Justia Kansas Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Oscar Torres pleaded guilty to felony murder, criminal discharge of a firearm at an occupied building, and aggravated assault. After the Supreme Court remanded the case for resentencing on a separate issue but before resentencing, Torres sought to withdraw his plea. Torres argued that the State violated the plea agreement at his original, since-vacated sentencing by reading a letter from the victim's mother asking the court to impose the maximum prison time. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that because Torres ultimately received a new sentencing hearing at which the victim's mother personally testified and the court imposed the sentence recommended by the plea agreement, Torres' argument on appeal was moot. View "State v. Torres" on Justia Law

Appellant Roland Guder pleaded guilty to unlawfully manufacturing a controlled substance, cultivating marijuana, criminally possessing a weapon, and possessing drug paraphernalia. The court of appeals vacated reversed the original sentence for manufacturing a controlled substance and remanded with directions to resentence Appellant. The district court modified the manufacturing sentence as it was directed to do by the court of appeals but also modified the paraphernalia sentence. At issue on appeal was whether a district court could modify a previously imposed sentence on one conviction following a remand from an appellate court for resentencing based on a different conviction. The Supreme Court vacated the sentence the modification of Appellant's paraphernalia sentence and remanded for resentencing, holding that a district court is not allowed to modify any of the sentences that were not vacated on appeal. View "State v. Guder" on Justia Law

This was an administrative appeal by the Shawnee County Board of County Commissioners from a decision by the Board of Tax Appeals (BOTA) setting aside tax assessments the County claimed on three executive-style business aircraft for tax years 2000-2002. The dispute arose after the County had agreed in earlier proceedings that the aircraft were not subject to taxation and BOTA ordered them exempted. A few years later, the County attempted to reassess the aircraft for back taxes, interest, and penalties. The aircrafts' owners objected and commenced this action to avert the taxation. BOTA and the district court agreed with the owners but with different reasons for their rulings. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that claim and issue preclusion barred the County from initiating new taxation efforts for the same tax years after the initial BOTA exemption orders became final. Remanded to BOTA for it to set aside the County's correction orders and assessment notices for the aircraft and tax years at issue. View "In re Tax Appeal of Fleet Nat'l Bank " on Justia Law

Montrez Washington was convicted of first-degree felony murder and attempted aggravated robbery. Washington appealed, arguing that (1) insufficient evidence was presented at his preliminary hearing, and (2) the Allen-type jury instruction given at his trial was clearly erroneous. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) the evidence presented at Washington's preliminary hearing was sufficient to bind him over for trial, and (2) the Allen-type instruction was not clearly erroneous under the facts of this case where the instruction was included in the jury instructions given before jury deliberations and there was no indication the instruction changed the outcome of the trial. View "State v. Washington" on Justia Law

Subsequent to the sentencing hearing at which Appellant Justin Jones was sentenced for committing the crime of aggravated indecent liberties with a child, the Supreme Court filed several decisions that explained the steps to be taken if a sentencing court departed from the sentence provided for in Jessica's Law. The sentencing court did not explicitly take these steps or make the corresponding findings. As a result, under these recent decisions, Appellant's sentence would be considered illegal. The State argued that Appellant could not complain about his sentence because he had agreed to the sentence as part of a plea agreement. The Supreme Court vacated Appellant's sentence, noting that a defendant cannot agree to an illegal sentence. Remanded for resentencing. View "State v. Jones" on Justia Law

Shannon Bogguess requested a bench trial on stipulated facts after his motion to suppress his confession was denied. Bogguess was subsequently convicted of first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, aggravated kidnapping, aggravated assault, and criminal possession of a firearm. The Supreme Court affirmed in part and dismissed in part, holding, inter alia, that (1) Bogguess reserved his right to appeal while proceeding to a bench trial on stipulated facts even through he did not do so expressly; (2) at the Jackson v. Denno hearing to determine whether Bogguess' confession was voluntary, the district court erred in ruling that Bogguess must answer questions about events that were the bases for the crimes charged, and the court erred in striking all of Bogguess' testimony after he refused to testify further because Bogguess had a valid Fifth Amendment privilege; and (3) the district court did not err in denying Bogguess' motion to suppress. View "State v. Bogguess" on Justia Law

