OPINION PER CURIAM: This case arises from an untimely post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus stemming from a conviction, pursuant to a guilty plea, of three counts of sexual assault and three counts of sexual assault with the use of a deadly weapon causing substantial bodily harm. In his petition, appellant Michael Rogers claimed that the six sentences of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for three of the six counts were cruel and unusual punishment because...
OPINION PER CURIAM: Appellant Anthony Toston pleaded guilty to first-degree kidnapping and robbery. In a post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus challenging the judgment of conviction he alleged that his trial counsel provided ineffective assistance by misadvising him about the right to appeal from a judgment of conviction based on a guilty plea and failing to file an appeal when Toston expressed dissatisfaction at the sentencing hearing. In this appeal from the district court'...
OPINION By the Court, DOUGLAS, J.: In this appeal, we review a district court summary judgment in favor of the insurer in an insurance coverage action. We conclude that the policy at issue does not provide coverage because the damage sustained did not result from a covered cause of loss. Further, while we adopt the doctrine of efficient proximate cause, we conclude that it does not apply in this case. Therefore, we affirm. FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY Appellant Fourth Street Place, LLC,...
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY, J.: In this opinion, we address an important policy question concerning the proper scope of the record before this court and the extent to which this court may determine facts, if at all, when it considers a certified question from a federal court. The present matter arises in a pending certification case from the United States Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of Florida. Appellant has moved to strike respondents' appendix, contending that the included...
OPINION By the Court, DOUGLAS, J.: In this original writ proceeding, we consider the admissibility of retrograde extrapolation evidence to estimate a defendant's blood alcohol level at a point in time based on a blood sample taken at a later point in time. We conclude that although retrograde extrapolation evidence is relevant in a prosecution for driving under the influence, under certain circumstances such evidence may be unfairly prejudicial and therefore inadmissible. Because the...
OPINION By the Court, DOUGLAS, J.: In this appeal, we consider whether state law claims of negligence and negligence per se are preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). In a recent opinion, Cervantes v. Health Plan of Nevada, 127 Nev. ____, 263 P.3d 261 (2011), we concluded that these same claims were preempted; however, this is a fact-intensive inquiry because ERISA preemption is dependent on the actual operation of a state statute. We conclude that under the...
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY, J.: In this appeal, appellants challenge the district court's post-voir dire denial of their motion for a change of venue in the underlying tort action. Having recognized the propriety of deferring consideration of such motions until after the completion of voir dire in our contemporaneously issued opinion in Sicor, Inc. v. Sacks, 127 Nev. ___, 266 P.3d 618 (2011), we now enlarge the test to be applied when evaluating post-voir dire motions for a change of...
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY, J.: In this appeal, we consider the propriety of a district court order deferring a final ruling on a change of venue motion based on adverse pretrial publicity until after jury selection began and whether such an order is appealable. We conclude that such an order does not finally decide the motion and thus dismiss this appeal. When a change of venue motion is based on adverse pretrial publicity, the district court's discretion under NRS 13.050(2) to change...
OPINION By the Court, PICKERING, J.: Since 2009 Nevada law has required loan-modification mediation on homeowner request before a nonjudicial foreclosure sale can proceed on an owner-occupied residence. Compliance is evidenced by a Foreclosure Mediation Program (FMP) certificate that mediation has concluded or been waived. This certificate must be recorded for a valid foreclosure sale to occur. On this appeal, we consider whether a lender who has been denied an FMP certificate for failing...
OPINION By the Court, SAITTA, C.J.: This appeal involves the denial of a records request made pursuant to the Nevada Public Records Act (NPRA). The primary issue we are asked to resolve is whether, after the commencement of a public records lawsuit, the state entity withholding the requested records is required to provide the requesting party with a log containing a factual description of each withheld record and a legal basis for nondisclosure. We conclude that based upon the provisions of...
