Justia Delaware Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Four individuals, including Ronald Suber, were engaged in stealing catalytic converters from vehicles. During one theft, police were alerted and pursued the suspects. Anna Hurst was apprehended and confessed, while Suber and others escaped. Soon after, Suber expressed anger over Hurst’s arrest. Suber and another accomplice, Tori Balfour, met Hurst and Brian May at a convenience store. Surveillance footage confirmed their meeting, and Balfour testified that Suber accused Hurst and May of talking to police. Later, in a cornfield, Balfour claimed Suber shot Hurst and fired at May. Suber allegedly disposed of evidence and returned to his cousin’s house. May, wounded, sought help from a local resident, and Hurst’s body was found in the cornfield. DNA and ballistic evidence were collected, but the murder weapon was not recovered.The Superior Court of the State of Delaware held a jury trial where Balfour testified against Suber after receiving a plea deal. May did not appear for trial. The prosecution elicited testimony from detectives suggesting that May identified Suber as the shooter in a photo lineup, although May was unavailable for cross-examination. The defense did not object to this testimony. The jury found Suber guilty of first-degree murder and related charges, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment plus additional time.The Supreme Court of the State of Delaware reviewed Suber's appeal, focusing on the use of indirect hearsay evidence that implicated Suber as the shooter through May’s supposed identification without direct testimony. The State conceded that this violated Suber’s constitutional confrontation rights. Applying the plain error standard, the Supreme Court determined the error was prejudicial to Suber’s substantial rights and undermined the fairness of the trial, given the central role of the indirect hearsay in corroborating the accomplice’s testimony. The Supreme Court vacated Suber’s convictions and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Suber v. State" on Justia Law

Johnson & Johnson acquired Auris Health, a medical robotics company, in a transaction where Auris’s shareholders could earn up to $2.35 billion in additional payments if certain regulatory and sales milestones were met for Auris’s surgical devices. These milestones required Johnson & Johnson to use “commercially reasonable efforts,” defined by the contract as efforts comparable to those used for its own priority devices. All regulatory milestones were expressly conditioned on achieving specific FDA “510(k) premarket notification” approvals. After none of the milestones were met, Fortis Advisors, representing Auris’s former shareholders, sued, alleging that Johnson & Johnson failed to meet its efforts obligations and fraudulently induced Auris into accepting a contingent payment for one milestone by misrepresenting its likelihood.The Delaware Court of Chancery held a trial and found largely in Fortis’s favor. The court ruled that Johnson & Johnson breached the contract by not applying the required level of effort to Auris’s iPlatform system and acted with the intent to avoid earnout payments. For the first milestone, the court relied on the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing to require Johnson & Johnson to pursue an alternate FDA pathway when the original 510(k) process became unavailable. The court also found that Johnson & Johnson fraudulently induced Auris to accept a contingent payment for the Monarch lung ablation milestone by portraying its achievement as almost certain, despite knowing of a recent patient death and an ongoing FDA investigation.On appeal, the Supreme Court of Delaware agreed with Johnson & Johnson regarding the implied covenant, holding that the merger agreement did not contain a contractual gap and that the risk of an unavailable 510(k) pathway was foreseeable and allocated by the contract. The court reversed the Chancery’s ruling that Johnson & Johnson was required to pursue an alternative regulatory pathway for the first milestone and vacated the related damages. The Supreme Court otherwise affirmed the findings on breach of contract for the remaining milestones, upheld the damages calculation for those, and affirmed the fraud finding and the conclusion that the contract did not bar extra-contractual fraud claims. The case was remanded for recalculation of damages consistent with this opinion. View "Johnson & Johnson v. Fortis Advisors LLC" on Justia Law

