Vermont Supreme Court Decisions 2015
Date: December 24, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 138
Justia Opinion Summary: The Vermont Human Rights Commission and three female employees of the Vermont Department of Corrections (DOC) filed suit against the State (the DOC and the Vermont Department of Human Resources (DHR)) claiming that the…
Date: December 18, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 134
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs owned a building, with a mortgage, in Hartford, Vermont, where they operated a pizza business. In 2013, they sold the pizza business to defendant and leased him the premises. In November 2013, plaintiffs…
Date: December 11, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 140
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Neil and Patricia Whitney asserted that damage to their home and personal property resulting from the spraying within their home of a pesticide known as chlorpyrifos was covered by their homeowners policy.…
Date: December 11, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 142
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2013, defendant Peter Goewey, then age sixty-one, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated sexual assault for repeatedly performing oral sex on a young man. At a contested sentencing hearing, defendant was sentenced…
Date: November 20, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 135
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants Susan Beal and David Pearson appealed a Public Service Board decision to grant a certificate for public good (CPG) for the installation of a telecommunications facility by VTel Wireless, Inc. in Bennington.…
Date: November 20, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 137
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Vermont Supreme Court's review centered on whether Mount Mansfield Company, Inc. (MMC) had unitary operations with AIG Insurance Management Services, Inc. (AIG) such that AIG was…
Date: November 13, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 075
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants-counterclaimants Jeanmarie Leonard and Carol Sayour appealed the grant of summary judgment on their counterclaims in favor of plaintiff Jennifer Weinstein and third-party defendants, Lloyd Weinstein,…
Date: November 13, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 133
Justia Opinion Summary: The State appealed Superior Court decisions to seal certain portions of competency reports prepared in connection with court ordered competency evaluations of Anthony Gotavaskas and Grant Bercik, defendants in two…
Date: October 23, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 132
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant-landlords appealed a jury verdict and post-judgment order involving warranty-of-habitability and consumer-protection claims. Landlords William and Susan O’Brien purchased the subject property in the 1980s,…
Date: October 16, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 129
Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose from a divorce proceeding between plaintiff Kenneth Felis and his former wife, Vicki. Defendant Downs Rachlin Martin, PLLC (DRM) represented Vicki Felis in the divorce proceeding, and defendant Gallagher,…
Date: October 16, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 130
Justia Opinion Summary: Mary McGuire and Douglas Grover separately appeal from orders of the Public Service Board granting Basin Harbor Club (BHC) a certificate of public good for the installation of a photovoltaic net metering system, and…
Date: October 16, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 131
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal stemmed from a superior court decision to grant summary judgment in favor of defendant Caroline Marini on plaintiff EverBank’s complaint for foreclosure on a mortgage that Caroline signed in 2009 together…
Date: October 9, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 121
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Dow Tillson underwent an elective procedure to remove a cataract in his left eye. Defendant Dr. Richard Lane, M.D., performed the procedure at Springfield Hospital. Plaintiffs alleged in their amended complaint…
Date: October 9, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 123
Justia Opinion Summary: A decision of the Environmental Division came to the Vermont Supreme Court on interlocutory appeal. Applicants, Richard J. Bove, Sr. and Rick Bove, applied to the City of Burlington Development Review Board (DRB) to…
Date: October 2, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 122
Justia Opinion Summary: M.M. was born in September 2006; C.M. was born on June 25, 2014. The Department for Children and Families (DCF) began working with mother in June 2012. On June 25, 2014, DCF filed a petition alleging that M.M. and C.M.…
Date: October 2, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 124
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Eric Manning was charged with possession of cocaine following a traffic stop. He moved to suppress the evidence obtained during the investigative detention, arguing that it was the result of an unlawful search…
Date: October 2, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 128
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this appeal was a jury verdict rendered in favor of Rutland Hospital, Inc., d/b/a Rutland Regional Medical Center, and related entities (“RRMC”) and Dr. Santiago Cancio-Bello arising from injuries due to…
Date: September 18, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 118
Justia Opinion Summary: The estate of husband, William E. Simendinger, appealed an injunction order by the Superior Court that encumbered all real property held by the estate. Husband's estate also challenged the family court's award of…
