: Elizabeth J. Leahey, appointed as conflict prosecutor in a municipal traffic case against Donald F. Burke, Sr., sought confidential advice from an attorney colleague about the admissibility and disclosure of a witness’s expunged records. The colleague, who had no connection to the case or the Borough of Mantoloking, responded by email with relevant statutes and…
Held: The Court held that the email was a government record under OPRA because Leahey received and maintained it while conducting official prosecutorial business. Its presence in her private email account did not remove it from OPRA’s reach. The sender’s identity was not independently protected by the work-product doctrine because the name and email address did not reveal material prepared in…
Background: Police responded to Jaime Jose Gutierrez’s residence after his roommate reported that Gutierrez was being aggressive, possessed firearms, and that the roommate needed assistance leaving the apartment. Gutierrez was then serving a deferred sentence and probation after pleading no contest to felony unauthorized use of a motor vehicle and misdemeanor domestic abuse.
Held: The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed. Reviewing the preserved constitutional claim de novo, the court concluded that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Second Amendment decisions have repeatedly left intact longstanding prohibitions on firearm possession by felons. The court therefore rejected Gutierrez’s argument that those decisions rendered § 1283(C) unconstitutional as applied to him.
Background: An Avon Lake citizens’ committee and related relators proposed a municipal-charter amendment that, among other things, would repeal an ordinance governing the city-income-tax resident credit and restore the credit percentage to 1.5 percent. After the Lorain County Board of Elections found sufficient valid petition signatures, the Avon Lake City Council considered an ordinance submitting the…
Held: The Supreme Court of Ohio denied the writ. Article XVIII, Section 8 of the Ohio Constitution requires a proposed charter amendment to be submitted at the next regular municipal election occurring 60 to 120 days after passage of the submission ordinance or, if no such election falls within that period, at a special election held within the same period. Because…
Background: Northwest Ambulance transported Frank Costa to a hospital after abnormal laboratory results. When Costa’s heartbeat appeared irregular, an EMT directed driver and fellow EMT Henry Shaw to drive under an emergency code. Shaw accelerated to pass a garbage truck, then swerved and struck a highway divider. Costa, who had been secured to a gurney with…
Held: The Washington Supreme Court affirmed, holding that RCW 18.71.210 does not immunize an EMT or a licensed ambulance service from liability for negligent ambulance driving. Reading the statute and related provisions together, the majority concluded that immunity extends only to acts or omissions involving medical treatment, care, or actual emergency medical procedures within an EMT’s field of medical expertise. Medical…