In June 2023, Kenneth Swanson was subject to multiple outstanding arrest warrants and was suspected by police of selling crack cocaine in Wilmington, Delaware. Acting on a tip from a confidential informant, police surveilled Swanson and observed what appeared to be a hand-to-hand drug transaction. After stopping Swanson’s vehicle at a gas station, officers arrested him and conducted a search, which resulted in the discovery of a plastic bag containing cocaine hidden in his pants. Laboratory analysis confirmed the substance was cocaine.Swanson was indicted by a grand jury in the Superior Court of the State of Delaware on several charges, but ultimately tried only for possession of cocaine in a Tier 3 quantity. He waived his right to a jury trial, and the bench trial proceeded with the State presenting video and testimony from the arresting officers. Swanson did not file any pretrial motions to suppress the evidence nor object to its admission during trial. The court found him guilty of the possession charge and, after declaring him a habitual offender, sentenced him to ten years of incarceration, suspended after six years.On appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware, Swanson argued for the first time that the search violated his Fourth Amendment rights and that the evidence should have been suppressed. The Supreme Court of Delaware held that under Superior Court Criminal Rule 12, motions to suppress must be made prior to trial and failure to do so constitutes waiver, absent good cause. Because Swanson did not file a suppression motion or show cause for his failure, the Court declined to review his Fourth Amendment claim and affirmed his conviction. The Court clarified that plain-error review does not apply to unpreserved suppression issues except in limited circumstances, such as when the basis for suppression arises too late or is confined to the four corners of a warrant. View "Swanson v. State" on Justia Law

Blue Beach Bungalows DE, LLC sought to purchase Pine Haven, a manufactured home and RV community in Delaware, from its longtime owner. After entering a purchase agreement in March 2022, Blue Beach sent numerous letters to residents, informing them of changing tenancy statuses, threatening eviction, police action, and property destruction, and imposing shifting deadlines to vacate. These aggressive tactics prompted complaints to the Delaware Department of Justice (DOJ), which initiated an administrative enforcement action against Blue Beach for violations including the Consumer Fraud Act (CFA), alleging false or misleading statements regarding the nature of residents’ living arrangements and improper rent solicitations.After a four-day hearing, the administrative Hearing Officer largely ruled in favor of the DOJ, penalizing Blue Beach over $700,000 for statutory violations. Blue Beach appealed to the Superior Court of the State of Delaware, which affirmed some violations and vacated others. The Superior Court held the CFA applied to communications made after the underlying transaction and found the CFA constitutional, rejecting Blue Beach’s arguments about the right to a jury trial. The DOJ cross-appealed the vacation of certain penalties.The Supreme Court of Delaware reviewed the case. It held that the plain language of the CFA does not apply to post-transaction communications, reversing the Superior Court on that issue. The Court affirmed the Superior Court’s finding that the CFA is constitutional and does not violate Delaware’s jury trial right, because the statutory cause of action is not sufficiently analogous to common law fraud. The Court declined to address the DOJ’s cross-appeal, finding those issues moot in light of its holding on the CFA’s scope. The case was affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded for further proceedings consistent with the Supreme Court’s opinion. View "Blue Beach Bungalows DE, LLC v. Department of Justice Consumer Protection Unit" on Justia Law

In 2018, the board of a major clean-energy vehicle company approved a substantial equity compensation plan for its CEO, contingent on achieving a series of ambitious market capitalization and operational milestones. The plan granted the CEO the right to purchase significant company stock if these milestones were met. A company shareholder filed a derivative suit, alleging that the CEO, as a controlling stockholder, had improperly influenced the board to secure excessive compensation. The shareholder also claimed failures in disclosure to stockholders who later approved the plan.The Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware held a five-day trial. It found that the CEO exercised transaction-specific control despite not holding a majority of voting power. Concluding that the CEO and the board had breached their fiduciary duties, the court applied the “entire fairness” standard and ordered rescission of the CEO’s compensation package. After this decision, the board resubmitted the compensation plan to the stockholders with new disclosures, and a majority of disinterested stockholders approved it in a second vote. The board then requested that the court revise its prior judgment, but the Court of Chancery refused, maintaining rescission and awarding the plaintiff’s counsel substantial fees.On appeal, the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware reviewed whether rescission was a proper remedy. The Supreme Court held that rescission was improper because it could not restore all parties to their positions before the transaction, given the CEO’s six years of performance under the plan. The Court reversed the rescission remedy, reinstated the compensation plan, and awarded the plaintiff nominal damages. The Supreme Court further ruled that the plaintiff’s attorneys were entitled to fees based on the reasonable value of their services. View "In re Tesla, Inc. Derivative Litigation" on Justia Law

