Under Indiana’s “going-and-coming” rule, an employee driving to and from work is generally not acting within the scope of his employment, in which case the employer is not vicariously liable for the employee’s negligence under principles of respondeat superior. An exception to this rule arises if the employee is performing work assigned by the employer or is subject to the employer’s control.
Dannon v. State, No. 25A-CR-2954, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Oct. 30, 2026).
For purposes of the Interstate Agreement on Detainers, a failure-to-appear bench warrant issued after a formal information was filed after for failure to appear at a pretrial conference is sufficient to serve as a detainer.
Indiana Dept. of Educ. v. Mt. Zion’s Loving Day Care Ministry, et. al., No. 26S-PL-134, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Oct. 26, 2026).
The Department of Education’s blanket policy of rejecting correction proposals by CACFP participants once a deficiency recurs, despite its authority to exercise such discretion under federal law, was arbitrary and capricious.
C.J.W. v. T.H., No. 26A-AD-1225, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Ct. App., Oct. 16, 2026).
A Level 5 criminal recklessness conviction did not bar the stepfather from adoption because the court ruled on the adoption petition after the five-year period had expired. This court found that the time period noted in the statute “refers to the date the court rules on the petition, not the filing date” of the petition.
State of Indiana ex rel. IDOT v. Harrison Circuit Ct. & Honorable Justin Mills, Special Judge, No. 26S-OR-265, __ N.E.3d __ (Ind. Oct. 2, 2026).
Appellate precedent holds, without exception, that an appraiser’s award is binding if no party timely files exceptions. The trial court lost its discretion to deny the State’s motion for judgment when the defendant failed to timely file exceptions to the appraisers’ report. This, combined with the ethical conundrum the State finds itself in if it is compelled to mediate a judgment amount that has already been fixed by law, is sufficient to establish extreme hardship to file a Petition for Writ of Mandamus.