COA won’t rehear injured immigrant worker’s case
The Indiana Court of Appeals will not revisit its divided ruling that an injured masonry laborer’s immigration status is valid evidence in his lawsuit against the general contractor at his worksite.
Indiana Court of Appeals
Articles
COA orders new trial on vicarious liability issue
A new jury will decide whether a Sony employee in Terre Haute was acting in the scope of his employment when he hit a security guard on the property while driving to recycle personal items on company property.
COA: Trial court properly reinstated demoted police officer’s rank
In a case of first impression, the Indiana Court of Appeals agreed that a judge could order a police officer’s rank returned to sergeant instead of sending the matter back to the police merit board for further proceedings.
Evidence supports order to raze uninhabited home
The Grant County Area Plan Commission provided enough evidence to support the trial court’s decision to order a home torn down because it is not up to code and is uninhabitable, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.
COA: Plea agreement doesn’t prevent court from considering certain evidence
A Greensburg father who pleaded guilty to felony dangerous control of a child after his young son accidently shot his future stepbrother lost his claim before the Indiana Court of Appeals that the trial court shouldn’t have considered evidence relating to a dismissed charge.
Brutal Indy home invasion leader gets sentence tweak
The alleged ringleader of six men who brutalized, shot and sexually assaulted three north side Indianapolis residents in their home will still likely spend the rest of his life behind bars after the Indiana Court of Appeals modestly reduced his sentence Tuesday.
Power of attorney may trump guardianship order
An elaborate court ruling that sought to bring family harmony by appointing each of six siblings as co-guardians over a specific area of their elderly mother’s life may have hit a sour note because of a 12-year-old power of attorney which remains valid.
Plea agreement provision ‘constitutionally suspect,’ COA finds
A man who had taken steps to prepare for home detention but was committed for mental health reasons when he was to report to community corrections should not have been ordered to serve his sentence in the Department of Correction, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
Continuous crime doctrine requires reversal of 2 domestic battery convictions
Because the evidence showed a man’s acts of domestic violence against his now ex-wife constituted a single transaction for purposes of the continuing crime doctrine, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed two of the man’s three convictions.
Unlicensed social worker must answer accused molester’s questions
The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that an unlicensed social worker who provided services to the victim of a man accused of molestation is not protected under the counselor/client privilege in I.C. 25-23.6-6.1. As a result, the woman must answer four questions her attorney previously advised her not to answer.
COA affirms excess damages award in med-mal case
Based on the evidence before it, a trial court correctly awarded a man $300,000 in excess damages from the Indiana Patient’s Compensation Fund after an Indianapolis hospital missed the signs he was having a stroke, the Indiana Court of Appeals held Tuesday.
Robber’s use of debit card is forgery, COA affirms
The Indiana Court of Appeals rejected a defendant’s claim that he couldn’t be convicted of forgery under Indiana law because using his robbery victims’ ATM cards did not qualify as “uttering a written instrument.”
COA reverses lifetime sex offender registration, upholds ban from school property
The Indiana Court of Appeals agreed with a man challenging his lifetime registration as a sex offender that the law as applied to him violates the Indiana Constitution’s prohibition against ex post facto laws. But he lost a similar challenge to the unlawful-entry statute that prohibits him from entering school property.
COA majority rules dog sniff did not prolong stop
The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed a woman’s motion to suppress evidence found at a traffic stop in a 2-1 decision after the court ruled the stop was not extended by an officer’s check of the car with his dog.
Evidence found during arrest for public intox is admissible, COA rules
The Indiana Court of Appeals upheld a man’s misdemeanor cocaine possession conviction after it held the search an officer conducted after finding the man asleep in his car did not violate his Fourth Amendment rights and thus the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting the cocaine found during the search.
Majority: 2 shoplifting charges not RICO violations
The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in a split decision the state went too far when it convicted a man who committed two acts of shoplifting under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and reversed his conviction for corrupt business influence.
COA: Failure to give breath test sample was refusal to take test
The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed a woman refused a chemical breath test, noting the officer giving the test followed all the proper procedures and was within his rights to determine she refused the test after she failed to give a valid sample three times.
COA: Minors’ malpractice suit can continue
The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled a medical malpractice lawsuit filed by minor children can continue after it found the suit was not untimely filed. The children were in the correct age range to trigger an exception in the Medical Malpractice Act.
COA: Death during robbery is felony murder
The Indiana Court of Appeals found evidence was sufficient to uphold a robber’s conviction of felony murder after one of his accomplices was killed in a fight with a robbery victim.
COA: Couple proved adverse possession of land along fence
In a dispute between neighbors over a property line, the Indiana Court of Appeals agreed with the trial court that a Johnson County couple satisfied the elements needed to be successful in their adverse possession and quiet title counterclaim.