Law enforcement received anonymous tips in 2021 and 2022 alleging that a Wilmington resident was selling drugs and possessing firearms at his home, which also operated as an unlicensed barbershop. The tips included specific details about the individual’s activities and identifying information. After receiving the July 2022 tip, police corroborated aspects of the information through surveillance, database checks, and two traffic stops involving individuals seen leaving the residence—one was found with marijuana allegedly purchased from the suspect and another fled from police after acting suspiciously. Based on this investigation, police obtained and executed a search warrant, recovering drugs, cash, and a firearm. The individual, a previously convicted felon, was indicted on drug and firearm charges, including possession of a firearm by a person prohibited.The Superior Court of the State of Delaware denied the defendant’s motion to suppress the evidence, finding that the affidavit supporting the search warrant established probable cause through the combination of the July 2022 tip and corroborating police investigation. At trial, a police officer referred to information from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) identifying the recovered firearm as stolen. The defense did not object to this testimony. The defendant was convicted of multiple offenses, including firearm and drug charges, and sentenced to seventeen years of incarceration.On appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware, the defendant raised claims of hearsay and Confrontation Clause violations due to the NCIC testimony, challenged the denial of his suppression motion, and argued that the statute prohibiting felons from possessing firearms was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court applied plain error review to most issues because they were not raised below, and affirmed the convictions. The Court held that there was no plain error in admitting the NCIC evidence, that the search warrant was supported by probable cause, and that the firearm prohibition statute was not plainly unconstitutional, either on its face or as applied to the defendant. The judgment of the Superior Court was affirmed. View "Johns v. State" on Justia Law

Police in Wilmington, Delaware, were monitoring social media when a detective saw a video on Instagram that appeared to show Marvin Swanson, a person legally prohibited from possessing firearms, mimicking shooting motions and possibly displaying what looked like a gun magazine in his waistband. Shortly after, a confidential informant, known to be reliable, sent the detective the same video and claimed to have personally observed Swanson in the area with a firearm. The police responded to the location, saw Swanson in the described clothing, conducted a pat down that did not reveal a weapon, but found a loaded handgun in a recycling bin about 25–30 feet away. Swanson was handcuffed and transported to the police station, where he voluntarily provided a DNA sample. DNA testing later matched Swanson to the gun, leading to his arrest for possession of a firearm and ammunition by a person prohibited.The Superior Court of the State of Delaware denied Swanson’s motion to suppress the DNA evidence, finding that officers had reasonable suspicion for the initial stop and that the continued detention and transport to the station were reasonable, necessary, and related to the investigation. A jury later convicted Swanson.On appeal, the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware found that while the officers had reasonable suspicion for the initial stop based on the informant’s tip and corroborating observations, the subsequent transport of Swanson to the police station amounted to a de facto arrest. The Court held that this arrest was not supported by probable cause because the evidence linking Swanson to the gun was insufficient at the time of the arrest. As a result, the Court reversed the judgment of the Superior Court, holding that the motion to suppress should have been granted. View "Swanson v. State" on Justia Law

