Background: The claimant, Victoria Rixon, brought libel proceedings against three maternity-safety campaigners over social-media publications in March and April 2024. The context was the death of baby Giles Cooper-Hall at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth on 28 October 2021, about 16 hours after birth. An inquest held on 1 February 2024 resulted in a narrative verdict highly…
Held: The court rejected the contention that the claim should be struck out as an abuse of process, but struck out specified paragraphs under CPR 3.4(2)(c) for non-compliance with libel pleading rules. On the first publication, paragraphs 8 and 9 applied the wrong test by relying on Barley's own understanding that the post referred to Rixon. Reference is objective: the question…
Background: Ronald L. Rhodes is serving a life sentence for the 1981 first-degree premeditated murder of Cleother Burrell, who was found stabbed to death in a Wichita apartment-complex hallway. Police collected fingernail scrapings from Burrell’s body and a hair strand found on one of his hands. At trial, the State’s lone eyewitness, Bruce Elliott, testified that…
Held: The court affirmed, holding that issue preclusion barred Rhodes’ third DNA-testing petition. It explained that issue preclusion, or collateral estoppel, prevents relitigation of issues previously decided on the merits and necessary to the judgment. The doctrine requires a prior merits judgment determining the parties’ rights and liabilities on the issue, the same parties or parties in privity, and an issue…
Background: Four plaintiffs alleged that James Darrell Nesmith sexually abused them as children between 1995 and 2007. Three claimed the abuse occurred during medical visits when Nesmith was a pediatric doctor; the fourth alleged abuse at Nesmith’s home and at a church camp where he served as a counselor. The plaintiffs sought damages for sexual assault,…
Held: The Arkansas Supreme Court reversed the circuit court’s order granting summary judgment and vacated the court of appeals’ opinion. The majority held that the court’s vested-rights precedent—which categorically barred the legislature from expanding a limitation period to revive a claim already barred—lacks any constitutional basis and cannot stand. The court overruled prior cases including Hall v. Summit Contractors, Inc., Johnson…
Background: In December 2024, a McKenzie County Sheriff’s deputy stopped Colton Kenneth Defoe’s vehicle and detained him on an outstanding warrant. After clearing passengers, the deputy deployed a K-9 unit, which alerted to narcotics. A search of the vehicle uncovered a plastic baggie containing a white crystalline substance in the driver’s side visor, a bindle containing…
Held: The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the criminal judgment. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice Fair McEvers first addressed the jury instruction challenge. The Court held that Defoe failed to preserve the issue for appeal because he did not object to the instructions at trial, and his Rule 29 motion for acquittal—based on insufficiency of the evidence—did not encompass objections…
Background: Marion Superior Court Judge Jose D. Salinas presided over a misdemeanor and Level 6 felony docket. In 2021, he self-reported that a defendant had remained jailed for 166 days because court staff failed to enter the release code required by the case-management system. Marion County criminal courts later adopted safeguards intended to prevent similar errors,…
Held: In a per curiam opinion, the Indiana Supreme Court accepted the agreement and imposed the proposed discipline. The Court found that Salinas failed to take timely and proper judicial action and failed to supervise his staff adequately. He admitted violations of Judicial Conduct Rules 1.1 and 1.2, requiring compliance with law and conduct promoting public confidence, as well as Rules…
Background: In January 2023, the Minnesota Department of Revenue received a tip that Daniel Roy O'Day was not filing individual income tax returns or returns for his company, O'Day Transportation. Following an investigation that included reviewing bank records and subpoenaing evidence from associated businesses, the Department concluded that O'Day failed to file individual Minnesota income tax…
Held: The supreme court interpreted the statutory phrase "willfully attempts to evade or defeat" in Minnesota's tax evasion statute, which distinguishes felony offenses from gross misdemeanors. The court rejected both parties' interpretations. O'Day argued the phrase constitutes the actus reus, requiring proof of an evasive act beyond merely failing to file or pay. The court held this interpretation contrary to the…
