71 results for 'judge:"Pitman"'.
J. Pitman finds that defendant was properly convicted of second degree murder. The evidence shows that defendant stabbed the victim, the father of her ex-girlfriend's child, when the victim attempted to retrieve his daughter after defendant and the mother were involved in a fight. Witnesses testified that when the victim arrived to pick up his child, defendant asked him if he wanted to fight, armed herself with two knives and swung them at the victim. Therefore, defendant did not act in self defense. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: January 10, 2024, Case #: 55,450-KA, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Self Defense
J. Pitman denies motions to dismiss by both citizen defendants and "prosecutor defendants" after they were sued by abortion groups who wish to continue funding services like out-of-state travel and lodging for Texans seeking abortions but have been unable to do so due to the Dobbs decision and SB 8, a Texas law that allows people to sue a person who "aids and abets" an abortion. The groups have shown that they have suffered an injury traceable to prosecutor defendants, that SB 8 defendants were properly joined in this case, and that the WDTX is a proper venue for this case.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: December 21, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv859, NOS: Constitutionality of State Statutes - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution
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J. Pitman denies summary judgment to Texas’ family services agency after it was sued by a former employee who alleged the agency did not provide adequate accommodations for her after a serious car accident. While the department argues the employee was unable to maintain her workload, she was allegedly “assigned significantly more work than her peers,” and “consistent above-average performance” cannot be the standard on which her employment is judged, raising genuine factual disputes in this case.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: December 6, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv1218, NOS: Amer w/Disabilities-Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Employment, Employment Discrimination
J. Pitman partially denies summary judgment to a Texas county after it was sued by citizens following the suicide of their relative in county jail. While the citizens cannot proceed with failure to train claims, they can proceed with claims over conditions of confinement because there are genuine concerns raised over the jail’s policy of “allowing inmates to hang blankets across their cell bars to prevent staff from looking inside.”
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv149, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Government
J. Pitman dismisses some claims in a civil rights suit brought against Baylor University by a former student alleging that the university did not properly handle her report of sexual assault. While some of the student’s claims against Baylor can proceed, her claims against two athletic officials are dismissed because she has not shown that they should have foreseen the assault or that they breached their duties to her.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: November 21, 2023, Case #: 6:16cv403, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Education
J. Pitman grants an injunction to Department of Labor after it sued a mining company in an effort to enforce requirements on regular mine inspections. The mining company argued the mine had ceased operations and therefore should not be subject to such requirements, but federal officials have already determined that the site meets the technical definitions of a surface mine, and this classification “should be treated as conclusive.”
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: November 20, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv1147, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Government, Labor, Injunction
J. Pitman finds that Texas education officials violated the Servicemembers Relief Act by not adequately providing accommodations for a military spouse and enjoins officials from enforcing a violating section of the Texas Administrative Code. While Texas officials argued that the spouse’s teaching licenses were inactive because she had not recently “actively used” them, requirements on licensure in the Servicemembers Relief Act should be “liberally construed to protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take up the burdens of the nation.”