Date: September 18, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 120
Justia Opinion Summary: M.O. was born on December 14, 2014. Mother was twenty-one years old at the time; father was thirty-four. On December 17, 2014, the Department for Children and Families (DCF) filed a petition alleging that M.O. was child…
Date: September 18, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 125
Justia Opinion Summary: Fecteau Residential Homes, Inc. (seller) was in the business of selling manufactured modular homes. In early November of 2010, Janet and Mark McKinstry (buyers) entered into a written contract with seller for the…
Date: September 18, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 126
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Kent Richland was convicted by jury and sentenced to probation for enabling the consumption of alcohol by a minor. In 2013, defendant received a text message from a sixteen-year-old minor asking defendant to…
Date: September 11, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 115
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Michael Bandler and MB&Co, Ltd. ("corporation") filed an interlocutory appeal of the trial court's ruling that Bandler, a non-attorney, could not represent corporation in this case. Bandler was the sole…
Date: September 11, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 117
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant William Stanley, Sr., appealed his conviction of sexual assault. On appeal, defendant argued that the trial court: (1) erroneously permitted the trial and sentencing to proceed in his absence; (2) erroneously…
Date: September 11, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 119
Justia Opinion Summary: Claimant Roxanne Moran appealed a superior court's dismissal of her complaint for lack of jurisdiction. Claimant, a former employee of the Vermont State Hospital, separated from state service and applied for ordinary…
Date: September 4, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 113
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted by jury of disorderly conduct and grossly negligent operation. He argued on appeal that the evidence was insufficient to support his conviction. Defendant also challenged various conditions of…
Date: September 4, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 116
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conditional guilty plea to possession of cocaine, challenging the trial court's denial of his motion to suppress. Defendant argued that he was illegally seized when a police officer approached his…
Date: August 28, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 109
Justia Opinion Summary: A.M. was born in October 2011 to parents who admitted to their struggle with substance abuse. A.M. was taken into emergency DCF custody in June 2013. In its petition alleging that A.M. was a child in need of care or…
Date: August 28, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 111
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant David Tracy's daughter was one of fifteen girls on a junior high school girls’ basketball team. The basketball coach did not play defendant’s daughter in the first two games of the season. Shortly after the end…
Date: August 28, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 112
Justia Opinion Summary: Two disputes were presented for the Vermont Supreme Court's review in this opinion. One dispute stemmed from a landowner’s replacement of his boathouse and construction of retaining walls that encroached onto his…
Date: August 21, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 103
Justia Opinion Summary: On an afternoon in February 2009, two cars collided on State Route 63 in the Town of Berlin. The westbound car crossed the center line and crashed into plaintiff Kathleen Vanderbloom's car, which was heading east. The…
Date: August 21, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 105
Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Burlington and the Vermont Agency of Transportation (AOT) applied for an Act 250 permit amendment to complete a project known as the "Champlain Parkway," a roadway designed to route traffic more efficiently…
Date: August 21, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 110
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, the Board hired plaintiff Juanita Burch-Clay as principal of West Rutland School with a two-year contract beginning July 1, 2011. Plaintiff’s contract authorized the Board to not renew her contract by providing…
Date: August 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 102
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Timothy Perley was charged with numerous crimes in March 2013, including: leaving the scene of an accident; violating conditions of release; operating with a suspended license driving under the influence (DUI),…
Date: August 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 104
Justia Opinion Summary: In July 2014, defendant Kelly Taylor was stopped by a police officer in Lyndonville on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI). At the stop, defendant submitted to a preliminary breath test showing an…
Date: August 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 106
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Cherie Hyde brought an action for post-conviction relief (PCR), challenging her felony conviction and sentence for aiding another as an accessory to commit sexual assault on a child under the age of sixteen.…
Date: August 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 107
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Derrick Brown petitioned for post-conviction relief following the superior court's grant of summary judgment to the State based on a determination that the criminal court complied with Vermont Rule of Criminal…