OPINION By the Court, DOUGLAS, J.: At issue in this appeal is the procedure required by NRCP 56(f) for the party opposing a motion for summary judgment to request the denial or continuance of the motion in order to obtain additional affidavits or conduct further discovery. By its plain language, NRCP 56(f) requires that the party opposing summary judgment provide an affidavit stating the reasons why denial or continuance of the motion for summary judgment is necessary to allow the opposing...
OPINION By the Court, PARRAGUIRRE, J.: In this opinion, we consider the apparent disconnect between NRS 651.015's limitation on innkeeper liability and our decision in Doud v. Las Vegas Hilton Corp., 109 Nev. 1096, 864 P.2d 796 (1993). Having concluded that this discord arises from the multifaceted concept of "foreseeability," we clarify that the duty element of a negligence cause of action must be determined as a matter of law by considering whether the wrongful act that precipitated...
OPINION By the Court, PICKERING, J.: This interstate child custody dispute traces back to a stipulated Nevada divorce decree. The decree incorporated the parents' agreement that Nevada would have exclusive jurisdiction over future child custody disputes. When such a dispute arose, the mother returned to the Nevada decree court to resolve it. By then, both parents and their children had moved to California. With everyone gone from Nevada, the father maintains that Nevada lacks subject matter...
OPINION By the Court, PARRAGUIRRE, J.: In this appeal, we consider the duty of care that a pharmacist owes his or her customers. Specifically, we are asked to clarify whether a pharmacist's only duty is to fill a customer's prescription with the correct medication and dosage or if, under certain circumstances, a pharmacist may have a duty to do more. We conclude that when a pharmacist has knowledge of a customer-specific risk with respect to a prescribed medication, the pharmacist has a duty...
OPINION By the Court, SAITTA, C.J.: In this appeal, we address two primary issues. We first consider whether the district court abused its discretion in permanently enjoining appellants from importing and selling certain Bordeaux wines in Nevada. We conclude that it did not. Next, we address whether the district court abused its discretion in permanently enjoining appellants from importing and selling certain French champagnes in Nevada. We conclude that it did not. We therefore affirm the...
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY, J.: In this petition for extraordinary writ relief, we must determine whether the district court may appoint an unwilling director trustee of a dissolved corporation for the purpose of defending actions against the corporation that arose post-dissolution and after completion of the winding-up process. To resolve this issue, we must construe Nevada's corporate survival statutes and, in particular, NRS 78.600, which allows the district court to "continue the...
OPINION By the Court, PARRAGUIRRE, J.: In this appeal, we address two issues regarding the enforceability of an arbitration provision. To begin, we consider the circumstances in which an arbitration provision contained in an expired contract may be properly invoked. Next, we address whether a plaintiff may rely on Nevada's unconscionability doctrine to invalidate an arbitration provision contained in a contract governed by the federal Medicare Act. First, because the parties in this case...
OPINION By the Court, DOUGLAS, J.: Appellant Margerita Cervantes allegedly contracted hepatitis C as a result of treatments she received at the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada (ECSN). She obtained treatment at ECSN as part of the health care benefits she received through her union, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union Welfare Fund (Culinary Union). The Culinary Union operated a self-funded Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) health care plan and...
OPINION By the Court, CHERRY, J.: A jury found appellant Eugene Nunnery guilty of multiple charges and sentenced him to death for a first-degree murder conviction. Nunnery raises numerous claims of error at the guilt and penalty phases of his trial and challenges his death sentence. We conclude that none of his claims warrant relief and therefore affirm the judgment of conviction. In this opinion, we focus primarily on three of Nunnery's claims related to the penalty phase of the trial....
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY, J.: Appellant Edward Thomas Wilson pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and related felonies in the killing of an undercover Reno police officer in 1979. A three-judge panel sentenced Wilson to death for the murder. In this appeal from the denial of Wilson's third state habeas petition, we address whether our decision in McConnell v. State ( McConnell I ), 120 Nev. 1043, 102 P.3d 606 (2004), invalidates two of the aggravating circumstances used to make...
