Oregon Supreme Court Decisions 2018
Date: December 13, 2018
Docket Number: S064616
Justia Opinion Summary: In criminal cases consolidated for trial, defendant Richard Lacey waived his right to counsel and invoked his right to self-representation after being warned that, if he engaged in disruptive conduct during his jury…
Date: December 13, 2018
Docket Number: S064787
Justia Opinion Summary: These consolidated cases involved two defendants who were separately charged with unlawfully delivering marijuana. In one case United States Postal Service (USPS) took a package out of a mail hamper and put it on the…
Date: December 6, 2018
Docket Number: S064763
Justia Opinion Summary: In juvenile dependency cases consolidated for review, the issue centered on the permanency plans for two children and half-siblings, L and A, under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. The Department of Human Services…
Date: December 6, 2018
Docket Number: S064985
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Dustin Kimbrough wished to have people killed and witnesses scared, so he sought to hire a hitman. For that, he was charged with and found guilty of several counts of attempted solicitation of aggravated murder…
Date: December 6, 2018
Docket Number: S065140
Justia Opinion Summary: While on patrol, Officer Klopfenstein stopped a van because one of its headlights was out. There were three passengers in the minivan. After asking the driver for his identification, the officer asked the driver about…
Date: December 6, 2018
Docket Number: S065338
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Christopher Warren was charged with multiple offenses in a single indictment. Defendant demurred to the indictment on the ground that it did not allege the basis for joining the charges. The trial court…
Date: December 6, 2018
Docket Number: S065372
Justia Opinion Summary: The state filed an interlocutory appeal of a circuit court’s two pretrial rulings suppressing evidence. Defendant Homer Lee Jackson, III was charged with 12 counts of aggravated murder, relating to the deaths of four…
Date: November 8, 2018
Docket Number: S064613
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2009, Seneca Sustainable Energy LLC (Seneca) began construction of a biomass cogeneration facility on property that it owned outside of Eugene, Oregon. In this direct appeal of the Regular Division of the Tax Court,…
Date: November 8, 2018
Docket Number: S064956
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Brian Bement admitted that, on March 13, 2010, he shot and killed Greenspan. Defendant was a drug dealer, and Greenspan was a naturopathic physician who had invested in defendant’s drug dealing operation. The…
Date: November 8, 2018
Docket Number: S065165
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, former Starbucks baristas, sued the company claiming it improperly calculated state and federal tax withholding, and as a result, improperly deducted those withholdings from plaintiffs’ paychecks. As a…
Date: November 8, 2018
Docket Number: S065202
Justia Opinion Summary: A magistrate court granted a taxpayer part of the relief requested. The magistrate accepted the property values that taxpayer requested for the two most recent tax years but did not accept the values that taxpayer…
Date: October 25, 2018
Docket Number: S064925
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Jeff Gist worked as a driver for defendant Driver Resources, LLC. The other two defendants were related companies. In November 2013, plaintiff filed a class-action complaint against defendants, on behalf of…
Date: October 4, 2018
Docket Number: S064760
Justia Opinion Summary: As police officers converged on a house to execute a search warrant, they encountered defendant Benjamin Madden sitting in a car in the driveway. They seized and handcuffed him, brought him into the house, kept him there…
Date: October 4, 2018
Docket Number: S065259
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Dante Farmer was convicted of murder with a firearm. He sought post-conviction relief, arguing that his defense counsel was constitutionally inadequate for, among other things, deciding not to call a defense…
Date: September 20, 2018
Docket Number: S064569
Justia Opinion Summary: Law enforcement officers seized and searched defendant Catalin Dulfu's computer and duplicated its hard drive. During a search of the duplicated hard drive, a forensic investigator discovered computer files containing…
Date: September 13, 2018
Docket Number: S065530
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Emily Hodges alleged she was injured when the apartment balcony on which she and others were standing collapsed. Plaintiff alleged she suffered injuries to her spine, feet, right leg and hip, and right…
Date: August 23, 2018
Docket Numbers: S064309, S064309
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Kimberli Ransom, the relator and petitioner in this mandamus proceeding, filed a medical negligence action alleging that two radiologists employed by Radiology Specialists of the Northwest (defendant) were…
Date: August 16, 2018
Docket Number: S062353
