The SD Supreme Court handed down two decisions this morning:
1) Denial of habeas relief affirmed;
2) Breakup of unmarried couple’s cohabitation litigated;
Summaries follows:
SPANIOL v. YOUNG, 2022 S.D. 61: This a post-conviction habeas
proceeding by an inmate. The lower court
denied relief and the SD Supreme Court affirmed. The case is summarized in the opening
paragraph of the opinion:
[¶1.]
Joshua Spaniol was convicted of raping and having sexual contact with his
four-year-old autistic daughter. Spaniol appealed his conviction, which was
affirmed. Thereafter, he filed a petition for habeas corpus alleging that his
trial counsel was ineffective by failing to retain an expert witness, object to
certain exhibits during trial, and investigate alleged third-party perpetrator
information. After an evidentiary hearing, the circuit court denied the
petition. Spaniol appeals. We affirm.
The Court’s ruling is unanimous (5-0), with opinion authored
by Justice Kern.
MURPHEY v. PEARSON, 2022 S.D. 62:
Unmarried couple split up after
10+ years cohabitation. A child was
born. This action was filed by Mother to
determine custody and child support.
Father counterclaimed, asserting an interest in the equity of the home
which was titled Mother’s name only. Father asserted an implied contract and unjust enrichment, based
upon his financial contributions during cohabitation. Mother filed a Reply to the counterclaim by asserting that Father was
paying rent. Mother also claimed that Father owed her back rent.
Notably, Mother never actually filed a claim for back rent as part of her original
complaint or in response to Father’s counterclaim. (Mother’s failure to assert such a claim in a
pleading is detrimental to her interest on appeal.)
The trial court resolved the
issues and, in the process awarded Mother back
rent of $17,069.59 plus 10%. The trial court also made an award of back
child support.
The SD Supreme Court reversed the
award of back rent in favor of Mother, but affirmed the denial of
Father’s claim based on implied contract and
unjust enrichment. The Court
also partially reversed an award of back child support in favor of Mother by
lowering it $1,064.
The Court’s decision is unanimous
(5-0), with opinion authored by Justice DeVaney.
These decisions may be
accessed at
http://ujs.sd.gov/Supreme_Court/opinions.aspx .
