269 results for 'filedAt:"2024-03-28"'.
J. Johnson grants the employee's motion for liquidated damages and partly grants his motion for attorney fees after a jury verdict in his favor on a claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Because the employers' actions were willful, the employee is awarded $9,894 in liquidated damages. Also, after a reduction in the lodestar amount, he is awarded $19,805 in attorney fees.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Texas , Judge: Johnson, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 4:19cv626, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Damages, Labor
J. Tow finds the lower court erroneously granted the university's motion for summary judgment on the student's disability discrimination claims. His deposition testimony about the tasks his self-trained emotional support dog could perform, including "pressure therapy" and leading the student out of stressful situations, created an issue of fact as to whether it qualified as a service animal when the student was excluded from campus facilities. Reversed in part.
Court: Colorado Court Of Appeals, Judge: Tow, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 2024COA29, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Education, Evidence
J. Keller finds the trial court properly denied defendant's motion to dismiss his criminal case for possession of a firearm without a permit. Evidence in the record indicated he intended to remain in Connecticut for a long period of time, which would have allowed him to apply for a permit and contradicted his arguments before the court. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Keller, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: AC46906, Categories: Evidence, Firearms
J. Alvord finds the lower court properly granted the insurer's motion for summary judgment. The flashing defects discovered in the modular home were not property damage, but proved only that property damage may occur in the future, which was insufficient to trigger coverage under its policy with the builder. Affirmed.
Court: Connecticut Court Of Appeals, Judge: Alvord, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: AC45433, Categories: Evidence, Insurance, Contract
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J. Gallagher finds defendant fails to show he received ineffective assistance during his firearm possession case. The lack of binding precedent at the time of defendant's conviction as to whether the Second Amendment allows convicted felons to possess firearms renders his conviction for possession of a firearm constitutional, while the Supreme Court's decision in Bruen only altered the analysis framework for future Second Amendment cases. Therefore, defendant's attorney was not required to raise the argument before the trial court. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Gallagher, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-1163, Categories: Constitution, Firearms, Ineffective Assistance
J. Sheehan finds the lower court properly granted permanent custody of the child to family services. The agency made significant efforts to find a family member willing to care for the child on a permanent basis, but by the time a suitable relative was found, the child had been in a supportive foster home for more than two years, and it was in her best interest to remain there. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Sheehan, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 2024-Ohio-1164, Categories: Evidence, Family Law
J. Baker finds the circuit court improperly found for a Ford dealership. A financial audit revealed tax payment discrepancies, as well as incorrect usage of license tags. Though it is true “a vehicle may be involved in many transactions... [triggering] sales tax liability,” the dealer's allowing certain vehicles for business use by individuals, not being a transaction, and thus not triggering tax liability, is incorrect. The court applied the wrong standard of review. Reversed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Baker , Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: CV-23-450, Categories: Licensing, Tax, Business Practices
J. Webb finds the circuit court properly dismissed taxpayers' illegal exaction class action alleging constitutional violations involving tax assessment definitions as applied to disabled people and senior citizens. The taxpayers did not exhaust administrative remedies and the court properly dismissed the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Webb , Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: CV-23-326, Categories: Tax, Jurisdiction, Class Action
J. Cadish finds the district court properly affirmed and adopted the juvenile master's recommendations to impose formal probation conditions on the juvenile. The relevant statute does not create a separation of powers issue because the court's ability to dismiss a petition and refer a juvenile to probation is not a sentencing decision, and so does not encroach on the court's sentencing discretion. Affirmed.
Court: Nevada Supreme Court, Judge: Cadish , Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 86035, Categories: Constitution, Juvenile Law
J. Bulla finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for felony injuring or tampering with a motor vehicle. The court correctly instructed the jury on the proper measure of damages for the replacement value of replica, 1957 Chevy truck parts. However, one count of felony coercion was incorrectly based on force used on property and not a person. Affirmed in part.
Court: Nevada Court of Appeals, Judge: Bulla , Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 85734-COA, Categories: Vehicle, Vandalism
J. Farbiarz rules in part for a hotel franchisor in claims contending the hotel owner terminated the franchise agreement without paying certain fees because evidence does not indicate the agreement included false promises or that the owner was fraudulently induced to enter the contract. Meanwhile, the agreement was set to run until 2036, and the franchisor is now out the recurring fees through that period.
Court: USDC New Jersey, Judge: Farbiarz, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv11557, NOS: Franchise - Contract, Categories: Contract
J. Hoyle finds the trial court improperly granted the county's plea to the jurisdiction, dismissing this suit. The game room operator alleged the county unconstitutionally enacted regulations requiring that game rooms obtain a license. Though sovereign immunity bars Declaratory Judgment Act actions against the state absent a waiver, the Act also allows persons to challenge the validity of ordinances or statutes. Because the county may be bound by a court’s declaration on those ordinances or statutes, they must be “joined in suits to construe their legislative pronouncements.” Reversed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Hoyle , Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 12-23-00231-CV, Categories: Administrative Law, Licensing, Immunity
J. Neeley finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for assault on a public servant. A habitual offender sentencing enhancement resulted in a potential life sentence. Defendant moved for a competency evaluation, which resulted in the determination he was competent to stand trial. Defendant attempted to challenge the evaluation in various ways during trial. Though there is some evidence of mental illness, there is none from which it may be inferred the illness renders defendant incapable of consulting rationally with counsel. No evidence supports a finding defendant is incompetent to stand trial. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Neeley , Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 12-23-00094-CR, Categories: Competence, Sentencing, Assault
J. Hoyle finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Officers found a ledger of narcotic sales, meth and other drug-related items in defendant's vehicle after responding to a domestic disturbance. Defendant says the state’s comments about adding “cut” to the meth constitute impermissible jury argument, contending it exceeded evidence presented at trial and did not make a reasonable deduction from that evidence. Defendant did not object to the comment and the argument is not preserved, though the comment still made a reasonable inference regarding the drug/cut mixture quantity. Furthermore, because counsel has wide latitude to draw inferences from the evidence, the argument was not improper. Affirmed.
