Case Update - Pioneer Edition
I spent the last week getting away from it all by living in a log cabin, which has the added benefit of allowing me to pass it off as my boyhood home in an effort to gain street cred for my forthcoming run for the presidency. As you can see, I wasn't exactly roughing it, but I don't do roughing it; someone asked me if I was going camping, and I gently informed them that if God had intended me to go camping, he wouldn't have invented flush toilets.
I'm somewhat surprised that while traipsing through the woods I didn't bump into Tom Moyer or any of the other Supreme Court justices; the summer slowdown there continued, with decisions in a workers comp case and a criminal case -- the latter of which I'll discuss tomorrow -- plus a smattering of disciplinary decisions unhappily coinciding with the announcement that the Clients' Security Fund shelled out over a quarter of a million dollars to victims of attorney theft in the past year.
The appellate courts were busy, though, handing down 163 decisions in the past fortnight. So let's get to those. Remember, our motto at The Briefcase: We read the cases so you don't have to...
Criminal. 1st District holds that defendant cannot compel co-defendant, who has pled guilty but not been sentenced, to testify... 3rd District says that appeal doesn't lie to determine trial court bias, proper remedy is to file affidavit of disqualification with Supreme Court... Where trial court failed to advise defendant of PRC, he's entitled to new sentencing hearing, and judge can give him lesser sentence than she did originally, 10th District holds... 2nd District says whether to impose consecutive sentences solely within judge's discretion... Defendant's (and counsel's) misunderstanding of defendant's eligibility for judicial release under plea agreement not basis for appeal where judicial release not mentioned in agreement, 7th District holds... 10th District determines that amendment of rape count to allege vaginal rape instead of anal rape is permissible, did not change name or identity of offense...
Civil. 8th District reverses trial court's exclusion of plaintiff's expert's testimony, holding that testimony satisfied Daubert test... 9th District holds that home health care aide's injuries suffered while exiting elevator in her patient's apartment building were not covered by workers comp under "coming and going" rule... 3rd District rules that parol evidence is admissible to show mutual mistake of fact in contract... 9th District reminds everyone that where a divorce entry provides for a QDRO, time for appeal runs from the date of the entry, not from the date that the QDRO is filed... 7th District holds that municipality immune from suit for malicious prosecution... Grant of pro hac vice status to attoney in one county does not carry over into another county; case was transferred from Lake to Stark County, and court holds that Stark County was not required to accept notice of voluntary dismissal...
Cases that I never got around to reading. From the Lexis summary for the 10th district's decision in Westlake v. Dept. of Agriculture:
Appellants, a lamb owner and his father, sought review of the judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, which affirmed the orders of appellee Ohio Department of Agriculture, disqualifying a lamb that the owner had exhibited at a county fair, ordering forfeiture of all awards earned for that lamb, and suspending the owner from all livestock exhibitions in Ohio for two years.
And yo Momma fat, too. In Morgan v. Mikhail, Morgan had lost $30,000 in Mikhail's pyramid scheme. After Mikhail was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison, Morgan sued him. The 10th District upheld the trial court's refusal to award punitive damages. As part of his proof of malice, Morgan tried to introduce evidence that, after his conviction, Mikhail had sent him a copy of Investing for Dummies.
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