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Robert Langley, Jr. was convicted on 16 counts of aggravated murder in 1989. The Oregon Supreme Court affirmed 15 of those convictions in Oregon v. Langley, 839 P2d 692 (1992), adh’d to on recons, 861 P2d 1012…
Date: August 16, 2018
Docket Number: S064698
Justia Opinion Summary: Comcast Corporation challenged the Oregon Tax Court's construction of the statutory formula by which Oregon calculated the portion of its income taxable by Oregon. Based in part on those statutes, the Oregon Department…
Date: August 9, 2018
Docket Number: S064803
Justia Opinion Summary: Capital One Auto Finance, Inc. (taxpayer) filed consolidated Oregon corporate excise tax returns as part of a group that included two corporate affiliates. Taxpayer disputed the Department of Revenue’s contention that it…
Date: August 9, 2018
Docket Number: S064926
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jacob Bliss sought to suppress evidence discovered in a warrantless search of his car, asserting that, because he had been stopped for a traffic infraction rather than in connection with a crime, the police…
Date: August 9, 2018
Docket Number: S065280
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal involved two post-conviction relief cases, which arose out of the same underlying criminal case and were consolidated for review. In Bogle v. Oregon, petitioner Tracey Bogle, who was represented by counsel,…
Date: August 2, 2018
Docket Number: S064633
Justia Opinion Summary: Three people - Debra, Michelle, and Charles - shared a house in Lincoln City. Defendant Adam Anderson needed a place to stay, and Debra and Michelle agreed that defendant could “crash” at their house for a couple of…
Date: August 2, 2018
Docket Number: S065394
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2017, the Oregon legislature enacted a law that imposed a tax imposed on each vehicle dealer "for the privilege of engaging in the business of selling taxable motor vehicles at retail in this state.” The issue in this…
Date: July 26, 2018
Docket Number: S064136
Justia Opinion Summary: Police initially suspected defendant William Miller was driving under the influence, and stopped his car. The officer asked defendant for his identification and returned to his own car to conduct a records check. The…
Date: July 26, 2018
Docket Number: S064934
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the Oregon Supreme Court reviewed a final order of the Department of State Lands (DSL) that granted a permit to the Port of Coos Bay (Port) in connection with the construction of a deep water marine…
Date: July 26, 2018
Docket Number: S065012
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Peter Fonte took a pair of jeans from the sales floor at a department store. He went to a cash register and told the store employee that he wanted to return the jeans, giving the impression that he had…
Date: July 19, 2018
Docket Number: S064494
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Robert Henley was convicted of first-degree sexual abuse and attempted first-degree sodomy, arising out of child sexual abuse allegations by his stepdaughter during a family camping trip. The issue his case…
Date: July 5, 2018
Docket Number: S064546
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Ryan Hamann drove while under the influence of alcohol and was arrested. The State charged him with felony DUII because defendant had two previous DUII convictions; defendant had been convicted of DUII in…
Date: July 5, 2018
Docket Number: S064843
Justia Opinion Summary: The factual issue at trial was whether, as the State contended, defendant Thomas Bray forcibly raped, sodomized, strangled and assaulted J, or, as defendant claimed, J’s injuries resulted from consensual “rough sex.” A…
Date: July 5, 2018
Docket Number: S065147
Justia Opinion Summary: This mandamus proceeding arose from a dispute about a contract’s forum-selection clause. Trinity Bank loaned money to Apex, a drilling company. Michael Lachner, a part owner of Apex and the relator in this case, signed a…
Date: June 28, 2018
Docket Number: S064382
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Oregon Supreme Court’s review centered on defendant’s challenge under Article I, section 9, of the Oregon Constitution, to a warrant that authorized the search, seizure, and…
Date: June 27, 2018
Docket Number: S065981
Justia Opinion Summary: In consolidated cases, petitioners sought review of the Oregon Attorney General’s certified ballot title for Initiative Petition (IP) 43 (2018), contending that various aspects did not comply with requirements set out in…
Date: June 21, 2018
Docket Number: S064016
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Andre Swan was arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) and advised of his Miranda rights. In response, he invoked his right to counsel. Afterwards, the arresting officer asked defendant…
Date: June 21, 2018
Docket Number: S065049
Justia Opinion Summary: The Oregon Supreme Court previously denied employer Shearer's Foods' petition for review in this workers’ compensation case, but addressed claimant William Hoffnagle's petition for an award of attorney fees for time that…
Date: June 7, 2018
Docket Number: S065010
