Riley Bennett Egloff Magazine July Magazine | Page 19

Supreme Court has noted,
[W]here the issue presented on appeal is a pure question of law, we review the matter de novo.
Appellate courts independently, and without the slightest deference to trial court determinations,
evaluate those issues they deem to be pure questions of law. A pure question of law is one that
requires neither reference to extrinsic evidence, the drawing of inferences therefrom, nor the
consideration of credibility questions for its resolution.
This means that an appellate court need pay no deference to the trial court’s decision as to a question of law,
and can effectively step into the shoes of the trial court to re-decide the issue, if necessary. An example of
a common scenario where an appellate court may review a decision de novo is an appeal from a motion for
summary judgment.
One more question you may have is, “can’t we just take this to the Supreme Court?” There too, the answer,
unfortunately, often is “no.” While you generally have an absolute right to appeal most judgments to the
Indiana Court of Appeals, you generally cannot appeal directly to our Supreme Court, except in limited
circumstances. Instead, the most common method of bringing a dispute before the Indiana Supreme Court
is by asking our Supreme Court to grant “transfer” after the Indiana Court of Appeals has decided an appeal.
However, our Supreme Court is quite selective about which cases it decides to order “transferred” from the
Court of Appeals, and it generally will do so only when: (1) there is a conflict between Court of Appeals
decisions; (2) a Court of Appeals decision conflicts with a Supreme Court decision; (3) a Court of Appeals
decision conflicts with federal appellate law; (4) the Court of Appeals has decided an important question
of law or a case of great public importance on which our Supreme Court should weigh in; (5) a Court of
Appeals decision has correctly decided existing precedent, but that precedent should be clarified, modified, or
changed; or (6) a Court of Appeals decision has “gone rogue” by so significantly departing from accepted law
or practice that our Supreme Court feels a need to step in. Aside from these situations, our Supreme Court
generally will not take a case. Needless to say, these situations do not arise often.
The moral of the story is that an appeal generally should not be viewed as a “second bite at the apple.” While
there certainly are instances where an appeal is warranted, discretion often is the better part of valor. In the
end, if you are considering appealing from a judgment, we recommend consulting with your attorney to
examine your options. And, you may wish to seek a second opinion from an attorney who was not involved
at trial, because he or she may provide a fresh perspective which often is helpful in pursuing an appeal.
1
See History of Instant Replay, NFL Football Operations, https://operations.nfl.com/the-game/history-of-instant-replay/ (last visit-
ed February 25, 2018).
2
Erie Ins. Co. v. Hickman, 622 N.E.2d 515, 521 (Ind. 1993).
3
See Love v. State, 61 N.E.3d 290, 299 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016) (Pyle, J., dissenting), vacated on transfer by 64 N.E.3d 1207 (Ind. 2016)
and 73 N.E.3d 693 (Ind. 2017).
4