Montana Supreme Court news for Jan. 21, 2015
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Hyundai case settled
HELENA – Two families settled out of court last week with Hyundai Motor America and Hyundai Motor Company in a historic case that saw the biggest punitive damage award set by a jury in Montana history.
A Lake County Jury in May 2014 awarded the families of two Missoula teens $248 million in punitive damages and $8 million in compensatory damages after finding a faulty steering knuckle responsible for a crash that left the teenagers and another woman dead.
Lake County Judge Deborah Kim Christopher reduced the award in September, but still said the family deserved more than the $10 million state cap on punitive damages.
Christopher ruled that the cap was unconstitutional, “at least as applied to this case considering the significant financial wealth of these defendants.”
Christopher instead set damages at 3 percent of the net worth of the two companies found to be at fault, for a total of $27,360,004 assessed to Hyundai Motor America and $45,600,008 assessed to Hyundai Motor Company.
The case went to mediation in October after being appealed to the Montana Supreme Court. On Jan. 15 the case was dismissed with prejudice because an undisclosed settlement had been reached. Calls for comment to attorneys and media representatives on both sides of the case went unanswered.
Convicted murderer appeals sentence
HELENA — A Lake County man who has served seven years of a life sentence handed down for shooting and killing 19-year-old Daniel McLeod asked the Montana Supreme Court on Jan. 2 to reconsider his punishment.
James Arthur Couture, 55, was convicted on deliberate homicide charges in 2006 of shooting McLeod more than 20 times on May 2, 2004. Couture was also convicted of two counts of tampering with evidence for dumping McLeod’s body in the Flathead River and disposing of the gun he used to shoot the teen. He is ineligible for parole.
In a Jan. 2 appeal, Couture argued that he was illegally sentenced to life in prison because he had not been previously convicted of a major crime, as Montana law requires. He claims he was racially discriminated against.
“Clearly, it is more than apparent because of the fact (Couture) is a Native American that the court assumed that he had to been guilty of some type of past felony,” Couture wrote in his self-submitted appeal.
Couture’s current request to reconsider his sentence is his second appeal to the state’s high court. In 2010 Couture appealed on grounds that he was denied his right to a speedy trial. Couture was put on trial 924 days after he was initially arrested.
The justices of the Montana Supreme Court unanimously upheld the lower court’s decisions and said that Couture had caused some of the delays.
Supreme Court upholds drug conviction ruling
HELENA — A Kalispell man will remain behind bars after the Montana Supreme Court upheld a 2013 drug conviction.
The high court said in a Jan. 13 opinion that a Montana Highway Patrol officer was authorized to detain Norman Vaughan Pulliam based on the characteristics of drug use the man was exhibiting.
Pulliam, 54, was sentenced to five years in Montana State Prison, none suspended in June 2013 in Lake County District Court for criminal possession of dangerous drugs. The conviction stemmed from a June 2012 incident where a Montana Highway Patrol Trooper saw a pickup truck cross Highway 93 on Mud Lake Trail without stopping. The officer activated his lights and siren and pursued the vehicle, but it did not immediately yield. When the truck pulled over, the officer saw the driver, Pulliam, hand something to the passenger.
Pulliam did not have a driver’s license, proof of insurance or registration for his vehicle, and was behaving nervously. He was jumpy, displayed rapid speech and breathing, was extremely talkative and had small sores on his hands and wrists, all symptoms of methamphetamine use and intoxication. In a search of the vehicle, the officer found a glass methamphetamine pipe and a syringe loaded with 60 cubic centimeters of clear liquid. A field test showed the liquid contained methamphetamine.
The Montana State Crime Lab confirmed the methamphetamine test, but Pulliam’s attorneys appealed the decision to the high court in 2014, saying that the Montana Highway Patrol officer had used faulty drug recognition expert techniques in Pulliam’s detention.
The Supreme Court disagreed.
“Although the issue here has been framed as one of the admissibility of DRE evidence as expert testimony, we observe that (the trooper) did not conduct a DRE evaluation of Pulliam,” Justice Laurie McKinnon wrote. “His testimony instead addressed his observations of Pulliam’s appearance and behavior, including that he was restless, talkative, spoke through a clenched jaw, appeared tense in his upper body, had sores and track marks on his arms, and dilated pupils. He also observed that Pulliam’s behavior in attempting to exit the vehicle and ignoring requests for his driver’s license, proof of insurance, and registration appeared evasive. Trooper Sanderson’s opinion that Pulliam was likely under the influence of a stimulant such as methamphetamine was rationally based on his perceptions.”
Pulliam, who had three prior DUI convictions before the incident, is also serving two sentences for drug offenses in Flathead County that occurred in 2012, for three years and five years.
