156 results for 'filedAt:"2023-06-14"'.
J. Joseph finds partially in favor of the dancers in their class action lawsuit against the strip club and its owners bringing multiple claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act, including for failure to pay minimum wage and forced tip sharing. The dancers' motion for partial summary judgment is granted as to whether the club and owners misclassified them as independent contractors instead of employees, which is supported by the "economic reality" of their relationship with their employer. The strip club and owners' motion for summary judgment is granted as to the merits of the dancers' wage claims since, as a matter of law, they are not entitled to individual coverage because they are not "engaged in commerce" under the Act's terms, and the club is also not covered by the Act's enterprise coverage, regardless of whether it frequently serves out-of-state patrons. Given these findings, the case is dismissed.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Wisconsin, Judge: Joseph, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv753, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Class Action, Labor
J. Ortega finds the trial court properly denied a father’s motion for acquittal for exposing himself to his teen daughter. “There was sufficient evidence…that defendant’s bedroom was part of a ‘residence’ and thus a ‘place where another person has a reasonable expectation of privacy.’” Reversed.
Court: Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge: Ortega, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: A177908, Categories: Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly found for the mortgage servicer in a False Claims Act suit brought by a former employee. The employee showed that the alleged false representations to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development were material to the agency's decision to pay out various claims under the federal mortgage insurance program. However, she cannot show that the false representations caused the subsequent default, and therefore that the agency suffered a monetary loss. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 22-1553, Categories: Fraud, Housing, False Claims
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Vice Chancellor Fioravanti denies corporate directors a preliminary injunction seeking to stop a company from holding the 2023 edition of the annual stockholders meeting because irreparable injury was not demonstrated; instead, injury had been self-inflicted due to failed strategy.
Court: Delaware Chancery Court, Judge: Fioravanti, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 2023-0477-PAF, Categories: Elections, Injunction
J. Logue finds the trial court improperly denied the real estate company manager's request to block third-party subpoenas in a discovery request from a trustee representing a three-quarter interest in the same company, whose lawsuit claims the manager wrongfully took millions of dollars from the company's accounts. Because the subpoenas request disclosures from the manager's marital settlement agreement with his ex-wife and other information from third parties the record does not show are relevant to the trustee's claims, the manager's petition for writ of certiorari is granted and the trial court's discovery order is quashed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Logue, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 22-2026, Categories: Fraud, Fiduciary Duty, Contract
J. Diaz finds the lower court properly denied postconviction relief to the murderer. Police charged the murderer with several crimes, including carjacking, kidnapping, armed robbery, first-degree assault, and first-degree murder. The prosecutor offered to dismiss all the other charges if he pleaded guilty to two counts of carjacking and one count of second-degree murder. The murderer took the plea deal after hearing that Maryland's guidelines for these offenses are thirty to fifty-one years rather than the ninety possible years he faced for the original charges. He contends he involuntarily agreed to the plea deal, but the terms of his plea agreement, including his maximum sentencing exposure, were explained to him. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Diaz, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 19-7638, Categories: Murder, Plea, Vehicle
Per curiam, the Fifth Circuit finds the district court properly denied summary judgment to the officer accused of using excessive force for tasing a driver during a traffic stop for “improper lane usage.” The driver was ordered out of his vehicle and did not comply. After being physically pulled from his vehicle by several officers and thrown on the ground he did not comply when ordered to put his hands behind his back. The officer tased him at this point. Tasing an unarmed subject suspected of a misdemeanor and pinned to the ground, surrounded by officers, unable to escape and giving only passive resistance, amounts to excessive force in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 22-30692, Categories: Civil Rights, Police Misconduct
J. McKinnon finds that defendant was improperly convicted of failing to register as a sex offender for a sexual assault he committed in 1994. A 2007 amendment to the Sexual or Violent Offender Registration Act that created stricter registration requirements imposes an unconstitutional ex post facto punishment for the earlier crime. Retroactive application of the amendment, which extended the registry requirement beyond the 10-year period in place at the time of conviction, imposes collateral consequences that defendant did not envision when he negotiated a guilty plea under the Act as it existed in 1994. Reversed.
