Oregon Supreme Court Decisions 2015
Date: December 31, 2015
Docket Number: S062766
Justia Opinion Summary: As part of a highway improvement project, plaintiff Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT or the state), brought a condemnation action against defendant Alderwoods (Oregon), Inc., seeking to acquire "[a]ll abutter’s…
Date: December 31, 2015
Docket Number: S062962
Justia Opinion Summary: Police officers entered a residence without a warrant and opened a wooden box that they found in a bedroom, believing that they had lawful consent to take each of those actions. Defendant was charged with unlawful…
Date: December 24, 2015
Docket Number: S061751
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant and her five-year-old daughter were passengers in a borrowed car driven by defendant’s 17-year-old daughter. A police officer stopped the car for a traffic violation and, during the stop, noticed objects in…
Date: December 10, 2015
Docket Number: S061452
Justia Opinion Summary: In the underlying lawsuit, the Oregon Supreme Court was asked to consider challenges to legislative amendments aimed at reducing the costs of the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). Those challenges were brought by…
Date: December 10, 2015
Docket Number: S062520
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue presented in this case was one of first impression: to what extent do the confidentiality provisions of Oregon’s mediation statutes (ORS 36.100 to 36.238) prevent a client from offering evidence of…
Date: December 10, 2015
Docket Number: S062642
Justia Opinion Summary: TriQuint Semiconductor, Inc., and its directors were defendants in two consolidated shareholder derivative suits filed in Washington State. TriQuint moved to dismiss those suits on the ground that its corporate bylaws…
Date: December 10, 2015
Docket Number: S062715
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, an administrative law judge (ALJ) determined that certain taxicab drivers performed services for Broadway Cab LLC for remuneration and were not independent contractors. Therefore, the ALJ concluded,…
Date: December 3, 2015
Docket Number: S059530
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with the aggravated murder of a prison inmate while he himself was an inmate. Defendant's case came before the Oregon Supreme Court on automatic review because defendant was sentenced to death.…
Date: November 27, 2015
Docket Number: S058677
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of two counts of aggravated murder in 1988. The Oregon Supreme Court affirmed those convictions in 1990, but vacated defendant’s death sentence three times and remanded each time for new…
Date: November 27, 2015
Docket Number: S063457
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner sought review of the Attorney General’s certified ballot title for Initiative Petition (IP) 40 (2016), contending that the caption, the “yes” result statement, and the summary did not comply with requirements…
Date: November 27, 2015
Docket Numbers: S063527, S063528
Justia Opinion Summary: In consolidated cases, petitioners sought review of the Attorney General’s certified ballot title for Initiative Petitions 45 and 46 (2016) (IP 45 and IP 46), contending that the caption, the “yes” results statements,…
Date: November 19, 2015
Docket Number: S061273
Justia Opinion Summary: A condominium homeowners association sued a contractor for negligence. The contractor’s insurer refused to defend the contractor against the action, and the contractor and the homeowners association thereafter entered…
Date: November 13, 2015
Docket Number: S062455
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs alleged that, after being served alcohol at defendant’s bar when he was visibly intoxicated, a patron, Mayfield, walked down the street to another business location and, without intending to do so, fired a gun…
Date: November 13, 2015
Docket Number: S062464
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury convicted defendant of 10 counts of rape, sodomy, and sexual abuse. When a jury finds a defendant guilty of multiple offenses, a trial court must make two related but separate sentencing decisions. One decision…
Date: November 13, 2015
Docket Number: S062603
Justia Opinion Summary: For the 2006 tax year, taxpayers Mike and Sheri Hillenga claimed, among other things, a deduction based on a net operating loss carryover from their 2004 tax return. The Department of Revenue challenged the 2006…
Date: October 22, 2015
Docket Number: S061745
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs were two individuals who purchased Marlboro Light cigarettes in Oregon. Defendant Philip Morris was the company that manufactured, marketed, and sold Marlboro Lights. Plaintiffs brought this action under…
Date: October 22, 2015
Docket Number: S062747
Justia Opinion Summary: Relator was 14 years old when he committed murder in 1998. Relator was waived into adult court and convicted of aggravated murder. The court sentenced relator to life imprisonment with a 30-year mandatory minimum period…
Date: October 8, 2015
Docket Number: S061273
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Capitol Specialty Insurance Co. moved to dismiss this appeal on mootness grounds. According to Capitol, the issues to be decided in the appeal pertained to the terms of an agreement settling an underlying…
