OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY , C.J. : Under NRS 62D.310, a juvenile court must make a final disposition of a case within 60 days of a petition being filed, but the court may extend the time for final disposition up to 1 year. In this appeal, we are asked to consider whether the juvenile court loses jurisdiction over a juvenile if it does not make its final disposition of the case within the one-year period provided by statute. We conclude that the juvenile court maintains jurisdiction...
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY , C.J. : On November 2, 2004, Nevada voters approved the Keep Our Doctors in Nevada (KODIN) ballot initiative. KODIN included the adoption of NRS 41A.045, which makes health-care provider defendants severally liable in professional negligence actions for economic and noneconomic damages. In this opinion, we address whether, in a health-care provider professional negligence action, NRS 41A.045 allows a defendant to argue the percentage of fault of settled...
OPINION By the Court, SAITTA , J. : In the instant case, appellant challenges his conviction arguing that the district court abused its discretion when it refused to answer two questions from the jury during deliberations, when it gave a defense-of-others jury instruction that was unduly confusing and not supported by the evidence, when it refused to give his proffered accomplice-distrust jury instruction, and when it refused to bifurcate the gang-enhancement portion of the trial from...
OPINION By the Court, CHERRY , J. : The Clark County District Court sentenced Andre Boston, a juvenile at the time he committed his crimes, to serve 14 consecutive life terms with the possibility of parole, plus a consecutive term of 92 years in prison. Boston subsequently filed a post-conviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The district court granted the petition based on Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. 48, 130 S.Ct. 2011 , 176 L.Ed.2d 825 (2010), wherein the United States...
OPINION By the Court, SAITTA , J. : The plain language of NRS 200.160 states that homicide is justified in response to a reasonable apprehension of the commission of a felony or in the actual resistance of an attempted felony, but it does not specify the type of felony. This opinion addresses whether there is any limitation as to the use of deadly force in response to the commission of a felony under NRS 200.160. We extend our holding in State v. Weddell, 118 Nev. 206, 43 P.3d 987 (...
OPINION By the Court, PICKERING , J. : Demarlo Berry appeals from an order dismissing his third postconviction petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The district court dismissed Berry's petition as procedurally barred, without allowing discovery or conducting an evidentiary hearing. Berry supported his petition with declarations under penalty of perjury that, if true, may establish a gateway claim of actual innocence. We conclude that the district court improperly discounted the...
OPINION By the Court, PICKERING , J. : Bryan Fergason appeals the district court's entry of summary judgment in favor of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (the State), which resulted in the forfeiture of approximately $125,000 from his bank accounts. Because the State failed to present evidence showing an absence of genuine issue of material fact regarding whether the funds seized from Fergason's bank accounts were subject to forfeiture as proceeds attributable to the...
OPINION By the Court, GIBBONS , C.J. : In this appeal, we address whether a district court abused its discretion by allowing the State to file an information by affidavit more than 15 days after the preliminary examination concluded where the defendant was discharged but was not prejudiced by the delay. Additionally, we define the term "egregious error" and address whether a justice court commits egregious error if the error results in the dismissal of a charge or discharge of a criminal...
OPINION By the Court, DOUGLAS , J. : In this opinion, we consider whether a party-retained expert providing a psychiatric analysis of an adverse party during divorce proceedings may later be sued by the adverse party based on statements made in his written psychiatric analysis report. In accordance with long-established precedent extending absolute immunity to judicial participants, we recognize that party-retained expert witnesses have absolute immunity from suits for damages arising...
OPINION By the Court, PICKERING , J. "For legal and medical purposes, a person is dead if the person has sustained an irreversible cessation of . . . [a]ll functions of the person's entire brain, including his or her brain stem." NRS 451.007(1). The determination of death "must be made in accordance with accepted medical standards." NRS 451.007(2). Here, we are asked to decide whether the American Association of Neurology guidelines are considered "accepted medical standards" that...
