J. Walker finds that the lower court properly found the pension fund correctly terminated the firefighter's pension benefits following his guilty plea to various federal crimes. The law permits the fund to file a new action, as it did here, to divest a member of his pension benefit award upon a conviction for a service-related felony without the need to retain jurisdiction upon the granting of the initial award. Affirmed.
Court: Illinois Appellate Court, Judge: Walker, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 231311, Categories: Administrative Law, Pensions, Jurisdiction
J. Ohlson finds that the U.S. Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals improperly set aside and dismissed defendant’s Article 134 charge relating to indecent conduct for performing sexual acts upon a childlike sex doll. Article 134 gives “fair notice to servicemembers of ordinary intelligence that engaging in sexual acts with a lifelike child sex doll falls squarely within the president’s definition of indecent conduct.” Reversed.
Court: Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, Judge: Ohlson, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 23-0134, Categories: Military
J. Valenzuela grants mandamus relief to a transportation company and truck driver after the trial court improperly compelled responses to an injured driver's request for information on lawsuits filed against the company and access to the truck driver's cell phone. The requests are overbroad, as they seek information on lawsuits filed in the past 10 years and access to the truck driver's cell phone data four hours prior to the accident.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Valenzuela, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 04-23-01067-CV , Categories: Tort, Negligence, Discovery
J. Delaney finds that the trial court improperly granted an anti-SLAPP motion in a defamation case filed by a politician's wife who claimed that statements on YouTube falsely associated her with communists in Vietnam. The wife did not become a limited purpose public figure simply by carrying a campaign poster one time at a cultural event, and family members of political candidates are not automatically public figures without more purposeful action of their own, so she is not required to show actual malice by the YouTube commenter. At the anti-SLAPP stage, the wife met her burden of showing that the allegation of communist ties was false, had a natural tendency to injure and demonstrated negligence, and the comments were not privileged. Reversed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Delaney, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: G062338, Categories: Anti-slapp, Defamation
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J. Bennett grants the police department’s motion to dismiss this employment dispute brought by a former Black police officer alleging race discrimination, hostile work environment, retaliation, Monell, and violations of civil rights and the Maryland Fair Employment Practice Act. The police department alleges the employee failed to exhaust her administrative remedies and her complaint is time-barred after an investigation was opened on her for a fight while off-duty. The court finds her EEOC charge was filed in timely manner, her Title VII claims appear to be time-barred. Her complaint is dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, but she has 15 days to file an amended complaint.
Court: USDC Maryland, Judge: Bennett, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv2215, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Miller finds the trial court properly convicted defendant of criminal mischief following a non-jury trial over a road rage incident. Defendant's challenges to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting his conviction fail, as the record shows defendant intentionally swung a golf club at another motorist's car three times after the motorist retreated. Affirmed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 22-2140, Categories: Evidence, Vehicle
J. Abramson finds the county court properly quieted title to the property in favor of the residents. The property owner filed an unlawful-detainer complaint against the mobile home residents, alleging they had detained possession after he had attempted to gain possession by civil notice. The owner argues the residents failed to establish their curtilage is contiguous to their own property, conceding the contested property and the residents' property are contiguous. This satisfies for adverse possession. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Abramson , Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: CV-22-585, Categories: Evidence, Property
J. Logue finds the trial court erred in its judgment in favor of the lender in the borrowers' lawsuit over a judgment of foreclosure allowing $20 million in default interest to be retroactively calculated and added to the $41,793,694 principal balance of the underlying mortgage loan. There are disputes of fact regarding whether the borrowers' use of hurricane insurance proceeds to fix damages to their hotel caused by Hurricane Irma in 2017 violated the terms of the mortgage note or was approved by the lender, so the trial court's summary judgment order in the lender's favor is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings. Reversed.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Logue, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 23-0071, Categories: Foreclosure, Contract
Per curiam, the appeals court finds the trial court made no error in denying defendant's motion for a pretrial bond in the case in which he and another person are charged with the premeditated murder of a law enforcement officer. Even though defendant's co-defendant was granted pretrial bond, the evidence in the case, including testimony from a detective saying the co-defendant was not the shooter, supports the trial court's findings.
