On Friday morning, I got on an airplane in Phoenix, where it was 79 degrees.  I got off in Cleveland, where it was 34.  ‘Nuff said about my state of mind.  If this keeps up, next week’s Case Update is going to be titled the “Cabin Fever Edition.”

Lots of stuff happened while I was away.  The US Supreme Court decided the Medellin case, and had arguments in another case, both of which I’ll talk about tomorrow.  The Ohio Supreme Court also was busy.  In State v. Smith, it held that theft was a lesser included offense of robbery, and in doing so muddied the law on lesser offenses even more than it already was, an accomplishment most observers had considered impossible; we’ll talk about that one later in the week.  In Minster Farmers Co-Op v. Meyer, the Court held that a notation by a merchant on an invoice of an interest rate higher than that allowed by law for a book account is invalid.  In plain English, that means if a merchant sticks a little phrase at the bottom of an invoice — like, “payments after 30 days will incur 18% interest charge” — it’s invalid.  Well, actually, it’s invalid from here on; the Court made the ruling prospective only.

On to the courts of appeals…

Civil.  10th District says that everyone knows going up a ladder is a dangerous activity, so primary assumption of the risk applies; good discussion of difference between primary and implied assumption of risk… Conviction of aggravated vehicular assault does not automatically trigger insurance company’s exclusion of coverage for intentional tort, says 3rd District… 5th District holds that ethical and financial misconduct by corporation does not trigger protections of whistleblower statute, discharge of employee who complained of misconduct not a violation of public policy… 8th District rules that “whiplash” injuries in auto accident required expert testimony on causation… 3rd District says that defendant waives his claim of laches as to back child support by not raising it as affirmative defense in his answer… Plaintiff if auto accident has $94,000 in claimed med expenses, demands $185,000, is offered $5,500, jury comes back with $9,000; 9th District says trial court erred by awarding prejudgment interest…

Criminal.  Word to the wise:  if you’re going to appeal the denial of a motion to suppress a search based on the insufficiency of the affidavit for the warrant, make sure you have the search warrant and affidavit admitted as exhibits at the hearing; the 10th District summarily affirms a denial of the motion where that wasn’t done… 8th District holds that permitting drug abuse is not a lesser included offense of drug trafficking… Rara avis:  9th District reverses conviction for aggravated robbery with a gun on manifest weight grounds, where witness says she saw gun in defendant’s waistband, but testimony was deemed “incredulous” because robber wore sweatshirt covering waistband… 2nd District reverses rape and sexual battery convictions because of erroneous admission of other acts evidence, says defendant can’t be retried because no differentiation between counts in indictment, can’t determine which particular acts defendant was convicted of and of which he was acquitted…

Sadly, the opinion doesn’t tell you where you can find the video on YouTube.  In Conti v. Spitzer Auto World, the 9th District reverses jury verdict for employer in sexual harassment case, holding that the trial court’s admission of sex tape one of the employees had made with her husband was prejudical error.  The name of one of the plaintiff’s lawyers was Chastity L. Christy.  I am not making this up.