Date: October 8, 2015
Docket Number: S061896
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants Dale and Shannon Hickman were convicted of second-degree manslaughter after they declined to seek medical treatment for their son David, who died about nine hours after he was born prematurely. Defendants are…
Date: October 8, 2015
Docket Number: S062330
Justia Opinion Summary: A certified question of Oregon law was certified to the Oregon Supreme Court from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. The question arose out of a construction contract dispute in which a homeowner's…
Date: October 8, 2015
Docket Number: S063003
Justia Opinion Summary: In January 2011, defendant was indicted on 21 felony counts, including nine counts of aggravated murder, for allegedly causing the death of Rainier Police Chief Ralph Painter. Shortly after defendant was indicted, his…
Date: September 17, 2015
Docket Number: S062407
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Fernando Clemente-Perez was convicted of unlawful possession of a firearm. At the close of the state’s case, defendant moved for judgment of acquittal, arguing that the state had not presented sufficient…
Date: September 11, 2015
Docket Number: S060150
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant AT&T (together with subsidiaries) appealed a Tax Court judgment that denied AT&T's claim for a refund of a portion of the Oregon corporate excise taxes it paid for tax years 1996 through 1999. The dispute…
Date: September 11, 2015
Docket Number: S061813
Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants were three municipal corporations located in Washington State: The City of Seattle, the City of Tacoma, and Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County (taxpayers). Each taxpayer owned an interest in…
Date: September 11, 2015
Docket Number: S062468
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted by jury on one count of sodomy, one count of rape, and one count of unlawful sexual penetration. On appeal of that conviction, he argued that the trial court erred in failing to give his requested…
Date: September 11, 2015
Docket Number: S062497
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants were in the business of processing and selling industrial wood products and maintained a large inventory at numerous distribution centers throughout the United States. In 2002, defendants and plaintiffs…
Date: August 6, 2015
Docket Number: S061456
Justia Opinion Summary: The Department of Revenue appealed a Tax Court decision that accepted the property valuation proposed by taxpayer Hewlett-Packard (HP). In reaching that conclusion, the Tax Court held that the highest and best use of…
Date: August 6, 2015
Docket Number: S062045
Justia Opinion Summary: Oregon's sentencing guidelines provided that, if a defendant with multiple terms of probation commits a single probation violation, any resulting terms of incarceration must be imposed concurrently, not consecutively.…
Date: July 30, 2015
Docket Number: S062000
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case presented for the Oregon Supreme Court's review was whether discovery of the parties’ assets had to be provided in a marital dissolution action after the parties entered into a settlement agreement,…
Date: July 30, 2015
Docket Number: S062339
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was a citizen of Mexico and, until 2006, was a permanent legal resident of the United States. In 2003, the state charged him with possession and distribution of a controlled substance after police officers…
Date: July 16, 2015
Docket Number: S061650
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff initiated this action against the Secretary of State, challenging the constitutionality of ORS 250.048(9), which provided that a person who registered with the Secretary of State to collect initiative petition…
Date: July 16, 2015
Docket Number: S062277
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue before the Supreme Court in this declaratory judgment action was whether a home-rule city could impose a five-percent franchise fee on a sanitary authority with overlapping jurisdiction. The trial court…
Date: July 16, 2015
Docket Number: S062346
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted on a single count of first-degree sex abuse. On appeal of his sentence, he argued the trial court erred in denying his motion in limine to exclude expert testimony concerning a diagnosis of child…
Date: July 9, 2015
Docket Number: S062473
Justia Opinion Summary: An Oregon state trooper drove by a busy Portland intersection and noticed that, after he did so, defendant crossed the street against a “Don’t Walk” sign, a Class D violation under ORS 814.020(1) and (3). The trooper…
Date: June 18, 2015
Docket Number: S062120
Justia Opinion Summary: The Montara Owners Association (homeowners) sued developer and general contractor, La Noue Development, LLC for damages caused by design and construction defects in the building of the Montara townhomes. The defects…
Date: June 18, 2015
Docket Number: S062176
