Utah Law Developments
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Pages | 39 |
February, 2023
Appellate Highlights
by Rodney R. Parker, Dani Cepernich, Robert Cummings, Nathanael Mitchell, Adam Pace, and Andrew Roth
EDITOR'S NOTE: The following appellate cases of interest were recently decided by the Utah Supreme Court, Utah Court of Appeals, and United States Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals. The following summaries have been prepared by the authoring attorneys listed above, who are solely responsible for their content.
UTAH COURT OF APPEALS
Jordan Credit Union v. Sullivan
2022 UT App 120 (Oct. 27, 2022)
The Utah Court of Appeals reversed the district court's denial of the defendant's motion to set aside a default judgment entered against him, holding that the district court lacked personal jurisdiction over the defendant because he was not properly served. The defendant had been personally served by a Utah County deputy constable while he was incarcerated in the Utah County Jail. Rule 4(d)(1)(D), however, requires service of a person incarcerated to be made "by delivering a copy of the summons and complaint to the person who has the care, custody, or control of the individual," who must then "promptly deliver[ the summons and complaint] to the individual." Because the defendant was not served in this manner, the district court lacked personal jurisdiction. In a concurring opinion, Judge Orme suggests the Utah Supreme amend Rule 4(d)(1)(D) to include the prescribed method applies only "if personal service cannot be effected on such individual."
State v. Hintze
2022 UT App 117 (Oct. 14, 2022)
The court of appeals held that the State violated the defendant's right to a speedy trial under the Sixth Amendment, reversed his conviction, and remanded with instructions to dismiss one count of violation by a sex offender of a protected area. In doing so, the majority rejected an argument that an invocation of the speedy trial right must specifically reference trial to put the State on notice, and it clarified the framework for assessing prejudice for the purposes of a speedy trial analysis.
Wallace v. Niels Fugal Sons Co.
2022 UT App 111 (Sept. 22, 2022)
An attorney for the plaintiff moved to withdraw before a pretrial disclosure deadline but the motion was not granted until after the deadline passed. The plaintiff's pretrial disclosures were not filed until one week after the deadline when new counsel entered an...
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