Court: Montana Supreme Court, Judge: McKinnon, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: DA 20-0197, Categories: Constitution, Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Gallagher denies an electronics company’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction in this lawsuit filed by a religious group over property damage caused by an allegedly defective laptop catching fire. Because this is the second motion to dismiss the company has filed, and it did not object to personal jurisdiction in the first, the motion must be denied.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Gallagher, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 5:22cv2600, NOS: Other Personal Property Damage - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Property, Damages, Jurisdiction
J. Stadtmueller dismisses with prejudice a lawsuit from a citizen bringing excessive force, unlawful arrest and other constitutional claims over his arrest after police found him passed out in his parked and running car, during which time he smelled like alcohol and police found marijuana and a pipe in his car. The citizen's motion for a mistrial is denied because all of his accusations of a conspiracy by prosecutors and court officials to thwart his case are meritless and untrue, as are accusations that he was attacked by individuals at the behest of prosecutors the night after his trial, which are easily disproved by security footage showing him drunkenly falling and striking his head and arguing with first responders before he was briefly hospitalized and discharged, then came to court bleeding profusely, refused to cooperate and left before the jury could deliver its verdict. The citizen's actions are worthy of sanctions, so the officers' attorneys' motion for sanctions is granted in that he must pay $1,118 for the cost of empaneling the jury, plus the costs the attorneys took on to respond to his mistrial motion.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Wisconsin, Judge: Stadtmueller, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 2:19cv996, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Sanctions
[Consolidated.] J. Brady finds that the district court improperly granted summary judgment to the manufacturers of a box palletizer that crushed a worker's head and shoulders. The manufacturers are not immune to personal injury claims under the Workers' Compensation Law because they were third parties and not the injured worker's co-employees, a status they argued applied due to the hybrid nature of the transaction through which the injured worker's employer bought the palletizer machine. Reversed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Brody, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 49473, Categories: Immunity, Negligence, Workers' Compensation
J. Neeley finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for attempted sexual assault. The victim testified that she was sitting on a public bench when defendant pinned her against a fence and attempted to pull both their underwear down before he was hit with a golf club by another witness. The court properly admitted the victim’s police body cam statements, expert testimony as to her credibility and defendant’s own statements. Defendant was not denied the opportunity to confront and cross-examine the victim and fails to show that his counsel’s performance was deficient. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Neeley, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 12-22-00090-CR, Categories: Evidence, Ineffective Assistance, Sex Offender
[Consolidated] Per curiam, the appeals court finds the lawyer has not shown good cause that he should not be barred from further pro se filings due to violations of Florida rules of appellate procedure. The lawyer violated appellate rules by filing frivolous and repetitive motions for re-hearing that just rehashed his previous failed arguments and by calling into question the integrity and qualifications of the appeals court judges, and he simply repeated some of those violating statements instead of showing cause in his most recent filing, including by calling the appeals court judges racists and claiming they are bought and sold by large law firms. Under Florida appellate rules and rules administered by the Florida Bar, the appeals court clerk is ordered to reject any pro se filings from the lawyer unless a bar member in good standing signs off on them, and this matter is referred for attorney disciplinary proceedings.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 22-0624, Categories: Administrative Law, Attorney Discipline
Per curiam, the appeals court finds the trial court improperly denied the public utility's motion to disqualify the judge presiding over a class action dealing with power outages from Hurricane Irma in 2017. Comments the judge made about forming his own damages model that seemed to sympathize with class participants at a conference completely unrelated to damages raise enough questions about his impartiality to legally support the utility's motion, so the utility's petition for a writ of prohibition is granted. The writ will not be formally issued at this time, however, as it is believed the trial judge will comply and step aside.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 23-0712, Categories: Judiciary, Damages, Class Action
J. Cohen finds the trial court improperly denied defendant's motion for acquittal on the charge of aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer. The state gave no evidence showing a "connection between the impact of the collision and a battery of any of the individual officers." Defendant is entitled to a new sentencing hearing. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Cohen, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 6D23-790, Categories: Evidence, Sentencing, Battery
J. Niemeyer finds the lower court properly applied a sentence enhancement to defendant's sentence for possession of child pornography due to his prior qualifying sex offense. The defendant signed a plea agreement that waived his right to appeal any issue relating to his conviction, as well as any issue relating to his sentence. Affirmed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Niemeyer , Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 21-4322, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender, Child Pornography
J. Toth finds the Board of Veterans Appeals properly denied the Army veteran entitlement to non-service-connected pension benefits. The veteran’s net worth, which includes a family trust, renders him ineligible. The Veterans Appeals Improvement and Modernization Act does not require the board to provide timely notice of the reasoning behind decisions effecting benefits. The board is also not required to obtain a legal expert to interpret complex documents such as the trust agreement. The secretary concedes errors in the trust valuation and the timing of the original filing and reopening of the claim as related to the implementation of the Act. Vacated and remanded.
