Dr. Rick Sasso is a renowned spinal surgeon and inventor of technology used in spinal surgery. Sasso assigned certain intellectual property rights, including patents, to Medtronic and was promised royalties in return. Sasso was not receiving all the royalties that he thought were owed and sued Medtronic for breach of two contracts.

One of the contracts, the Screw Agreement, involved a new technique for spinal surgery that minimized incisions by using a tube to guide surgical implements and instruments.

When people play sports, they sometimes get hurt. And Indiana law recognizes that when someone is hurt by another sports participant, there is generally no liability. That is also true if the participant that hurts another is a coach.

C.G. was a freshman basketball player, and Hannah Amor was C.G.’s coach. As the players practiced a layup drill, Coach Amor defended the goal and attempted to aggressively block or “swat” the player’s ball. As C.G. was running on the side of the
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People are always entitled to due process before their property is taken away in a judicial proceeding. But this begs the question—what process is due in a particular case?

In this case, the Indiana Supreme Court dealt with this question in tax sale cases, and the answer is, “It depends.”

The recent news has discussed whether various parties have standing to challenge the 2020 presidential election in various federal courts. But federal courts are not alone in caring about standing, as this case shows.

Indiana passed the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) in 2015. Among other things, RFRA included various antidiscrimination safeguards (including discrimination based on sexual orientation). In addition, some cities around Indiana had local ordinances which barred discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

As we all know, Indiana has strict deadlines when it comes to summary judgment, and they are strictly enforced. But this case shows that the Court of Appeals will not elevate form over substance on this deadline.

Dr. Ritter performed spinal surgery on Jernagan at the IU Health North campus. The anesthesiologist was Dr. Miller, who was a partner with Anesthesia Consultants of Indianapolis. During the surgery, Jernagan experienced a sudden drop in blood pressure from excessive blood loss, causing a cardiac arrest. He was admitted to the ICU as a result.

An employer is, of course, vicariously liable for the negligence of its employees when they act in the course and scope of their employment. But Indiana has erected procedures around the way in which plaintiffs may bring medical malpractice claims.
The question in this case is the extent to which those procedures affect claims of vicarious liability to a hospital.

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The defendants in this case altered medical records and failed to disclose this multiple times. When the plaintiffs eventually discovered this, they filed suit. The question is whether this kind of claim must be brought under Indiana’s Medical Malpractice Act.

Santos Cortez went to IU Health’s Wound Clinic in 2012 to treat for pressure wounds. Various physical therapists treated Santos at the Wound Clinic, including Lucich and Longmuir. Sometime after that treatment ended, Lucich and Longmuir altered medical records regarding the care they gave Santos.

Not every lawyer has litigated a class action, and they are a different kind of animal. In order to certify a case as a class action, you need to convince the court that the case is amenable to class certification. This involves proof on each factor in a multifactor test. This case shows the dangers of attempting to certify a case for class treatment the easy way.

Dempsey owns land in LaPorte County. The County reassessed the real property for taxation purposes in 2008. After the reassessment was completed, taxpayers received reconciliation bills, some of which showed reduced tax bills. In those cases, a taxpayer would typically receive a check, but if the taxpayer owed delinquent taxes, a credit would be applied to the delinquency. However, the County did not pay interest on these amounts. Rather, it offset the interest (4%) against any delinquency charge (5% or 10%).

Indiana has enacted a Good Samaritan Law (GSL) that immunizes people who are responding to emergencies with emergency care. This case questions how broadly those immunities apply.

Early one foggy morning, McGowen was driving a semi-tractor owned by his employer, Vision, on a two-lane country road. McGowen was driving slowly because of the fog when he saw a heavily-damaged truck in a ditch on the side of the road. McGowen saw Patton wandering around the truck, and he stopped to see if he could help. McGowen did not see anyone behind him, stopped in the middle of the road, and did not put his vehicle into park. McGowen asked Patton if he was okay and offered to call 911.

This case involves an unusual situation—a child suing his father for impregnating his mother. These kinds of lawsuits are normally not allowed because Indiana does not recognize a claim for wrongful life. But the situation is different when the father is a physician who lied to the mother about her artificial insemination.

Elizabeth sought the services of Appellants in 1981 to become pregnant. The Physician told Elizabeth that he would artificially inseminate her with donor sperm from an anonymous medical school resident and that he would use that donor’s sperm in no more than three inseminations within a well-defined geographic area. This was a lie—he used his own sperm to do the insemination, as he had done with many other patients. Elizabeth gave birth to Matthew in 1982.

