New Hampshire Supreme Court
Cases Accepted - July 2000
* denotes appealing parties
99-115 State of NH v. Gibson,* James
Attorney General James E. Duggan
Tony Hutchins
Probation violation - sufficiency of evidence
99-527 Morgenstern,* Thomas v. Town of Rye
Anna Barbara Hantz Michael L. Donovan
Morgan A. Hollis
Municipal regulation - zoning; whether zoning ordinance
is constitutional on its face or as applied, where it
divests owner of all right to make any economically
beneficial use of property and defeats vested rights;
whether court applied wrong standard under Fisher v.
Dover, 120 N.H. 187 (1980)
99-724 State of NH v. Bixby,* Richard
Attorney General James E. Duggan
Brian McEvoy
Conspiracy to commit burglary - sentence suspension;
whether court abused its discretion in denying motion
to suspend sentence
00-111 State of NH v. Robinson,* Richard
Attorney General James E. Duggan
Brian McEvoy
Possession of marijuana - denial of motion to discover
identity of confidential informant; denial of motion to
dismiss or to compel grant of immunity to witness;
allowing State to amend indictment; admission of
evidence claimed to be marijuana absent testing by
crime lab; failure to give missing witness instruction
regarding witness who asserted Fifth Amendment rights
00-133 First Essex Bank v. McMenimen,* Brian
Wendy R. Olinsky Leonard W. Foy III
Promissory note, fraud - whether notice of hearing
satisfied due process; denial of motion to continue;
denial of motion to reconsider and for new trial
00-139 State of NH* v. Heirtzler, Joseph
Attorney General James E. Duggan
Andrew F. Cotrupi
Possession and distribution of LSD - motion to
suppress; whether court erred in holding that referral
of suspicious incident to school authorities by school
resource officer was sufficient to make school
authorities state agents; interlocutory appeal
00-143 State of NH v. Brien,* Mark E.
Attorney General Shawn J. Sullivan
Driving while intoxicated - motion to suppress; whether
police were justified in stopping vehicle
00-261 McGraw, Richard v. Exeter Region Cooperative
Paul McEachern School District,* Oyster
River Cooperative School
District, John Stark
Regional School District,
Contoocook Valley School
District, Winchester
School District
Stephen G. Hermans
David H. Barnes
Daniel E. Will
Kimberly A. Burke
Cooperative school district - approval of bonds;
whether amendment to RSA 33:8 allowing approval of
bonds by vote of 3/5 of the voters violates equal
protection or part I, article 39 of the NH
Constitution; interlocutory transfer
00-276 In the Matter of James B. Pasquale and Ann Marie
Pasquale (now Paulson)*
Doreen F. Connor
Richard G. Follender
Post-divorce proceedings - child custody; whether court
erred by ordering immediate implementation of a custody
change despite pendency of appeal; whether court erred
by awarding sole legal and physical custody to father;
whether Perreault standard met
00-288 Rogowicz, Debora-Marie v. O'Connell,* William J.
Attorney General James E. Duggan
Jennifer B. Sobel
Criminal contempt - private prosecution; whether family
division has jurisdiction over indirect criminal
contempt charge; whether legal assistance attorney
could prosecute charge; denial of jury trial;
sufficiency of evidence; failure to dismiss for
discovery order violation; denial of de novo appeal to
superior court
00-289 State of NH v. Kidder,* Steve
Attorney General James E. Duggan
Diane M. Nicolosi
Criminal threatening - admission of statements in
violation of Miranda; failure to give self-defense jury
instruction; whether court properly answered jury
questions; exclusion of defendant's medical records
00-295 Gammans,* Richard, v. FHP Constructors, Inc.,
Gwendolyn Gammans WedgCor, Inc.
Kevin H. O'Neill Gary Burt
Civil action - costs; whether prevailing party is
entitled to recover as costs hotel accommodations,
telephone charges, meals, car rentals, taxi fares,
highway tolls, parking charges, and airfare of non-
expert witness at deposition and trial; whether
prevailing party may recover deposition transcript
costs; failure to follow proper procedures in allowing
costs
00-300 Vorras Corp. v. Town of Londonderry
Robert M. Parodi Planning Board*
David R. Connell
Municipal regulation - subdivision appeal; whether
court erred in approving subdivision plan on the ground
that planning board's statement of reasons, adopted
after-the-fact on remand, was not the actual reason for
its decision; attorney's fees
00-305 Daudier, Yvonne O. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.*
David L. Nixon Alexander J. Walker
Kevin M. Leach
Negligence - trip and fall on sidewalk; whether court
erred by instructing jury on hedonic damages
00-310 Dobles, Barbara v. Moore Center Services,
Jennifer Rood Inc.*
Jon Meyer Dona Feeney
Negligence - vicarious liability; numerous issues
including denial of comparative fault jury instruction;
whether defendant could be liable for acts of
independent contractor under inherently dangerous
activity doctrine; jury instructions; erroneous
admission of expert testimony
00-312 Meredith Housing v. Nigro,* Shyla, Frank
Association Paquin
pro se Elliott Berry
Landlord-tenant - eviction; failure of trial court to
consider evidence that welfare entity offered in timely
fashion to pay rent demanded
00-331 State of NH v. Lackie,* Christopher
Attorney General George H. Ostler
Possession of a controlled drug - insufficient
foundation to admit bags of dried marijuana; failure to
dismiss felony indictment for manufacturing controlled
drug at end of State's case which resulted in acquittal
by jury
00-337 McNamara, Marilyn v. Moses,* Robert J., Sandra
Billings, William A. Moses, Eagle Rock
Vargas Estates Assoc. Inc.,
Russell F. Hilliard James McGinnis, Gail
Coad, Anthony Periera,
Virginia Periera
Robert J. Moses
Peter W. Bennett
Morgan Hollis
Andrew Prolman
Property dispute - cutting of trees; admission of
opinion evidence based on hearsay as to value of felled
trees; whether damages were speculative; whether court
erred by awarding multiple damages
00-343 In the Matter of Robert L. Beganie* and Marsha A.
Beganie
Robert F. Bossie
Richard J. Joyal
Divorce - improper distribution of retirement plan
assets
00-344 State of New Hampshire,* Appeal of
(transportation appeals board)
Attorney General
Jeffrey A. Meyers
Contracts - road construction; failure of board to
analyze the possibility of a patent ambiguity in the
contract; whether board erred in construing contract as
a unilateral insurance contract; whether board erred in
finding ambiguity