Justia Vermont Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Plaintiff Kevin Turnley appealed a trial court's grant of summary judgment in favor of defendant Town of Vernon. Plaintiff, formerly the Town’s Chief of Police, claimed that he was entitled to receive overtime pay under the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which entitles nonexempt employees to overtime pay for time worked in excess of forty hours in a week. The trial court held that plaintiff was exempt from the FLSA’s overtime requirements because he was an "executive" employee. Upon review of the applicable legal standard and the trial court record, the Supreme Court agreed that Plaintiff was indeed exempt from receiving overtime pay. View "Turnley v. Town of Vernon" on Justia Law

Vermont Golf Association challenged the superior court’s dismissal of its appeal from a decision by the Department of Taxes assessing sales and use tax on prior activities. The court based its dismissal on Vermont Golf’s failure to provide security to the Commissioner of Taxes to perfect its appeal to the superior court. Finding no error in the superior court's disposition of this case, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Vermont Golf Association, Inc. v. Department of Taxes" on Justia Law

Defendant Richard Reid appealed his conviction for aggravated sexual assault. In the summer of 2008, when she was six years old, the child "A.V.", made statements to her neighbors indicating that defendant had sexually abused her. A neighbor filed a report with the Vermont Department for Children and Families (DCF). The following day, a DCF investigator and a police officer went to A.V.’s school to question her about the alleged abuse. The investigators found that there was sufficient evidence that defendant had sexually abused A.V., and she was transported to the hospital for further examination. At the hospital, an experienced and trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) questioned A.V. and conducted a brief physical examination. Defendant was charged with aggravated sexual assault on August 28. In October 2008, the State provided notice that it intended to offer into evidence hearsay statements made by A.V. through various witnesses pursuant to V.R.E. 804a. Defendant asserted that the trial court committed reversible error in admitting hearsay evidence because the State failed to establish that the time, content, and circumstances of the child-victim’s statements provided substantial indicia of trustworthiness. Upon review of the trial court record, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Vermont v. Reid" on Justia Law

The Windsor County State's Attorney filed an interlocutory collateral final order appeal seeking review on the question of whether 13 V.S.A. 4815(g)(1) violated the Vermont Constitution's separation-of-powers provision by divesting the trial court of the authority to order an inpatient mental health evaluation of a potentially incompetent defendant. The Attorney General intervened on behalf of the State, arguing that the appeal was improvidently granted, and that the statute is constitutional. Upon review of the matter, the Supreme Court concluded that there was no justiciable claim because the necessity of an inpatient evaluation and the constitutionality of the statute were not decided below. Therefore, the Court dismissed the appeal. View "Vermont v. M.W." on Justia Law

Pro se Defendant Casey Hafford appealed a trial court's order that granted plaintiff Becky Nystrom's request to partition jointly owned property. Defendant argued that the court erred in rejecting his argument that he added Ms. Nystrom's name to the deed only in anticipation of marriage, in calculating the parties' respective interests in the property, in granting Ms. Nystrom's request for occupancy, and in declining to award him attorneys' fees in connection with Ms. Nystrom's father's Prompt Pay Act claim. Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed the trial court's rulings concerning the partition itself, but reversed the trial court's ruling with respect to attorneys' fees and remanded for reconsideration of Mr. Hafford's fee petition pursuant to the Prompt Pay Act. View "Nystrom & Nystrom v. Hafford" on Justia Law

Hartford police officers responded to a report of a possible burglary in progress, and used considerable force in restraining the suspect. The alleged burglar turned out to be the homeowner, who was disoriented due to a medical condition. Journalist Anne Galloway requested records relating to the police contact with the homeowner from the chief of police. The chief denied Galloway's request, as did the town manager when Galloway appealed the chief's decision. After Galloway filed an action to compel production of the records, the superior court ruled that under the Public Records Act's (PRA) exemption for police investigations, the police did not need to provide Galloway with any records produced or acquired before the point at which the officers decided against charging the homeowner with a criminal offense. Galloway then appealed. Upon review, the Supreme Court held that because the homeowner's detention amounted to an arrest, the records in question must be disclosed under the PRA's proviso that "records reflecting the initial arrest of a person . . . shall be public." View "Galloway v. Town of Hartford" on Justia Law

The Franklin County Sheriff's Office appealed the trial court's judgment in favor of the St. Albans City Police Department. The Sheriff's Office contended that the City Police Department engaged in an unfair method of competition with the intent to harm competition under the Vermont Consumer Fraud Act's (VCFA) predatory pricing provision. Specifically, the Sheriff's Office argued that the City Police Department submitted an "artificially low" bid in response to the Town of St. Albans's request for proposals for law enforcement services. Upon review, the Supreme Court affirmed. "Here, the 'competitors' are all statutorily created entities, meaning that one entity cannot lower its prices so as to put another out of business, nor can potential entrants be deterred from entering the 'market' because the statutory scheme allows no new entrants. Although there is competition within a limited sphere as between the statutorily empowered entities, there is no threat of monopolization by any one of them. Thus, the Sheriff's Office's injuries alleged in the complaint do not fall within the zone of interests to be protected by Vermont's predatory pricing statute. . . .the Sheriff's Office was not denied something in which it had a legally protected interest, nor is its claim within the zone of interests protected by the statute, and it therefore lack[ed] constitutional and prudential standing." View "Franklin County Sheriff's Office v. St. Albans City Police Department" on Justia Law

Plaintiff Richard Daniels wanted to foreclose on a mortgage on two parcels of real property owned by defendant Elks Club of Hartford, Vermont. Defendant creditors, who include the Vermont Human Rights Commission, four individual women, and the Watts Law Firm, all have junior security interests in the property at issue and opposed foreclosure. Creditors appealed a trial court decision granting plaintiff’s motions for summary judgment, concluding that plaintiff had standing to foreclose and was entitled to a judgment of foreclosure against all parties, and dismissing creditors' counterclaims. Upon review of the matter, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded the decision to include certain advances in the mortgage amount and the dismissal of the counterclaims. View "Daniels v. Elks Club of Hartford" on Justia Law

Plaintiff Stephen J. Pcolar appealed Superior Court verdict in favor of defendant Casella Waste Systems, Inc. Plaintiff filed suit alleging negligence in connection with an incident where the gripper arm of a garbage truck owned by Casella and operated by defendant Robert Smith struck him. The superior court charged the jury to compare the negligence of the parties, and the jury returned a verdict assigning seventy percent of the causative negligence to plaintiff, barring any recovery. Upon review of the trial court record, the Supreme Court affirmed. View "Pcolar v. Caselle Waste Systems and Smith" on Justia Law

This case arose from a separation agreement made thirty-seven years ago between a now-deceased husband and plaintiff, his first wife. Plaintiff contended that her ex-husband promised to devise to her certain assets upon his death, and she brought various claims for equitable relief against defendant, her ex-husband's second wife, who survived him. The superior court concluded that plaintiff's claims were barred by the statute of limitations. On appeal, plaintiff argued that this conclusion was erroneous because, under the governing Massachusetts law, claims based on a contract to make a will do not accrue until the promisor's death. Although the Supreme Court accepted plaintiff's legal premise, it do not accept that it governed this case. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the lower court's judgment. View "Mueller v. Mueller and Joseph F. Mueller Trust" on Justia Law