Opinions

Indiana Court of Appeals
Taliyah Brooks v. USA Track & Field, Inc.
23A-PL-1685
Civil plenary. Affirms the Marion Superior Court’s June 2023 orders on summary judgment. Finds that Taliyah Brooks has not met her burden of showing that the trial court’s grant or denial of summary judgment was erroneous on the basis of her unconscionability and public policy argument. Reverses the trial court’s July 2023 order denying Brooks’ motion to amend her complaint. Finds the trial court abused its discretion by denying her motion to amend her complaint under Trial Rule 15(A). Remands for further proceedings.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Autovest LLC v. Julie Abner
24A-CC-1113
Civil collection. Reverses the Marion Superior Court’s dismissal of Autovest, LLC’s complaint to renew a judgment against Julie Abner. Finds Autovest acted not only within its rights but prudently by filing its December 2023 renewal complaint against Abner under a new cause number.  Also finds the trial court therefore erred as a matter of law when it dismissed Autovest’s renewal complaint

Indiana Supreme Court
Regina Geels v. Lindsay Flottemesch, Mackenzi Hatfield, and Stephanie Malinowski as Guardian for Marley Malinowski
24S-PL-362
Civil plenary. Grants transfer, vacating the Court of Appeals opinion and remands for the Allen Superior Court to apply the clear-and-convincing standard to the evidence. Finds Regina Geels’s burden-of-proof argument persuasive. Also finds creating a constructive trust requires a higher showing.

Indiana Court of Appeals
T.W. (Minor Child) v. Indiana Department of Child Services
24A-JC-780
Juvenile CHINS. Affirms the Delaware Circuit Court’s termination of the Indiana Department of Child Services’ wardship of T.W. and the court’s closure of T.W.’s CHINS case. Finds the court’s closure of the CHINS case is a proper dismissal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Also finds the court has statutory authority to reinstate its jurisdiction after the child’s release from the Indiana Department of Correction.

Indiana Court of Appeals
In the Matter of J.B. (Minor Child) K.C. and S.C. v. Indiana Department of Child Services
24A-JC-1124
Juvenile CHINS. Affirms the Wayne Superior Court’s denial of foster parents K.C. and S.C’s motion to intervene and petition for a preliminary injunction barring the placement of J.B. for adoption. Finds the trial court correctly determined that the foster parents had no right to participate in the CHINS proceeding as a party and were not entitled to a preliminary injunction.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Correct Roofing, Inc. v. Alfredo Vasquez
23A-CT-2535
Civil tort. Affirms the Elkhart Superior Court’s order granting Alfredo Vasquez’s motion for summary judgment and entering a judgment in favor of Vasquez for $23,040. Finds Correct Roofing waived its challenge on appeal to the trial court’s order granting Vasquez’s motion to strike by failing to provide a cogent argument as required by Indiana Appellate Rule 46. Also finds there is no dispute of material fact that Vasquez performed his obligations under the contract and Correct Roofing did not, that Vazquez’s damages were as the trial court determined, or that Correct Roofing violated the Home Improvement Contracts Act

Indiana Court of Appeals
Ivan Hernandez-Vargas v. State of Indiana
24A-CR-1306
Criminal. Reverses the Hamilton Superior Court’s order upon revocation of Ivan Hernandez-Vargas’s probation which included a civil judgment for probation user fees assessed at the time of original sentencing. Finds that trial courts are not statutorily constrained to leave in place probation fees such as the ones at issue here. Remands with instructions to reduce the amount of fees by $660.

Indiana Court of Appeals
State of Indiana v. Shianne Brooks-Brown
24A-CR-627
Criminal. Affirms the Carroll Circuit Court’s denial of the state’s motion to exclude Shianne Brooks-Brown’s proffered evidence with respect to her subjective state of mind at the time of the alleged offenses of being an accomplice to robbery and murder. Finds that as long as Brooks-Brown’s proffered evidence is admissible under the Indiana Rules of Evidence, her evidence is entirely consistent with Indiana law. Judge L. Mark Bailey concurs with separate opinion. Chief Judge Robert Altice dissents with separate opinion.

Indiana Court of Appeals
In the Matter of J.M. and K.M., Children in Need of Services, K.R. v. J.M., Sr., and Indiana Department of Child Services, and Kids’ Voice of Indiana
24A-JC-202
Juvenile CHINS. Affirms the Marion Superior Court’s decision to modify the custody of two of K.R.’s children, J.M. and K.M, in lieu of adjudicating the children as children in need of services. Finds the order modifying custody of the children, rather than adjudicating them as CHINS, was supported by the record and reflects adherence to applicable law. Also finds to the extent the mother argues that modifying child custody deprived her of a meaningful opportunity to engage in services, this argument is better directed toward the Legislature, which has authorized modification in these scenarios.