Court: Florida Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 24-0350, Categories: Murder, Bail
J. Virden finds the county court improperly denied the estate’s petition for a writ to revive a deficiency judgment obtained during foreclosure proceedings against debtors to the estate. The 10-year period for revival did not begin to run from the date of the initial foreclosure decree, but from that of the deficiency judgment. The decree did not dismiss the parties from the case or put the judgment into execution. Reversed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Virden , Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: CV-23-200, Categories: Debt Collection, Due Process, Banking / Lending
J. Aiken denies the families' motion to exclude expert Jim Dimas from its complaint that Governor of Oregon Tina Kotek and others run an underresourced foster care system that removes children from their parents' homes and does not provide stable housing for them. Dimas has over 40 years of experience working in, managing and directing human services agencies and his testimony includes what an effective remedy for this situation might look like.
Court: USDC Oregon, Judge: Aiken, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 6:19cv556, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Experts
J. Lawrence finds the lower court properly named the wife sole residential parent of the child. Although both parents were actively involved in the child's life, the husband's short temper and history of excessive spanking made the wife's home a safer and more suitable environment. Meanwhile, the award of child support over the statutorily required amount was supported by evidence in the record, including a joint decision to send the child to private school and the fact the husband was not working to his full earning capacity at the time of the separation. Affirmed.
Court: Mississippi Court Of Appeals, Judge: Lawrence, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 2022-CA-804, Categories: Evidence, Family Law
C.J. Hudson partially affirms the defendant's convictions stemming from a 1993 cold-case murder. The district court did not err in finding that the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in DNA found on a discarded napkin at a hockey game and that analysis of the DNA was therefore not a search. Any error in precluding the defendant from presenting evidence of an alternative perpetrator at trial was harmless, and the district court did not abuse its discretion in excluding expert testimony as late discovery. Prosecutors' statements in closing arguments did not constitute error, circumstantial evidence was sufficient to support the jury's verdict that the defendant was guilty of first-degree murder, and the defendant did not receive ineffective assistance of counsel. It was, however, error to convict the defendant of both first-degree felony murder and second-degree intentional murder, a lesser-included offense. Affirmed in part.
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court, Judge: Hudson, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: A22-1679, Categories: Dna, Evidence, Murder
J. Tunheim denies the subcontractor's motion for a preliminary injunction in its action seeking relief from participating in arbitration in a dispute related to two purported contracts. The subcontractor's contention that its president's signature was forged on one of the contracts is "too flimsy" to establish a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims, and metadata suggesting that, as it claims, a document in the second contract was improperly backdated is better supported but still insufficient to establish a likelihood of success on the merits. The subcontractor has also failed to establish that it risks irreparable harm absent an injunction, and the balance-of-harms and public-interest factors are both neutral.
Court: USDC Minnesota, Judge: Tunheim, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 0:24cv585, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Contract, Injunction
J. Marcel finds that defendant was properly convicted of eight counts of simple burglary of an inhabited dwelling, theft, and aggravated flight from an officer. In this case, there was testimony from an accomplice that he committed the burglaries with defendant. Further, items from two of the burgled homes were found in defendant's home. Also, there was surveillance footage that connected a truck stolen by defendant to several of the burglaries. Multiple witnesses testified that defendant drove at excessive speeds while disregarding stop signs as he fled from an officer with his lights activated. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Marcel, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 22-KA-373, Categories: Burglary, Evidence, Theft
[Consolidated.] J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court properly found for the medical provider on a patient's claim that his mental disorder was misdiagnosed, and he was overprescribed Adderall. In this case, the medical provider admitted the medical review panel's unanimous opinion that the medical provider did not breach the applicable standard of care. Further, the patient admitted that he did not retain an expert to support his case. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 2024-CA-0010, Categories: Evidence, Medical Malpractice
J. Stone finds that the trial court properly dismissed a claim of the patient, who appeared individually and on behalf of the class of plaintiffs he seeks to represent. The patient alleged that he was “unlawfully” billed for medical services by a hospital. In this case, the patient's claim is untimely under the Balance Billing Act because more than one year has passed since the hospital asserted and collected on the medical lien. Further, the record shows that the patient made an explicit agreement to assign both his health insurance benefits and his tort recovery to the hospital in the event that his bill was not paid in full upon discharge. Affirmed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Stone, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 55,525-CA, Categories: Medical Malpractice, Class Action
J. Du dismisses class claims the Las Vegas strip businesses, along with a software company, unlawfully restrained trade by artificially inflating prices of hotel rooms after collectively agreeing to use a specific software. The class has not plausibly alleged a tacit agreement between the strip businesses or a restraint on trade, in part, because hotels are not required to and often do not accept pricing recommendations generated by the hotel revenue management site's products.