Date: August 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 108
Justia Opinion Summary: David Gauthier began work at Green Mountain in May 2007 on an at-will basis as a full-time maintenance technician and was responsible for maintaining and repairing production machinery. In response to a request by…
Date: August 14, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 89
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with aggravated sexual assault of a minor under the age of thirteen. Defendant was the victim's uncle. After the incident, T.B. left the house and waited in the farm store across the street from her…
Date: August 7, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 100
Justia Opinion Summary: R.B. was born in September 2008; O.B. in December 2009; and K.C. in September 2011. In August 2012, the Department for Children and Families (DCF) filed a petition alleging that the children were in need of care or…
Date: August 7, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 98
Justia Opinion Summary: Equinox on the Battenkill Management Association, Inc., appealed a superior court's grant of summary-judgment denying insurance coverage. The appeal arose from a declaratory judgment action against management…
Date: August 7, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 99
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Paul Aiken appealed a superior court order denying his motion to suppress his refusal to submit to an evidentiary breath test on grounds that he was denied his right to counsel. Defendant admitted to consuming…
Date: July 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 79
Date: July 17, 2015
Docket Number: 2015 VT 90
Date: July 10, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 92
Docket Number: 2014-047
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jeremy Lucas appealed a trial-court order finding him in violation of a probation condition (imposed as part of a deferred-sentencing agreement) requiring prior approval from a probation officer before he…
Date: July 10, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 93
Docket Number: 2014-120
Justia Opinion Summary: The Board of Directors of the Arapaho Owners Association ("BOD," appellant) petitioned for a declaratory judgment seeking to reform the condominium's declaration to reflect the actual number of condominium units built…
Date: July 2, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 91
Docket Number: 2014-124
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed a superior court decision that concluded he violated the condition of his probation requiring him to complete the Vermont Treatment Program for Sexual Abusers (VTPSA). The court found that defendant…
Date: June 26, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 88
Docket Number: 2014-162
Justia Opinion Summary: Zaremba Group was the owner of the 10.08-acre plot of land in question in this case. The proposed building site lies within the floodway of Lovers Lane Brook. The Project, the building of a Dollar General store, would…
Date: June 26, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 84
Docket Number: 2014-205
Justia Opinion Summary: Mother appealed the parent-child contact and property division orders in a final divorce decree that assign her sole parental rights and responsibilities with regard to the parties' children. On appeal, she argued that…
Date: June 19, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 87
Docket Number: 2014-141
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Stephen L. Eldert appealed the revocation of his probation resulting from a violation of a probation condition that he not purchase, possess, or consume alcohol. After review, the Supreme Court concluded that…
Date: June 19, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 85
Docket Number: 2014-230
Justia Opinion Summary: Employer Bradford's Trucking, Inc. appealed an Employment Security Board ruling that certain individuals were employees of the company for purposes of assessing unemployment taxes. Eileen Bradford has worked for…
Date: June 19, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 83
Docket Number: 2014-346
Justia Opinion Summary: Gwendolyn Hallsmith was the planning and community development director for the City of Montpelier. Her employment was protected by a "justifiable cause" provision in the City's personnel plan. In November 2013, City…
Date: June 19, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 86
Docket Number: 2014-385
Justia Opinion Summary: This was a case of protracted litigation between neighbors over a maple tree. The maple tree in question was about sixty-five years old and stood about sixty-five feet tall. The trunk or stem of the tree was located…
Date: June 12, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 77
Docket Number: 2014-194
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Heidi and James Glassford appealed a superior court decision denying their motion for summary judgment and granting it to defendant Dufresne & Associates, P.C. on plaintiffs' claims of negligent…
Date: June 12, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 78
Docket Number: 2014-227
Justia Opinion Summary: In this parentage action, the family court, in a 2006 order based on the parties' stipulation, assigned physical rights and responsibilities to mother and ordered father to pay mother $175 per month in child support.…
Date: June 12, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 81
Docket Number: 2014-245
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Allstate Bail Bonds ("Allstate") challenged the trial court's decision to grant the State's motion for forfeiture of bond. Defendant was arraigned for grand larceny and possession of stolen property. Two days…
