Articles

Wife loses appeal of custody arrangement, contempt finding

A trial court did not abuse its discretion when it found a wife in contempt of the court’s preliminary order regarding parenting time and visitation and when it entered a custody arrangement not requested by the parties, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday.

Read More

COA: Accomplice liability instruction is harmless error

Although the trial court erred in instructing the jury during a man’s murder and attempted murder trial regarding accomplice liability as it applied to attempted murder, the error was harmless, the Indiana Court of Appeals held Wednesday.

Read More

INDOT not entitled to immunity in wrongful death action

The Indiana Department of Transportation failed to convince the Court of Appeals that it is entitled to discretionary function immunity under the Indiana Tort Claims Act in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the estate of a construction worker killed while working on an interstate project.

Read More

COA reverses probation revocation of man unable to fully pay restitution

A trial court should not have revoked the probation of a man who was ordered to pay more than $100,000 in restitution as a condition of his probation, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled. The man was able to prove that he could not fully pay off the balance owed because he was unable to obtain a reverse mortgage on his home.

Read More

Judicial candidate serving as juror was not fundamental error

A man convicted of child molesting argued that an attorney and judicial candidate should not have been allowed to serve as a juror on his trial. But he failed to object to her placement on the jury at the time of the trial, and the Indiana Court of Appeals rejected his claim of fundamental error.

Read More

COA orders foreclosed Golden Corral to be in sheriff’s sale

The Indiana Court of Appeals reversed the holding of a Lake County court that allowed the mortgage holder of a restaurant in Merrillville to immediately take possession of the parcel of land. Under Indiana law, the parcel should go into a sheriff’s sale, the majority held.

Read More

COA upholds termination of mother’s parental rights

The Indiana Court of Appeals found no abuse of discretion by a trial court when it denied a mother’s request to continue her termination of parental rights hearing for several months, when she expected to be released from incarceration. The mother was unable to prove that she would definitely be out of jail at that time.

Read More

Court erred in concluding vested title severed by tax sales

The Indiana Court of Appeals ordered judgment entered in favor of two families on their claim for adverse possession over a disputed tract of land in Pulaski County. The judges found the trial court erred when it found two tax sales involving the disputed property divested the adverse holders of their title to the real property.

Read More

Panel splits over interpretation of corrupt business influence statute

The majority on a Court of Appeals panel tossed out a man’s corrupt business influence conviction after finding his criminal activity did not pose a threat of future criminal conduct. But the dissenting judge noted the majority was inserting a new element into the Indiana statute that does not exist.

Read More

Inconsistency by trial court leads to partial reversal

Because a trial court hearing a child support matter at first declined to impute the income of the stepfather to the child’s mother, but later treated their income as the same when it came to the cost of her child’s health insurance, the Indiana Court of Appeals partially reversed a Hamilton Superior Court’s 2014 ruling.

Read More

Justices affirm stabbing conviction in evidence appeal

An Anderson man convicted of stabbing his son-in-law lost his appeal to the Indiana Supreme Court Tuesday. The man claimed the trial court wrongly excluded evidence that the victim told others that he had struck the man with a two-by-four piece of lumber before the knife attack.

Read More