Justia Delaware Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Defendant-appellant Aaron Thompson was convicted by jury of multiple crimes for his role in the 2013 double murder of Joe and Olga Connell. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed his convictions on direct appeal. Thompson moved for postconviction relief under Superior Court Criminal Rule 61. The Superior Court denied his motion. The court found that Thompson’s trial counsel was not constitutionally ineffective for failing to investigate the connection between Thompson and a property near the crime scene at the time of the killings. The court also held that trial and appellate counsel did not have a conflict of interest when he represented the State’s ballistics expert in an unrelated criminal proceeding during Thompson’s direct appeal. Thompson appealed the Superior Court’s denial of his motion for postconviction relief. But finding no error, the Supreme Court again affirmed the Superior Court’s judgment. View "Thompson v. Delaware" on Justia Law

William West, the founder of Access Control Related Enterprises, LLC (“ACRE”), was forced out as an officer of the company by its majority owners, LLR Equity Partners, IV, L.P. and LLR Equity Partners Parallel IV, L.P. (collectively, “LLR”). He filed a wrongful termination suit against ACRE and others in California state court. The California court stayed the case based on the forum selection provisions in the controlling agreements that designated Delaware as the exclusive forum for disputes arising out of the agreements. After a failed detour to Delaware District Court, West filed the same claims in the Delaware Superior Court. A Delaware jury eventually found against West on his breach of contract claim. West did not appeal the jury’s adverse verdict. Instead, he sought to undo his loss in Delaware by challenging the Superior Court’s procedural rulings, arguing: (1) the Superior Court no longer had jurisdiction once it issued the order transferring the case to the Court of Chancery; (2) the Superior Court improperly denied his motions for voluntary dismissal; and (3) if the Superior Court had applied forum non conveniens, it would have dismissed the Delaware case in favor of the California litigation. Finding no reversible error, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court's decisions. View "West v. Access Control Related Enterprises, LLC" on Justia Law

Defendant-appellant Stephen Wheeler Stephen Wheeler was convicted in on four felonies for his role in a violent home invasion. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison. After the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed those convictions, Wheeler returned to the superior court seeking postconviction relief in the form of a new trial. He argued his convictions were the product of an ill-advised waiver of his right to have his case heard and decided by a jury. According to Wheeler, his lawyer counseled him to let a judge, sitting without a jury, determine his guilt or innocence. Wheeler contended that he gave up a vitally important constitutional right because of his lawyer’s constitutionally deficient representation and that his convictions were so tainted by that decision that they could not stand. The superior court denied the motion for relief based primarily on its assessment of the relative credibility of Wheeler and his trial counsel: crediting counsel’s account of the advice he had shared with Wheeler, while discounting Wheeler’s version. The court also found, after hearing from Wheeler and his trial counsel at a postconviction evidentiary hearing, that Wheeler had made an informed strategic decision to proceed with a bench trial. Deferring to these credibility determinations, and finding no other reversible error, the Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Wheeler's motion. View "Wheeler v. Delaware" on Justia Law

Brian Winningham was driving a fully loaded tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Delaware when he diverted his attention from the road ahead and failed to notice stopped traffic backed up in the travel lane waiting to exit the highway. Winningham crashed his tractor-trailer at highway speed into three stopped cars and killed two people while injuring two others. After a bench trial, the judge found Winningham guilty of two counts of criminally negligent homicide and other offenses. On appeal, Winningham argued that his criminally negligent homicide convictions should have been overturned because his only driving infraction was a momentary inattention from the roadway. Winningham also argued that the trial court erred because it found only that he failed to perceive a risk of “serious physical injury” instead of a failure to perceive a risk of “death.” The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed, finding a rational trier of fact could have found that under the circumstances, Winningham’s inattention was prolonged enough that it was a gross deviation from the standard of care that a reasonable person would observe. Further, the trial court’s verdict shows that the court did not misunderstand or misapply the law. Even if it did, the Supreme Court held the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. View "Winningham v. Delaware" on Justia Law

Wilmington Trust National Association, acting as securities intermediary for Viva Capital Trust, was the downstream purchaser of two high- value life insurance policies issued by Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. After the insureds died, Sun Life, believing that the policies were “stranger originated life insurance” ("STOLI") policies that lacked an insurable interest, filed suit in the Superior Court, seeking declaratory judgments that the policies were void ab initio. Sun Life sought to avoid paying the death benefits and to retain the premiums that had been paid on the policies. Wilmington Trust asserted affirmative defenses and counterclaims, alleging that Sun Life had flagged the policies as potential STOLI years before Wilmington Trust acquired them. Wilmington Trust sought to obtain the death benefits or, in the alternative, a refund of all the premiums that it and former owners of the policies had paid on the policies. Sun Life countered that allowing Wilmington Trust to recover the death benefits would constitute enforcing an illegal STOLI policy and that Wilmington Trust could not recover the premiums because, among other arguments, Wilmington Trust knew that it was buying and paying premiums on illegal STOLI policies. The trial court denied Wilmington Trust’s bid to secure the death benefits, but ordered Sun Life to reimburse, without prejudgment interest, all premiums “to the party that paid them.” The Delaware Supreme Court agreed with the trial court’s disallowance of Wilmington Trust’s death-benefit claim, accomplished in part by an earlier dismissal of Wilmington Trust’s promissory- estoppel counterclaim and the striking of certain of its equitable defenses, finding it was consistent with STOLI precedents. But its application of an “automatic premium return” rule—that is, ordering all premiums to be returned without conducting the fault-based analysis we adopted in Geronta Funding v. Brighthouse Life Ins. Co., 284 A.3d 47 (Del. 2022)—was not. Nor was the trial court’s denial of prejudgment interest. Therefore, the Supreme Court affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded to the superior court for reconsideration of its ruling on Wilmington Trust’s premium-return claim, including its claim for prejudgment interest. View "Wilmington Trust National Association v. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada" on Justia Law