Loews Corporation created a publicly traded master limited partnership, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP, to operate natural gas pipelines. The partnership agreement included a call-right provision allowing the general partner, controlled by Loews, to acquire all public limited partnership units if certain conditions were met. In 2018, following proposed policy changes by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that could affect pipeline profitability, Loews sought legal opinions to justify exercising the call right. Although Boardwalk's internal analysis suggested minimal impact from the FERC changes, Loews’ outside counsel issued an opinion that the policy shift was reasonably likely to have a material adverse effect on Boardwalk’s rates, satisfying a key condition for the call right. After obtaining a second law firm’s endorsement of the opinion’s acceptability, Loews exercised the call right, acquiring public units at a price that unitholders alleged was artificially depressed.The Court of Chancery initially found that the legal opinion used to trigger the call right was not rendered in good faith, meaning a contractual condition for exercising the call right had not been fulfilled. As a result, the court held that Boardwalk’s general partner breached the partnership agreement and awarded damages to the unitholders. The court stayed the remaining claims, which included breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, tortious interference, and unjust enrichment.On appeal, the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware first held that the general partner was exculpated from monetary liability for breach of contract under the partnership agreement, reversing the damages judgment and remanding for consideration of the non-exculpated claims. Upon remand, the Court of Chancery dismissed those remaining claims, concluding that the Supreme Court’s prior decision foreclosed them. On further appeal, the Supreme Court of Delaware held that the lower court misunderstood the scope of its prior ruling; it affirmed dismissal of most claims but reversed as to tortious interference, remanding that claim for further proceedings. View "Bandera Master Fund LP v. Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP" on Justia Law

The appellant was charged with several serious offenses after allegedly shooting a neighbor during a dispute at their apartment complex. The evidence included eyewitness testimony, gunshot residue on the appellant’s hands, and ammunition found in the appellant’s apartment matching shell casings at the scene. The appellant ultimately entered a no-contest plea to reduced charges, but later sought to withdraw the plea, claiming that his attorney’s actions led him to enter the agreement involuntarily and without full understanding of the case against him.After the appellant attempted to file a pro se motion to withdraw his plea, his defense counsel followed guidance from a prior decision (Reed v. State) by moving to withdraw as counsel and requesting substitute counsel. The Superior Court of the State of Delaware held a hearing, but did not first address the motion to withdraw as counsel. Instead, the court required the appellant to advocate for his own plea withdrawal and ultimately granted the motion to withdraw the plea, finding it had not been entered voluntarily. However, the court denied counsel’s motion to withdraw and required the same attorney to represent the appellant at trial, where he was convicted by a jury and sentenced to prison.On appeal, the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware held that when defense counsel moves to withdraw after a defendant expresses a desire to withdraw a plea, the trial court must first address and resolve the motion to withdraw as counsel, applying the established “good cause” standard. The failure to do so in this case resulted in the defendant being denied his constitutional right to counsel at a critical stage. The Supreme Court reversed the appellant’s convictions and remanded for further proceedings consistent with its opinion. View "Bolden v. State" on Justia Law

After a series of shootings in Wilmington, Delaware, Kyair Keys was charged with attempted murder, assault in the first degree, and multiple firearm offenses stemming from incidents between January 14 and January 22, 2022. Surveillance footage and ballistics evidence linked Keys to the shootings, and he was apprehended driving a stolen vehicle. During the investigation, police obtained an Instagram video showing Keys in the stolen car listening to a rap song with lyrics allegedly alluding to violent conduct and referencing his street nickname.The Superior Court of the State of Delaware presided over Keys’s trial. Prior to trial, the State sought to admit the Instagram video, including its audio, as evidence. Keys objected, arguing the song’s lyrics were irrelevant and unduly prejudicial. The Superior Court viewed the issue through Delaware Rule of Evidence 404(b), which concerns evidence of other crimes, wrongs, or acts, and ultimately overruled Keys’s objection, allowing the jury to hear both the video and police interpretation of the lyrics. The jury found Keys guilty on most counts, and he was sentenced to 47 years of incarceration, followed by probation.On appeal to the Supreme Court of the State of Delaware, Keys argued that admitting the audio portion of the video was an abuse of discretion and prejudiced the jury unfairly. The Supreme Court found that while the Superior Court’s decision to admit the audio evidence was questionable and likely should have been excluded due to lack of relevance and prejudicial effect, any error was harmless given the substantial other evidence of guilt. Therefore, the Supreme Court of Delaware affirmed the convictions. View "Keys v. State" on Justia Law