On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 39A05-1602-CT-296. Massa , Justice . More than forty years ago, our Court of Appeals decided Tindall v. Enderle , 162 Ind.App. 524, 320 N.E.2d 764 (1974), and today we reaffirm its holding. When an employer admits that an employee was acting within the course and scope of his or her employment, the employer may only be held liable under the doctrine of respondeat superior, and thus the plaintiff is precluded from also...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 18A02-1605-PL-1086 Per Curiam . Michael Pilkington filed a complaint against his stepmother, Karen Pilkington, alleging she violated her duties as the trustee of a trust created by Michael's deceased father. The trust contained the father's interest in multiple limited liability companies ("LLCs"). Karen contends Michael has no interest in the trust because he filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and, at the trustee's request, sold...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 54A01-1506-CT-602 Rush , Chief Justice . Indiana's tort trials should be about making injured parties whole — not about federal immigration policies and laws. Today we address two important issues of first impression: May an unauthorized immigrant sue for decreased earning capacity damages in a tort action And if so, is that plaintiff's unauthorized immigration status admissible at trial We first hold that the Indiana...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 54A01-1603-JT-607 Rush , Chief Justice . Few liberties are as central to our society as the right of parents to raise their children. Our General Assembly has thus set a high bar for terminating parental rights — requiring a termination petition to allege four defined elements and commanding dismissal when DCS fails to prove each element by clear and convincing evidence. The first required element establishes three waiting...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 22A04-1506-CT-722 Rush , Chief Justice . Our decision in Pfenning v. Lineman , 947 N.E.2d 392 (Ind. 2011), established a limited new rule: Indiana courts do not referee disputes arising from ordinary sports activity. Instead, as a matter of law, when a sports participant injures someone while engaging in conduct ordinary in the sport — and without intent or recklessness — the participant does not breach a duty. Id. at 404....
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 02A03-1512-JC-2207 Slaughter , Justice . We have previously held that a tardy notice of appeal forfeits the aggrieved party's right to appeal, but does not deprive a reviewing court of jurisdiction to hear the appeal. Today, we hold that a premature notice of appeal likewise is not fatal to appellate jurisdiction. The two prerequisites for invoking appellate jurisdiction were both present here — an appealable trial-court order...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A05-1511-CR-1782 MASSA , Justice . Eduardo Cruz-Salazar appeals his conviction for Class A misdemeanor possession of cocaine, claiming the warrantless search which led to the discovery of the drugs was improper under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. In this companion decision, issued today with Osborne v. State , 63 N.E.3d 329 , 2016 WL 6963962 (...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 29A02-1511-CR-1931. MASSA , Justice . Mary Osborne filed this interlocutory appeal following the trial court's denial of her motion to suppress, on the grounds that the traffic stop giving rise to the charges was not permissible under the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution. Although we believe the officer's actions in this case were prompted by a genuine...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 71A05-1505-MI-381 MASSA , Justice . An ESPN reporter requested information from the Notre Dame Security Police Department regarding 275 student-athletes. The Department declined, claiming that Notre Dame is a private university and its police force is not a "law enforcement agency" subject to Indiana's Access to Public Records Act. The trial court agreed, and dismissed ESPN's suit. We too find that a private university police...
