COA to hear argument in Lawrence, Clark counties this week
The Indiana Court of Appeals is headed south this week to hear oral arguments in Clark and Lawrence counties.
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Indiana man charged in woman’s killing waives extradition
A man charged with killing a Terre Haute woman whose body was found in her submerged SUV in in Vigo County is expected to be returned from Nevada soon to face trial on murder and other charges.
Attorney fee denial affirmed in investor’s unsuccessful lawsuit
An investor in a life sciences company who lost the bulk of her $400,000 investment won’t have to pay nearly twice that amount to lawyers who represented the company that prevailed in part in a countersuit against her.
Friends, colleagues laugh and cry during Barnes’ retirement ceremony
Two emotions ran high during the retirement ceremony honoring Indiana Court of Appeals Judge Michael Barnes on Thursday: sadness and joy. Judges and lawyers from across the state gathered at the Indiana statehouse Thursday afternoon to pay tribute to Barnes, who will leave the court on Friday.
Court reverses NIPSCO industrial user rate increase
The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission relied on the wrong metrics to calculate a rate increase passed on to large industrial users, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Thursday, reversing the rate hike.
COA rejects Proportionality Clause claim, affirms 35-year sentence
A man convicted of multiple felony counts in 2011 and sentenced to an aggregate of 35 years in prison failed to convince the Indiana Court of Appeals that he was entitled to post-conviction relief under a Proportionality Clause theory.
Word ‘upon’ leads COA to toss obstructed-windshield conviction
A man’s infraction conviction for violating a windshield-obstruction law was thrown out Thursday by the Indiana Court of Appeals, which held that the plain meaning of the statute meant he couldn’t be convicted despite trash, clothes, food and other items piled from the floor to the ceiling of his vehicle.
Vanderburgh County murderer loses PCR bid
A Vanderburgh County man convicted of beating his girlfriend to death has lost his bid for post-conviction relief from the Indiana Court of Appeals, which found he did not receive ineffective assistance of trial counsel.
Justices allow Arkansas to enforce abortion restrictions
The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Arkansas to enforce restrictions on how so-called abortion pills can be administered while a legal challenge to the restrictions proceeds, which critics say effectively ends that option for women in the state.
Supreme Court limits warrantless vehicle searches near homes
The U.S. Supreme Court sided 8-1 with a Virginia man who complained that police walked onto his driveway without a warrant and pulled back a tarp covering his motorcycle, which turned out to be stolen. The justices said the automobile exception does not apply when searching vehicles parked adjacent to a home.
Appellate court allows child molest negligence case to proceed against grandmother
A grandmother must face a negligence claim filed by her daughter and her granddaughter after the Indiana Court of Appeals found issues of fact as to whether the grandmother negligently allowed her grandchild to be molested by her husband, who she knew had a previous child molesting conviction.
COA: 25-year delay doesn’t make motion for relief untimely
Despite a 25-year delay between an original summary judgment ruling and the subsequent grant of a motion for relief from that judgment, the Indiana Court of Appeals has upheld a trial court’s finding that the 2015 motion for relief from the 1990 judgment was not untimely.
COA allows negligence case against Steak ‘n Shake to proceed
A negligence case against an Indiana Steak ‘n Shake restaurant will proceed to trial after the Indiana Court of Appeals determined the restaurant owed a duty to protect one of its patrons from a third-party injury, making summary judgment inappropriate.
Indiana Court Decisions — May 10-22, 2018
Read Indiana appellate decisions from the most recent reporting period.
Marion County small claims courts go on record
On July 1, the small claims courts in Indiana’s most populous county are going to become courts of record. Like the small claims courts in the state’s 91 other counties, Marion County’s proceedings will be recorded and any appeals will go straight to the Indiana Court of Appeals.
State secret: DOC presses lethal injection confidentiality
A law slipped into the 2017 budget bill during the General Assembly’s final hours declared that information about drugs that the state would use to execute someone was confidential. The last-minute law was written into the bill even though a judge had ruled months earlier that the very same information was a matter of public record and had ordered the Department of Correction to provide it.
Retiring Barnes reflects on time as prosecutor, judge as 3 COA finalists selected
Court of Appeals Judge Michael Barnes’ career has taken him down multiple paths — including 27 years with the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s Office, 1½ years with Barnes & Thornburg and 18 years on the bench — and each experience exposed him to new facets of the law.
New law allows for electronic signing of wills, trusts, powers of attorney
Though the law has a reputation for being resistant to change, new legislation that will take effect this summer is designed to give estate planning attorneys the opportunity to embrace technology when advising clients about probate documents while allowing more traditional lawyers to conduct business as usual.
Riverboat casino, county get partial win in tax court
The Indiana Tax Court dealt a win and a loss to a county and a casino that were arguing over how much a gambling resort in southern Indiana was worth during the Great Recession.
COA upholds 6-year stalking sentence for ex’s break-in, threat
A Ripley County man who broke into his ex-wife’s home by climbing on the roof and cutting through the drywall with razor blades has lost his appeal of his six-year sentence for convictions of intimidation and invasion of privacy, with the Indiana Court of Appeals rejecting his argument that the sentence is inappropriate.