Date: June 12, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 80
Docket Number: 2014-351
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant John Galanes appealed a superior court order that concluded he violated certain conditions of his probation, notably, the condition that required him to notify his probation officer if he was planning to begin…
Date: June 12, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 82
Docket Number: 2014-383
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on Vermont's statutory residency requirement for filing a divorce action. Husband Dain Gosbee filed for divorce in 2013. His wife Christina was living…
Date: May 29, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 76
Docket Number: 2014-112
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with burglary and aggravated assault arising from an August 2012 incident in which he and a co-defendant entered a home in the Town of Enosburg, assaulted a resident, and stole prescription drugs.…
Date: May 29, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 75
Docket Number: 2014-239
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal stemmed from a condominium construction project in Stratton. Owner-developer The Stratton Corporation and Intrawest Stratton Development Corporation (collectively "Stratton") sued the project's general…
Date: May 22, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 73
Docket Number: 2014-104
Justia Opinion Summary: In a September 2013 order that disposed of father's motion to modify his child-support obligation, a magistrate found that father paid child support while mother also received a social security disability insurance…
Date: May 22, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 74
Docket Number: 2014-145
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Lawrence Alers was convicted by jury of simple assault. He appealed, arguing: (1) that the trial court's admission of a particular out-of-court statement under the "excited utterance" exception to the hearsay…
Date: May 15, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 72
Docket Number: 2014-057
Justia Opinion Summary: Father Eric Merchant and mother Sheila Merchant married in 2000. They subsequently had two children. The parties separated in 2008, and in August 2009 the superior court issued a stipulated final divorce order providing…
Date: May 15, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 60
Docket Number: 2014-098
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was a dispute between a residential subdivision property owners' association and the owner of commercial property both in and adjacent to the subdivision over access to property over a subdivision…
Date: May 15, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 71
Docket Number: 2014-159
Justia Opinion Summary: For eight or nine months following the birth of their son, the parties involved in this dispute lived together in an apartment connected to the home of the child's maternal grandfather in Springfield. In the fall of…
Date: May 8, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 70
Docket Number: 2014-268
Justia Opinion Summary: The parties in this case were arguing over child support. Parents to a daughter born in 2006, the mother argued that the family court erred in calculating the amount of the father's income for purposes of determining his…
Date: May 1, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 69
Docket Number: 2013-336
Justia Opinion Summary: Owner and developer, Stratton Corporation and Intrawest Stratton Development Corporation, sued a condominium construction project's general contractor Engelberth Construction, Inc., who in turn filed a third-party claim…
Date: April 17, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 59
Docket Number: 2013-242
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Charles (Hank) Madigan appealed his conviction on three counts of lewd and lascivious behavior with a child. The charges related to three incidents which the victim, A.R., described in her testimony. On appeal,…
Date: April 17, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 64
Docket Number: 2013-390
Justia Opinion Summary: Father appealed the trial court's award of sole legal and physical parental rights and responsibilities to mother. He also appealed the court's calculation and division of marital assets, challenging the application of a…
Date: April 17, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 68
Docket Number: 2014-012
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant Horizon Heights Condominium Association sought to recover from joint condominium owners Ronald and Joan Dusablon the monthly dues that accrued after the Dusablons redeemed their foreclosed-upon condominium. The…
Date: April 17, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 66
Docket Number: 2014-116
Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from an indemnity dispute between two defendants in a suit arising after plaintiff Michael Hemond suffered a tragic electrocution injury while working on an electrical switch. Defendant Frontier…
Date: April 17, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 65
Docket Number: 2014-140
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal arose out of a decision by the Town of Middlebury Development Review Board (DRB) to approve appellee Jolley Associates, LLC's application for a Planned Unit Development (PUD) to add a car wash to an existing…
Date: April 17, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 67
Docket Number: 2014-236
Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from an indemnity dispute between two defendants in a suit arising after plaintiff Michael Hemond suffered a tragic electrocution injury while working on an electrical switch. Defendant Frontier…
Date: April 10, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 58
