A Citizen's Guide to Indiana

Masson's Blog

Animal Control Immunity

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The Associated Press is reporting that the Indiana Supreme Court has granted transfer to review a decision of the Court of Appeals that overruled a trial court judgment in favor of the City of Evansville Animal Control.

The Court of Appeals case was Davis v. Animal Control – City of Evansville (pdf), a 2 to 1 decision in favor of overturning the trial court decision (h/t Indiana Law Blog). At issue was whether Animal Control’s failure to abide by the city ordinance’s and designate a private individual’s dog to be a “dangerous animal” led to the dog biting the Plaintiff’s child and was something the Plaintiff could sue the city for.

The City argued that it was immune under the Indiana Tort Claim Act’s law enforcement immunity provisions which prevents liability by a governmental entity for failing to enforce the law. If this weren’t in place, you’d see lawsuits against the police department every time they failed to enforce the law against, for example, battery. Laws aren’t insurance against bad acts by private individuals. The Court of Appeals offered some (in my mind) muddled reasoning for holding that designation of the dog as a dangerous animal wasn’t part of the enforcement mechanism for the Evansville animal control ordinance. Judge Kirsch advanced this argument in his dissent.

If the Court of Appeals decision stands, it might be financially responsible for municipalities to get rid of their animal control ordinances altogether if they stand to be liable to pay for dog bites where a plaintiff can convince a jury the municipality slipped up on following the procedures set forth in the ordinance.

Ollie

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(Reposted from our family blog).

In the dog world, looks like we’re on the flip side of that whole circle of life thing. Yesterday, we adopted Ollie. Not sure what he is, exactly. He’s a good looking mutt. There is probably some lab in him, and they’re saying Border Collie. There are elements that suggest maybe St. Bernard. He has enormous paws.

I figured we were going to wait longer, but Amy started looking at puppies pretty soon after Brooksey died, and the rest was inevitable. She saw Ollie on a petfinder website. The person who posted the picture was the wife of the Peru, Indiana animal control officer. As it turned out, she also went to Richmond High School for a time and to Miami University. Small world. Seemed like fate.

We’re two days in, but he seems like a pretty good dog. Seems intelligent and to have a fairly calm demeanor. He made it through last night in the crate without whining and without any messes. It’s early days though, so we’ll have to watch and see how he grows up. He’s definitely puppyish. Likes chewing on stuff. Mainly, it’s such a change to have a dog that actually does stuff.

HJR 6 – Marriage Discrimination Passes Senate

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The Indiana Senate has passed HJR 6 which prohibits recognition of a legal status similar to marriage for unmarried individuals and prohibits gay couples from getting married. No surprise. It passed 40 – 10. Many Senators were undoubtedly voting their consciences, but I suspect many have also done the political calculus and concluded that they might get penalized for voting against the amendment more than voting for it. I see that Sen. Richard Young, former Senate Democratic leader, voted in favor of the amendment. Along with House Minority leader Bauer, that’s a disappointment.

The bill really does no practical, immediate good (and I have argued that it does harm). The state has a so-called defense of marriage law on the books. The courts have upheld it. That won’t change as long as there is popular resistance to gay marriage. But, such resistance seems to be fading. Maybe the trend will continue, maybe it won’t. But if it does, this amendment will effectively tie the hands of future generations. And, maybe that’s the point. But, in this, I think it’s wrong to substitute impose our current sensibilities on them.

Matt Tully has a column that calls this an opportunity for the people to repudiate an unabashed, mean-spirited display of discrimination. Abdul says “let the people decide,” suggesting that this is a generational issue — his otherwise civil rights minded parents are just boggled by the idea of gays getting married; his teenage nieces and nephews don’t see why anyone would care to stop it. A referendum is apparently how this thing will have to play out. The Constitutional amendment process requires the same language to pass again in 2013 or 2014 and then go on the ballot sometime after that.

It’s a crazy system where there’s resistance to a referendum on a simple issue of general interest like Daylight Saving Time, but we get to vote on whether to constitutionally mandate inequality for our gay friends and neighbors. I’m something like 6th generation Hoosier, and I love my state. But, I’m not exactly brimming with confidence that my fellow citizens will make what I consider to be the humane decision on this one.

Return of the Democrats

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I doubt anyone is prepping the fatted calf for slaughter, but rumor has it the Democrats are going to be returning from their self-imposed exile. Eric Bradner of the Evansville Courier Press says that Speaker Bosma says that it’s a change to HB 1216 that ended the stalemate. HB 1216 has to do with public works projects and has labor relations language in conjunction with the public works projects.

Bosma says it’s an inconsequential change to that bill. Presumably Bauer will characterize it as a critical change. It’ll be interesting to see what shakes out. Probably the Democrats can be credited with some minor victories and, maybe more importantly, give Republicans who are so inclined just a small amount of cover to allow them to negotiate a bit on issues where their constituents would prefer a hard line. From here on out, the Democrats will presumably cover up, take their lumps, and ride out the session. (But, I could certainly be wrong — I wouldn’t have anticipated this kind of walk out.)

