Oregon Supreme Court Decisions 2019
Date: December 27, 2019
Docket Number: S066328
Justia Opinion Summary: Consolidated cases concerned two defendants who were convicted of driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII), a crime ordinarily a misdemeanor but that, in each case, was elevated to a felony based on the…
Date: December 27, 2019
Docket Number: S066367
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant and the victim had two children together. Defendant and the victim were formerly in a relationship, but they broke up before the victim moved into the house where the unlawful entry at the center of this case…
Date: December 27, 2019
Docket Number: S066424
Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the dissolution of a domestic partnership, specifically, how to distribute the appreciation in value of a home in which the parties lived during their time together. The trial court found the…
Date: December 12, 2019
Docket Number: S066175
Justia Opinion Summary: The post-conviction court granted petitioner Keith Ogle relief on the ground that, in the underlying criminal case, petitioner’s defense counsel failed to provide adequate and effective representation because he failed…
Date: November 27, 2019
Docket Number: S066223
Justia Opinion Summary: The Oregon State Land Board voted to sell a parcel of the Elliott State Forest, part of the common school lands granted to the state. The circuit court dismissed the petition for judicial review of the order of sale…
Date: November 21, 2019
Docket Number: S065921
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant John Hedgpeth challenged his conviction for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) by driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of at least .08 percent. The record consisted solely of evidence…
Date: November 15, 2019
Docket Number: S066119
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Mario Arreola-Botello was lawfully stopped for failing to signal a turn and a lane change. During the stop, while defendant was searching for his registration and proof of insurance, the officer asked him about…
Date: November 7, 2019
Docket Number: S066329
Justia Opinion Summary: Two officers were in their patrol car when they saw defendant Eric Kreis in a restaurant parking lot around midnight. The restaurant had been closed for about 20 minutes, and the parking lot had recently been the site of…
Date: October 24, 2019
Docket Number: S065950
Justia Opinion Summary: When petitioner Prentice Penn was released from prison to post-prison supervision, the Board of Parole and Post-Prison Supervision included a special condition in its order requiring that petitioner not “enter into or…
Date: October 24, 2019
Docket Number: S066213
Justia Opinion Summary: This was a companion case to Penn v. Board of Parole, 365 Or 607 (2019). Like the petitioner in Penn, petitioner Brian Tuckenberry sought relief from a special condition of supervision, imposed on him by an order of the…
Date: October 10, 2019
Docket Number: S066132
Justia Opinion Summary: Police Officer Hopkins initiated a traffic stop of defendant Khalistan Harrison. As Hopkins approached defendant’s stopped vehicle, defendant stepped out of the car, left the driver’s side door open, and began walking…
Date: October 10, 2019
Docket Number: S066414
Justia Opinion Summary: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit certified a question of law to the Oregon Supreme Court on whether a constructive trust arises at the moment of purchase of a property using fraudulently- obtained…
Date: October 10, 2019
Docket Number: S066812
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Julie Parrish challenged the Attorney General’s certified ballot title for Initiative Petition 13 (2020) (IP 13). Intervenor Uherbelau intervened generally in support of the Attorney General’s certified ballot…
Date: September 12, 2019
Docket Number: S066047
Justia Opinion Summary: In this case, the Oregon Supreme Court was asked to decide the scope of the state civil rights laws and antiretaliation provision in ORS 659A.030(1)(f). The question before the Court was whether the retaliation…
Date: August 15, 2019
Docket Number: S065723
Justia Opinion Summary: Before the Oregon Supreme Court in this case was a child custody dispute arising out of father’s motion to modify a custody determination made at the time of the dissolution of the parties’ marriage, which awarded mother…
Date: August 8, 2019
Docket Number: S065374
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Shannon Carpenter was charged with hindering prosecution through concealment under ORS 162.325(1)(a). The State contended defendant had concealed a person for whom police had an arrest warrant. The State…
Date: August 8, 2019