Docket Number: 2013-407
Justia Opinion Summary: In February 2004, the Department for Children and Families (DCF) determined that petitioner K.R. placed her son T.F. at risk of harm, and it included her name on the Child Protection Registry. This determination followed…
Date: April 10, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 56
Docket Number: 2014-021
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2013, defendant Robert Vezina pleaded guilty to one count of petit larceny in connection with the theft of seven pieces of musical equipment in July 2012. Defendant's sentence included a restitution order. The items…
Date: April 10, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 55
Docket Number: 2014-206
Justia Opinion Summary: Respondent T.S.S. appealed a Superior Court decision granting the commissioner of the Department of Mental Health's application for a continued order of non-hospitalization (ONH) compelling T.S.S. to continue undergoing…
Date: April 10, 2015
Docket Number: 2014-224
Date: April 10, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 61
Docket Number: 2014-224
Justia Opinion Summary: Tenant was the successor lessee to a thirty-year lease on a commercial property in Brattleboro. The lease was executed in 1987. The lease established a basic annual rent of $26,500 in paragraph 8, and then set forth how…
Date: April 3, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 52
Docket Number: 2014-165
Justia Opinion Summary: Insurer Cincinnati Specialty Underwriters Insurance Company appealed a trial court's order granting summary judgment to defendants Energy Wise, Inc. and Michael and Shirley Uhler in this declaratory-judgment action.…
Date: April 3, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 53
Docket Number: 2014-232
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue on appeal to the Supreme Court in this case centered on a father's obligation to pay college tuition for his daughters pursuant to a Pennsylvania child-support order. The parties, father Frank A. Scopetti, Jr.,…
Date: March 27, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 50
Docket Number: 2014-026
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Gordon Campbell appealed two special sex-offender conditions of probation imposed upon him following being sentenced on a plea agreement for one count of aggravated assault and one count of sexual assault. The…
Date: March 27, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 51
Docket Number: 2014-146
Justia Opinion Summary: The New England Police Benevolent Association (NEPBA) appealed the Vermont Labor Relations Board's dismissal of NEPBA's petition for election of a collective-bargaining representative for NEPBA's failure to provide…
Date: March 20, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 48
Docket Number: 2013-157
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs appealed the grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant realtor who represented the seller in the sale of an inn. Plaintiffs argued that the trial court erred in concluding that defendant's alleged…
Date: March 20, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 49
Docket Numbers: 2013-444, 2013-445, 2013-446
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal stemmed from a decision of the Superior Court, Environmental Division in three consolidated dockets, "all of which carved a very long and circuitous path through the lower tribunals" before presented for the…
Date: March 13, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 43
Docket Number: 2013-288
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted by jury of sexual assault and sexual assault of a vulnerable adult based on a single incident. Defendant was in his seventies at the time of the incident that led to the charges against him, and…
Date: March 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 42
Docket Number: 2013-257
Justia Opinion Summary: In 1996, claimant injured his left ankle during the scope of his employment as a game warden with the State of Vermont. On July 8, 1996, his treating orthopedic physician indicated in medical notes that claimant's…
Date: March 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 46
Docket Number: 2014-032
Justia Opinion Summary: In June 2013, defendant was driving through downtown Bennington when he was stopped by a police officer. The officer stopped defendant after the officer saw a pine-tree-shaped air freshener hanging from the defendant's…
Date: March 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 47
Docket Number: 2014-107
Justia Opinion Summary: Claimant worked at the Vermont State Hospital as a psychiatric technician and ward aide. His duties involved lifting and dealing with patients who could be combative. Claimant suffered work-related injuries on three…
Date: March 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 41
Docket Number: 2014-192
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on whether Act 250 jurisdiction extended to the siting and related construction proposed for the Vermont Air National Guard Base at the Burlington…
Date: February 27, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 40
Docket Number: 2013-332
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Flex-A-Seal, Inc. appealed the dismissal of its complaint to renew a judgment against defendant Deborah Safford. In 2001, Flex-A-Seal sued Safford based on her alleged embezzlement of funds. The parties entered…
Date: February 27, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 14
Docket Number: 2014-149
Justia Opinion Summary: Virginia Newman died in early 2014 at the age of ninety-eight. She created a trust in the mid-1980s after the death of her third husband. Initially, she was the sole trustee, but in 1989 she resigned, and her son Roger…
Date: February 27, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 45
