STRINE , Chief Justice : I. Curtis White appeals the denial by the Superior Court of his post-conviction claim under Strickland, which contended that White was prejudiced when his trial counsel unreasonably failed to accede to his request to ask for a lesser included offense instruction. In the post-conviction proceeding, trial counsel admitted that he did not understand the lesser included offense of the major charge, First Degree Reckless Endangering, that his client faced. White was...
VAUGHN , Justice , for the Majority: Defendant-Below/Appellant Mark Zambrana was convicted by the Superior Court following a bench trial on two counts of Sexual Solicitation of a Child under 11 Del. C. 1112A. On appeal, he contends that his admitted misconduct of soliciting his 15 year old neighbor, S.Z., to remove her shirt and bra while he surreptitiously watched her did not qualify as sexual solicitation. He argues that 1112A requires a defendant to create a physical "depiction" of...
HOLLAND , Justice : Erin Lowther ("Lowther") was arrested on April 24, 2013, following an altercation with her sister-in-law, Trisha Lowther ("Trisha"). On December 9, 2013, the New Castle County grand jury issued a superseding indictment, charging Lowther with Assault in the Second Degree, Terroristic Threatening and Offensive Touching. On January 16, 2014, a two-day jury trial began. Lowther moved for a judgment of acquittal on the Terroristic Threatening charge. The Superior Court...
HOLLAND , Justice : On December 15, 2011, Stacey L. Thomas (the "Wife") petitioned the Family Court for a divorce from Calvin B. Thomas (the "Husband"), which was granted on February 16, 2012. Thereafter, the Family Court rendered final decisions on several ancillary matters. The Husband raises six issues in this appeal: first, the Family Court erred by not equally dividing the marital property; second, the Family Court erred by determining that the Wife was dependent and therefore entitled...
JACOBS, Justice: I. INTRODUCTION Before us is a dispute about whether coverage exists under certain management liability insurance policies. A bankruptcy trust seeks a determination that those insurance policies cover potential future expenses and liabilities that might arise out of pre-bankruptcy wrongful acts allegedly committed by the insured debtor company's directors and officers. XL Specialty Insurance Company ("XL Specialty") and certain excess insurance carriers, who are the...
JACOBS, Justice: INTRODUCTION By Opinion dated July 22, 2013, this Court ordered the dismissal without prejudice of a condemnation proceeding instituted in the Superior Court by the plaintiff-below/appellee, the State of Delaware Department of Transportation ("DelDOT"), against the defendants-below/appellants, Jack and Mary Ann Lawson (the "Lawsons"). Thereafter, the Lawsons moved in the Superior Court proceeding for an award of litigation expenses and costs, which the Superior Court denied...
JACOBS , Justice : I. INTRODUCTION Plaintiff-below/appellant Eldon Klaassen ("Klaassen") appeals from a Court of Chancery judgment in this proceeding brought under 8 Del. C. 225. The judgment determined that Klaassen is not the de jure chief executive officer ("CEO") of Allegro Development Corporation ("Allegro"). Klaassen claimed that the remaining Allegro directors (collectively, the "Director Defendants"), in removing him as CEO, violated an equitable notice requirement and also...
JACOBS, Justice: I. INTRODUCTION The plaintiff-below/appellant RBC Capital Markets, LLC ("RBC") appeals from a Superior Court judgment dismissing its claims against the defendants-below/appellees U.S. Education Loan Trust IV, LLC (the "Issuer") and Education Loan Trust IV (the "Trust"), (collectively, the "Defendants"). RBC sued the Defendants in the Court of Chancery in 2011. RBC's complaint alleged that the Defendants had been paying excessive fees from the Trust. The court dismissed the...
JACOBS, Justice. I. INTRODUCTION Plaintiff-below/appellant Eldon Klaassen ("Klaassen") appeals from a Court of Chancery judgment in this proceeding brought under 8 Del. C. 225. The judgment determined that Klaassen is not the de jure chief executive officer ("CEO") of Allegro Development Corporation ("Allegro"). Klaassen claimed that the remaining Allegro directors (collectively, the "Director Defendants"), in removing him as CEO, violated an equitable notice requirement and also...