Justia Opinion Summary: During a traffic stop, a deputy sheriff placed defendant William Delong in custody and then asked him, without first advising him of his Miranda rights, “if there was anything we should be concerned about” in his car.…
Date: June 11, 2015
Docket Number: S062247
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Jackson County (the county) sought reconsideration of the Oregon Supreme Court's opinion in "Eclectic Investment, LLC v. Patterson," (346 P3d 468 (2015)) in which the Court affirmed the Court of Appeals and…
Date: June 4, 2015
Docket Number: S062231
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury convicted petitioner Kyle Green of eighteen sex offenses involving nine victims, ages twelve through seventeen. After an unsuccessful direct appeal, petitioner sought post-conviction relief, alleging he received…
Date: May 14, 2015
Docket Number: S062436
Justia Opinion Summary: The state charged defendant with identity theft for signing two documents with another person’s name. After a police officer stopped defendant for speeding, defendant identified himself as Sergio Molina, told the officer…
Date: April 30, 2015
Docket Number: S061452
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners were active and retired members of the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) who challenged two legislative amendments aimed at reducing the cost of retirement benefits: Senate Bill (SB) 822 (2013), and SB…
Date: April 23, 2015
Docket Number: S061997
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Michael Lykins was convicted of the crime of tampering with a witness after he tried to persuade his girlfriend to testify falsely in his impending trial on charges of criminal trespass and criminal negligence.…
Date: April 9, 2015
Docket Number: S062027
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether the Marion County Assessor could obtain a correction to the tax rolls concerning the valuation of the real property of taxpayer Willamette Estates II, LLC from the Department of Revenue.…
Date: April 9, 2015
Docket Number: S062466
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2009, claimant sought workers' compensation benefits for a work-related injury. Claimant had preexisting multilevel degenerative disc disease and a history of intermittent low back pain with some bilateral radiation…
Date: March 26, 2015
Docket Number: S059896
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, plaintiff was injured while riding his motorcycle on a private road that provided access to several pieces of property. On the upper part of the access road, a cable had been stretched across the road to prevent…
Date: March 26, 2015
Docket Number: S060859
Justia Opinion Summary: Powerex Corporation wholesales natural gas and electricity to purchasers throughout the western part of North America. The issue on appeal was how much of Powerex's income was taxable in Oregon. This case turned on…
Date: March 18, 2015
Docket Number: S061769
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse for conduct involving a five-year-old child. The state offered evidence that defendant possessed two pairs of children’s underwear at the time that he…
Date: March 18, 2015
Docket Number: S062247
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sought damages for damage to its real property. As an affirmative defense, Jefferson County, one of the defendants in this case, alleged that plaintiff was negligent and was itself responsible for the damages…
Date: March 12, 2015
Docket Number: S062108
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of second-degree criminal mischief after aiding and abetting his son to shoot two state-owned deer decoys that they believed to be deer. Oregon’s criminal mischief statute prohibits persons from…
Date: March 5, 2015
Docket Number: S060875
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Arnold Nix was found guilty of 20 counts of second-degree misdemeanor animal neglect. The state asked the trial court to impose sentence on 20 separate convictions. Defendant objected, arguing that the…
Date: March 5, 2015
Docket Number: S062126
Justia Opinion Summary: A police officer stopped defendant Dina Mazzola for two traffic violations. The officer observed signs of intoxication and developed probable cause to arrest defendant for driving under the influence of one or more…
Date: March 5, 2015
Docket Number: S062785
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners sought review of the Attorney General’s certified ballot title for Initiative Petition 8 (2016), arguing that the ballot title did not satisfy the requirements of ORS 250.035(2). IP 8 would alter the…
Date: January 15, 2015
Docket Number: S060846
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was convicted of first-degree robbery. After pursuing a direct appeal, he filed a petition for postconviction relief, alleging he received ineffective assistance of trial counsel. Among other things,…
Date: January 15, 2015
Docket Number: S061846
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was found in what appeared to be an unconscious state, sitting in his stopped car with the engine running in the left turn lane of a public road. When police arrived, they conducted field sobriety tests, which…
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