Docket Number: S065553
Justia Opinion Summary: The dispute in this workers’ compensation case arises out of a question relating to overlapping statutory provisions that control the determination of permanent partial disability. ORS 656.214 obligated employers to…
Date: August 1, 2019
Docket Number: S065014
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs sought a declaration that the City of Lake Oswego had allow them recreational access to Oswego Lake, either from the shoreline of the city’s waterfront parks (from which the city prohibits all water access) or…
Date: August 1, 2019
Docket Number: S065478
Justia Opinion Summary: The Energy Facility Siting Council modified its rules that govern amending site certificates. Petitioners challenged the validity of the new rules, arguing that the council failed to comply with required rulemaking…
Date: August 1, 2019
Docket Number: S066097
Justia Opinion Summary: Sierra Development, LLC (Sierra), a real estate development company in which both Eddie Wilcher and his son were involved, borrowed approximately $5 million from The Mortgage Exchange (MEX), the predecessor in interest…
Date: July 25, 2019
Docket Number: S065097
Justia Opinion Summary: Acting under authority delegated by the EPA, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a general permit in 2010 for the discharge of certain pollutants resulting from suction dredge mining. Petitioners…
Date: July 25, 2019
Docket Number: S065290
Justia Opinion Summary: The issue this case raised for the Oregon Supreme Court’s review centered on the proper valuation, for property tax purposes, of a shopping center that did not have an anchor tenant on the assessment date. The Tax Court…
Date: July 25, 2019
Docket Number: S065317
Justia Opinion Summary: The State charged defendant Viktor Gensitskiy with one count of aggravated identity theft, based on his possession of files containing personal information regarding 27 other persons. Based on that same conduct, the…
Date: July 18, 2019
Docket Number: S065492
Justia Opinion Summary: In the juvenile court, mother moved to terminate the court’s wardship over her child, A, and vacate the general guardianship the court had established. Mother’s motion was premised on her assertion that the factual basis…
Date: July 18, 2019
Docket Number: S065737
Justia Opinion Summary: Claimant Mark Pilling filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits which insurer Travelers Insurance denied. An administrative law judge (ALJ) reversed insurer’s denial, but the Workers’ Compensation Board reversed…
Date: July 18, 2019
Docket Number: S065889
Justia Opinion Summary: After being terminated by defendant Nike, Inc., plaintiff Douglas Ossanna sued his former employer. Plaintiff alleged, among other things, that Nike had unlawfully fired him in retaliation for his safety complaints and…
Date: June 13, 2019
Docket Number: S065929
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Steven Toth was the manager of a strip club in the Beaverton area. Victor Moreno-Hernandez brought S, a thirteen-year-old girl, to defendant’s strip club, where defendant and Moreno-Hernandez agreed that S…
Date: June 13, 2019
Docket Number: S065930
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2012, defendant Victor Moreno-Hernandez, an adult man, met S, a thirteen-year-old girl. S moved in with defendant, and he had sex with her multiple times. He also supplied her with methamphetamine. Defendant…
Date: June 13, 2019
Docket Number: S066066
Justia Opinion Summary: The juvenile court determined that mother was unfit and that it was improbable that child could be returned to mother’s care within a reasonable period of time, satisfying the requirements of ORS 419B.504. However, the…
Date: June 6, 2019
Docket Number: S065297
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jorge Gutierrez-Medina was driving under the influence of intoxicants late at night when he struck another person who had walked onto the road in a dark area not marked for pedestrians. Defendant pled guilty to…
Date: June 6, 2019
Docket Number: S065471
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Michael Sperou was charged with first-degree unlawful penetration for alleged crimes committed against a girl (“SC”) who belonged to the church defendant led as pastor. Before trial, the State disclosed it…
Date: June 6, 2019
Docket Number: S065686
Justia Opinion Summary: Initially, respondent John Wigle worked for petitioner Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) as a temporary worker through a temporary staffing agency. EWEB later hired Wigle as a regular employee. When Wigle retired…
Date: June 6, 2019
Docket Number: S066460
