Wayne A. Peters and Helen Peters v. Donald Forster (3/11/04 IndSCt) [Torts]
Rucker, Justice
Sustaining injury after slipping on a ramp attached to a home that he was visiting, Wayne Peters sued the contractor who installed the ramp. The trial court granted summary judgment in the contractor’s favor on grounds that the “acceptance rule” precluded liability. On review the Court of Appeals reversed relying on an exception to the rule. Today we grant transfer and join those jurisdictions that have abandoned what has been described as an outmoded relic. In so doing we reverse the judgment of the trial court. * * *Julee Schlosser et al. v. Rock Industries/State of Indiana (3/11/04 IndSCt) [Torts]Conclusion. The trial court entered summary judgment in favor of Forster on grounds he owed no duty to Peters based on the acceptance rule. Today we abandon the rule in favor of traditional principles of negligence. As such we conclude Forster owed Peters a duty of reasonable care. Because in this case neither breach of duty nor proximate cause can be determined as a matter of law, summary disposition is inappropriate. We therefore reverse the judgment of the trial court.
Based on the “acceptance rule” the trial court granted summary judgment in an action arising out of an automobile collision. In an opinion handed down today we abandoned the rule. See Peters v. Forster, ___ N.E.2d ___, No. 42S01-0301-CV-24 (Ind. 2004). We therefore grant transfer and reverse the judgment of the trial court.Anna King, et al. v. Eric C. Ebrens, et al (3/11/04 IndCtApp) [Property, Real Estate]
The dispositive substantive issue presented is whether the Homeowners, who do not own property in the Don Smith Subdivision, have standing to enforce the restrictive covenant in the Plat that prohibits the Ebrens from erecting a pole barn. The Homeowners assert that they have standing on two grounds. First, they point out that the Homeowners’ Deeds contain substantially the same restrictive covenants as those contained in the Plat of the Don Smith Subdivision, and according to covenant number 18, such restrictions may only be modified, or an exception made thereto, if 80% of the owners of similarly-restricted land agree to the modification. Stated differently, the Homeowners allege that they have standing to enforce the covenant because their property is “similarly-restricted” to the Eberns’. The Homeowners also contend that they have standing because all of the parties’ lots were sold by a common grantor, the Smiths, who had a common scheme or plan for development, which created mutual rights among all of the grantees, not just those grantees who own lots within the Don Smith Subdivision. The Ebrens counter that the Homeowners lack standing because they do not own property in the Don Smith Subdivision. We address their arguments in turn. * * *May, J. concurs; Baker, J. dissents with separate opinion:Here, although the Homeowners’ Deeds and the Plat of the Don Smith Subdivision share the same restrictive covenants, the undisputed designated evidence establishes that the Smiths did not develop their entire 101-tract of land “as a single contemporaneous unit.” Rather, they first sold lots to the Homeowners piecemeal and then subsequently platted the Don Smith Subdivision. While the evidence shows a common scheme or plan for the Don Smith Subdivision, we cannot conclude that the Smiths had a common scheme or plan for their entire 101-acre tract, nor for the property that fronted Spaeth or Reservoir Roads. Indeed, following the holding in Rooney, we hold that the Smiths did not have a general plan of development for the property that fronted on Spaeth and Reservoir Roads because they sold and developed that land not as a single unit but, at first, in separate lots and, later, by way of a subdivision. Without a general plan of development, the Homeowners, who do not own lots within the Don Smith Subdivision, do not have standing to enforce the restrictive covenants contained in the Plat against the Ebrens. Thus, the trial court properly granted summary judgment for the Ebrens.
I respectfully dissent from the majority’s determination that Anna King, William H. Stuckey, and Crystal Stuckey (Homeowners) do not have standing to enforce the restrictive covenants contained in the Plat against the Ebrens. In my view, Corner v. Mills makes it clear that a general scheme or plan of a development exists when “the circumstances and facts of the case, including the language of the deeds and the grantors’ actions, reveal an intent by them to create such a plan or scheme.” 650 N.E.2d 712, 715 (Ind. Ct. App. 1995). It is apparent to me that the evidence, when viewed in the light most favorable to the Homeowners, reveals such an intent on the part of Donald Smith. * * *Jason L. Inlow, et al. v. Henderson, Daily, Withrow & Devoe (3/11/04 IndCtApp) [Procedure; Attorney's Fees]
In sum, the motor vehicle exclusion applies to injuries arising from the use of “motorized land vehicles” off of the “insured location,” which includes “premises” used in conjunction with the farm. The plain and ordinary meaning of the term “premises” does not encompass a public roadway. As such, the accident on Black Road did not occur on the insured location, and the motor vehicle exclusion under the Dreimans’ policy applies. We reverse the trial court’s entry of summary judgment in favor of the Dreimans, and we hold that Indiana Insurance is entitled to summary judgment in this declaratory judgment action as a matter of law.Timothy Jarrett v. State of Indiana (3/11/04 IndCtApp) [Criminal Law & Procedure] Posted by Marcia Oddi at March 11, 2004 02:25 PM