Court: Texas Courts of Appeals, Judge: Hoyle , Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 12-23-00100-CR, Categories: Drug Offender, Evidence, Prosecutorial Misconduct
J. Du grants the animal rights activists' motion for summary judgment. The activists allege the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior, and the Nevada Bureau of Land Management violated the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and the National Environmental Policy Act by a recent roundup of wild horses. Reducing livestock grazing to increase wild horse management levels was not reasonable because it would have undermined the roundup's stated purpose to “prevent undue... degradation...and to restore ecological balance.” The bureau must prepare a herd management area plan and reanalyze foreseeable effects and significance of its roundup alternatives on wildfire risks.
Court: USDC Nevada, Judge: Du, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 3:22cv34, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Administrative Law, Environment, Agency
J. Cobb grants the Department of Justice's motion to dismiss the employee's action seeking enforcement of a decision by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Office of Federal Operation, which had been reversed by the Commission itself three months prior. The employee has failed to exhaust her administrative remedies, namely because she has failed to obtain an order of agency noncompliance and because the order has been reversed. Her claim for money damages is precluded by the availability of an action under Title VII of the Civil rights Act, and she has failed to state a claim against several named officials in their individual capacities.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Cobb, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv1154, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Administrative Law, Employment
J. Cooper partially grants the German state-owned entity's motion to dismiss the German-American's suit alleging that it improperly expropriated her family's former estate, which had been seized by the Soviet Union in the wake of World War II, following the reunification of East and West Germany. The 1945 taking was not a domestic taking, and therefore this court can exercise subject matter jurisdiction over it, but the later takings did not violate international law. Germany also did not waive its sovereign immunity in this matter in a 1954 treaty. The record is not clear as to whether the German entity ever had a physical presence in the U.S., in part because of its litigation tactics, and should remaining jurisdictional questions come down to that question, the court will allow the German-American to serve interrogatories on that question.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Cooper, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 1:14cv2140, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: International Law, Jurisdiction
J. Mortensen finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of aggravated assault and domestic violence in the presence of a child. Defendant’s wife reported to police that defendant assaulted her in front of their five children, but later recanted her statement and asserted her Fifth Amendment right 47 times at trial. Defendant argues that hearing the invocations over and over prejudiced the jury, but he did not object to the invocations prior to appeal. Also, his argument of ineffective assistance of counsel fails, as what defendant views as error by counsel would not have impacted the outcome of the trial. Affirmed.
Court: Utah Court Of Appeals, Judge: Mortensen, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 20220006-CA, Categories: Ineffective Assistance, Assault, Domestic Violence
J. Lamberth grants default judgment to the family of a man stabbed by a Hamas militant in the West Bank in their suit against the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Syrian Arab Republic alleging that the two countries provided material support to Hamas. The family has sufficiently established that Hamas is responsible for their family member's murder, that the two countries have provided financial and material support to Hamas, and that this support falls under an exception to sovereign immunity for state sponsors of terrorism.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Lamberth, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv3492, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: International Law, Terrorism, Wrongful Death
J. Chutkan denies the employers' partial motion to dismiss the employee's sex-discrimination claims, premised on an alleged failure to pay her equally to her male colleagues for substantially equal work and equal or greater qualifications. The employee has plausibly pled that the lower pay was discriminatory, sufficiently to raise a claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act under a disparate-treatment theory. Her pleadings may be mended to support an additional theory of disparate-impact discrimination. The employee's Equal Pay Act claim, however, is dismissed sua sponte for lack of jurisdiction.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Chutkan, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv662, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, Employment Discrimination
J. Streeter finds the lower court properly interpreted an inventory claim in this insurance matter, but not the loss of business income. A cannabis business suffered losses after a robbery, and filed a claim with the insurance company for $2.5 million of lost inventory. The inventory was stolen from two vaults, and the business argues it should be two inventory claims with a $600,000 limit for each claim, but the insurance company argues it is one claim with a limit of $600,000. The lower court found the interpretation of a single claim to be correct, and the instant court agrees; but it finds the portion of the claim concerning lost business income may not have been properly calculated, and remands that portion of the matter for further consideration. Reversed in part.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Streeter, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: A167491, Categories: Insurance
J. Adams finds the lower court properly terminated the parental rights of a mother to her minor child. The child was removed from mother’s care when the juvenile court found the mother’s marijuana abuse, mental health issues and environment proved a substantial risk of harm to the child. The mother argues that her due process rights were violated when her parental rights were terminated, because the juvenile court was not required to consider her potential to change, as she, at the age of 17, is a teenager. The instant court finds no error by the lower court, as the record shows that the mother failed to comply with the reunification plan, her right to due process was not violated, and the decision is one where the needs of the child were placed as the priority. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Adams, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: B330106, Categories: Family Law, Due Process, Juvenile Law