New Court of Appeals Case on Crime Victim's Statute, Mortgage Foreclosure and Fidicuiary Duty

And discovery sanctions and attorney fees and garnishment orders. At sixty-seven pages, I still have not fully digested Prime Mortgage USA, Inc. v. Nichols (PDF format) beyond recognizing that this looks like a bombshell of a case. The Court of Appeals describes the issues as follows:

Issues

1. Whether Nichols's claim under Indiana Code section 34-24-3-1 (the "Crime Victims Statute") is barred by the statute of limitations;

2. Whether the Defendants were entitled to a jury trial on the amount of damages under the Crime Victims Statute:

3. Whether the trial court abused its discretion in ordering default judgments as a sanction for discovery violations:

4. Whether the trial court's award of damages was proper and supported by the evidence;

5. Whether sufficient evidence existed to hold the Defendants liable under the Crime Victims Statute;

6. Whether the trial court's award of attorney's fees was improper:

7. Whether the trial court improperly determined that Nichols's unpaid compensation constituted "wages" under Indiana Code sections 22-2-5-1 and -2:

8. Whether Nichols's claims are barred by the doctrine of unclean hands: and

9. Whether the trial court's garnishment order was improper under either Indiana Code section 27-1-12-14(e) or Indiana Code section 27-I-I 2-17.1(1).

That list excludes one important issue and why I fully expect a petition to transfer to the Indiana Supreme Court is being contemplated by the appellant: "The trial court held a hearing on damages. and awarded roughly eight million dollars to Nichols."

I plan on breaking the case down by topic in separate posts rather than one big post. Stay tuned.