Oregon Supreme Court Decisions 2012
Date: December 31, 2012
Docket Number: S057573
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue before the Supreme Court in this case was the interpretation of a commercial general liability (CGL) policy that Defendant Farmers Insurance Exchange sold to Plaintiff Bresee Homes, Inc. The trial court granted…
Date: December 20, 2012
Docket Number: S059454
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Synectic Ventures I, LLC, Synectic Ventures II, LLC, and Synectic Ventures III, LLC, entered into a loan agreement regarding money that they had loaned to defendant EVI Corporation. The loan agreement provided…
Date: December 20, 2012
Docket Number: S060483
Justia Opinion Summary: The Board of Licensed Professional Counselors and Therapists (board) issued a final order suspending petitioner Rachel Weldon's license for two years and assessed costs against her. Petitioner asked the board to stay…
Date: December 13, 2012
Docket Number: S059386
Justia Opinion Summary: The State of Oregon, through the Oregon State Treasurer and the Oregon Public Employee Retirement Board (PERB), on behalf of the Oregon Public Employee Retirement Fund (PERF) (collectively, "state"), asserted claims…
Date: December 13, 2012
Docket Number: S059698
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue before the Supreme Court in this case was the purported conflict between two statutes relating to the issuance of a writ of mandamus: ORS 34.110, which precludes issuance of the writ if the relator has a plain,…
Date: December 13, 2012
Docket Number: S059950
Justia Opinion Summary: In this juvenile dependency proceeding, a father was found by the court to have subjected one of his children to sexual abuse. Although the child was unavailable to testify at the proceedings, the juvenile court admitted…
Date: November 30, 2012
Docket Number: S060840
Justia Opinion Summary: In his criminal case, defendant unsuccessfully sought an order compelling the victim to produce the hard drive of her laptop computer so that the defense could obtain a forensic examination of the hard drive. After his…
Date: November 29, 2012
Docket Number: S059182
Justia Opinion Summary: This case concerned an employment discrimination dispute between Portland State University (PSU) and Portland State University Chapter of the American Association of University Professors (the Association). Those…
Date: November 29, 2012
Docket Number: S059234
Justia Opinion Summary: In two criminal cases consolidated for purposes of opinion, each defendant's conviction was based, for the most part, on eyewitness identification evidence. In "Oregon v. Lawson," the Court of Appeals concluded that,…
Date: November 29, 2012
Docket Number: S059458
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue before the Supreme Court in this case was whether a physician's conclusion that defendant physically abused a child met the requirements for admissibility of scientific evidence. The child in this case, C, was…
Date: November 29, 2012
Docket Number: S059584
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue on appeal before the Supreme Court in this case was whether a local church or the national church from which it sought to separate owned certain church property. Hope Presbyterian Church of Rogue River (Hope…
Date: November 8, 2012
Docket Number: S059191
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant petitioned the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision in "Oregon v. Leistiko," (282 P3d 857 (2012)). He argued that the Court erred in two respects: (1) in stating that he had not pursued two issues on review…
Date: November 8, 2012
Docket Number: S059735
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the lawfulness of a portion of the City of Portland's Willamette River Greenway Plan that regulates uses of industrial and other urban land along a portion of the Willamette River known as the…
Date: November 8, 2012
Docket Number: S059739
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue before the Supreme Court in this case centered on the legal standard for the mental state of criminal negligence and, when tested by that standard, whether the record in this case was sufficient to support…
Date: November 1, 2012
Docket Number: S059928
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the Supreme Court reviewed a trial court's orders declaring defendant's son, "Z" (a 19-year-old man who suffers from autism and developmental disabilities) not competent to testify at trial and excluding…
Date: October 18, 2012
Docket Number: S058996
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury convicted Defendant Douglas Pitt of two counts of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, and two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. Defendant appealed, arguing the trial court erred in denying his motion in…
Date: October 18, 2012
Docket Number: S059482
Justia Opinion Summary: In this construction defect case, defendant moved for summary judgment, and the trial court granted the motion. Plaintiff then filed a "motion for reconsideration" of the summary judgment ruling. The court meanwhile…
Date: October 11, 2012
Docket Number: S053466
Justia Opinion Summary: This case was an automatic and direct review of death sentences imposed after a "penalty phase" trial. Defendant raised 33 assignments of error. Five of them the Supreme Court said merited discussion: specifically,…
Date: October 11, 2012
Docket Number: S059499
