545 results for 'court:"5th Circuit"'.
J. Dennis finds the district court improperly found for State Farm after it denied coverage for the homeowners' claim arising from the a city's requirement they replace their whole roof, rather than just the tiles damaged in a hailstorm. State Farm accepted coverage for damage to certain roofing components and gutters in its estimate, which admits liability for that damage for purposes of the Texas Prompt Payment of Claims Act. Genuine issues of fact preclude summary judgment on the breach of contract and Act-based claims. Vacated in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Dennis , Filed On: April 2, 2024, Case #: 22-10662, Categories: Insurance, Property
Per curiam, the circuit dismisses the suit by the former municipal airport authority commissioners who sought to enjoin a new law abolishing the municipal authority and replacing it with a regional authority. No commissioners originally intervening in this lawsuit are still in office, and no current commissioners are party to the suit. The former commissioners no longer stand to lose their seats and have no personal interest in the dispute.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 2, 2024, Case #: 21-60312, Categories: Administrative Law, Municipal Law, Jurisdiction
J. Higginbotham finds the district court improperly found for a school district on a hearing-impaired student's allegations it failed to properly accommodate her with interpretation services, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The district court misinterpreted the guiding case law, essentially discharging the school district's duties under the ADA without judicial review. The ADA claim is not precluded by proceedings before the Texas Education Agency, and the cited case shows she was not required to exhaust her Individuals with Disabilities Education Act claim in order to pursue her separate ADA claim. Vacated.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 22-50854, Categories: Civil Rights, Education
Per curiam, the circuit finds the district court properly awarded summary judgment to the medical device manufacturer. The surgeon placed the device on the patient's spine to repair the membrane protecting the spinal cord. After a second surgery to find the origin of the patient's ensuing headaches, the surgeon discovered the device had disintegrated. The patient has not identified any specific way in which the product deviated from its design. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 23-50274, Categories: Product Liability, Medical Malpractice
J. Clement finds the district court improperly denied the inmate relief on his constitutional claims of cruel and unusual punishment. The inmate claims prison conditions have limited his sleep, causing health issues. The district court found, among other things, the inmate failed to satisfy the subjective element of deliberate indifference. The court improperly applied the deliberate indifference standard, rather than the "‘reasonably related’ [to a legitimate penological purpose] standard" set forth in guiding case law. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Clement , Filed On: March 22, 2024, Case #: 22-40754, Categories: Constitution, Prisoners' Rights
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J. Higginbotham finds the district court improperly denied Ferrellgas's motion for judgment as a matter of law. The customer was injured while using a Ferrellgas propane tank and alleges a manufacturing defect and negligence. The injured party did not produce evidence showing why a cap over the tank's valve would be considered a seal. Packaging of the tank is not sealed and there is no way of showing what might have occurred during shipping. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 23-10019, Categories: Negligence, Product Liability
J. Smith finds the district court improperly found for R.J. Reynolds on its claims the Food & Drug Administration's attempt at implementing the Tobacco Control Act’s warning-label requirement to require color graphics regarding health effects of smoking violates the First Amendment. The image warnings are both factual and uncontroversial, and the free speech test for factual commercial speech must be applied. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Smith , Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 23-40076, Categories: Commerce, Constitution, Health Care
J. Oldham finds the district court improperly entered summary judgment in favor of the insurer. After the 2020 SXSW music festival in Austin was cancelled due to Covid-19 concerns, the organizers sought its insurer's defense for the class action filed by certain ticketholders. The insurer responded it had no duty to defend, and the court found the festival sought a covered loss, also holding an exclusion excused the insurer from defending or covering the ticketholders' class action. Because the classes' complaint arises from the festival's refusal to offer refunds, not a professional service, the professional services exclusion does not bar coverage. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Oldham , Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 22-50933, Categories: Insurance, Covid-19, Class Action
J. Wilson vacates the Environmental Protection Agency's order prohibiting the plastic container manufacturer from producing toxic long-chain perfluoroalkyls through its fluorination process. The EPA exceeded its statutory authority, and it may not skirt Administrative Procedure Act framework by arbitrarily deeming the company's decades-old fluorination process a “significant new use.” Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Wilson , Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 23-60620, Categories: Administrative Law, Environment, Agency
J. Douglas grants Rolex's petition for panel rehearing of this trademark dispute. The district court properly found the watch refurbisher infringed upon Rolex’s trademark while refusing to disgorge it of its profits according to the laches defense. The court's injunction should be modified to include all non-Rolex parts used in refurbishment, and the district court must clarify certain vague language used in its order. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Douglas , Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 22-10866, Categories: Patent, Technology
J. Smith finds the district court properly convicted defendant for charges related to an armed robbery of a drug house, during which three people were non-fatally shot. Defendant says the court improperly accepted his plea, with the sentencing report cross-referencing attempted murder. The court properly accepted the plea and sufficiently explained its sentencing calculation. However, the attempted-murder cross-reference without considering questions of self-defense is clear error. Affirmed in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Smith , Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 23-30149, Categories: Drug Offender, Firearms, Sentencing
[Consolidated.] J. Southwick grants the petition for panel rehearing, finding the district court properly concluded a setoff reducing the receiver's judgment would be inequitable, refusing to consider it. The bank was exposed as a Ponzi scheme and placed into receivership, and the receiver sought to recover estate assets from various parties. A party who allegedly received fraudulent transfers received a $79 million loan in contemplation of the bank's impending troubles. The court’s reasoning a setoff would be inequitable is consistent with a previous holding that an “otherwise valid” transaction must occur “prior to insolvency and not in contemplation thereof.”
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Southwick , Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 22-10235, Categories: Fraud, Banking / Lending
J. Wilson finds the district court properly found the corrections officer violated the inmate's constitutional rights but is entitled to qualified immunity. The inmate was assaulted by his cellmate and brought this suit alleging deliberate indifference. The officer testified he questioned inmates after hearing an argument, with both confirming no further conflict existed. If the district court, as alleged, abused its discretion in excluding evidence of the officer's ensuing disciplinary action, the inmate still fails to show any error prejudiced his substantial rights. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Wilson , Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 22-10483, Categories: Evidence, Police Misconduct, Prisoners' Rights
Per curiam, the circuit finds the district court properly disqualified the attorney. The motorcycle gang member who had retained the attorney was charged with several counts of RICO conspiracy. Ample record evidence shows the attorney previously represented a government informant who is a potential witness in the gang member's case. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 22-51003, Categories: Judiciary, Conspiracy, Due Process
J. Douglas finds the district court properly dismissed most claims made by the black property owner against the postal service and two employees. Though the alleged conduct does not fall within tort claims act exceptions, and sovereign immunity does not bar tort claims, the owner fails to state a viable equal protection claim. No facts support her assertion the carriers continued to deliver to similarly situated white property owners while denying her delivery. Affirmed in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Douglas , Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 23-10179, Categories: Civil Rights, Government, Tort
J. Smith finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for conspiracy to commit illegal remunerations. Defendant operated a distributor responsible for attracting Medicare referrals to the pharmacogenetic testing lab. All evidence involving illegal remuneration schemes supports the conviction. Defendant says a particular good faith instruction would allow the jury to consider the court's allegedly negligent submission of a certain report as proof of intention. But if the submission was negligent, it does not fall within a definition of “intent to deceive," and nothing in the instruction can be read to allow negligence to substitute for the proper intention of willfulness. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Smith , Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 22-40617, Categories: Fraud, Jury Instructions
J. Smith dismisses the appeal for lack of its jurisdiction to review a denied, procedurally improper motion for declaratory judgment. The investment broker was sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission for fraudulently offering and selling life settlement interests. No change in law or facts call for the court to exercise its discretion to modify the decrees. A motion for declaratory judgment is not properly before the court as a motion, but as a separate action.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Smith , Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 23-10525, Categories: Fraud, Securities, Due Process
J. Ramirez finds the district court properly granted the employer's motion for summary judgment on worker's employment discrimination action. After having been absent from work for 18 months on a 12-month leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the employee continued spending unapproved time off work to care for her ailing father, and an investigation revealed she had been paid for 99 hours for time she did not work. Furthermore, after she was required to use personal sick days for time missed due to Covid-19, she threatened to infect her co-workers. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Ramirez , Filed On: March 19, 2024, Case #: 23-40404, Categories: Employment, Due Process, Covid-19
J. Higginson finds the district court improperly ruled against the insurer in this declaratory judgment action, in which it seeks to invalidate certain indemnification and additional insured provisions for fire-suppression and electrical work in its policies with salt mining companies. The insurer says the Louisiana Oilfield Indemnity Act applies because the mine uses a drill-and-blast method, yet the court found that because no well is involved the Act does not apply. However, the Act does not contain a universal well requirement. The court must decide whether the contracts pertain to drilling for minerals. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginson , Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 23-30076, Categories: Energy, Environment, Insurance
J. Graves finds the district court properly granted summary judgment to the insurer. The company that converts used cooking oil and vegetable by-products into animal feed ingredients was sued by the city for dumping corrosive, low-pH wastewater into the sewer system. A pollution exclusion designed to discourage wasteful activity states the insurer "will not be liable for loss for any claim based upon or arising out of the...discharge, dispersal, seepage, migration, release or escape of any [p]ollutant.” The facts as pleaded do not trigger the insurer's duty to defend. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Graves , Filed On: March 18, 2024, Case #: 23-60087, Categories: Environment, Insurance
J. Oldham finds the district court improperly granted summary judgment to the law firm, which had been hired by the state of Louisiana to recover double payments made in a home repair grant program from which the octogenarian homeowners whose houses were damaged in hurricanes had potentially received double payments. An agreement cited by the firm allows for recuperation only where the grant recipient receives future payments after signing the program's suite of contracts. It provides no fee-shifting remedy against these recipients, who received payments before signing. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Oldham , Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 22-30487, Categories: Administrative Law, Debt Collection, Banking / Lending
J. Willett finds the district court properly convicted and sentenced defendant, by guilty plea, for being a felon in possession of a firearm based on sufficient evidence. Though the court failed to inform defendant of the punishment range, the presentence report specifically detailed it. The court properly applied career criminal sentencing enhancements for defendant's previous, violent felony convictions. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 23-50040, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing
J. Willett withdraws the previous opinion and substitutes this one, finding the district court improperly awarded the debilitated former NFL running back top tier NFL plan disability benefits. Although the plan’s review board may have denied the retired player a full review, and he is most likely entitled to the highest level of disability pay, he is not entitled to reclassification. He has not shown changed circumstances between a previous application and his claim for reclassification, which was denied and which he did not appeal. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Willett , Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 22-10710, Categories: Erisa, Insurance
Per curiam, the Fifth Circuit finds the district court properly dismissed the complaint for failure to prosecute. The American citizens say Tamaulipas police attempted to murder them by the direction of the Mexican and Tamaulipas governments. A non-local attorney's motion to represent the citizens was denied, and several motions for extensions and continuances were filed and granted. They failed to attend a status conference and various other hearings, and certain filings were not made within deadlines. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 14, 2024, Case #: 23-40422, Categories: International Law, Tort, Due Process
J. Stewart finds the trial court properly granted summary judgment to the subsea oil drilling engineering and exploration firm. The employee says he sustained injuries to his shoulder and neck while servicing a remotely operated vehicle onboard a drillship during a Chevron contract. He brings claims under theories of negligence and unseaworthiness. The trial court correctly held the employee is not a seaman as defined by his Jones Act claim, and he did not establish a genuine dispute of material fact as to negligence and unseaworthiness. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Stewart , Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 23-20095, Categories: Maritime, Tort, Negligence
Per curiam, the circuit denies the NAACP's emergency motions for an injunction pending appeal of the district court’s denial of a preliminary injunction. The association seeks to enjoin appointments of judges and prosecutors to a court created by the Jackson, Mississippi Capitol Complex Improvement District. The appointments would be made by the chief justice and state attorney general, rather than by locally elected officials in the largely white district. The authority structure will remain unchanged in Jackson, and the NAACP has failed to plead a cognizable injury-in-fact to show standing.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 23-60647, Categories: Administrative Law, Civil Rights, Municipal Law
J. Duncan finds the district court improperly found that federal reproductive law violates the father's right to be involved in his teenager's healthcare. The federal law regarding the availability of reproductive medicine for teens does not preempt the Texas law giving parents the right to consent to their teenagers’ obtaining contraceptives. Family planning service grantees can comply with both complimentary laws as to a parent's involvement in their teen's seeking contraception and the availability of that contraception for teens. The federal law does not nullify the father's right to consent to his children’s medical care. Though the court properly found certain violations, the setting aside of a portion of a relevant regulation found to be unlawful was improper. Reversed in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Duncan , Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 23-10159, Categories: Health Care, Preemption, Juvenile Law
J. Elrod denies the El Salvadoran citizen's petition for rehearing. The immigration judge has previously adjudicated the immigrant removable for lacking documentation. Though the immigrant says she will suffer harm for having reported a rape if returned to El Salvador, the immigration judge determined she had not been harmed for a political opinion or membership in a social group. She also did not show the government would be unwilling or unable to protect her. The Board of Immigration Appeals has not given standards for evaluating when and how single-member panels should exercise discretion to refer a case to a three-member panel, and the circuit lacks jurisdiction.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Elrod , Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 22-60554, Categories: Immigration, International Law, Jurisdiction
Per curiam, the circuit finds the district court properly dismissed claims filed by a conspiracy-based political advocacy group that alleges the government violated the constitution, as well as the Administrative Procedure Act and Privacy Act, by surveilling them with directed energy weapons and voice-to-skull technology. The court correctly concluded the claims are unlikely to succeed on the merits. Remaining preliminary injunction factors have not been briefed on appeal, and are forfeited. Affirmed in part.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 23-20342, Categories: Administrative Law, Privacy, Injunction
J. Ho finds the district court properly found in favor of World Wrestling Entertainment on a spectator's allegations he was injured at an event and is not bound to the arbitration agreement printed on his ticket because it was a gift from his nephew. Any individual who permits a third-party to present a ticket for admittance to an event on his behalf is bound by the terms and conditions governing the use of the ticket. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Ho , Filed On: March 8, 2024, Case #: 23-10491, Categories: Arbitration, Premises Liability, Contract