No opinions today. The courts are closed in observance of Columbus Day.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Vince Caccavale v. Ranger Team Building, LLC
23A-PL-1556
Civil plenary. Reverses the Lake Superior Court’s summary judgment order in favor of Ranger Team Building LLC in its breach of contract complaint against Vince Caccavale. Finds the trial court erred by granting summary judgment in favor of Ranger, and the trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying Ranger’s motion for sanctions. Declines to reconsider the appellate court motions panel’s denial of Ranger’s motion to dismiss this appeal. Remands for trial and affirms the trial court’s denial of Ranger’s sanctions motion.

Indiana Court of Appeals
In the Matter of the Civil Commitment of: F.L. v. Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health
24A-MH-2216
Mental health. Affirms F.L.’s involuntary temporary commitment to Community Fairbanks Behavioral Health following a hearing in the Marion Superior Court. Finds Community presented sufficient evidence to show that F.L. is gravely disabled, and the trial court did not err when it ordered F.L.’s temporary commitment under Indiana Code section 12-26-2-5(e)(2).

Indiana Court of Appeals
Jacob Balash and Jonathan Balash v. Steve Mader
24A-SC-792
Small claims. Reverses the Owen Circuit Court’s s judgment entered in favor of contractor Steve Mader in a home improvement case against Jacob and Jonathan Balash. Finds that Mader’s dealings with the Balashes were governed by the Home Improvement Contracts Act and that the damage award entered for Mader must be set aside.

Indiana Court of Appeals
State of Indiana v. B.H.
24A-JV-1247
Juvenile. Reverses the Cass Circuit Court’s denial of the state’s request for authorization to file a delinquency petition against 18-year-old B.H. based on an act he allegedly committed when he was 17. Finds that an order rejecting a delinquency petition for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction is comparable to the dismissal of an indictment or information and therefore, the state is entitled to appeal the juvenile court’s ruling. Also finds the state did meet the deadlines for seeking an interlocutory appeal and while this is not actually an interlocutory appeal, both the juvenile court and the Court of Appeals treated it as an interlocutory appeal and allowed the state to bring such an appeal.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Frank Grecco III v. State of Indiana
24A-CR-560
Criminal. Reverses the Hendricks Superior Court’s order denying Frank Grecco III’s motion to dismiss two charges of possession of child pornography as level 6 felonies. Finds In light of the precedent from the United States Supreme Court and under these circumstances in which the state conceded before the trial court that the materials Grecco was charged with possessing did not depict actual children, as well as the state’s agreement on appeal that Grecco’s motion to dismiss should have been granted, the appellate court should reverse.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Roger Dewayne Redding v. State of Indiana
23A-CR-3068
Criminal. Affirms Roger Redding’s conviction in Madison Circuit Court for murder. Finds that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in restricting Redding’s right to cross-examine the coroner. Also finds that any error was at most harmless.

Indiana Court of Appeals 

Lindsay E. Willoughby v. State of Indiana 

24A-CR-736

Criminal. Affirms Lindsay E. Willoughby’s convictions for four counts of Level 4 felony unlawful possession of a firearm by a serious violent felon and one count of Level 5 felony assisting a criminal and his adjudication as a habitual offender. Finds he is unable to show fundamental error.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Arthur Moore v. State of Indiana
23A-CR-2189
Criminal.  Affirms Arthur Moore’s conviction in Marion Superior Court for Class A misdemeanor unlawful carrying of a handgun. Finds the state has satisfied its burden to show Subsection (b)(6) is consistent with the principles underpinning the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. Also finds Moore has not shown Subsection (b)(6) imposes a material burden on his right to bear arms under Indiana’s Constitution. Judge Elizabeth Tavitas concurs with separate opinion.

Indiana Court of Appeals
State of Indiana v. TikTok Inc., ByteDance Ltd., ByteDance Inc., and TikTok Pte. Ltd.
23A-PL-3110, 23A-PL-3111
Civil plenary. Affirms the Allen Superior Court’s dismissal of the State of Indiana’s complaints against foreign entities ByteDance, Ltd., ByteDance, Inc., and TikTok Pte., Ltd. for lack of personal jurisdiction. Reverses the trial court’s dismissal of the state’s amended complaint against TikTok Inc. Finds TikTok has purposefully invoked substantial contacts within Indiana, and the controversies at hand are related to those contacts and Indiana’s judiciary has specific personal jurisdiction over TikTok. Also finds TikTok’s business model of exchanging access to its content library for end-user personal data is a “consumer transaction” under Indiana’s Deceptive Consumer Sales Act. Finally, finds both of the state’s amended complaints also state a claim under the DCSA. Remands for further proceedings.

Indiana Court of Appeals
Mahari Mrach Oukbu and Nitsihiti Abraham v. Amazon, et. al.
24A-CT-254
Civil tort. Reverses the Hamilton Superior Court’s granting of judgment for Amazon and its conclusion that Amazon did not owe Mahari Oukbu a duty under Indiana law.  Finds Oukbu’s complaint was sufficient to demonstrate that Amazon owed a duty of reasonable care to Oukbu, and that Amazon’s actions—or inactions—created a condition that made passage unsafe on the abutting public road. Also finds that the trial court erred in granting Amazon’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. Judge Paul Mathias concurs with a separate opinion.