Court: Court Of Appeals For Veterans Claims, Judge: Toth, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 20-3047, Categories: Pensions, Trusts, Veterans
J. Robb finds that defendant was was properly denied ineffective assistance relief and properly convicted of sexual misconduct based on his guilty plea because evidence indicates defendant understood that the court would have discretion to set his sentence and generally understood the plea, and defendant failed to indicate counsel had underperformed. Affirmed.
Court: Indiana Court Of Appeals, Judge: Robb, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 22A-PC-1496, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Sex Offender, Plea
J. Golemon finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for aggravated assault against a family member involving his use of a deadly weapon. The court denied defense counsel’s motion for mistrial after sustaining his objection based on Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination after the involved deputy testified that defendant was not willing to fill out a statement as to the alleged “sling blade” attack. The prejudicial effect of the complained-of testimony did not likely cause the jury to ignore the trial court’s instruction to disregard the request for mistrial. The evidence strongly supports conviction. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Golemon, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 09-22-00311-CR, Categories: Constitution, Assault, Domestic Violence
J. Ortega finds the trial court erred in granting summary judgment to a hospital after a patient, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, stabbed his mother. The facts support the conclusion that the hospital and treating doctors owed a duty of care that extended to the patient's mother. Reversed.
Court: Oregon Court of Appeals, Judge: Ortega, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: A174706, Categories: Family Law, Health Care
Per curiam, the Fifth Circuit finds the district court properly denied the chlor-alkali production equipment designer’s motion to compel arbitration with the manufacturing facility bringing breach of contract and warranty and redhibition claims. The designer included an arbitration provision in proposals and order acknowledgements, while the manufacturer’s purchase orders state that the designer agrees to jurisdiction in Louisiana or Kentucky. The communications show no agreement as to jurisdiction and neither term remains as part of the parties’ eventual contract. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 21-30105, Categories: Arbitration, Contract, Technology
J. Logue finds the trial court improperly denied the real estate company manager's request to stop a bank from disclosing a broad range of his financial records in response to a request for that information from a trustee representing a three-quarter interest in the same company, whose lawsuit claims the manager wrongfully took millions of dollars from the company's accounts. Because the production of such a wide array of the manager's personal financial records, including each credit card transaction he made for 10 years and his net worth, would cause him irreparable harm, and because there is no showing in the record that these records are relevant to the trustee's claims, the manager's petition for writ of certiorari is granted and the trial court's order is quashed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Logue, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: 22-2000, Categories: Fraud, Fiduciary Duty, Contract
Per curiam, the appeals court finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of trafficking of persons for sexual servitude, pimping a person under 18 years of age and keeping a place of prostitution for a person under 18 years of age. The trial court correctly denied defendant's motion for a new trial. Sufficient evidence was presented to support defendant's convictions, including evidence that defendant paid for and provided the room where the victim performed sex acts. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: June 14, 2023, Case #: A23A0716, Categories: Sex Offender