Court: USDC Nevada, Judge: Du , Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv140, NOS: Antitrust - Other Suits, Categories: Antitrust, Consumer Law, Business Practices
J. Gillmor denies a motion by the family of a man killed in a 2019 helicopter crash to amend the complaint and scheduling order in order to include a claim against a helicopter manufacturer for concealing information from the Federal Aviation Administration under the General Aviation Revitalization Act. The motion is untimely because trial for the case will begin in a month, and the family did not ever propose amendment during previous scheduling order adjustments over three years of litigation. The proposed amendment does not meet standards for pleading anyway, as the family does not identify any specifics in the accused misrepresentations. The helicopter manufacturer has also already timely established a defense under the Act.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Gillmor, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv193, NOS: Airplane - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Civil Procedure, Negligence, Aviation
J. Dimke dismisses without prejudice the loanee's complaint that the residential mortgage company refused to report any payments that she made since her bankruptcy, resulting in her being denied auto loans, home loans and employment promotions since then. The loanee does not allege that she notified a consumer reporting agency (CRA) of her dispute or that a CRA provided formal notice of the dispute to the residential mortgage company, so she does not state a legally cognizable claim for relief under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Washington, Judge: Dimke, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 4:24cv5002, NOS: Consumer Credit - Other Suits, Categories: Debt Collection, Consumer Law
J. Chun denies the university president's motion to dismiss the retaliation claim in the school faculty member's complaint alleging that the university president wrongfully fired the faculty member for putting a statement in his class syllabus, emails and outside his faculty office door about the Coast Salish tribe's claim to land that read, "I acknowledge that by the labor theory of property the Coast Salish people can claim historical ownership of almost none of the land currently occupied by the University of Washington." The school faculty member plausible states a First Amendment retaliation claim, because the school faculty member's speech concerned a matter of public concern, and the court cannot employ the applicable Pickering balancing test at this stage.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Chun, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 2:22cv964, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Employment Discrimination
J. Rosenthal finds that a maker of stuffed animals has not identified specific creative elements of its products that would entitle the maker to recover damages for copyright infringement from another company, which produces very similar toys. Characteristics or common qualities of nature cannot be copyrighted, and suing stuffed animal maker has not identified features of its toys that rise above common natural characteristics of the animals to constitute a creative idea that can be protected under copyright. The claims of the suing toy maker are dismissed, but they are granted leave to amend their complaint.
Court: USDC Southern District of Texas, Judge: Rosenthal, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 4:23cv4146, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Trademark
J. Morrison preserves a Fair Labor Standards Act complaint against two health care staffing agencies brought by the U.S. Labor Department on behalf of two Filipino nurses. The department alleges the agencies entered into employment contracts with three-year commitments and are now seeking thousands of dollars in damages after the nurses decided to quit prior to the end of their contracts, a system that the Labor Department claims constitutes illegal kickbacks and ultimately violates federal minimum wage and overtime regulations. The court rules the agency has standing to enforce the FLSA under both Article II and Article III of the Constitution, and its claims sufficiently allege violations under federal wage laws.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Morrison, Filed On: May 8, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv2119, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Labor