114 results for 'filedAt:"2023-12-01"'.
[Consolidated] J. Higginson finds the district court properly convicted and sentenced defendant for aggravated identity theft. Defendant, a police dog trainer, used the identities of trainers in his application for Texas Veterans Commission certification who had not served as trainers for him or given their permission. The evidence in this case supports the trial court’s findings that defendant used identification belonging to the trainers during and in relation to wire fraud in every instance. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginson , Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 21-50380, Categories: Fraud, Sentencing, Identity Theft
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J. Heavican finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for first-degree murder after he shot his stepmother multiple times. The jdury instructions involving the state's burden of proof of intoxication do not indicate a miscarriage of justice, and the charge of first-degree murder was properly considered. The record is insufficient on other issues, including claims of ineffective assistance. Affirmed.
Court: Nebraska Supreme Court, Judge: Heavican , Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: S-22-855, Categories: Evidence, Murder, Sentencing
J. Gruender finds a lower court properly dismissed the Independence-Alliance Party of Minnesota's opposition to a rule that requires voters to swear on oath prior to placing their signatures on a petition in favor of a minor party. The alliance argued that forcing voters who support the minor political party to sign a petition with an oath requirement violates the First Amendment, and that some prospective signatories are concerned that signing the petition means forfeiting a right to cast their ballots in the primary election. However, the Minnesota Secretary of State presented sufficient evidence in court that the oath requirement places an "insubstantial burden" on voters, who can change their minds at any time before voting in the primary. Affirmed.
Court: 8th Circuit, Judge: Gruender, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 23-1074, Categories: Civil Rights, Elections, Government
J. Herndon finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for murder, attempted murder, and various weapons and explosives charges. The trial court properly denied his motion to admit evidence of an accomplice's prior bombing at a Home Depot, as his awareness of the bomb is the consequential fact, not the accomplice's prior acts. Furthermore, graphic photos of damage to the victim's hand were properly admitted to aid the expert's testimony. Affirmed.
Court: Nevada Supreme Court, Judge: Herndon , Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 84403, Categories: Murder, Weapons
Per curiam. The Supreme Court of Kansas finds a lower court properly disciplined an attorney for copying content from a law firm's website and placing it on her website. The attorney, who applied for the Kansas bar, argued that she reactivated her previous website to update her employment history and experience. However, she failed to disclose that the Boys and Girls Club terminated her role for misconduct. Affirmed.
Court: Kansas Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 125,621, Categories: Employment, Attorney Discipline
J. Peterson denies the city's motion to exclude the "tribal scenario" portion of the Monsanto's expert's opinion in the city's complaint accusing the agrochemical company of manufacturing polychlorinated biphenyls that contaminated the Lower Duwamish River. The city does not sufficiently argue how the tribal scenario's use of specific data from a 2000 fish consumption survey of the Suquamish Indian Tribe of the Port Madison Indian Reservation in the Puget Sound Region, rather than data from the entire Puget Sound Region, makes it irrelevant to this lawsuit.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Peterson, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 2:16cv107, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: Environment, Experts, Discovery
J. Jay finds the husband's petition for certiorari review of a contempt finding against him in his and the wife's divorce proceeding must be dismissed. There is no irreparable harm to the husband in the trial court's contempt finding, which was related to the husband canceling a credit card shared by him and the wife in connection with a business they co-own. The husband's petition additionally fails because it focuses on harm to the business, not the husband, and the business is not a party to the divorce proceeding, meaning there is no jurisdiction to decide his petition.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Jay, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 23-2257, Categories: Contempt, Family Law
J. Fujisaki finds that the trial court erred in sustaining a waste management company's demurrer on an unfair competition complaint alleging that collection rates were artificially high due to the bribery of a city official. California's filed rate doctrine does not bar injunctive relief, restitution or punitive damages claims because they do not implicate the doctrine's nondiscrimination or nonjusticiability strands. Reversed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Fujisaki, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: A165515, Categories: Municipal Law, Unfair Competition, Class Action
J. Saylor vacates a default and dismisses an amended complaint against Meta, Facebook’s parent company, by one of the social media platform’s users after his Facebook account, which he used for his business, was disabled with little explanation of why. Meta does not have the minimum contacts in Massachusetts necessary to establish jurisdiction for the court.
Court: USDC Massachusetts, Judge: Saylor, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv11956, NOS: Arbitration - Other Suits, Categories: Communications, Jurisdiction, Technology
Per curiam, the Vermont Supreme Court finds the trial court properly held the inmate without bond after he allegedly sexually assaulted two minor children. The relevant factors were properly weighed in determining that he was a “flight risk” and holding him without bond was necessary for public protection. Affirmed.
Court: Vermont Supreme Court, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 23-AP-374, Categories: Sex Offender, Bail, Child Victims
Per curiam, the appeals court finds the trial court properly entered summary judgment in favor of the insured in her suit against State Farm over coverage of $38,834 in water damages and damages from tearing out portions of her home to get to the part of the plumbing system causing the water damages. State Farm unsuccessfully argues that the word "incur" as it appears in the tear-out section of the policy requires that the insured enter a non-voidable repair contract, as that definition is not supported by Florida law or the plain language of the policy, which has no inkling of such a definition of "incur." Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 22-1404, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Alvord finds the lower court properly denied the inmate's petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The failure by the inmate's attorney to object to evidence of uncharged misconduct during his trial on assault charges did not constitute ineffective assistance of counsel, as the proof was corroborated by other witness testimony and the decision was part of a sound trial strategy to avoid numerous objections. Additionally, the failure to call an expert witness to rebut cell phone location evidence was not ineffective assistance because there was other, overwhelming evidence to convict defendant and the location evidence was used only to place the inmate near the scene of the crime, not in an exact location. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Alvord, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: AC45675, Categories: Habeas, Ineffective Assistance, Assault
J. Easton finds that defendant was properly convicted of trafficking in methamphetamine and heroin because an officer had legitimate cause to stop defendant for walking down the middle of the street in violation of city ordinance, which occurred near a known drug house. Affirmed.
