When settlement resolves a wrongful death action, a court should direct payment from the pre-trial wrongful death settlement that part of the medical, hospital, funeral, and burial expenses that corresponds to the ratio of the total of such expenses to the estimated total damages sustained.
Civil
Brown-Day v. Allstate Ins. Co., No. 49A02-0903-CV-277, ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Ct. App. Oct. 29, 2009)
Insurance Company was the sole defendant, and neither Evidence Rule 411 nor the common law permits the substitution of a non-party to conceal its identity as an insurer.
Bingley v. Bingley, No. 02A03-0904-CV-187, ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Ct. App. Oct. 30, 2009)
Husband’s employer-paid post-retirement health insurance premiums were not a marital asset subject to division, because they were purely supplemental, meaning that they were not obtained using marital assets, and were non-elective and not subject to divestiture, division, or transfer.
D.B. v. M.B.V., No. 32A01-0903-CV-110, ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Ct. App. Oct. 2, 2009)
To terminate parenting time, trial court must articulate a finding that parenting time would endanger the child’s physical health or significantly impair the child’s emotional development.
Williams v. Tharp, No. 29S02-0901-CV-40, ___ N.E.2d ___ (Ind. Oct. 13, 2009)
In a defamation action, plaintiff can overcome defendant’s claim of qualified privilege by showing that defendant made the statement without belief or grounds for belief in its truth; the proper standard for determining grounds for belief in truth is not reckless disregard; the absence of any discernable basis for the truth of the matter can, however, serve as circumstantial evidence of a reporting citizen’s actual knowledge of falsity.