• Valentine v. State of Delaware

    Publication Date: 2019-04-03
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Traynor
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Brian L. Arban, Department of Justice, Wilmington, DE for the state.
    for defendant: Benjamin S. Gifford, IV, Wilmington, DE for defendant.

    Case Number: D68517

    A search warrant was not based on probable cause where an unidentified informant's tip was not corroborated by police surveillance or other information.

  • Sunline Commercial Carriers, Inc. v. CITGO Petroleum Corp.

    Publication Date: 2019-03-27
    Practice Area: Contractual Disputes
    Industry: Cargo and Shipping | Energy | Transportation
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Strine
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Michael F. Bonkowski and Nicholas J. Brannick, Cole Schotz P.C., Wilmington, DE ; Ross A. Mortillaro, Stinson Leonard Street LLP, Dallas, TX for plaintiff.
    for defendant: Mary F. Dugan, Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP, Wilmington, DE; John Zavitsanos, Debora Si-mon Pacholder and Edward Goolsby, Ahmad, Zavitsanos, Anaipakos, Alavi & Mensing, P.C., Houston, TX for defendant.

    Case Number: D68508

    The parties' contractual agreements contained inconsistencies, and these ambiguities precluded summary judgment.

  • Burrell v. State

    Publication Date: 2019-03-27
    Practice Area: Criminal Law
    Industry:
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Traynor
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Edward C. Gill, Georgetown, DE for appellant.
    for defendant: John R. Williams, Department of Justice, Dover, DE for appellee.

    Case Number: D68503

    Juvenile offender's aggregate sentence of 37 years, which included a mandatory minimum sentence of 25 years for murder, did not violate the holding of Miller v. Alabama where the sentencing statute expressly imposed a lesser punishment on juvenile offenders, offender's sentence was not the functional equivalent of life without parole, and multiple mandatory sentences would still give offender chance at parole.

  • Gonzalez v. State of Delaware

    Publication Date: 2019-03-27
    Practice Area: Government
    Industry:
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Strine
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Oliver J. Cleary, Department of Justice, Wilmington, DE for the state.
    for defendant: John S. Whitelaw and Katherine E. Sell, Community Legal Aid Society, Inc., Wilmington and Dover, DE; Travis W. England, Nationall Center for Law and Economic Justice, New York, NY for defendant. Joan-na J. Cline, Pepper Hamilton LLP, Wilmington, DE for amicus curiae David A. Super of Georgetown Univ. Law Center in support of defendant.

    Case Number: D68505

    The state was preempted by federal law from bringing a state court action against a recipient of public benefits for fraud where a state agency had already pursued an administrative action based on the identical facts.

  • Silverman v. Silverman

    Publication Date: 2019-03-13
    Practice Area: Family Law
    Industry:
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Seitz
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: David C. Gagne and Achille C. Scache, Giordano, Delcollo, Werb & Gagne, LLC, Wilmington, DE for husband.
    for defendant: Shawn Dougherty, Weik, Nitsche & Dougherty, LLC, Wilmington, DE for wife.

    Case Number: D68491

    Husband's financial disclosure met the statutory standard for a valid premarital agreement, so the family court erred in refus-ing to enforce the agreement based on unconscionability.

  • Walker v. State of Delaware

    Publication Date: 2019-03-06
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Evidence
    Industry:
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Vaughn
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Stephanie Blaisdell, Assistant Public Defender, Dover, DE, for Kevin Walker.
    for defendant: John Williams, Deputy Attorney General, Dover, DE for the state.

    Case Number: D68454

    An administrative search did not comply with the basic procedure, so defendant was entitled to suppression of the evidence which resulted from that search.

  • Ayala v. State of Delaware

    Publication Date: 2019-02-27
    Practice Area: Criminal Law | Expert Witnesses
    Industry:
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Traynor
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Bernard J. O'Donnell and James O. Turner, Jr., Office of the Public Defender, Wilmington, DE for Javier Ayala
    for defendant: Carolyn S. Hake, Department of Justice, Wilmington, DE for the state

    Case Number: D68477

    The trial court did not abuse its discretion in admitting a chemist's results from hypergeometric testing.

  • Wong v. Broughton

    Publication Date: 2019-02-20
    Practice Area: Expert Witnesses | Medical Malpractice
    Industry: Health Care
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Vaughn
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Joshua H. Meyeroff, Morris James LLP, Wilmington, DE for Peter J. Wong, M.D. and Dedicated to Women OB-GYN, P.A.
    for defendant: Bruce L. Hudson and Ben T. Castle of Hudson & Castle Law, LLC, Wilmington, DE for Monica Brough-ton and Amari M. Broughton-Fleming.

    Case Number: D68470

    Expert medical testimony in this medical malpractice case did not rely on res ipsa loquitur and was properly admitted into evidence.

  • KT4 Partners LLC v. Palantir Tech. Inc.

    Publication Date: 2019-02-13
    Practice Area: Corporate Entities
    Industry: Investments and Investment Advisory | Technology Media and Telecom
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Strine
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Bartholomew J. Dalton and Michael C. Dalton, Dalton & Assoc., P.A., Wilmington, DE; Barry S. Simon, Jonathan B. Pitt and Stephen L. Wohlgemuth, Williams & Connolly LLP, Washington, DC for plaintiff.
    for defendant: Blake Rohrbacher, Kevin M. Gallagher and Kelly L. Freund, Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A., Wilming-ton, DE; Kevin J. Orsini and Rory A. Leraris, Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, New York, NY for defendant.

    Case Number: D68458

    The chancery court abused its discretion in refusing to allow a shareholder to inspect emails under a §220 books and records, request, because the corporation did not have any formal documents relating to the amend-ment of an investors' rights agreement.

  • Urquhart v. State of Delaware

    Publication Date: 2019-02-06
    Practice Area: Civil Rights | Criminal Law
    Industry: Legal Services
    Court: Delaware Supreme Court
    Judge: Justice Seitz
    Attorneys: For plaintiff: Eugene J. Maurer, Jr. and Elise K. Wolpert of Eugene J. Maurer, Jr. P.A., Wilmington, DE for Everett Ur-quhart.
    for defendant: Abby Adams, Department of Justice, Georgetown, DE for the state.

    Case Number: D68453

    Criminal defendant's right to assistance of counsel in a serious felony trial required more than the mere pres-ence of a defense attorney the day of trial.