Latest news with #1stDistrictCourtofAppeal
San Francisco Chronicle
02-05-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
Injured cyclist may sue Oakland for damages after hitting pothole, court rules
A bicyclist who was seriously injured after he hit a pothole on an Oakland street during an organized ride may sue the city for damages — even though he had signed a waiver of liability required by the ride's organizers, California's highest court ruled Thursday. Ty Whitehead of San Francisco was on a training ride in preparation for an AIDS fundraising bike trip to Los Angeles in March 2017 when his bicycle struck a pothole while going downhill on Skyline Boulevard in Oakland. His lawyers said Whitehead was thrown over the handlebars, suffered brain damage, was in a coma for two weeks and remains disabled. When he sued for his injuries, the city cited a release Whitehead and other riders were required to sign on the morning of the ride, releasing the trip's organizers and government agencies from liability for any negligence that caused them harm. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Richard Seabolt and the state's 1st District Court of Appeal ruled that the release required dismissal of the suit, but the state Supreme Court unanimously reinstated it Thursday. Such agreements may be enforceable if they do not violate a city's obligations under state law, Justice Kelli Evans said in the 7-0 decision. But in this case, she said, Whitehead's lawsuit relies on a California law requiring a city 'to maintain its streets in a reasonably safe condition for travel by the public.' 'An agreement to exculpate a party for future violations of a statutory duty designed to protect public safety is against the policy of the law … and is not enforceable,' Evans wrote. 'To hold otherwise would substantially undermine the Legislature's ability to protect the public.' That doesn't necessarily mean Oakland was negligent in maintaining its streets, but it could allow the claim to go to a jury, Evans said. She said Oakland might still seek dismissal of the suit if it can show Whitehead knowingly 'assumed the risk' of such an accident. In a filing with the court, the city attorney's office said allowing such lawsuits would have 'dire consequences for public entities, inevitably increasing their liability.' But Evans said Oakland's warning that such liability would lead cities to make recreational use of their property prohibitively expensive — or even illegal — 'seems exaggerated.' 'The city already owes a duty to the public to maintain its public roadways in a safe condition,' and even before the ruling it could have been sued by any cyclist who was injured while on a personal trip and had not signed a waiver of liability, the justice said. Anthony Label, a lawyer for Whitehead and his family, said the ruling 'emphasizes that California cities must proactively maintain public roads and facilities, rather than relying on overreaching waivers to escape accountability. This outcome is not only crucial for public safety but also sets a new statewide precedent that will compel cities to prioritize infrastructure repairs to prevent injuries.' The case is Whitehead v., City of Oakland, S284303.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
13 judges and lawyers vie for key Florida appellate court seat
Thirteen Florida attorneys and judges have applied for a vacancy on the state's 1st District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, according to the court's judicial nominating commission. The applicants are vying to take the place of Judge Brad Thomas, an appointee of Gov. Jeb Bush who was on the court since 2005 and retired as of Feb. 28. It's a plum judicial spot: The 1st DCA is one of the more high-profile courts in the state. It's headquartered in the capital and often hears appeals in cases involving the governor and state government. Overall, it handles civil and criminal appeals from five judicial circuits across north Florida. The list of applicants released Wednesday includes: Francis A. Carbone II, general counsel for the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities in Tallahassee. Amie E. DeGuzman, a Jacksonville-based workers' compensation attorney. Stephen S. Everett, a circuit judge in Tallahassee and the first ever to be appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Brittany O. Finkbeiner, an administrative law judge in Tallahassee. Jennifer J. Frydrychowicz, a circuit judge in Pensacola. R. Todd Harris, a circuit judge in Pensacola. Joshua M. Hawkes, a circuit judge in Tallahassee. William S. Henry, a circuit judge in Panama City. Timothy J. Inacio, an attorney in private practice in Cantonment. Lance E. Neff, a circuit judge in Tallahassee and a former general counsel for the Florida Department of Corrections. Kyle B. Sill, a judicial law clerk for the 1st DCA. Ray Treadwell, a partner in the Lawson Huck Gonzalez law firm of Tallahassee and a former chief deputy general counsel for DeSantis. George M. Wright, a circuit judge in Gainesville. Also, the commission selected Nathan Adams of the Holland & Knight law firm in Tallahassee as its chair and Amber Nunnally, a partner in the Tallahassee office of Shutts & Bowen, as vice-chair. The commission will interview candidates on Thursday, April 3. Interviews will be held at the 1st District's courthouse, Room 3360, 2000 Drayton Drive, Tallahassee. The interview schedule will be released "at a later date." According to The Florida Bar, "Appellate judges in Florida have the same selection and retention process as Supreme Court justices. They are appointed by the governor after being screened by judicial nominating commissions (JNCs). They face their first retention votes within two years and thereafter, if retained, every six years." According to the governor's office, "Applicants interview with the JNC, which then determines by majority vote which applicants to recommend to the governor for consideration. The JNC has no more than 60 days from the time it is requested to convene to nominate no fewer than three and no more than six applicants to the Governor. "The governor (then) has 60 days to appoint a judge from among the nominees." Jim Rosica is a member of the USA TODAY Network's Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached at jrosica@ Follow him on X: @JimRosicaFL. This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida's 1st DCA vacancy draws top legal contenders
