Supreme Court of Indiana Decisions 2019

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's judgment in this action by an employer against several of its former employees and their new employer for alleged violations of the former employees' noncompetition and…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court vacated the section of the trial court's preliminary injunction purporting to enforce an unreasonable restrictive covenant in a noncompetition agreement, holding that parties to noncompetition…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these three judicial misconduct proceedings, the Supreme Court held that three judges engaged in judicial misconduct by appearing in public in an intoxicated state and behaving in an injudicious manner and by becoming…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the juvenile court committing fifteen-year-old A.M. to the Department of Correction (DOC), holding that A.M. failed to demonstrate that he received ineffective assistance of…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this litigation arising from a transaction in goods governed by the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) the Supreme Court affirmed the trial court order denying summary judgment, holding that there remained genuine issues…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the trial court terminating Mother's and Father's parental rights to seven children, holding that there was sufficient evidence to support the court's termination…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case concerning the State's civil complaint for forfeiture of Defendant's Land Rover the Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the trial court deciding that forfeiture of the vehicle would be grossly…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the post-conviction court's denial of Appellant's petition for post-conviction relief alleging ineffective assistance of counsel, holding that that Appellant's arguments were unpersuasive and…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction for murder and felony murder and entering a revised order sentencing Defendant to life imprisonment without parole (LWOP) for his murder conviction, holding that the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this appeal concerning whether International Business Machines, Corp. (IBM) was entitled to post-judgment interest on its $49.5 million damages award running from the date of the original judgment or running from the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction of stalking, holding that a charge of stalking may be supported by conduct that is continuous in nature, even if it is a single episode. The statutory definition of…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court making two teenagers wards of the Indiana Department of Correction, holding that the teenagers failed to show that their remote participation in their hearings…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of two counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated, holding that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to conduct a hearing…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed in part and reversed in part the judgment of the trial court in this landlord-tenant dispute, holding that the parties' rent-to-buy agreement was not a land-sale contract but a rental agreement…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court vacated the decision of the court of appeals reversing in part Defendant's convictions, holding that that the court of appeals' effort to correct a double jeopardy violation misconstrued Paquette v.…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court vacated the decision of the court of appeals revising Defendant's sentence for three counts of Class A felony child molesting and revised the sentences to the original terms set by the trial court,…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this post-conviction proceeding, the Supreme Court held that a post-conviction petition that addresses only the proceedings on remand from a federal court's grant of a new trial is not a "second" or "successive"…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court refusing to terminate Mother's parental rights on the ground that termination was not in the children's best interests, holding that the court's conclusion that…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the trial court granting summary judgment for Defendants and dismissing this suit brought by the estate of an Arlington Community High School student who was murdered after…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court denying Defendant's petition to modify his sentence on the grounds that it was not authorized to modify the sentence imposed under Defendant's fixed-term plea…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of murder and other crimes and sentencing him to life without parole, holding that each of Defendant's contentions on appeal were without…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the trial court granting Defendant's petition to modify her Class B felony sentence, holding that the trial court had no discretion to modify Defendant's sentence because…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed Defendant's conviction of Class A misdemeanor domestic battery, holding that Defendant did not validly waive his right to a jury trial. In the underlying proceedings Defendant signed two…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the order of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission approving two complex, multi-year settlements regarding rates and infrastructure investments under the TDSIC Statute, Ind. Code ch.