Supreme Court Issues
* Cases Not Yet Set
Attorney and Client—Business Transaction With Client—Rules of Professional Conduct—Agreements That Violate Rules—Validity
Whether an attorney violated Rules of Professional Conduct 1.8 in relation to a business contract with his clients, and if so, whether the rule violation constituted grounds for rescinding the contract as void.
No. 88132-4, LK Operating, et al. (petitioners) v. The Collections Group, LLC, et al. (respondents).
168 Wn. App. 862 (2012)
Top
Criminal Law—Evidence—Privacy Act—Private Conversations—What Constitutes
Whether a conversation between a defendant and his brother-in-law in the brother-in-law’s kitchen was private, making a recording of the conversation without the defendant’s permission inadmissible under the privacy act, chapter 9.73 RCW, in the defendant’s prosecution.
No. 88083-2, State (respondent) v. Kipp (petitioner).
171 Wn. App. 14 (2012)
Top
Criminal Law—Insanity—Competency to Stand Trial—Restoration of Competency—Burden of Proof
Whether a criminal defendant or the State bears the burden of proof regarding restoration of the defendant’s competency to stand trial after the defendant has been found to be incompetent.
No. 88111-1, State (petitioner) v. Coley (respondent).
177 Wn. App. 177 (2012)
Top
Criminal Law—Kidnapping—First Degree Kidnapping—Elements—Holding Victim as Shield or Hostage—What Consitutes
Whether the defendant in a prosecution for first degree kidnapping committed the crime by means of holding a person “as a shield or hostage” when he confined the victim in her home and thereby prevented her from calling the police.
No. 88020-4, State (respondent) v. Garcia (petitioner).
Top
Criminal Law—Punishment—Sentence—Criminal History—Foreign Offenses—Classification—Comparability—Defenses—Effect
Whether voluntary manslaughter in Texas is legally comparable to a Washington homicide offense even though self-defense is not an available defense in Texas, allowing a prior Texas conviction to be counted in a Washington offender score for sentencing purposes.
No. 85410-6, State (respondent) v. Jordan (petitioner).
158 Wn. App. 297 (2010) Published in Part
Top
Criminal Law—Punishment—Sentence—Good Behavior Credits—Presentence Jail Time—Equal Protection—Inmates of Different County Jails
Whether equal protection principles are violated by differences between counties in standards and rules for awarding good behavior credits for presentence jail time.
No. 87717-3, Pers. Restraint Petition of Williams, Gregory Williams (petitioner); State (respondent).
Top
*Criminal Law—Trial—Right to Public Trial—Scope—Jury Instruction Conference
Whether in a criminal prosecution conferences between the trial court and counsel on proposed jury instructions are subject to the constitutional right to a public trial.
No. 85306-1, State (respondent) v. Koss (petitioner).
Top
*Criminal Law—Trial—Right to Public Trial—Scope—Jury Selection—Dismissal of Prospective Jurors for Hardship
Whether in this criminal prosecution the trial court violated the defendant’s constitutional right to a public trial when it closed the courtroom to spectators while considering and ruling on the dismissal of some prospective jurors for hardship.
No. 86072-6, State (petitioner) v. Njonge (respondent).
Top
*Criminal Law—Trial—Right to Public Trial—Scope—Jury Selection—In-Chambers Conference on Dismissal of Prospective Jurors
Whether the trial court in this criminal prosecution violated the defendant’s constitutional right to a public trial by conferring with counsel (but not the defendant) in chambers about whether some prospective jurors should be dismissed.
No. 87844-7, State (petitioner) v. Slert (respondent).
Top
*Criminal Law—Trial—Right to Public Trial—Scope—Sidebar Conference on Evidentiary Matters
Whether the trial court in a criminal prosecution violated the defendant’s constitutional right to a public trial when it held sidebar conferences with counsel on evidentiary matters outside the courtroom without first conducting the analysis required by State v. Bone-Club, 128 Wn.2d 254, 906 P.2d 325 (1995).
No. 85809-8, State (petitioner) v. Smith (petitioner).
Top
*Criminal Law—Trial—Right to Public Trial—Violation—“De Minimis” Courtroom Closure—Individual Questioning of One Prospective Juror in Chambers
Whether in these criminal prosecutions the examination of one prospective juror in chambers during jury selection constituted a “de minimis” courtroom closure that did not violate the constitutional right a public trial.
No. 86216-8 (consol. w/87259-7), State (petitioner) v. Shearer (respondent); State (petitioner) v. Grisby (respondent).