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged by indictment with (among other things) assault in the first degree. At trial, the state proceeded solely under the theory that defendant had aided and abetted his codefendant's initial assault on…
Date: October 4, 2012
Docket Number: S059245
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, two ballot measures were placed before Oregon voters at the polls. Measure 46 (2006) sought to amend the Oregon Constitution to permit the enactment of laws prohibiting or limiting electoral campaign…
Date: October 4, 2012
Docket Number: S059505
Justia Opinion Summary: Subsection (1) of ORS 20.080 provides for an award of attorney fees to the plaintiff, if the plaintiff prevails in the action, plus prerequisites plaintiff must adhere to to collect the award. Subsection (2) provides for…
Date: September 27, 2012
Docket Number: S059420
Justia Opinion Summary: Under section 6(6) of Ballot Measure 49 (2007), certain "owners" of property may file a claim to establish up to three home-site approvals, notwithstanding existing land use restrictions that would otherwise preclude…
Date: September 20, 2012
Docket Number: S058847
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case the issue before the Supreme Court concerned an action under ORS 30.866 in which a plaintiff sought both a stalking protective order and a judgment for compensatory money damages, whether the parties are…
Date: September 20, 2012
Docket Number: S059925
Justia Opinion Summary: A criminal defendant who was released from custody pursuant to a security release agreement, sought the writ of mandamus to compel the judge who set the terms of the agreement to modify a condition that forbade him from…
Date: September 20, 2012
Docket Number: S060039
Justia Opinion Summary: Ann Sacks Tile and Stone, Inc.; Canac Kitchen US Limited; and Koehler Rental Power, Inc. appealed a general tax judgment against them directly to the Supreme Court. The Department of Revenue responded with a motion to…
Date: September 14, 2012
Docket Number: S059655
Justia Opinion Summary: ORS 742.061 authorizes an award of attorney fees to an insured who prevails in "an action * * * in any court of this state upon any policy of insurance of any kind or nature * * *." A later enacted statute, ORS 742.001,…
Date: August 23, 2012
Docket Number: S059833
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue before the Supreme Court in this case was whether defendant filed his notice of appeal from a supplemental judgment awarding restitution within the time allowed by ORS 138.071(4), which requires that the notice…
Date: August 16, 2012
Docket Number: S060103
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Terry Haynes was charged with murder and manslaughter. Defendant filed two pretrial motions to exclude evidence, the first seeking to exclude evidence of five allegations of prior bad acts, and the second…
Date: August 2, 2012
Docket Number: S059542
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue on appeal before the Supreme Court concerned the meaning of "aggrieved person" as that term was used in ORS 133.721(1), the statute that defines the class of persons who may seek suppression of evidence…
Date: July 26, 2012
Docket Number: S058268
Justia Opinion Summary: An emergency room doctor telephoned defendant (an on-call neurosurgeon)to ask his advice about plaintiff, who had come into the emergency room for treatment. When plaintiff later sued defendant for malpractice, the jury…
Date: July 19, 2012
Docket Number: S059191
Justia Opinion Summary: The state charged Defendant Ronald Leistiko with, among other things, three counts of first degree rape. Each count involved a different victim and arose out of a separate incident. The state offered evidence that…
Date: July 19, 2012
Docket Number: S059201
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant CTE Tech Corp. is a Taiwanese corporation that manufactures battery chargers. Defendant Invacare Corporation is an Ohio corporation that manufactures motorized wheelchairs. CTE agreed to supply Invacare with…
Date: July 19, 2012
Docket Number: S059620
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, a trial court found that defendant's statements to private investigators were induced by the investigators' promises of leniency and other benefits and therefore suppressed those statements and a second set…
Date: June 28, 2012
Docket Number: S058431
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, the Supreme Court affirmed Defendant Gregory Bowen's convictions for aggravated murder and the imposition of the death penalty. However, the Court concluded that the trial court erred in failing to merge two…
Date: June 28, 2012
Docket Number: S058755
Justia Opinion Summary: This tax case arose on direct review of a Tax Court decision that awarded attorneys' fees to the taxpayer, Village at Main Street Phase II, LLC after its successful challenge to the Clackamas County Assessor's property…
Date: June 28, 2012
Docket Number: S059509
Justia Opinion Summary: Claimant Crystal DeLeon sought workers' compensation benefits for a work-related injury to her back, neck and one shoulder. SAIF Corporation, her insurer, accepted the claim but awarded only temporary partial disability;…
Date: June 28, 2012
Docket Number: S059650
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Gregory McBride lived in his friend's house where the two grew, used and sold marijuana. THe friend's teen-aged daughter and her friend also lived there. Defendant occasionally smoked marijuana in the home,…