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Yahoo
Appeal denied for inmate convicted of 2018 Calhoun County murder
CALHOUN COUNTY, Fla. (WMBB) – The 1st District Court of Appeal has denied a motion from an inmate who murdered his wife in Calhoun County over six years ago. In July 2018, German man Dan Belc killed his wife, shooting her multiple times at her family's home in Blountstown. According to the State Attorney's office, Belc followed his wife to Calhoun County after she left their home in Germany and filed for divorce. Walton County to charge admission at Morrison Springs to reduce crowds After killing her, Belc hauled her body around in the trunk of his car before turning himself in to the Jackson County Sheriff's office. In October 2022, a Bay County jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated assault. Belc was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. However, he appealed the conviction on the basis that the state improperly cross-examined him about pre-trial statements he made and that the court denied his motion for a mistrial based on those statements. He also claims the court should not have denied his motion to suppress statements he made to investigators that led them to a secondary crime scene. Belc's first point of appeal was that his defense was prejudiced by the introduction at trial of his statements that he, a 'foreigner' from Germany, could not get a fair trial in Calhoun County. Officials said he argued his conviction would have been impossible without jurors hearing those statements. However, on Wednesday, the 1st District Court of Appeal denied his appeal, stating the defense did not object to the questions about those statements at trial or move for a mistrial. They also stated that the presiding judge's decisions during the trial were proper. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Court backs DeSantis on migrant flight records
An appeals court Wednesday overturned a circuit judge's ruling that Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration took too long in providing public records about a controversial 2022 decision to fly migrants from Texas to Massachusetts. A three-judge panel of the 1st District Court of Appeal backed DeSantis' administration in the dispute with the non-profit Florida Center for Government Accountability, which made two public-records requests in September 2022 and filed a lawsuit in October 2022 after it did not receive all of the documents. Leon County Circuit Judge J. Lee Marsh in late October 2022 said the administration did not properly comply with the state's public-records law and gave it 20 days to provide records. But the appeals-court panel ruled Wednesday that Marsh erred in concluding that the administration's 'response was unreasonable and in violation of Florida's public records.' 'Here, the final hearing (not initiation of the lawsuit) occurred only 35 days after the first public records request,' appeals-court Judge Rachel Nordby wrote in an opinion joined by Judges Brad Thomas and Thomas Winokur. 'The public records sought were not singular documents or already composed files (like a court file where the records custodian merely accesses it electronically or pulls it off the shelf). This was a comprehensive request that, due to its scope, was going to take some time.' The opinion also pointed to issues such as Hurricane Ian hitting the state in September 2022 after the Florida Center for Government Accountability, an open-government group, made the public-records request. 'The (governor's) office has a duty to timely fulfill all public records requests, but considering the magnitude and scope of the center's request — which coincided with the ongoing statewide emergency of a major hurricane — the office's response time cannot be considered unreasonable,' Nordby wrote. 'The center's demand that its two robust records requests be completed within a week was unfeasible and impractical given the breadth of the requests and the circumstances surrounding it. Given the record before us, the center has failed to demonstrate that the office's response constituted an unreasonable delay that violated the Public Records Act.' The case focused, at least in part, on requests by the center for phone or text logs that could provide information about communications by DeSantis' then-chief of staff, James Uthmeier, related to the flights. Uthmeier was sworn in Monday as attorney general, after DeSantis appointed him to replace former Attorney General Ashley Moody. The center filed records requests Sept. 20, 2022, and Sept. 21, 2022, and alleged in the Oct. 10, 2022, lawsuit that the administration had not provided all of the records sought. The flights, which involved 49 migrants going from San Antonio, Texas, to Martha's Vineyard, occurred Sept. 14, 2022. In his Oct. 27, 2022, order, Marsh wrote that the governor's office 'has presented no evidence to the court of what direct steps it took to identify or produce records responsive to the public records request dated September 20, 2022, some of which have yet to be produced to the plaintiff.' 'The court finds that the EOG (the Executive Office of the Governor) is not in compliance with (the public records law),' Marsh wrote. 'EOG's partial production and response to the record requests were unreasonable. Specifically, the EOG has not made any production of a text or phone log of James Uthmeier as requested in the records request dated September 20, 2022.' But in Wednesday's opinion, the appeals court said the request for Uthmeier's phone and text logs appeared to include his personal communications devices and that presumably, 'not all phone calls or text messages from any personal devices would be public records.' 'Sorting the public from the private in two weeks' worth of text messages and phone calls would not be quick,' Nordby wrote. The appeals court said the governor's office did not challenge another part of Marsh's ruling that the administration made unnecessary redactions to records. Marsh also ruled that the center was entitled to recoup its attorney fees and costs. Wednesday's opinion sent the case back to circuit court. Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