We’re All Bulldogs Now

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For me, I’m loving Butler’s tournament run because of my memories of Richmond High School’s semi-state games in Hinkle Fieldhouse and because my dad played football for Coach Hinkle. For many, I’m sure their appeal is that they’re the only Indiana team left standing, and for many more across the nation, there is the perennial love of the underdog. (I suspect there will be long time Bulldogs fans annoyed at the bandwagon effect — like earlier followers of a band who begrudge the band its popularity following a string of hits.)

Brad Stevens, their coach, seems like a stand-up guy, speaking softly but carrying a big stick. In sport, he’s like the antithesis of blow hards like Rex Ryan (or his political equivalent, Chris Christie) whose big mouth gets him attention in excess of his accomplishments. And the Bulldogs players don’t look like anything terribly special, except they’re tough and they are winning.

After beating Florida in overtime yesterday afternoon, Butler is going to the Final Four for the second year in a row; a feat not accomplished too often by the mega-programs, let alone by a small school like Butler. So, they’re still a feel good story, but by repeating, they’re no longer a flash in the pan. Bob Kravitz observed that, whereas last year, they were cute and cuddly, this year they’re “as cuddly as a dyspeptic grizzly.”

Journal Gazette Feature on Jim Simon

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Rebecca Green, writing for the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, has a feature on the many troubles of Jim Simon. It’s possibly of more interest to people in the Fort Wayne area, but I still thought it was a good read. Simon was apparently an entrepreneur involved in, among other things, a satellite leasing venture in the early 90s.

The satellite venture fell through, Simon’s finances involved a lot of sketchy financial structures, his creditors started chasing him, the IRS caught wind that his lifestyle didn’t match his reported finances, his wife committed suicide, and he has recently been convicted on tax matters.

Over the years, he apparently made a lot of appearances in the bankruptcy court. You never want a bankruptcy judge (or any other judge) writing this about your client:

“Many of the issues before the court depend upon its assessment of the credibility of the various witnesses that testified. In this regard, the court should note that James Simon is not a credible witness. To the contrary, he is a liar and a consummate manipulator. Several angels would have to corroborate his testimony before the court would be inclined to accept it, and even then we would do so only reluctantly.”

The article generally just seems to be a fine piece of writing by Rebecca Green. To me, anyway, it was very engaging.

Shooting at Martinsville Middle School

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Reports are still muddled, but there has been a shooting at Martinsville West Middle School that happened early this morning. A student or maybe recently expelled student is in custody. The reports I’ve seen indicated uncertainty as to whether the victim was a student or a member of the staff.

HB 1386 – Commercial Feed Certification

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The Senate passed HB 1386 by a vote of 49-0. It allows the state chemist to inspect and, if requested by a commercial feed manufacturer or distributor, audit and certify the manufacturer or distributor that export commercial feed.

Sen. Head explains that this bill is necessary to allow Indiana farmers to export their product to Brazil which won’t allow the export absent a certification.

Indiana Legal Community Shines in Wisconsin Labor Debate

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Back in February, Jeff Cox, a deputy in the attorney general’s office, was called out by a Mother Jones reporter for advocating the use of live ammunition against the labor protesters in Wisconsin. Today comes news that Carlos Lam, a deputy prosecutor for Johnson County, Indiana, wrote to Wisconsin’s Governor Scott Walker to suggest that he stage some sort of attack against himself by a person pretending to be a union supporter.

“If you could employ an associate who pretends to be sympathetic to the unions’ cause to physically attack you (or even use a firearm against you), you could discredit the unions,” the email said.

Sure hope he’s not involved in any cases where his witness is claiming self-defense.

J&C on Bayh’s Post-Senate Career Choices

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The Lafayette Journal & Courier editorial board is the latest to notice that former Senator Bayh is full of crap. Their observations closely match those of Ezra Klein who probably wrote the definitive take down of Bayh’s statements as he departed the Senate as compared to his subsequent career choices.

Sen. Bayh left office, bemoaning partisanship, special interest influence, and a lack of public spirit. He then took a job with the highly partisan Fox News and, rather than teaching or doing anything public minded in Indiana as he had suggested, took a job working for a high power lobbying firm that makes a lot of money promoting some dubious interests.

Had Sen. Bayh left without comment or simply said he was tired of what he was doing and wanted to try something else, he wouldn’t have invited this kind of push back. But he had to get all sanctimonious and lecture us. Choosing the jobs that he did after treating us to yet another concerned lecture, practically begs for clouds of stones to be hurtled into his glass house. Fortunately, given his career choices, he can afford to buy plenty of glass.