Docket Number: 2014-364
Justia Opinion Summary: Mother appealed a family division superior court decision terminating her parental rights with respect to her son, C.F. She argued that the decision, which was based in part on the family division's view that C.F. had an…
Date: February 13, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 2
Docket Number: 2013-134
Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from a dispute over damage to a leased commercial space. The case was tried before a jury, which awarded plaintiff-landlord David Walsh, just under $11,000 in damages attributable to defendant-tenant…
Date: February 13, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 39
Docket Number: 2013-151
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Louis Fucci, Jr. pled guilty to two counts of soliciting another person for a murder-for-hire plot, and one count of obstruction of justice by seeking to have an opposing party in a civil lawsuit killed. The…
Date: February 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 38
Docket Number: 2013-210
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed the criminal division's denial of his motion to suppress and dismiss his charge for driving under the influence (DUI). In that motion, defendant claimed the evidence underlying his DUI charge should…
Date: February 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 36
Docket Number: 2013-365
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants Barrett and Linda Gregoire, sought to amend or set aside judgments of foreclosure in favor of plaintiff bank based on claims of fraud and misrepresentation. The dispute underlying this case concerned four…
Date: February 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 34
Docket Number: 2013-418
Justia Opinion Summary: The parties were adjoining property owners in the Town of Brandon. Michael and Jirina Obolensky owned forty acres of land, on which they operated a bed-and-breakfast in a large Victorian house located at the lower…
Date: February 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 33
Docket Number: 2014-001
Justia Opinion Summary: This issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on the parties' respective rights and obligations arising from a contract for the sale of land from SKI, Ltd.'s predecessor-in-interest to…
Date: February 6, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 37
Docket Number: 2014-212
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Birchwood Land Company appealed a Superior Court decision denying Birchwood's motion for attachment and granting defendant Judith Krizan's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim. Birchwood's complaint…
Date: January 23, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 4
Docket Number: 2013-184
Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal stemmed from the liquidation of Ambassador Insurance Company, Inc., a property and casualty insurance company incorporated in Vermont. Appellant National Indemnity Company (NICO), assignee to two claims…
Date: January 23, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 11
Docket Number: 2013-392
Justia Opinion Summary: This case stemmed from a fight between defendant and his brother. Defendant Gordon Noyes, Jr. appealed his convictions for disorderly conduct and simple assault by mutual affray following a jury trial. He argued these…
Date: January 16, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 5
Docket Number: 2013-386
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff Ralph Nelson, the former town manager of St. Johnsbury, appealed a trial court decision granting partial summary judgment to defendants, the Town of St. Johnsbury and its individual selectboard members…
Date: January 16, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 10
Docket Number: 2013-414
Justia Opinion Summary: Taxpayer Blimar Team Cleaners appealed a superior court decision to uphold the Burlington Board of Tax Appeals' appraisal of its property at 150 Shelburne Road in Burlington at a value of $193,500. Taxpayer contended on…
Date: January 16, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 7
Docket Number: 2013-441
Justia Opinion Summary: E.W. was fifteen years old, in the custody of the Department for Children and Families (DCF), and living in a foster home when in 2013, a Vermont state trooper in uniform arrived at E.W.'s foster home to investigate a…
Date: January 9, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 1
Docket Number: 2013-215
Justia Opinion Summary: The subject property was two large parcels of land in the Town of Manchester. Sand, rock, and gravel had been extracted from a portion of one or both parcels for decades. In September 1990, respondents'…
Date: January 9, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 3
Docket Number: 2013-323
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2007, plaintiff was severely injured when a 2000 Dodge Neon that she was driving was struck from behind by another vehicle. In July 2010, she filed a personal-injury action against Midstate, the automobile dealer that…
Date: January 9, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 6
Docket Number: 2013-452
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was admitted to a nursing home in September 2010. She was eighty-seven years old at the time, and had a diagnosis of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Petitioner's adult daughter, who had the authority to act…
Date: January 9, 2015
Citation: 2015 VT 8
Docket Number: 2014-288
Justia Opinion Summary: Mother appealed a superior court (family division) order finding that her five-year-old son, M.K., was a child in need of care or supervision (CHINS) based on a single incident of abuse. She argued that the CHINS…
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