Justia Opinion Summary: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals certified a question of Oregon law to the Oregon Supreme Court. At issue is the correct interpretation of ORS 30.905(2), which placed limits on the time-frame for initiating a product…
Date: May 10, 2018
Docket Number: S063943
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Kipland Kinkel pled guilty to four counts of murder and 25 counts of attempted murder, and pled no contest to a twenty-sixth count of attempted murder. On May 20, 1998, when petitioner was 15 years old, he was…
Date: May 3, 2018
Docket Number: S064344
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner ACN Opportunity, LLC (ACN) sold satellite television, telephone, internet, and home security services, as well as some goods related to those services, through a network of direct-to-consumer sellers that it…
Date: May 3, 2018
Docket Number: S065551
Justia Opinion Summary: Initiative Petition (IP) 28, if enacted, would modify Article I, section 8, of the Oregon Constitution to permit either a legislative body or the people exercising their initiative power to regulate campaign…
Date: May 2, 2018
Docket Number: S065868
Justia Opinion Summary: In April 2017, defendant Zachary Ball was charged by indictment with six Class C felonies. Appellant, who was a crime victim, filed a claim in the trial court, pursuant to ORS 147.515, alleging that the trial court…
Date: March 22, 2018
Docket Number: S064704
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Gregory Stewart knocked on a woman’s door early one morning. The woman thought she recognized defendant and let him inside her apartment. Shortly thereafter, the woman realized she had mistaken defendant for…
Date: March 22, 2018
Docket Number: S065493
Justia Opinion Summary: Two sets of petitioners challenged the Oregon Attorney General’s certified ballot title for Initiative Petition 33 (2018) (IP 33). If adopted, IP 33 would require that “government employee unions” annually report certain…
Date: March 15, 2018
Docket Number: S063844
Justia Opinion Summary: The Oregon Commission on Judicial Fitness and Disability filed a formal complaint alleging 13 misconduct counts against respondent, the Honorable Vance Day, involving Oregon Code of Judicial Conduct Rule 2.1; Rule 2.2;…
Date: March 8, 2018
Docket Number: S065551
Justia Opinion Summary: Two sets of petitioners challenged the Oregon Attorney General’s certified ballot title for Initiative Petition 28 (IP 28). IP 28, if adopted, would add an exception to the constitutional protections recognized in…
Date: March 1, 2018
Docket Number: S064500
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Israel Tena, Jr. was convicted of felony fourth-degree assault constituting domestic violence. On appeal, he challenged the admission of evidence that he had previously assaulted two other intimate partners…
Date: March 1, 2018
Docket Number: S064780
Justia Opinion Summary: Following a bench trial, petitioner Justin Behrle was convicted of three crimes and sentenced accordingly. After entry of judgment and an unsuccessful appeal to the Court of Appeals, petitioner filed a petition for…
Date: February 15, 2018
Docket Number: S064006
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, Tri-County Metropolitan Transportation District (TriMet), sought a declaration that planned, future collective bargaining sessions between TriMet’s bargaining team and the bargaining team for defendant…
Date: February 8, 2018
Docket Number: S063902
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Kerry and Scott Tomlinson (parents) and their son, T, brought separate negligence claims against defendants Mary K. Wagner, MD., Metropolitan Pediatrics, LLC, and Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center. In…
Date: February 8, 2018
Docket Number: S064507
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury found defendant Jose Roberto Fierro Villagomez guilty of unlawful possession and unlawful delivery of methamphetamine. The presumptive sentence for those crimes was probation. However, under ORS 475.900(1)(b),…
Date: February 8, 2018
Docket Number: S064812
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2005, the child who was the focus of this proceeding was born. He had an autism spectrum disorder, developmental delays, including speech delays, and other significant health issues. In 2010, when the child was five…
Date: January 19, 2018
Docket Number: S064318
Justia Opinion Summary: This case presented a narrow question regarding the meaning of ORS 162.375(1), which defined the crime of “initiating a false report.” Defendant Robert Branch was convicted of that crime based on evidence that, in…
Date: January 19, 2018
Docket Number: S064742
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit certified a certified question of Oregon law to the Oregon Supreme Court. The question related to claims under ORS 124.110 for financial abuse of “vulnerable…
Date: January 11, 2018
Docket Number: S064387
Justia Opinion Summary: The charging order at issue here was issued over limited partnerships’ and limited liability company’s objections that ancillary provisions included in the charging order, which required them to refrain from certain…
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