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: November 20, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv551, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Education, Government, Licensing
J. Pitman vacates the judgment of the trial court granting a new trial and reinstates the original judgment that the decedent's 2015 will is valid. There were no grounds for a new trial, and the parties did not discover new evidence. Further, the original judgment finding that the decedent lacked capacity to make the donation in the 2018 will was supported by her attending medical physician. The testimony showed that by November of 2017, the decedent was showing increased memory loss, agitation and anxiety, and she was unable to care for herself or her finances. The decedent was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia in December 2017. Vacated.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: November 15, 2023, Case #: 55,360-CA, Categories: Evidence, Wills / Probate
J. Pitman finds that defendant was properly convicted of manslaughter on his indictment of second degree murder. The evidence supported that defendant did not shoot the victim in self-defense because the victim was not found with a weapon, the victim was shot in the back, and defendant left the victim to retrieve a gun, which he then used to shoot the victim four times. Further, defendant's act of pointing a gun at the victim and shooting demonstrates that he intended to kill or inflict great bodily harm. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: November 15, 2023, Case #: 55,312-KA, Categories: Evidence, Manslaughter
J. Pitman finds that defendant was properly sentenced on her guilty plea to two counts of molestation of a juvenile. In this case, the imposed sentences of 50 years for each count, with the first 25 years of which would be served without benefits, was proper based on the seriousness of the crimes. Further, the sentences imposed had been reduced from a possible statutory 99-year sentence per count to a cap of 50 years and an agreement that the sentences would be served concurrently rather than consecutively. Also, based on the plea, the state held defendant responsible for only two of the ten original counts, and those had also been reduced from first degree rape of a victim under the age of 13 to molestation of a victim under the age of 13. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: November 15, 2023, Case #: 55,215-KA, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender, Plea
J. Pitman finds that the trial court properly found for the state on a driver's claim that the state's location of a parking area adjacent to the highway caused a car to collide with the driver's car while they were parked. In this case, the driver did not show that a defective condition in the roadway created an unreasonable risk of harm to the public, and the driver's expert does not support that the parking area was unreasonably dangerous. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: November 15, 2023, Case #: 55,342-CA, Categories: Evidence, Negligence
J. Pitman finds for the insurer in an underinsured motorist insurance dispute. The insurer is not contractually liable for the underinsured motorist insurance limits until liability and underinsured status was determined in the underlying lawsuit against the negligent driver who struck and killed a tow-truck driver. No such judgment existed at the time the decedent's family made its demand on the insurer.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: November 6, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv765, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Pitman denies a motion to stay a case pending an interlocutory appeal brought by several members of a “Trump Train” who were sued by Biden-Harris 2020 campaign members over a high-profile incident in which Trump supporters surrounded and boxed in a Biden-Harris campaign bus on a Texas highway during the 2020 election season. While a Fifth Circuit opinion provided the Trump supporters with a new avenue to seek an interlocutory appeal, they have failed to show how such an appeal would “materially advance the termination of the litigation” — one necessary prong for certification — and this court therefore denies the request for a stay.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: October 18, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv565, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Civil Rights, Elections
J. Pitman denies a law firm’s motion for a new trial after it was sued for legal malpractice due to the failure of a legal subcontractor to make timely filings. A previous jury trial determined that its legal insurance company did not fail to comply with its policy. While this outcome may be “unintuitive,” precedent would hold that the insurance company was “prejudiced” by the lack of settlement in the underlying in the case, and this prejudice “constituted a complete excuse of ... performance under the policy.”
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: October 12, 2023, Case #: 1:19cv629, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Damages, Legal Malpractice
J. Pitman finds that the trial court properly found for the Louisiana Workforce Commission upholding the denial of an employee's claim for unemployment benefits because he was fired while incarcerated. In this case, the employee was fired for being absent from work for three days without reporting to his supervisor. The employee's claim that he was unable to report to work because he was following Covid-19 guidelines after he was released from jail is without merit because the employer's attendance policy did not require the employee to report to work, only that he call and bring a doctor's note. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: September 27, 2023, Case #: 55,198-CA, Categories: Employment, Evidence
J. Pitman finds that defendant was properly sentenced to ten years at hard labor on her guilty plea to felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile. The sentence was reasonable based on defendant taking sexual advantage of a disabled juvenile victim who was 20 years her junior. Further, defendant could have been charged with a more serious offense and benefited from the lesser charge of felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: September 27, 2023, Case #: 55,266-KA, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender, Plea