Background: Mme [S] was hired as an accounting secretary by Lepère on 1 June 1994 and resigned by letter dated 17 December 2013. CCE had acquired Lepère in 2009, making it a subsidiary. On 20 December 2013, CCE engaged Mme [S] as administrative and financial manager. She was placed on sick leave on 6 October 2018.…
Held: The Court declined to give specially reasoned decisions on the first and fourth grounds under Article 1014(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure because they were manifestly incapable of leading to cassation. On the second ground concerning mandatory compensatory rest, it rejected CCE's jurisdictional challenge. Under Articles L. 451-1 and L. 142-1 of the Social Security Code, the specially designated…
Background: Erector Group Consolidated Pty Ltd sued the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (NSW Branch) (State Union) and United Super Pty Ltd, trustee of the Construction and Building Unions Superannuation Fund. It alleged that named individuals attended its premises in March 2018 and engaged in intimidation, undue coercion or harassment contrary to s 50 of…
Held: Emmett J held that the interests of justice warranted allowing the amendments concerning the unions in substance and joining the Federal Union, but only on terms reserving the application of ss 64(4) and 65 of the Civil Procedure Act 2005 (NSW) to the final hearing. Leave would be granted under s 64(1)(b), with joinder under Uniform Civil Procedure Rules r…
Background: Defendant Andrew White was charged with driving under the influence (DUI), second offense; criminal refusal; and negligent operation following a March 2022 incident. At trial, the State presented evidence that a state trooper responded to a motor-vehicle accident and observed a broken utility pole with White's pickup truck nearby. White identified himself as the operator…
Held: The Vermont Supreme Court affirmed the conviction. Writing for the panel, the Court addressed White's argument—raised for the first time on appeal—that it is unconstitutional to criminally punish him for violating 23 V.S.A. § 1201(b). White maintained he has a constitutional right to refuse the officer's request for a breath test and cannot be punished for that refusal, contrary to…
Background: The dispute grew out of the Knox County Board of Supervisors' installation of a new audio-visual system in the courthouse, which housed both the Board's meeting room and the 911 dispatch center. Installers left an old microphone with a visible off switch in place and added a second microphone, connected to a camera, that had…
Held: The Nebraska Supreme Court dismissed the appeal for lack of appellate jurisdiction, holding that the order granting the motion to unseal was neither a judgment nor a final order. Because jurisdictional issues without factual disputes are questions of law decided independently, the court first addressed its own jurisdiction before any merits question, including the Board's challenge to the trial court's…
Background: In 2019, Donald Aegerter and Lynae D. McMillen Dickey Tesdall acquired a Mason City house as joint tenants with right of survivorship, using $260,775 in secured financing from Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Aegerter alone signed the promissory note and was its only listed borrower. Both Aegerter and Tesdall, however, signed the mortgage as “Borrower,” and…
Held: The court held that, on these facts and under this mortgage, Tesdall was “a borrower on a . . . mortgage on a homestead” entitled to the notice and thirty-day opportunity to cure required by Iowa Code section 654.2D. It emphasized that the statute concerns a borrower on a mortgage and protects homesteads from foreclosure rather than shielding anyone from…
Background: Efi Ravivo, a software developer, and B. Connect Computers Ltd., a computing-infrastructure company, entered a cooperation agreement in late 2017. The agreement transferred software Ravivo had developed to the company and provided for mutual profit-sharing. The company subsequently developed additional software, which Ravivo claimed was a continuation of his original work. Their dispute ended the…
Held: The Supreme Court panel—Justices Yael Willner, Alex Stein and Ruth Ronen, with Justice Ronen writing—dismissed Ravivo’s petition without requiring a response from the respondents. It reiterated that the Court does not sit as an appellate court over National Labor Court judgments. Intervention is reserved for exceptional cases involving a material legal error and required by considerations of justice. Ravivo’s arguments,…