Court: Kentucky Court Of Appeals, Judge: Easton, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 2023-CA-0113-MR, Categories: Drug Offender, Search
J. Wilson finds that a student proved a school district had been aware of red flags concerning his teacher's behavior around young male schoolchildren but acted with indifference to his safety by allowing the teacher to pull the second grader out of class and bring him to his own middle school classroom, setting the stage for the child to being groomed for sexual assault and, subsequently, to be adopted by the teacher, who also worked for child and youth services. But the the school district is immune from negligence claims because the student failed to allege sexual assaults took place on school property.
Court: USDC Middle District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv2029, NOS: Education - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Immunity, Negligence
J. Guidry, ruling on remand from the Fifth Circuit, grants summary judgment to the medical manufacturer of an artificial shoulder. The patient cannot carry his burden to show the device was unreasonably dangerous due to failure to conform with any express warranty.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Guidry, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 2:20cv2706, NOS: Personal Injury - Product Liability - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Health Care, Product Liability, Warranty
J. Wicks grants a motion to disqualify an attorney from acting as defense counsel for a group of companies named in a civil lawsuit brought by a series of car dealerships that alleges an illegal racketeering scheme to setup a separate group of car dealerships by stealing the dealers’ funds, employees and trade secrets. The court finds the attorney is barred under the advocate-witness rule, as he is a necessary witness who will be called upon to provide testimony regarding acts of fraud that he allegedly committed in furtherance of the scheme.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Wicks, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv6188, NOS: Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) - Other Suits, Categories: Fraud, Trade Secrets, Racketeering
J. Richardson finds the indictment failed to state a per se antitrust offense, so the lower court improperly convicted the contractor of a per se violation of the Sherman Act. The contractor, accused of manipulating bidding for large construction projects in North Carolina, properly alleged that his scheme did not restrain anticompetitive effects. Reversed.
Court: 4th Circuit, Judge: Richardson, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 22-4544 , Categories: Antitrust, Construction, Fraud
J. Brown denies requests by a general contractor and its surety to dismiss a subcontractor’s Miller Act claim totaling $1.1 million for work allegedly performed on a federal construction project in New Orleans on grounds the subcontractor’s claims are subject to arbitration. Citing Fifth Circuit precedent, the ruling rejects dismissal of the federal suit as both inimical to the law giving a subcontractor the right to sue a surety issuing a bond to a general contractor and as a hindrance to litigants from arbitrating their disputes. Therefore, the subcontractor’s federal Miller Act claims against the surety are stayed, pending arbitration of the subcontractor’s state law claims against the general contractor.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Louisiana , Judge: Brown, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv2119, NOS: Miller Act - Contract, Categories: Arbitration, Construction, Contract
J. Conrad dismisses without prejudice, for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, a hospice company’s challenge to the denial of its tax refund and its right to challenge taxpayer status concerning the Federal Unemployment Tax Act. Hope Hospice does not allege the refunds were accompanied by an indication in the amended complaint that they were issued in response to the communications and allege the refunds were attributable. They also failed to request jurisdictional discovery in the responsive briefing.
Court: USDC Northern District of Alabama , Judge: Cornelius, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv1365, NOS: Taxes (U.S. Plaintiff or Defendant) - Federal Tax Suits, Categories: Tax, Jurisdiction, Discovery
J. Deters finds the juvenile court improperly used a probable cause analysis and denied the state's bindover request in a juvenile's shooting-related case. The DNA evidence on the trigger and grip of the gun used in a shooting satisfied the burden of proof to require a mandatory bindover of the juvenile's case to adult court, as it raised more than a mere suspicion of his guilt. Reversed.
Court: Ohio Supreme Court, Judge: Deters, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-4273, Categories: Dna, Juvenile Law, Manslaughter
J. Fuller finds that the trial court properly convicted defendant of aggravated assault and correctly denied defendant's motion to suppress surveillance video evidence showing defendant beating the victim. The seizure of recording equipment from the bar where the assault occurred was lawful. Sheriff's deputies reasonably believed the bar manager had authority to provide the recording equipment based on her job responsibilities. Although the trial court incorrectly blocked defendant from questioning the victim about her prior false allegations due to lack of notice to the state, the error probably did not affect the trial outcome in light of the surveillance video evidence. Defendant failed to show that he was prejudiced by his trial counsel's allegedly deficient performance. Affirmed.
Court: Georgia Court of Appeals, Judge: Fuller, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: A23A1336, Categories: Evidence, Ineffective Assistance, Assault
J. Bright finds the lower court erroneously dismissed the taxpayer's suit against the law firm regarding its status and eligibility to represent the city of Norwich. Although she had filed numerous other suits that involved similar factual issues, none of those cases were decided on the merits, which prevents the application of res judicata. Reversed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Bright, Filed On: December 1, 2023, Case #: AC45662, Categories: Civil Procedure, Government