J. Pitman finds in favor of the Department of Labor in a lawsuit over a new minimum-wage rule brought by a small-business owner who owns several burger restaurants, including 13 Dairy Queen franchises. He opposes the rule because "it requires him to either pay his managers higher salaries than he would prefer, or else demote some of them into a non-exempt role," but the DOL had "statutory authority to promulgate the final rule," and the rule is "not a new approach" but rather a continuation of rules the DOL has imposed for over seven decades.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: September 20, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv792, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: Employment, Agency, Labor
J. Pitman rules on several post-verdict motions after one company prevailed against another in a contract dispute stemming form the first company's attempt to purchase a property owned by the second company that had previously been used "to house oilfield workers and detain immigrant children." The second company owes additional costs and sanctions due to its deception, "bad faith conduct" and a "sordid scheme of deliberate misuse of the judicial process" by deliberately not complying with previous court orders in this case.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: September 19, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv560, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Sanctions, Contract
J. Pitman mostly denies a motion for summary judgment in a complex contract dispute between several parties over investment and real-estate deals that went sour. The investors seeking summary judgment are right that they cannot be sued for fraudulent inducement due to waivers included in relevant contracts, but those suing can still bring other claims, including breach of contract claims and other claims of fraud.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: September 7, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv1247, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Banking / Lending, Contract
J. Pitman finds that a “blackout period” imposed by Austin on campaign fundraising by city-level candidates is unconstitutional under the First Amendment after a city council candidate and a person who wanted to donate to her campaign sued over the restrictions. While the candidate has shown her rights were infringed because “she could not communicate as robustly as she desired,” and while both citizens are entitled to damages, the requests for injunctive relief are moot because the former candidate is neither “presently a candidate for Austin elective office” nor currently trying to campaign and raise money.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv271, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Elections, First Amendment
J. Pitman rules in favor of the government in a civil rights action brought by individuals arising from the Treasury Department's decision to add Tornado Cash to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list. Although the individuals claim Tornado Cash is an open-source software project on a virtual currency blockchain, the government claims it is an organization running a cryptocurrency mixing service laundering money for illicit actors including a North Korean state-sponsored hacking group. The government's designation of Tornado Cash does not exceed its statutory powers and is not inconsistent with its regulations. Tornado Cash has a property interest in the smart contract software programs because they provide it with a means to control and use crypto assets. The government's action does not implicate the First Amendment.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv312, NOS: Administrative Procedure Act/Review or Appeal of Agency Decision - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Rights, Government
J. Pitman denies a broker’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by financial regulators over his role in an alleged “massive fraudulent binary options trading scheme.” The broker, a Canadian, argued this court did not have jurisdiction, but the broker absolutely had sufficient contacts in the United States to give federal courts jurisdiction, including because he “singled out customers in the United States.”
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv908, NOS: Securities/Commodities/Exchange - Other Suits, Categories: Fraud, Securities, Jurisdiction
J. Pitman partially rejects efforts by a charter school to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the Black former COO and CFO of the company, who alleged he was wrongfully fired based on his race and in retaliation because he’d reported alleged “discrepancies” in the company’s financial records. That former employee has failed to sufficiently allege that he would not have been terminated but for his race, not least because he simultaneously alleges that he was fired for whistleblowing.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv334, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination, Whistleblowers
J. Pitman finds that the trial court properly ruled that the wife and estate are entitled to temporary total disability benefits based on a finding that the now-deceased husband was involved in a work-related slip-and-fall incident. The trial court correctly found that the husband did not make false statements to the treating doctors to obtain benefits. There is evidence showing that the husband suffered a work-related back injury that resulted in his inability to return to work as a forklift operator. The trial court also did not commit any error in awarding penalties and attorney fees in favor of the husband's estate. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 55,231-WCA, Categories: Workers' Compensation
J. Pitman finds that the trial court improperly convicted defendant of domestic abuse battery. The state failed to present evidence showing that defendant was a household member or a family member of any of the four alleged victims. The trial court incorrectly found that statements made by the alleged victims to a police officer were admissible under the excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule. Defendant's convictions were based solely on the officer's testimony. Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 55,131-KW, Categories: Battery, Domestic Violence
J. Pitman finds that the trial court properly sentenced defendant to 35 years in prison following his guilty plea to second degree rape. The sentence is not excessive and falls within the statutory guidelines. Defendant was not denied due process when he was sentenced by a different judge than the judge who accepted his guilty plea. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Pitman, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 55,253-KA, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender