Opinions

7th Circuit Court of Appeals
State Farm Life Insurance Co. v. Troy Jonas et al.
14-1464
Civil tort. Vacates judgment of District Court and remands with instructions to dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Finds no justiciable controversy existed when Jonas filed his lawsuit against State Farm. Concluded that the disputes about the rate of interest and whether the insurance company must pay the attorney fees that Jonas has incurred in this litigation do not retroactively create jurisdiction.

Indiana Court Appeals
Alfredo D. Rodriguez, as Permanent Guardian of the Person and Estate of Miriam Rodriguez, and Alfredo D. Rodriguez, Individually v. United States Steel Corporation
45A04-1407-CT-350
Civil tort. Affirms summary judgment in favor of U.S. Steel on Alfredo Rodriguez’s negligence claim. Miriam Rodriguez was injured in an auto accident caused by an employee of U.S. Steel as he drove home from work. U.S. Steel did not owe Miriam Rodriguez a duty of reasonable care.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Jeffrey Hewitt v. Westfield Washington School Corp; Board of School Trusties of Westfield Washington School Corp. et al.
29A04-1403-PL-130
Civil plenary. Reverses grant of summary judgment in favor of Westfield Washington School Corp. and related defendants, holding they had not met the onerous burden of showing there are no issues of material fact entitling them to judgment as a matter of law. Hewitt, a former school principal, was fired for a sexual relationship with a teacher he supervised. He then sued the school system for breach of contract and denial of due process. His suit is remanded for further proceedings.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Charles P. White v. State of Indiana
29A05-1312-PC-641
Post conviction. Affirms White’s convictions for perjury, voting in the wrong precinct and theft. Finds White was convicted twice for the same actions in violation of double jeopardy. Reverses White’s other convictions for perjury and voting in the wrong precinct as well as another perjury conviction for putting the wrong address on his marriage license application. Remands with instructions that the trial court vacate those three convictions. Concludes White’s attorney, Carl Brizzi, was not ineffective. Holds White’s sentence to one-year of home detention remains.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Lloyd G. Perry v. Anonymous Physican 1, Alias Medical Group 1, Inc., Anonymous Physican 2, et al.
02A03-1401-CT-43
Civil Tort. Affirms summary judgment in favor of healthcare providers. Finds Perry did not submit expert testimony as required by court rules to support his medical malpractice claim.  

Indiana Supreme Court
In Re the Adoption of B.C.H.
41S04-1408-AD-515
Adoption. Vacates the trial court’s decision to grant stepfather’s petition to adopt B.C.H. and remands for a hearing on the child’s best interests in the adoption and other proceedings consistent with this opinion. At this hearing, the grandparents, who had primary custody of B.C.H. for the first four years of her life, shall be given the opportunity to give or withhold consent to the child’s adoption. They were not served with legal notice of the adoption.
 

7th Circuit Court of Appeals
United States of America v. Milford J. Clark
12-1417
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division, Judge Sarah Evans Barker.
Criminal. Affirms conviction for bank robbery. Clark was not deprived of his Sixth Amendment right to proceed pro se. Any errors in admission of evidence were harmless since Clark met the physical description of the robber and his DNA was found at the bank.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Christopher Duncan v. State of Indiana
09A05-1312-CR-613
Criminal. Reverses conviction of identity deception because the state did not prove that the name and birth date Duncan falsely gave to police belonged to a real person. Remands with instructions to vacate that conviction and sentence as well as the conviction and sentence for Class D felony pointing a firearm because of double jeopardy principles. Also remands for the court to reduce his resisting law enforcement conviction to a Class A misdemeanor due to double jeopardy principles.

Indiana Supreme Court
Rodregus Morgan v. State of Indiana
49S02-1405-CR-325
Criminal. Vacates conviction of Class B misdemeanor public intoxication as the requirements for conviction under Indiana’s public intoxication statute have not been met. An objective reasonable person standard should be read into Indiana’s public intoxication statute when applying the term “annoys.” Under that reading, the statute is not unconstitutionally vague.

Indiana Supreme Court
Shawn Blount v. State of Indiana
49S02-1405-CR-338
Criminal. Affirms conviction of being a serious violent felon in possession of a firearm. A detective’s testimony that a witness identified Blount as the suspect was inadmissible hearsay, but it was a harmless error. There was no variance between the charging information and the evidence presented at trial.