…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the finding of the trial court that five children were children in need of services (CHINS), holding that the doctrine of res judicata applies to bar a repeated filing of a CHINS petition based…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the superior court ruling that Indiana's Civil Forfeiture Statute was constitutional, holding that the General Assembly may decide how and when forfeiture proceeds accrue to the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these two consolidated cases, the Supreme Court held that, for the purposes of determining preferred venue pursuant to Trial Rule 75(A)(4), the actual principal office of an organization with a location in the State…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the trial court ordering state police officers to turn over to federal authorities a shipped box containing U.S. currency wrapped in multiple layers of sealed packaging that…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the verdict of the jury in Plaintiff's favor in this personal injury case, holding that an expert witness's professional licensure status and the reasons for professional discipline may be…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that International Business Machines, Corp. (IBM) was entitled to post-judgment interest on its $49.5 million damages award as entered by the trial court and affirmed by this Court in IBM I running…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this Indiana Product Liability Act (IPLA) design-defect case, the Supreme Court held that the the trial court erred in determining that a component-part manufacturer owed no duty, as a matter of law, to install safety…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court granted transfer in this case to eliminate a residual double jeopardy violation not addressed by the court of appeals, holding that one of Defendant's remaining convictions must be reduced to a lesser…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this municipal-annexation case, the Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court against the Town of Brownsburg, holding that a trial court hearing a remonstrance proceeding on judicial review must consider…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court dismissing Plaintiff's claims against Indiana-resident defendants without prejudice, holding that the trial court erred in basing its dismissal on lack of…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court found that the Honorable Robert W. Freese, Judge of the Hendricks Superior Court 1, engaged in judicial misconduct and ordered that Judge Freese be suspended from the office of judge without pay for…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's exercise of discretion to reconsider its initial appointment of the decedent's father as special administrator for the decedent's estate, holding that, though not required by…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the trial court granting Defendant's motion to suppress statements he made during an interrogation as inadmissible in his criminal trial, holding that there was substantial,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court denying Defendant's motion to modify his sentence, holding that Defendant needed the prosecutor's consent to modification before the court could modify his…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the post-conviction court's order denying Appellant's motion to correct error and remanded this matter for further proceedings, holding that a post-conviction court abuses its discretion when…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of dealing in a narcotic drug and resisting law enforcement, holding that the trial court did not commit fundamental error by allowing the…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this mandate-of-funds action in which the only remaining dispute was over what attorney's fees and expenses the Judges of Lake Superior Court should recover, the Supreme Court affirmed the Special Judge's ruling that…

Justia Opinion Summary: In these two mental health cases, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeals of the temporary commitment orders of two individuals, holding that the Probate Commissioner lacked authority to enter the commitment…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the trial court revoking Defendant's community corrections placement for possessing obscene matter, holding that the evidence was insufficient to revoke Defendant's probation…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant's conviction for felony neglect of a dependent resulting in her death, holding that the trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting evidence at trial that Defendant had, on…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court convicting Defendant of felony resisting, holding that the challenged instruction in this case potentially misled the jury as an incorrect statement of law but…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court held that the Fee Exemption, a provision in Ind. Code 36-1-20-5 that allows the cities of Bloomington and West Lafayette to charge local landlords any amount to register rental properties, is…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed Defendant’s convictions, holding that accessing Defendant’s historical cell-site location information (CSLI) was a Fourth Amendment search under Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. __ (2018),…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the judgment of the lower courts denying Appellant’s petition for post-conviction relief on the basis that his attorney provided deficient performance that prejudiced him, holding that counsel…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment of the trial court denying Defendant’s motion to suppress evidence obtained after Defendant was stopped for speeding, holding that there was reasonable suspicion for a traffic stop…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the trial court’s judgment in favor of the Town of Yorktown’s Clerk-Treasurer, Beth Neff, holding that the State’s request to remove Neff did not fall within the exceptionally rare category of…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s grant of partial summary judgment on David Shaner’s claim for damages related to loss of consortium after his wife Laura’s death due to complications with the administration…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court terminated the disciplinary proceedings relating to the circumstances giving rise to this judicial misconduct case, holding that continued litigation would be an inefficient use of judicial resources…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Liability Administrative Law Judge (LALJ) concluding that Driver was Q.D.-A.’s employee under the Unemployment Compensation Act, holding that because Q.D.-A. proved the…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether to extend the holding in Tumulty v. State, 666 N.E.2d 394 (Ind. 1996) that a adult criminal defendant cannot challenge the validity of his guilty plea on direct appeal to an agreed…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the trial court affirming the order of the Natural Resources Commission (NRC) finding that the Indiana Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR) use of a dam on Appellants’…