Top
*Criminal Law—Trial—Right to Public Trial—Waiver—Validity
Whether a defendant in criminal prosecution may waive his or her constitutional right to a public trial, and if so, whether the defendants in these cases knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently waived their right to a public trial during jury selection.
No. 80727-2 (consol. w/86513-2), State (petitioner) v. Frawley (respondent); State (respondent) v. Applegate (petitioner).
140 Wn. App. 713 (2007)
Frawley
163 Wn. App. 460 (2011) Published in Part
Applegate
Top
Criminal Law—Unlawful Confinement of Animals—Probation Conditions—Forfeiture of All Pets and Livestock—Prohibition Against Owning, Acquiring, or Living with Pets and Livestock—Validity—Restitution—Cost of Caring for Confiscated Animals—Sufficiency of Evidence
Whether in a district court prosecution for unlawful confinement of domestic animals (dogs), the court properly ordered as conditions of probation that the defendant forfeit all of her pets and livestock and not own, acquire, or live with pets or livestock, and whether the evidence supports the amount of restitution the court imposed for the cost of caring for the defendant’s confiscated dogs.
No. 88140-5, State (respondent) v. Deskins (petitioner).
Top
Environment—SEPA—Impact Statement—Threshold Determination—Administrative Review—Open Record Hearing—Consolidation With Underlying Government Action—Necessity
Whether Kittitas County erroneously held a closed record appeal of a determination of nonsignificance under the State Environmental Policy Act rather than consolidate the appeal with the open record consideration of the underlying conditional use permit application.
No. 88165-1, Ellensburg Cement Prods., Inc. (respondent) v. Kittitas County, et al. (petitioners).
171 Wn. App. 691 (2012)
Top
Government—Torts—Action Against Public Officer—Venue—County Where Cause Arose—Necessity—Personal Misconduct
Whether alleged acts of workplace sexual harassment by a deputy prosecutor were “in virtue of” his office, requiring a sexual harassment lawsuit to be tried in the county where the alleged harassment occurred. See RCW 4.12.020(2).
No. 88021-2, Eubanks & Gray (respondents) v. Brown (petitioner).
170 Wn. App. 768 (2012)
Top
*Insurance—Bad Faith—Denial of Coverage—Treble Damages—Actual Damages—What Constitutes—Pretrial Arbitration Award
Whether an amount awarded in arbitration to a plaintiff before he instituted a lawsuit under the Insurance Fair Conduct Act constitutes “actual damages” under the act for purposes of trebling damages pursuant to RCW 48.30.015(2).
No. 88706-3, Morella (plaintiff) v. Safeco Ins. Co. of Illinois (defendant).
Certified Question from U.S. District Court, for the Western District of Washington at Seattle
Top
Judgment—Foreign Country Judgment—Registration—Comity—Japanese Divorce Decree Money Judgment—Effect of Post-Divorce Japanese Guardianship of Former Spouses’ Child
Whether a money judgment in a divorce decree entered by a Japanese family court is entitled to registration in Washington under comity principles where the former wife is deceased and the former spouses’ child is the ward of a post-divorce guardianship awarded to the child’s Japanese maternal grandmother by a Japanese court.
No. 88045-0, In re Estate of Toland, Etusko Futagi Toland, Deceased; Hille (petitioner) v. Toland (respondent).
Top
Landlord and Tenant—Unlawful Detainer—Jurisdictional Requirements—Notice—Statutory Provisions—Degree of Compliance
Whether the trial court in an unlawful detainer action lacked subject matter jurisdiction because the landlord’s statutory notice to the tenants failed to inform the tenants they could respond by mail or facsimile. See RCW 59.18.365.
No. 81813-4, Torkild (respondent) v. Johnston (petitioner). STAYED PENDING BANRUPTCY
Top
Open Government—Courts—Public Access—Constitutional Right—State Constitution—Applicability to Drug Diversion Court Meetings
Whether closed and unrecorded drug diversion court meetings held to evaluate participants’ drug treatment progress violate the right to open judicial proceedings under article I, section 10 of the state constitution.
No. 87946-0 (consol. w/87947-8), State (petitioner) v. Sykes (respondent).
Top
Property—Right of Action—Location of Actions—Statutory Provision—Effect—Jurisdiction or Venue
Whether a statute that requires actions “for any injuries to real property” to be commenced in the county in which the subject of the action is situated is jurisdictional or relates only to venue.
No. 88115-4, Ralph, et al. (petitioners) v. State, et al. (respondents).
Top
|