JACOBS, Justice: I. INTRODUCTION This is an appeal from a judgment of the Court of Chancery in an action to appoint a receiver for Krafft-Murphy Company, Inc. (the "Corporation"), a dissolved Delaware corporation, under 8 Del. C. 279. The Petitioners-Below/Appellants, who are tort claimants in lawsuits pending against the Corporation in other jurisdictions, seek the appointment of a receiver to enable them lawfully to pursue those claims against the Corporation in those other courts. The...
JACOBS, Justice: This is an appeal from a final judgment of the Superior Court in favor of the defendants. In this action, the Plaintiff-Appellants assert various tort claims against Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. ("AMD"). AMD moved to exclude certain expert testimony under Delaware Rule of Evidence 702 — a motion that the Superior Court granted after determining that the evidence was not relevant. Plaintiff-Appellants timely appealed to this Court, which remanded the case to the Superior Court...
JACOBS, Justice: This case involves a dispute between two developers over the payment of property assessments allegedly due under certain restrictive covenants. The plaintiff-below, The Reserves Management, LLC ("Reserves"), appeals from two Superior Court rulings granting summary judgment in favor of the defendants-below, R.T. Properties, LLC, Mountain Range, LLC, Fountain, LLC, Waterscape, LLC, and Wind Chop, LLC. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for further proceedings. FACTS...
STEELE, Chief Justice. In this appeal of a denial of a postconviction relief motion, we consider whether trial and appellate counsel were ineffective during their representation of the defendant, stemming from a series of robberies on New Year's Eve 2008. The defendant argues that his trial and appellate counsel were ineffective for failing to request at trial, and for failing to argue on direct appeal: (1) the inclusion of a Bland instruction in connection with certain accomplice testimony;...
JACOBS , Justice : Pending before this Court is an appeal from an order of the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissing a complaint. The plaintiff below, appellant, Quadrant Structured Products Company, Inc. ("Quadrant"), holds certain Notes issued by Athilon Capital Corp. ("Athilon"), an allegedly insolvent Delaware corporation. The Notes are long term obligations covered by two separate trust indentures that are governed by New York law. The defendants-below are EBF & Associates, LP ("EBF"),...
JACOBS, Justice: Gordon Levey, the plaintiff-below ("Levey"), appeals from a Court of Chancery order granting summary judgment and dismissing his action on the ground of laches by analogy to the statute of limitations. Levey claims that the Court of Chancery erred as a matter of law on both substantive and procedural grounds. We find that the specific claims actually advanced by Levey lack merit. Nonetheless, our independent review discloses that the judgment must be reversed, and the case...
STEELE, Chief Justice: This appeal addresses the State's obligation to produce relevant material in response to a defendant's discovery request. A Superior Court jury convicted the defendant of Failing to Stop at the Command of a Police Officer, Reckless Driving, and several other offenses. The State failed to produce a recording of the officers' communications with the dispatcher in response to the defendant's discovery request. This recording contained evidence that the officers' siren had...
STEELE , Chief Justice : In this action, a group of Texas plaintiffs allege that a corporation exposed two employees to chemicals that caused two of the employees' children to suffer from birth defects. On appeal, the plaintiffs challenge a Superior Court judge's application of Texas substantive law and the resulting exclusion of expert testimony. Under Delaware law, which incorporates the United States Supreme Court's holding in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 1 admissible...
STEELE, Chief Justice: This case addresses the scope of insurance coverage under Delaware's personal injury protection (PIP) statute. 1 A plaintiff who was injured in an accident sought PIP benefits from an insurance carrier. To determine whether the plaintiff was entitled to PIP benefits, a Superior Court judge applied Delaware's current three-part test and analyzed: (1) "whether the vehicle was an `active accessory' in causing the injury," (2) "whether there was an act of independent...
STEELE, Chief Justice: This is an appeal from the Court of Chancery's dismissal of a class action complaint challenging the merger of a limited partnership with its general partner's controller. The plaintiff limited partner's complaint alleges that the general partner, its controller, and its directors took actions during and preceding the merger negotiations that breached the contractual duties the limited partnership agreement imposed. The limited partnership agreement replaces common law...
STEELE, Chief Justice: In this interlocutory appeal, we hold that the Superior Court judge erred when he found that a state agency complied with Delaware's Real Property Acquisition Act before it moved to condemn property. Where a state agency bases its initial offer to purchase property on an appraisal that contains flawed assumptions about the property's post-taking use, that agency cannot reasonably believe that it offered just compensation. The statute requires a state agency to make an...
