Justia Delaware Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

Father filed a motion to modify a child custody and visitation agreement in the Family Court in order to travel with his three children to certain countries. The trial judge denied father's motion, holding that contract principles governed the agreement and barred the trial court from modifying unambiguous contract language. On appeal, the father claimed that the trial judge erroneously applied contract principles to a custody and visitation agreement instead of applying the best interest of the child test as required under 13 Del. C. 722. Since the modification requested here should have been reviewed under the best interest of the child test, the court reversed and remanded. View "Morrisey v. Morrisey" on Justia Law

This case arose from a dispute over certain property subject to a foreclosure. At issue was whether the parol evidence rule required that a person who claimed to hold a "purchase money mortgage" must prove his purchase money mortgage holder status solely by reference to the mortgage instrument itself. The court concluded that, in this case, the recorded deed and purchase money mortgage established that the sellers' mortgage satisfied, at least prima facie, all three requirements of 25 Del. C. 2108. Moreover, the mortgage contained no subordination language that would relinquish priority to the third party lenders. Therefore, the presumption that the sellers' mortgage was a purchase money mortgage entitled to statutory priority standards stood unrebutted. By applying the parol evidence rule to reach a contrary conclusion, the Superior Court erred as a matter of law. View "Galantino v. Baffone" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed from the judgment of conviction of Carjacking in the Second Degree. On appeal, defendant argued that the Superior Court "relieved the State of its burden to establish every element of an indicted charge beyond [a] reasonable doubt when it erroneously interpreted...the [statutory] language of [Title 11, section 836(a) of the Delaware Code.]" The court concluded that defendant's argument was without merit where the statute was properly construed and affirmed the judgment. View "Dennis v. State" on Justia Law

Defendant was found guilty of Attempted Robbery First Degree. On appeal, defendant argued that statements in closing rebuttal argument, asserting that the State brought Attempted Robbery charges because that was exactly what defendant did, constituted improper vouching for the State's case. The court found that the prosecutor engaged in misconduct which prejudicially affected defendant and therefore reversed and remanded. View "Kirkley v. State" on Justia Law

Mother appealed from a final judgment of the Family Court that terminated her parental rights in her now three-year-old child. Mother raised two arguments on appeal: (1) the Family Court erred, by shifting the burden of proof from the DFS to her, at the termination of parental rights hearing; and (2) the Family Court's factual determination that mother failed to plan for the child was clearly erroneous and not sufficiently supported by the record. The court held that the record reflected that the Family Court properly placed the burden of proof on DFS throughout the termination proceedings and mother had failed to show that the Family Court's "failure to plan" determination was clearly erroneous. Accordingly, concluding that mother's arguments were without merit, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Long v. DFS & Office of Child Advocate" on Justia Law

The Board appealed from a Superior Court decision reversing the Board's decision to suspend the nursing licenses of appellee. The Board suspended appellee's licenses for two years based upon a finding that she failed to report child sexual abuse as required by state statute. The Board contended that it did not err in finding that appellee committed the violations at issue and the Board submitted that its decision finding a violation of the applicable provisions was supported by substantial evidence. Appellee argued that the Board's appeal was barred by a conflict of interest. The court concluded that the Board's contentions were without merit. Therefore, the judgment of the Superior Court must be affirmed and the court need not reach the conflict of interest issue. View "Delaware Board of Nursing v. Gillespie" on Justia Law

Defendant was indicted on 29 counts of Dealing in Child Pornography (DCP) and plead guilty to two counts of DCP and the state entered a nolle prosequi on the remaining counts. Defendant, proceeding pro se, subsequently appealed from a Superior Court order denying his motion for postconviction relief on five grounds: (1) violation of due process due to insufficient evidence; (2) violation of double jeopardy; (3) ineffective assistance of counsel; (4) abuse of prosecutorial discretion; and (5) "contradictive and ambiguous" colloquy at his sentencing hearing. The court concluded that none of defendant's claims were meritorious and therefore affirmed the judgment of the Superior Court denying the motion. View "Panuski v. State" on Justia Law

In 2010, BLGH entered into an agreement with enXco to sell BLGH's renewable energy business, Beacon, to enXco. The Unit Purchase Agreement that governed the sale of Beacon (UPA) called for a purchase price of $12 million, plus a "bonus payment" to BLGH if certain conditions were met. The sale of Beacon took place and BLGH was paid $12 million. A dispute arose, however, over whether BLGH was entitled to the additional bonus payment. enXco claimed that no bonus payment was legally due. BLGH responded by filing a Superior Court action against enXco for breach of contract. The Superior Court granted summary judgment to enXco, holding that no bonus payment was owed to BLGH under the UPA. The court reversed and held that the Superior Court erred as a matter of law in granting summary judgment to enXco where the transaction "outlined" in the letter of intent met the requirements of Section 1.7 of the UPA, triggering BLGH's right to a bonus payment, and nothing more was required by the UPA for BLGH to become legally entitled to the bonus payment. View "BLGH Holdings LLC v. Enxco LFG Holding, LLC" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed from her convictions for Assault Second Degree, Possession of a Deadly Weapon During Commission of a Felony, and Possession of a Deadly Weapon by a Person Prohibited. The court held that the superior court did not err in giving the jury flight instructions where the instructions were appropriate in light of the facts of the case and that the instruction was not a comment on the evidence in violation of Article IV, Section 19 of the Delaware Constitution. The court also held that the superior court did not err by refusing to instruct the jury on Assault Third Degree. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Robertson v. State" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed this action against defendants claiming that defendants breached a limited partnership agreement under which another limited partnership was formed to seek out, acquire, and develop oil and gas producing properties through the use of three-dimensional seismic technology. At issue was whether the Court of Chancery abused its discretion in dismissing plaintiff's amended complaint for failure to prosecute. Plaintiff contended, that notwithstanding more than two years of inactivity, it established good cause for its failure to prosecute - change of counsel and settlement negotiations. The trial court found that plaintiff's showing was insufficient to overcome the long delay and the court found no abuse of discretion. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Solow v. Aspect Resources, LLC, et al." on Justia Law