Definitions matterBy Andy Delaney‘Twas a relatively busy week at SCOV. Three opinions issued on Friday, May 2. And one entry order on April 24. We’ll start with the entry order. This one’s fairly straightforward. Respondent had a professional responsibility complaint filed against her. Though she spoke with disciplinary counsel about it, she didn’t file a
Jurisdiction, Division, and Partition
By Andy DelaneyTwo opinions on April 18, 2025: one about jurisdiction and one about partition and ouster. We’ll start with jurisdiction. In 2019, respondent pled guilty to assault and robbery. In 2023, she filed a motion in the criminal division asking the court to vacate and expunge her conviction based on this statute, which…
Pretext and Procedure
I call this the “McDonald’s burger-shifting analysis” By Andy DelaneyI might know enough about employment law to sound like I know what I’m talking about. But I’m no expert. Robert Caldwell was Champlain College’s chief fundraiser from January 2017 until September 2019. During this period, he missed his fundraising targets. In 2019, he was pretty far…
Prenup Problems
By Andy DelaneyA lone opinion this Friday. On a personal level, I’ve never “gotten” prenuptial agreements. From my perspective—not that of SCOV Law or anyone associated with SCOV Law—marriage should be based on trust and love. If you don’t implicitly trust the person you’re going to marry, then don’t get married. One could always be…
Partially Preserved Points
By Andy DelaneySnow on a Saturday morning at the end of March is just
wrong.
This week’s story is one of those stranger-than-fiction
cases. Briefly, defendant married a woman named Lori and adopted her two
daughters. In 2000, defendant got one of his adopted daughters pregnant and she
gave birth to their child, K.O.…
Three Entry Orders over Three Days
By Andy DelaneyNo “opinions” this week but there were three published entry orders, one each on the 12th, 13th, and 14th. The big difference between a published entry order and an opinion, to the best of my knowledge, is that the entry order doesn’t have a specified author (unpublished entry orders are usually…
March 5, 2025
This joke is so nerdy that it may require a reverse image searchBy Andy DelaneyI used the date this entry order issued for a few reasons. If you think it’s just because I’m lazy and it’s a Sunday with a lost hour as I’m writing this, uh, well, you’re wrong. It’s also . . . It’s…
Closing out February
By Andy DelaneyTwo opinions on Friday. Let’s get to it. First up we have a tiff between Travelers and the Department of Financial Regulation (DFR). Travelers wanted records from DFR about Middlesex Assurance Company, a Vermont captive insurer. If you don’t know what captive insurance is, it’s essentially an insurance company that is wholly owned and…
Students or Employees? Or Both?
By Andy DelaneyOne opinion on Friday. This one does not answer the question of “whether predoctoral fellows and trainees are employees for purposes of the State Employees Labor Relations Act (SELRA).” SCOV punts this one back to the Labor Board for further development on the issue. Petitioner in this case (a union) filed a petition…
Valentine’s Day 2025
By Andy DelaneyTwo cases on Valentine’s Day. I haven’t thought of a “clever” link between the first case and Valentine’s Day and it’s probably better that I don’t.Our first case is an appeal from a substantiation. M.R., while a minor himself, was accused of sexually abusing another kid. The Department for Children and Families…