Indiana Supreme Court
Mark Rolley v. Melissa Rolley
87S01-1412-DR-739
Domestic relation. Affirms modification of child support order. Rules in a per curiam decision that ruling by Indiana Court of Appeals that an order of child support could be modified either because a substantial and continuing change in circumstances or, after 12 months, a 20 percent deviation.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Goodrich Quality Theaters, Inc. and Roncelli, Inc. v. Fostcorp Heating and Cooling, Inc., Wilson Iron Works, Inc., et. al.
64A03-1308-PL-318
Civil plenary. Reaffirms previous ruling by the Indiana Court of Appeals that the trial court erred in awarding attorney fees to Fostcorp Heating and Cooling, Wilson Iron Works and Johnson Carpet. Since the general contractor, Roncelli Inc., was not the property owner, it is not liable for payment of attorney fees. Judge Patricia Riley voted to deny rehearing.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Central Mutual Insurance Company v. Motorists Mutual Insurance Company
49A04-1405-CT-214
Civil tort. Affirms on interlocutory appeal the trial court order denying Central’s motion for partial summary judgment and granting Motorists’ motion for partial summary judgment. The trial court did not err in finding that Central provided primary coverage to a truck driver injured in a crash and that the Motorists policy provided excess coverage only when the limits of the Central policy had been reached.

7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Kevin L. Harold v. Christopher C. Steel and Peters & Steel LLC
14-1875
U.S. District Court, Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division, Judge Tanya Walton Pratt.
Civil. Affirms dismissal of Harold’s lawsuit under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, contending Steel and his law firm had violated 15 U.S.C. Section 1692e by making false statements. Harold sought to challenge a garnishment order entered in state court. The Rooker-Feldmen doctrine bars his lawsuit.

7th Circuit Court of Appeal
Robert D. DeLee v. City of Plymouth, Indiana
14-1970
U.S. District Court, Northern District of Indiana, Judge James T. Moody.
Civil. Reverses summary judgment in favor of the city on police officer DeLee’s lawsuit that he is entitled to his full longevity payment from the city for the year he served in the U.S. Air Force Reserves for eight months. Plymouth’s longevity benefit is more appropriately characterized as a reward for lengthy service rather than as compensation for work performed the preceding year, so the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act guarantees DeLee a fully longevity payment for his 12th year of employment. Remands for further proceedings.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Kolyann Williams v. State of Indiana
34A02-1406-CR-418
Criminal. Reverses conviction of Class A misdemeanor marijuana possession stemming from a traffic stop. Concludes the officer did not have a reasonable suspicion to believe that Williams had committed an infraction that supported stopping his car.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Randal L. Young v. Indiana Department of Correction, Bruce Lemmon, David J. Donahue, Stanley Knight, et al.
32A05-1403-MI-148
Miscellaneous. Affirms the DOC’s policy concerning the restoration of credit time for inmates, which says the credit time sought must be credit time that was deprived during the offender’s current sentence. The policy does not result in disparate treatment and does not unconstitutionally discriminate against offenders who are ordered to serve consecutive sentences.

Indiana Supreme Court
In the Matter of the Adoption of Minor Children: J.T.D. and J.S.: Ind. Dept. of Child Services v. N.E.
45S03-1406-AD-387
Adoption. Reverses trial court decision to not transfer cases from the civil division, which includes probate, to the juvenile division, which is where adoptions must be filed based on a local rule. Lake Superior Court’s four statutory divisions are not jurisdictional, and are merely descriptive of venue, so there is no conflict between the statute and the caseload allocation plan. Remands with instructions.

Indiana Supreme Court
In Re: The Carroll County 2013 Tax Sale: Twin Lakes Regional Sewer District v. Richard C. Ray and Patricia A. Alford, et al.
08S04-1402-MI-97
Miscellaneous. The lien foreclosure prohibition of Indiana Code 13-26-14-4, governing the collection of regional sewer district sewer liens, does not apply to collection by tax sale. Here, because the sewer district employed the tax sale method and did not seek collection of the appellees' unpaid sewer bills and penalties through the lien foreclosure method, the lien foreclosure prohibition clause does not apply. The judgment of the trial court removing the Ray and Alford properties from the tax sale list is reversed, and this cause is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

Indiana Court of Appeals
S.L. v. State of Indiana (NFP)
49A02-1406-JV-377
Juvenile. Affirms adjudication as a delinquent child for committing what would be Class C felony child molesting if committed by an adult.