Background: In April 2025, prosecutors charged the respondents and others in a 31-count indictment concerning the alleged activities of the Abu Latif crime organization between 2018 and 2025. The charges describe systematic extortion connected to infrastructure tenders in northern Israel, the prolonged extortion of businessman and contractor Yitzhak Tshuva, money laundering, and the issuance of fictitious…
Held: President Yitzhak Amit held that a 150-day framework was justified because this was a complex organized-crime “mega-case” that plainly could not be completed within the usual 90-day extension period. Although approximately 18 months had passed since the indictment, the evidentiary phase had begun, and the pace was not unusually slow compared with similarly large cases. The alleged organized-crime activity also…
Background: Avon Lake placed Issue 16 on the November 3, 2026 ballot. The measure proposed increasing the city income-tax rate from 1.5 percent to 1.9 percent for six years to fund street and storm-sewer work, traffic signals, and municipal vehicles and equipment. Although the proposed ordinance would raise the tax rate by 0.4 percentage points, it…
Held: The Supreme Court of Ohio dismissed Citizens for Honesty’s claims for lack of standing but allowed the committee and the two individual electors to proceed. The court held that the electors were proper mandamus relators under its election-case precedents and that the committee had associational standing because it was composed of Avon Lake electors, taxpayers, and residents and pursued interests…
Background: United Living was the design-and-build contractor for the conversion of a London property into the Wenlock Building and appointed Hawkins Brown Limited as architect. After fire-safety and façade concerns emerged, the building owner brought proceedings against United Living. United Living then pursued Hawkins Brown and others in earlier proceedings to recover sums arising from the…
Held: Mr Justice Eyre dismissed Hawkins Brown’s application. Applying the broad, merits-based approach to abuse of process, the court held that the current proceedings were not oppressive or unjust harassment. Although the claims arose from the same development and professional appointment, their central issue—whether Hawkins Brown breached its duties when considering the design and suitability of the Velfac system—had not been…
Background: Joseph and Elizabeth Vella sued Transport for NSW, Acciona Infrastructure Projects Australia Pty Ltd and GHD Pty Ltd in the District Court, alleging that adjoining construction works damaged their property. Their claims included the cost of drainage, crack-repair and painting rectification works. In February 2024, before the District Court case settled, the Vellas contracted to…
Held: Scruby J dismissed the Vellas' application for summary dismissal and strike-out. The plaintiffs had a serious question to be tried as to whether the Vellas' District Court claim for rectification costs, affidavit and expert evidence, and alleged nondisclosure of the sale contract cumulatively conveyed a continuing representation that they intended to carry out the works. Whether that representation was made,…
Background: [Y] [V] owned land adjoining a road. In 2021, motorcyclist [P] [W] lost control and was fatally injured because vegetation was present on the roadway. The prosecution alleged that the vegetation came from the adjoining property, which had been left unattended for years.
Held: The Court of Cassation vacated the acquittal. Because [V] had not directly caused the death, criminal liability under Article 121-3, paragraph 4, of the Penal Code required either a manifestly deliberate breach of a specific statutory or regulatory duty of care or safety, or a characterized fault exposing others to an especially serious risk that he could not have ignored.
Background: Ada County Sheriff’s Deputy Tobin Bolter was shot during a Boise traffic stop in April 2024 and died the following day. His body-worn camera recorded the stop, the shooting, bystanders’ and responders’ efforts to aid him, and later scene-management activity.
Held: The Idaho Supreme Court held that the entire recording is a public record because it documents an on-duty deputy’s traffic stop and the ensuing law-enforcement and emergency response—matters relating to the conduct or administration of public business.
Background: Francis Grandinetti filed three documents in the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court on March 17, 2026. The filings sought agency injunction and mandamus relief concerning alleged police corruption and ticket fixing, and sought relief connected to a February 2025 arrest case in Hilo District Court.
Held: The Hawaiʻi Supreme Court denied the petitions. It held that Grandinetti had not shown either a clear and indisputable right to the requested relief or the absence of alternative means to obtain that relief, the requirements for an extraordinary writ.
Background: The Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland brought this attorney-discipline matter against Roland Patrick Brown. The proceeding reached the Supreme Court of Maryland after originating in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.
Held: The Supreme Court of Maryland ordered Brown disbarred from the practice of law in Maryland, effective immediately.
Background: Lipson Dubé appealed from a January 30, 2026 judgment of the Quebec Court of Appeal, cited as 2026 QCCA 108. The materials reproduced in the Supreme Court’s judgment do not describe the underlying charges, facts, or legal issue.
Held: A four-judge majority dismissed Dubé’s appeal, substantially adopting the reasons of the Quebec Court of Appeal’s majority. The Supreme Court’s brief oral judgment supplied no additional substantive analysis.
Background: We The Patriots USA, Inc. and member James Childs challenged Maine’s vaccination requirements for children enrolling in elementary and secondary schools. After the district court denied a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction, they asked the First Circuit to bar enforcement against Childs’s son, G.C., and the children of an unspecified number of organization members…
Held: The First Circuit denied the motion for an injunction pending appeal because the plaintiffs had not made the required heightened showing of likely success on the merits. The majority said it was not obvious that Yoder, Mahmoud, and Mirabelli controlled because Maine’s vaccination law did not appear to require students to undergo school-facilitated instruction of the kind addressed in those…
Background: The Junior Volleyball Association offered professional beach volleyball player and coach Chris Hannemann a position as its beach coordinator. After Hannemann signed the contract, JVA rescinded the offer because an unidentified person had made allegedly harmful statements about him.
Held: The Court of Appeals affirmed, holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in finding that Hannemann failed to make the required preliminary showing that JVA or the desired testimony was at risk of becoming unavailable before suit could be filed. JVA’s location outside Washington and its move from Wisconsin to Illinois did not establish unavailability, particularly because…
Background: After Huland Eugene Womack died in 2020, his former stepson, Jack Madison Maniscalco, Jr., sought to probate Gene's 1980 will. The will left Gene's estate to his then-wife, Norma, and, if she did not survive him, to Jack and other legally adopted children. Gene and Norma divorced in 1992.
Held: The First Court of Appeals affirmed. The evidence permitted the jury to find no agreement for Gene to adopt Jack, notwithstanding evidence of a close father-son relationship, Gene's references to Jack in his will, and testimony from Jack and Norma. The court emphasized evidence including the absence of a formal adoption attempt, continued child-support litigation involving Jack's biological father, and…