RUSH , Chief Justice . Angela Martin and Brian Brothers co-hosted a house party. As it wound down, Brothers and two guests — Jerry Chambers and Paul Michalik — got into a fistfight. Afterwards, Martin found Jerry Chambers bleeding from his face and Paul Michalik lying motionless on her basement floor. Michalik died shortly thereafter. Chambers's bankruptcy trustee and Michalik's estate sued Martin, claiming, in part, that she negligently caused Michalik's injuries and that she furnished...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 15A04-1601-CR-32 PER CURIAM . After declining to plead guilty and receive a sentence capped at twenty years, Victor Karp was convicted by a jury of Level 4 felony burglary and was found to be a habitual offender. The trial court sentenced Karp to an aggregate term of twenty-four years. Karp appealed, contending among other things that the trial court abused its discretion in sentencing him. Specifically, Karp argued the trial...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A04-1508-PC-1036 DAVID , Justice . At issue in this case is whether the post-conviction court erred in granting Collier's motion for relief from judgment pursuant to Trial Rule 60(B)(8). In light of the facts and circumstances of this case and given the deferential standard of review, we affirm finding that: 1) Collier filed his motion within a reasonable time given his incarceration, lack of education, limited resources and...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 29A04-1501-CT-00001 SLAUGHTER , Justice . In Stanley v. Walker, 906 N.E.2d 852 (Ind.2009), we interpreted Indiana's collateral-source statute to permit a defendant in a personal-injury suit to introduce discounted reimbursements negotiated between the plaintiff's medical providers and his private health insurer, so long as insurance is not referenced. Today, we hold the rationale of Stanley v. Walker applies equally to...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-1406-PL-00465 PER CURIAM . While Chuck Adams and Charles Howard were inmates at the Indiana Department of Correction ("DOC") Correctional Industrial Facility ("CIF"), they worked at a privately-owned brake shop operated by Meritor Heavy Vehicle Systems, LLC on the premises of CIF. Indiana Code chapter 11-10-7 permits the DOC commissioner to enter agreements with private enterprises to establish "facilities within the...
MASSA , Justice . Robert Lewis, III was convicted by a unanimous jury of murder, murder in the perpetration of criminal deviate conduct, criminal deviate conduct, and resisting law enforcement. The State sought a sentence of life without parole pursuant to Indiana Code section 35-50-2-9 (2008). In the penalty phase, the same jury was subsequently unable to reach a unanimous verdict as to whether the State had proven its charged aggravating circumstance. The trial court nonetheless sentenced...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 49A02-1504-CR-000234. DAVID , Justice . Indiana Code 35-38-2-2.3(a)(6) allows a trial court to order a defendant to pay restitution to a victim as a condition of probation, but the defendant's ability to pay must be considered before the order to pay restitution is entered. In the present case, we find that the trial court abused its discretion because the evidence before the court was insufficient to conclude defendant had...
On Direct Appeal RUSH , Chief Justice . James Griffith was convicted of murder, robbery, and conspiracy to commit robbery, and sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole ("LWOP"). On direct appeal, he claims (1) he was denied due process in discovery; (2) he was denied his right to a speedy trial; (3) the trial court abused its discretion in denying his requests to hire at public expense expert witnesses in DNA and blood spatter; (4) the trial court committed fundamental...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 09A02-1512-CR-2311 PER CURIAM . Kyle Bess asked his 14-year-old niece to give him a lap dance, she declined, but Bess then had her sit on his lap while he kissed her on the cheek and tickled her. Bess pleaded guilty to one count of child solicitation as a Level 5 felony, which carried a sentencing range of one to six years, with three years being the advisory sentence. The trial court found Bess's guilty plea, lack of criminal...
On Petition to Transfer from the Indiana Court of Appeals, No. 48A02-1504-MI-215 RUSH , Chief Justice . Indiana's comprehensive new expungement statutes allow the expungement of records from arrests, juvenile delinquency allegations, criminal charges, and criminal convictions. Here, D.A. successfully petitioned for the expungement of his criminal conviction records. He then filed a second petition asking for the expungement of civil forfeiture records. Because the trial court correctly...
RUSH , Chief Justice . As Michael Day's marriage dissolved, the family home became increasingly tense, until one night Day came home, screamed in his wife's face, and spat in her eye. Four 911 calls later, Day was arrested. He was subsequently convicted of disorderly conduct based on "fighting." Here, he asks us to interpret the disorderly conduct statute's "fighting" subsection to require both a public disturbance and a physical altercation, claiming the State failed to prove either...