If you are a litigator, you likely know that an act is negligent per se if it is done in violation of a statute. But this case points out that this could mean one of two different things: that the violation of a statutory duty can be enforced through a private right of
action or that the violation demonstrates a violation of a common-law duty of care. This difference can have a meaningful difference in litigation, as this case shows.

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The issue of excusable neglect often arises in the context of motions under Rule 60(B). And this case shows that when proving excusable neglect, you need to provide more than just argument.

Vanoy ran a red light and struck Denny’s car. Denny sued Vanoy, and Vanoy was served on September 14, 2018.

You may think that a favorable outcome in a case is res judicata and prevents relitigating previously litigated issues. But while this is generally true, it is not a universal truth.

The Schroeders owned two tracts of land in Allen County, one of which was landlocked. They executed a purchase agreement to Tract A with the Binzes on June 8, 2014 and disclosed that there would be an easement to the landlocked Tract B. Meanwhile, the

Apparently, lawsuits involving dangerous horses are governed by a different set of rules than claims involving other dangerous animals if the riders are engaged in a sporting activity at the time of the injury.

Romano owned a horse farm, where she boarded and trained horses owned by others. One of Romano’s horses at the farm, Sheza, was an aggressive horse known for kicking other horses. Burdick owned a horse (Chip) that was boarded and trained at Romano’s farm, and he came there almost every day to train. Chip was a gelded, laid back, and lazy horse. Burdick knew of Sheza’s aggressiveness.

Defendants routinely argue that plaintiffs need expert testimony to show that a particular form of damage was caused by a particular tortious act. This case shows that what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, and plaintiffs can make that same argument, too.

Harris was driving a vehicle when she was rear-ended by Jones. Harris sued Jones and the car’s insurer, Allstate.

Some kinds of speech are protected by various legal privileges. The most powerful of these privileges is the absolute privilege because it is a complete defense to a claim based on that speech. And this case discusses the absolute privilege certain healthcare whistleblowers enjoy.

Home Health provides home-based healthcare services, and those services are regulated by the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH). The defendants in this case were all nurses who were employed as case managers for Home Health. In 2017, these nurses reported to ISDH that Home Health employees forged their signatures on documents related to patient care. Home Health claimed that these reports were false, and that the nurses were retaliating for poor performance reviews. ISDH found that the reports were not substantiated.

If someone at a hospital accesses and distributes a patient’s private medical information, what is the proper process that the patient should use to pursue their claims? In this case, the plaintiffs did not try to take their claims through the medical panel review process—and this was the correct decision.

Heather and Katrina worked together at IOC for 5 years, during which Katrina was Heather’s direct supervisor. At some point, Katrina introduced Heather to her step-son, Kevin, the two began dating, and eventually married. However, the marriage did not last, and Heather and Kevin divorced in 2010. Heather received custody of the couple’s two children, and she later married Daniel. Heather’s relationship with Katrina’s family was strained after this.

This case is a word of warning to those who are disabled—you may need to prove your disability, rather than just claim it, in order to get an accommodation.

Linder leased an apartment from Furbee. The lease banned pets in the apartment, but about six months into the lease a therapist wrote a letter on Linder’s behalf that told Furbee that she should have a cat as an emotional support animal. Furbee asked Linder for additional information so it could determine whether an accommodation would be allowed. This included a request for the number of sessions Linder had with the therapist and the nature of Linder’s disability. Linder refused to provide the information.

Separators is a centrifuge company. Over the course of its existence, it has amassed a large collection of reference materials, all of which have been digitized. Carmichael was Separators’ parts manager for eight years, and Monday was Carmichael’s assistant. Neither Carmichael nor Monday signed a non-compete, non-solicitation, or confidentiality agreement with Separators.

In December 2012, Carmichael formed CSI as a direct competitor to Separators, and he formally resigned from Separators in March 2013. Before he left the company, Carmichael copied hundreds of manuals from the technical library and subsequently copied those electronic files onto his CSI computer, all without Separators’ consent.

Business records are evidence in many kinds of proceedings. And it appears that there is some disagreement in Indiana’s appellate courts regarding what constitutes a business record and what does not. This panel of the Indiana Court of Appeals made its position clear in this case.

Father and Mother were the parents of a child. A police officer stopped their car after receiving a report of a theft at a Target. Mother admitted stealing the items so “she could ... sell the items she had stolen, to get food.” The officer then searched the car and found several electronic items from Target, some syringes, and a bent spoon. The parents admitted using methamphetamine. The parents were arrested, and the child (who was in the back seat) was put in the care of the DCS.