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The Indiana Supreme Court denied transfer for 16 cases for the week ending July 12.
Among the cases denied was Estate of Gerald Everett Goldsberry v. Drake Air, LLC, by its member Brent L. Drake, 23A-MI-1987.
The Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed the Morgan Superior Court’s ruling that a company that delivered a helicopter to a Morgan County man for routine maintenance was entitled to a judgment from the man’s estate for damages equal to the aircraft’s value after it was destroyed in a 2020 crash.
Drake Air, LLC, owned a Brantly B-2B helicopter.
Brantly helicopters are no longer manufactured, and Drake Air engaged Gerald Goldsberry in Mooresville to service the helicopter.
Goldsberry performed a test flight of the helicopter.
During that flight, the engine quit, and the helicopter crashed.
Bill Myrtle, who worked on the helicopter, rushed to the scene but struggled to extract Goldsberry from the wreckage due to the heat of the resultant fire. Myrtle eventually succeeded in extracting Goldsberry, and Goldsberry stated that he had “lost power.”
Goldsberry died shortly afterward. An ensuing inspection by the National Transportation Safety Board was unable to determine the cause of the crash.
In August 2022, Drake Air filed a complaint against the estate for the loss of the helicopter.
Following a bench trial, the trial court found there was no probative evidence addressing whether Goldsberry did or did not negligently inspect or perform maintenance upon the helicopter and that no probative evidence as to the particulars of his activity and the mechanical tasks performed on the helicopter had been provided by either party.
The court then found the value of the helicopter at the time of the crash to have been $50,000, and it entered judgment for Drake Air.
Another case denied transfer by the high court was Matthew Lucious Setlak v. State of Indiana, 23A-CR-2516.
In that case, the appellate court affirmed Matthew Setlak’s convictions in Lake Superior Court of three counts of child molesting, one count of child molesting and one count of dissemination of matter harmful to minors.
The court found the trial court did not abuse its discretion by admitting, under the Protected Person Statute, certain out-of-court statements the victim made to her mother.
The justices concurred in the all 16 of the denials except for one.
Chief Justice Loretta Rush and Justice Derek Molter voted to grant transfer of Elper Bros. Construction & Supply Inc., et al. v. Deane L. Smith II, M.D., et al., 23A-PL-437.
The appellate court affirmed and reversed in part the grant of summary judgment in favor of Deane and Lori Smith. The court found the Vanderburgh Circuit Court properly granted summary judgment for the Smiths on their claim that Elpers Bros. Construction & Supply Inc. owed a non-delegable duty to properly design and construct a subdivision’s drainage system.
However, the appellate court did find the trial court erred in granting only partial summary judgment for the homeowners association and in denying Elpers motion for summary judgment. But it did properly deny Elpers motion for summary judgment on the Smiths fraud claim.
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