OPINION By the Court, CHERRY , J. : To resolve this original writ petition, petitioner asks us to consider whether NRCP 60(b) can be used to set aside a voluntary dismissal or a settlement agreement. While NRCP 60(b) imposes a 6-month time limit, real parties in interest filed their NRCP 60(b) motion 40 months after filing the voluntary dismissal. Without reaching whether NRCP 60(b) may be used to set aside a voluntary dismissal or a settlement order, we hold that NRCP 60(b)'s 6-month...
OPINION By the Court, PARRAGUIRRE , J. : NRS 18.015 provides that "[a]n attorney at law shall have a lien . . . [u]pon any claim, demand or cause of action . . . which has been placed in the attorney's hands by a client for suit or collection," and that lien "attaches to any verdict, judgment or decree entered and to any money or property which is recovered on account of the suit or other action." NRS 18.015(1)(a), (4)(a). Here, we are asked to determine whether NRS 18.015 allows an...
OPINION By the Court, SAITTA , J. In Nevada, it is well settled that a party who makes an unimproved upon offer of judgment in a district court action may recover attorney fees and costs incurred after the offer of judgment was made. This opinion addresses whether this is also true when the statutory offer of judgment takes place in an arbitration proceeding. We hold that because the award of fees and costs by an arbitrator is discretionary, appellant WPH Architecture, Inc., has not...
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY , C.J. : In these original petitions for extraordinary writ relief, we consider whether the district court erred when it initially granted an ex parte stay permitting a homeowners' association to complete the NRS Chapter 40 process and further erred when it denied a motion to dismiss the underlying complaint pursuant to the five-year rule in NRCP 41(e) when the NRS Chapter 40 process was still not complete. We conclude that the district court's order...
OPINION By the Court, GIBBONS , J. : In response to a certified question submitted by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nevada, we consider whether NRS 21.090(1)(bb) allows a debtor to exempt his entire interest in a closely held corporation, or whether the exemption is limited to the debtor's noneconomic interest in the corporation. We conclude that under NRS 21.090(1)(bb), a debtor can exempt his stock in the corporations described in NRS 78.746(2), but his...
OPINION 1 By the Court, PICKERING , J. These consolidated appeals challenge the district court's orders denying judicial review of the State Water Engineer's decisions affecting water rights. Under NRS 533.370(2), the State Engineer "shall reject" an application for a proposed use of water or change of existing water rights where that "proposed use or change conflicts with existing rights." The parties ask this court to determine whether this section allows for the State Engineer to...
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY , C.J. : This writ petition arises from litigation between plaintiff Wynn Resorts and a former member of its board of directors, defendant Kazuo Okada. Wynn Resorts noticed Okada's deposition for ten days in Las Vegas even though Okada resides in Hong Kong and owns businesses in Tokyo, Japan. Okada filed a motion for a protective order, requesting that his deposition be taken in Tokyo or, alternatively, Hong Kong, and that it be shortened to three days. The...
OPINION By the Court, PARRAGUIRRE , J. : NRS 41.745(1)(c) makes employers vicariously liable for employees' intentional torts if a plaintiff can show the intentional conduct was "reasonably foreseeable under the facts and circumstances of the case considering the nature and scope of [the employee's] employment." Here, we are asked to determine whether it was reasonably foreseeable that an employee would rape a hotel guest. We are also asked to determine whether the employee's criminal...
OPINION By the Court, HARDESTY , C.J. : NRS 41A.035 (2004) limits the recovery of a plaintiffs noneconomic damages in a healthcare provider's professional negligence action to $350,000. In this petition, we resolve three issues related to this statute: whether the statute violates a plaintiff's right to trial by jury, whether the cap applies separately to each cause of action, and whether the statute applies to medical malpractice actions. We conclude that the district court erred in...
OPINION By the Court, PARRAGUIRRE , J. : NRS 7.085 allows a district court to make an attorney personally liable for the attorney fees and costs an opponent incurs when the attorney "[f]ile[s], maintain[s] or defend[s] a civil action ... [that] is not well-grounded in fact or is not warranted by existing law or by [a good-faith] argument for changing the existing law." Here we are asked to determine whether (1) Nevada Rule of Civil Procedure (NRCP) 11 supersedes NRS 7.085, and (2) the...
