The Massachusetts Appeals Court held that an informal internal email may be a protected health-care safety complaint and revived a physician’s public-policy claim.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court held that an alcohol-law violation being cause for revocation authorizes the ABCC to revoke but does not require it.
The South Carolina Supreme Court held that the execution-secrecy statute does not cover public or nonconfidential identifying information and does not punish its later repetition.
The Superior Court held that SORNA II’s nonpunitive Subchapter I requires registration by an offender who began lifetime registration under Megan’s Law II, even though his offense predated Pennsylvania’s registration statutes.
The Commonwealth Court held that a dog attack is without provocation when, under all surrounding circumstances, the victim could not reasonably foresee that her conduct would trigger the attack.
The Indiana Court of Appeals held that a sheriff determines the county prison matron’s rank and the county council must honor statutory pay parity.
The Nevada Supreme Court held that NRS 200.471 permits a separate assault conviction for every person intentionally placed in reasonable fear of immediate bodily harm.
The Utah Supreme Court held that compulsion is an excuse, not a legal justification, and therefore cannot support the murder statute’s special-mitigation defense.
The Commonwealth Court held in a case of first impression that Pennsylvania solar projects may earn renewable-energy credits by delivering power directly to a utility retail customer without connecting to the grid.
The Wyoming Supreme Court held that asking a child to touch an adult’s exposed genitals can support attempted sexual exploitation under the statute’s masturbation category.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that a teacher who previously withdrew Arizona retirement funds was not barred from buying PSERS credit because she had no present or future entitlement under the Arizona system.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that an inventory search conducted after an overdose victim entered paramedics’ care was independent of the emergency call and fell outside statutory medical-amnesty protection.
The Supreme Court modified and affirmed. Under the facts and statutory text, Williams remained a lawful occupant for purposes of N.C.G.S. § 14-51.2 even after exiting the vehicle during the confrontation. He was entitled to the presumption instruction, and the failure to give it was prejudicial.
The Superior Court held that grandparents lacked standing under Section 5325(1) because the surviving parent still exercised parental control after the other parent died.
The Commonwealth Court held that a manually propelled wheelchair is excluded from the Vehicle Code’s definition of a vehicle and reversed an implied-consent suspension.
The Superior Court discharged a risking-catastrophe conviction because reckless driving did not create the extraordinary, widespread danger the statute requires, while affirming evading arrest on foot.
The Massachusetts Appeals Court held that Skechers was a manufacturing corporation because its detailed control continued through outsourced production.
The Fourth Department held that a free dealership courtesy vehicle is not a rental under the Graves Amendment, leaving New York owner liability intact.
The Utah Court of Appeals held that retaining stolen property can continue until possession ends, making the prosecution of a stolen skid steer timely.
A divided Utah Supreme Court held that a prosecutor may file a delinquency petition after an ineligible minor received a nonjudicial adjustment from probation.
The Utah Supreme Court held that bars that voluntarily settle a Dramshop Act claim cannot seek contribution under a provision limited to persons against whom an award is made.
The South Carolina Court of Appeals reversed the Administrative Law Court’s property tax ruling, holding that the “current fair market value” floor for the ATI exemption is the pre-sale value on the assessor’s books—not that value inflated by improvements the prior owner completed before the sale closed. Because the improvements were already incorporated into the ATI fair market value of $8,034,000 used to compute the exemption value, the Assessor’s approach of re-adding them to the current fair market value floor impermissibly double-counted them. The taxable value for tax year 2022 was $6,063,000, not $6,821,000.
The Wyoming Supreme Court reversed a contempt order against the Wyoming Boys’ School for refusing to admit an alleged delinquent juvenile before adjudication. The court held that Wyoming law expressly prohibits pre-adjudication placement at WBS, which is a reformatory for adjudicated delinquents — not a juvenile detention facility — and that the juvenile court abused its discretion by ordering such placement. All three exceptions to the mootness doctrine applied, allowing the court to reach the merits despite the case having been resolved below.
The Commonwealth Court, sitting en banc, affirmed zoning variances for a 190-foot Verizon cell tower in Upper Macungie Township but adopted a new post-Loper Bright framework: carriers must first attempt to satisfy the MPC’s property-specific hardship requirements, then—if unmet—seek TCA-based relief under the two-part APT Pittsburgh coverage-gap-and-least-intrusive-means test, rejecting the Third Circuit’s FCC-derived “materially inhibit” standard. President Judge Cohn Jubelirer concurred in the result but vigorously disputed the majority’s analytical approach.