Plaintiff-appellant Tracey Weinberg (“Weinberg”) was the former Chief Marketing Officer of defendant-appellee Waystar, Inc.(“Waystar”). During her employment, the company granted her options to purchase stock in its co-defendant Derby TopCo, Inc.,(“Derby Inc.”), pursuant to a Derby TopCo 2019 Stock Incentive Plan (the “Plan”). Weinberg was awarded three option grants under the Plan pursuant to three option agreements executed between October 2019 and August 2020. By the time Weinberg was terminated in 2021, 107,318.96 of her options had vested. She timely exercised all of them in November 2021, and the options immediately converted to economically equivalent partnership units in co-defendant Derby TopCo Partnership LP, a Delaware limited partnership (“Derby LP”) (the “Converted Units”). Each Option Agreement contained an identical call right provision providing Appellees the right to repurchase Weinberg’s Converted Units (the “Call Right”), “during the six (6) month period following (x) the (i) [t]ermination of [Weinberg’s] employment with the Service Recipient for any reason . . . and (y) a Restrictive Covenant Breach.” This appeal turned on the meaning of the word “and” in the three option agreements. Specifically, the question presented for the Delaware Supreme Court was whether two separate events (separated by the word “and”) had to both occur in order for the company to exercise a call right, or whether the call right could be exercised if only one event has occurred. Although Weinberg had been terminated within the time frame specified by the Call Right Provision, a Restrictive Covenant Breach had not occurred. The parties disputed whether the Call Right was available in the absence of a Restrictive Covenant Breach. The Court of Chancery decided that it was, and the Delaware Supreme Court concurred, affirming the Court of Chancery. View "Weinberg v. Waystar, Inc." on Justia Law

Theopalis Gregory, a former City of Wilmington Council President and Delaware lawyer, was convicted by jury for official misconduct. The charges stemmed from a $40,000 discretionary grant Gregory earmarked for his non-profit organization before leaving office. He personally received at least $15,000 of the grant after he left office. On appeal, Gregory argued the jury instructions were flawed because the trial judge did not define for the jury “official functions,” a necessary element of an official-misconduct conviction. He also argued that the evidence at trial was insufficient to support his conviction because he was not performing official functions when he earmarked funds for his nonprofit. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed Gregory’s conviction: Gregory did not object to the jury instructions, and the trial judge did not plainly err when he instructed the jury using the words of the statute. Further, the Court was satisfied that the jury had more than sufficient evidence to find that Gregory was performing official functions when he earmarked the $40,000. View "Gregory v. Delaware" on Justia Law

Defendant-appellant Derek Hopkins appealed his convictions for Drug Dealing, Disregarding a Police Officer’s Signal, Conspiracy in the Third Degree, Resisting Arrest, Illegal Possession of a Controlled Substance (2 counts), Driving While Suspended or Revoked, Reckless Driving, Failure to Transfer Title and Registration, Unreasonable Speed, and Failure to Stop at a Stop Sign. He was also found “responsible” for possession of marijuana. On appeal, he argued: (1) the superior court abused its discretion by refusing to accept a plea agreement offered by the State and the defense on the morning of trial; (2) the superior court erred as a matter of law by denying his motion for judgment of acquittal as to the charge of Drug Dealing; and (3) the cumulative effect of the errors was to prejudice his substantial rights, requiring the convictions to be vacated. The Delaware Supreme Court found no merit to the defendant’s claims and affirmed his convictions. View "Hopkins v. Delaware" on Justia Law

After a two-day bench trial in 2021, a superior court judge convicted Marlon Thomas of second degree rape, third degree unlawful sexual contact, and other charges. The judge sentenced Thomas to fifty-five years in prison, suspended after twenty-five years for decreasing levels of supervision. Thomas did not testify in his defense. Thomas raised one issue on appeal: whether the superior court erred by failing to raise with Thomas his right to testify and failing to ensure that his waiver of the right to testify was voluntary, knowing and intelligent. The Delaware Supreme Court affirmed Thomas’s convictions for three reasons: (1) Thomas waived his state constitutional claim by failing to support it on appeal; (2) there was no federal constitutional requirement that the trial judge have a colloquy with the defendant before waiving his right to testify; and (2) given that the fact finder was the judge and not a jury, the trial judge handled the right to testify issue with appropriate sensitivity to avoid prejudicing Thomas’s decision whether to testify. View "Thomas v. State" on Justia Law

In September 2020, a superior court grand jury indicted defendant-appellant Eric Lloyd for Possession of a Firearm by a Person Prohibited (“PFBPP”), Possession of Ammunition by a Person Prohibited (“PABPP”), Possession of a Controlled Substance, Possession of Marijuana, and Operation of an Unregistered Motor Vehicle. Approximately one year later Lloyd moved to suppress evidence obtained during an administrative search of his living quarters. The court denied the motion. On appeal, Lloyd argued the trial court erred in denying his motion to suppress, claiming the probation officer who authorized the search lacked exigent circumstances and failed to substantially comply with Department of Corrections Probation and Parole Procedure 7.19. Finding no reversible error, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Lloyd’s motion to suppress and his subsequent conviction and sentence. View "Lloyd v. Delaware" on Justia Law