Justia Opinion Summary: The Oregon Supreme Court considered three separate petitions that challenged the Oregon Attorney General’s ballot title for Initiative Petition 5 (2020). IP 5 would repeal and replace a provision in the Oregon…
Date: May 31, 2019
Docket Number: S065188
Justia Opinion Summary: In this post-conviction proceeding, petitioner Lydell White, a juvenile offender, was convicted along with his twin brother Laycelle for aggravated murder and murder. He contended on petition for post-conviction relief…
Date: May 31, 2019
Docket Number: S065223
Justia Opinion Summary: Along with his twin brother, Lydell, petitioner Laycelle White was charged with and convicted of aggravated murder and murder, receiving a sentence of life with the possibility of parole for the murder of one victim and…
Date: May 31, 2019
Docket Number: S065640
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Jemaell Riley was convicted of committing multiple crimes with two accomplices. His convictions for six of those counts depended almost entirely on the testimony of his accomplices, who had entered into a…
Date: May 31, 2019
Docket Number: S065956
Justia Opinion Summary: Claimant Elvia Garcia-Solis was injured in a work-related accident. Farmers Insurance Company and Yeaun Corporation (collectively, “Insurer”) accepted a workers’ compensation claim and certain specified medical…
Date: May 22, 2019
Docket Number: S064478
Justia Opinion Summary: Claimant Catherine Sheldon injured her shoulder after falling in the lobby of the office building where she worked. Claimant contended she suffered a compensable injury that arose out of employment because her fall was…
Date: May 22, 2019
Docket Number: S065257
Justia Opinion Summary: While defendant Yevgeniy Savinskiy was incarcerated and awaiting trial on pending criminal charges, law enforcement officers learned he solicited another inmate to harm the prosecutor and murder two of the anticipated…
Date: May 22, 2019
Docket Number: S066187
Justia Opinion Summary: The Oregon Supreme Court declined to answer certified questions posed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In consolidated cases, the Ninth Circuit certified three questions concerning how…
Date: May 9, 2019
Docket Number: S064826
Justia Opinion Summary: Police officers discovered incriminating drug-related evidence in defendants Tracy Lien and Travis Wilverdin's garbage by having a sanitation company manager specially pick up defendants’ garbage bin on trash pick-up…
Date: April 25, 2019
Docket Number: S065917
Justia Opinion Summary: Kay King owned land zoned for exclusive farm use (EFU). She received county approval to replace three dwellings on the property that had been demolished in 1997. The issue this case presented for the Oregon Supreme…
Date: April 18, 2019
Docket Number: S065203
Justia Opinion Summary: Claimant Cozmin Gadalean, a commercial truck driver, was sent on a supervised delivery by and for employer as a pre-employment drive test. He was injured when he fell from employer’s truck. The Workers’ Compensation…
Date: April 18, 2019
Docket Number: S065368
Justia Opinion Summary: This case began with Petitioner Victor Uroza-Zuniga's arrest for public drinking, in violation of the Beaverton, Oregon City Code. That arrest led to a search, a charge of drug possession, a denied motion to suppress, a…
Date: April 18, 2019
Docket Number: S065728
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Patrick Sparks appealed the trial court’s imposition of three consecutive probation revocation sanctions, the Court of Appeals affirmed, and the Oregon Supreme Court allowed defendant’s petition for review. On…
Date: April 4, 2019
Docket Number: S064748
Justia Opinion Summary: Acting as the personal representative of his father’s estate, plaintiff Dennis Sloan brought a medical negligence action against defendants Providence Health System-Oregon and Apogee Medical Group, P.C. Plaintiff claimed…
Date: April 4, 2019
Docket Number: S064968
Justia Opinion Summary: In 1999, petitioner Esteban Chavez pled guilty to delivering cocaine. In 2011, he petitioned for post-conviction relief, relying on Padilla v. Kentucky, 559 US 356 (2010), and arguing his trial attorney failed to advise…
Date: April 4, 2019
Docket Number: S065574
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Double Press Manufacturing, Inc. petitioned for review of a Court of Appeals decision affirming a trial court judgment against defendant that included an award of noneconomic damages to plaintiff Zeferino…
Date: April 4, 2019
Docket Number: S065729
Justia Opinion Summary: A teenage boy, GP, who had been dating defendant Jonathan Black’s daughter, reported that defendant had had inappropriate sexual contact with him at defendant’s residence. That report triggered an investigation, and that…
Date: March 28, 2019
Docket Number: S065883
Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs in this case were Clackamas County District Attorney John Foote and two individuals, Mary Elledge and Deborah Mapes-Stice, who identified themselves as both crime victims and voters. Together, plaintiffs…
Date: March 28, 2019
Docket Number: S065957
Justia Opinion Summary: In previous proceedings before the Oregon Supreme Court, the Court agreed with defendant Santiago Vallin that the trial court had erred in imposing a sentence under ORS 137.717(1)(b) (2015). The Court concluded the 2017…
Date: March 14, 2019
Docket Number: S065638
Justia Opinion Summary: In the three months plaintiff Ashley Schutz worked for Defendant O’Brien Constructors and project manager Keely O’Brien, she had declined multiple invitations by Keely O’Brien to join him and other coworkers for drinks…
Date: February 28, 2019
Docket Number: S064894
Justia Opinion Summary: Intervenor-respondent Riverbend Landfill Co. sought to expand its solid waste landfill in Yamhill County, Oregon on land zoned for exclusive farm use (EFU). Respondent Yamhill County determined for a second time that,…
Date: February 28, 2019
Docket Number: S065022
Justia Opinion Summary: The Oregon Supreme Court allowed review of two cases this case, and Gutale v. Oregon, 395 P3d 942 (2017), requiring it to interpret the meaning and scope of the "escape clause" found in ORS 138.510(3). In both cases,…
Date: February 28, 2019
Docket Number: S065089
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Dawn McColly failed to appear for a scheduled trial call, but, before that date, she had not been released following arrest, detention, or confinement. Instead, as part of a voluntary arraignment appearance,…
Date: February 28, 2019
Docket Number: S065136
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Abdulla Gutale was an immigrant who pleaded guilty to the crime of sex abuse in the third degree. He alleged in a petition for post-conviction relief that his trial counsel had failed to inform him of the…
Date: February 28, 2019
Docket Number: S065355
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2015, defendant Kelly Edmonds was charged with having raped a five-year-old girl in 1994 or 1995. At the time that the crime occurred, defendant’s wife operated a daycare service out of her and defendant’s home. The…
Date: February 7, 2019
Docket Number: S062310
Justia Opinion Summary: A jury sentenced defendant David Taylor to death after he was convicted of aggravated murder, kidnapping, and other crimes against Celestino Gutierrez, as well as multiple offenses arising out of two bank robberies. In…
Date: February 7, 2019
Docket Number: S064390
Justia Opinion Summary: Shriners Hospitals for Children brought this action against defendant Michael Cox to collect on a note and obtained a default judgment against him. Shriners’ argument that defendant was judicially estopped from moving to…
Date: February 7, 2019
Docket Number: S065180
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Rodney Banks was arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) and, when asked, refused to take a breath test, which would have revealed the percentage of alcohol in his blood. The Oregon…
Date: January 31, 2019
Docket Number: S064876
Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Melton Jackson, Jr. was tried on charges of first-degree sexual abuse and first-degree sodomy in 2001. At trial, petitioner’s counsel did not object to certain testimony, and controlling case law at that time…
Date: January 31, 2019
Docket Number: S065957
Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant Santiago Vallin was charged with first-degree theft in June 2017. At that time, ORS 137.717 provided a presumptive sentence of 18 months imprisonment for first-degree theft for defendants having two prior…
Date: January 25, 2019
Docket Number: S065019
Justia Opinion Summary: In 2009, DISH Network Corporation (DISH) received an assessment order from the Oregon Department of Revenue showing that its property in Oregon for tax purposes was valued at an amount that exceeded the previous year’s…
Date: January 17, 2019
Docket Number: S065487
Justia Opinion Summary: Sixteen years after he had been sexually abused by an Oregon Youth Authority (OYA) employee, plaintiff filed suit; the issue on review was plaintiff’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 claim against defendant Gary Lawhead, former…
Date: January 10, 2019
Docket Number: S065529
Justia Opinion Summary: The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) owned driver records, which were considered as assets of the State Highway Fund and subject to use restrictions set out in Article IX, section 3a, of the Oregon…
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