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Wednesday, March 04, 2009

Ind. Decisions - Court of Appeals issues 2 today (and 5 NFP)

For publication opinions today (2):

In Gina Johnson v. Robert C. Johnson, a 10-page opinion, Judge Darden writes:

Gina Johnson (“Wife”) appeals the trial court’s order granting Robert Johnson’s (“Husband”) motion to have Wife’s judgment lien subordinated. * * *

More importantly, however, the parties failed to specifically address Wife’s lien or its priority, if any, over other liens in the Settlement Agreement. In fact, the Settlement Agreement did not even recognize that Wife would have a judgment lien. Such an omission occurred despite both parties having knowledge of the line of credit; its necessity for maintaining Sunset Dairy’s operations; and representation of both parties by counsel. Thus, we cannot say, where Wife’s judgment lien originally was subordinate to the Bank’s lien and the Settlement Agreement did not address the priority of Wife’s judgment lien, the trial court modified the Settlement Agreement. Rather, it sought to enforce the Settlement Agreement as written. Cf. Phillips v. Delks, 880 N.E.2d 713, 723 (Ind. Ct. App. 2008) (finding no improper modification of a property settlement agreement, which provided that the husband would become the sole owner of the parties’ vehicle, where trial court did not order the husband to transfer the ownership of the vehicle to the wife, but rather ordered him to sell or refinance it). We find no error. Affirmed.

Jason McReynolds v. State of Indiana - "Jason McReynolds appeals his conviction for class D felony battery of a person less than fourteen years of age, asserting that the evidence is insufficient. We affirm. * * *

" Clearly, the force was disproportionate to the offense, unnecessarily degrading, and could even result in permanent scarring and long-term emotional trauma. Accordingly, we affirm McReynolds’s conviction for class D felony battery."

NFP civil opinions today (0):

NFP criminal opinions today (5):

Reginald R. Bragg v. State of Indiana (NFP)

Willie L. Joseph v. State of Indiana (NFP)

Ricky Bingham v. State of Indiana (NFP)

Robert Freeman v. State of Indiana (NFP)

Kara Crisp v. State of Indiana (NFP)

Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 4, 2009 01:26 PM
Posted to Ind. App.Ct. Decisions