Homeowners sued Contractor for, inter alia, breach of contract, negligence, fraud, and fraudulent concealment, claiming that Contractor negligently failed to perform contractually required work. The district court granted summary judgment in Contractor's favor on all claims. As to the negligence allegations of interest in this appeal, the district court held (1) the economic loss doctrine prevented Homeowners from bringing a tort action under circumstances governed by contract, and (2) the economic loss doctrine supplied an additional bar to Homeonwers' fraud claims. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court accepted the appeal to decide whether the economic loss doctrine barred any negligence claims. The Court reversed, holding that the doctrine should not apply in this case where (1) existing caselaw establishes that homeowners' claims against residential contractors may be asserted in tort, contract, or both, depending on the nature of the duty giving rise to each claim; and (2) rationales upholding the economic loss doctrine do not support its adoption for disputes between homeowners and their contractors. Remanded. View "David v. Hett" on Justia Law

After a jury trial, Willie Dale was convicted of attempted first-degree murder, aggravated robbery, and aggravated assault. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court granted Dale's petition for review on the single issue of whether the district court erred in admitting a slow motion version of a patrol-car video. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding (1) because the best evidence, namely the original video, had already been admitted at trial, and the modified video was not introduced to prove or disprove the content of the original video, the video's admission did not violate the best evidence rule; and (2) because the video was not unduly repetitious and added something to the State's case, its admission was not cumulative. View "State v. Dale" on Justia Law

Lester Dean was the sole and managing member of Glacier Development Company, LLC, which owned property that the Kansas DOT (KDOT) took for highway purposes. KDOT's eminent domain petition did not individually name Dean as a defendant or allege that he personally owned any of the property, but certain attorneys filed an entry of appearance declaring the defendants to be Glacier and Dean. After court-appointed appraisers awarded Glacier $2.19 million for the property, a jury verdict concluded that the property's value was $800,000. The district court ordered that judgment was awarded "against the Defendants." Dean filed a motion requesting his name be removed from the judgment because he did not own the subject property in his personal capacity. The district court denied the motion. At issue on appeal was whether the district court had the authority to adjudge Dean personally liable to KDOT for the amount of the appraisers' award paid out to Glacier that exceeded the compensation finally awarded on appeal. The Supreme Court found that it did not and reversed, holding that the district court did not have jurisdiction to make the findings necessary to hold Dean personally liable for an LLC debt. View "Miller v. Glacier Dev. Co." on Justia Law

In the garnishment action below, Plaintiffs sought to collect the consent judgments they had previously obtained in settlement of their tort actions against Americold Corporation, which was insured by Northwestern Pacific Indemnity Company (NPIC). NPIC, the garnishee in the instant action, appealed the district court's adverse rulings, contending that the underlying judgments against Americold had become dormant and extinguished, thus depriving the district court of subject matter jurisdiction to proceed with this garnishment action. Finding in favor of NPIC on that issue, the Supreme Court reversed, holding (1) when the district court entered its judgment against NPIC in this garnishment proceeding, Plaintiffs' underlying consent judgments against Americold had been extinguished by operation of the dormancy and revivor statutes; (2) because Americold was not legally obligated to pay an unenforceable judgment, NPIC was no longer indebted to Americold under its contract to pay the judgments for which Americold was legally liable; and (3) accordingly, without an indebtedness from NPIC to Americold, the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to grant Plaintiffs judgment against NPIC in a garnishment proceeding. Remanded with directions to dismiss these garnishment proceedings. View "Associated Wholesale Grocers, Inc. v. Americold Corp." on Justia Law