Date: June 28, 2012
Docket Number: S059872
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Plaid Pantries, Inc. argued before the Supreme Court that the land use final order that Respondent Metro adopted after a remand from the Court did not comply with the applicable statutory standards. Metro and…
Date: June 14, 2012
Docket Number: S058601
Justia Opinion Summary: In opposing petitions for writs of mandamus, both challenged a trial court order that allowed a release to the press and public over one thousand redacted versions of "ineligible volunteer" files that belonged to…
Date: June 7, 2012
Docket Number: S058860
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jesse Moss filed a notice of appeal and then absconded. The state moved to dismiss his appeal pursuant to the state's fugitive dismissal rule (ORAP 8.05(3)). In the meantime, Defendant was arrested and returned…
Date: June 7, 2012
Docket Number: S060320
Justia Opinion Summary: In this criminal case, the victim filed an interlocutory appeal challenging several orders of the trial court that she contended violated her right to "refuse an interview, deposition or other discovery request by the…
Date: May 24, 2012
Docket Number: S060295
Justia Opinion Summary: Realtor-Defendant Dylan McDowell petitioned for a peremptory or alternative writ of mandamus to compel his release pending trial. He contended that he was entitled to release under ORS 136.290, which provides, in part,…
Date: May 10, 2012
Docket Number: S059602
Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose out of Defendant Javier Eumana-Moranchel's motion in limine to exclude the testimony of the State's expert witness in his prosecution for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII). The issue…
Date: April 26, 2012
Docket Number: S058445
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff David Eads underwent surgery performed by a Defendant Dr. Timothy Borman, a physician whose office was in a building that Defendant Salem Hospital, a limited liability company (LLC), leased to medical…
Date: April 26, 2012
Docket Number: S059326
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants Michael Miskell and Anthony Sinibaldi sought review of a Court of Appeals decision affirming their convictions for aggravated first-degree theft and second-degree burglary. The Supreme Court allowed their…
Date: April 26, 2012
Docket Number: S059521
Justia Opinion Summary: The State appealed, and Defendant Kevin Jarnagin cross-appealed a pretrial order in a murder case suppressing evidence. Neither party challenged the trial court's ruling that the officers violated Defendant's rights…
Date: March 29, 2012
Docket Number: S053206
Justia Opinion Summary: The Supreme Court previously affirmed Defendant Robert Langley, Jr.'s aggravated murder convictions, but twice vacated his death sentences and remanded the case for further penalty-phase proceedings. On this third…
Date: March 15, 2012
Docket Number: S060086
Justia Opinion Summary: Two petitioners sought review of the Attorney General's certified ballot title for Initiative Petition (IP) 28 (2012). Before 2009, Oregon imposed a 6.6 percent tax rate on a corporation's "taxable income." In 2009, the…
Date: March 1, 2012
Docket Number: S059289
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jose Cabanilla is a native Spanish speaker whose command of English was described as "weak." A witness saw Defendant's vehicle leave the road at a high rate of speed, roll over and come to rest in a nearby…
Date: February 24, 2012
Docket Number: S059097
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs Greenwood Products, Inc. and Jewett-Cameron Lumber Corp. obtained a jury verdict in their favor on a breach of contract claim against Defendants Forest Products, Dovenberg, and LeFors. They appealed the Court…
Date: February 24, 2012
Docket Number: S059131
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue in this case was whether a healthcare provider could be held liable for damages when the provider's negligence permitted the theft of its patients' personal information, though the information was never used or…
Date: February 16, 2012
Docket Number: S059732
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this dependency case was the lawfulness of a juvenile court order that required a father not to interfere with the ability of a child who is a ward of the court to visit other children who live with the…
Date: February 16, 2012
Docket Number: S059872
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods and Coalition for a Livable Future, sought direct review under Oregon Laws 1996, chapter 12, of a decision by the Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA) that affirmed in…
Date: February 16, 2012
Docket Number: S059996
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners sought review of the Attorney General's certified ballot title for Initiative Petition 26 (2012), arguing that the ballot title did not satisfy the requirements of ORS 250.035(2). Initiative Petition 26 would…
Date: January 12, 2012
Docket Number: S059719
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners Jann Carson, David Fidanque, Roey Thorpe and Cynthia Pappas sought review of the Attorney General's certified ballot initiative petition 22 (2012), arguing that the title did not satisfy the requirements of…
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