150 results for 'court:"USDC New Mexico"'.
J. Browning denies the Native American tribe's motion for summary judgment and dismisses its declaratory relief action, ruling that while the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act does not allow tribes to shift jurisdiction from tribal to state courts in personal injury actions, the Younger abstention doctrine prevents this court from precluding the state court judge from hearing the underlying case. If this court granted the tribe's request for relief, it would interfere with state court proceedings where no final judgment has been entered and also prevent state courts from weighing in on whether it is proper to hear casino personal injury suits outside of the tribal court system.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Browning, Filed On: August 31, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv166, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Civil Procedure, Native Americans, Jurisdiction
J. Sweazea grants the out-of-state advertising companies' motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, ruling the consumer's failure to provide more than speculation as to whether the companies sent unsolicited text messages about male enhancement drugs prevents him from establishing the business contacts in New Mexico to enforce the long-arm statute. Meanwhile, the New Mexico-based defendant's motion to dismiss will also be granted. Although it operates the website linked in the text messages, there is no evidence it sent the text messages or hired someone to do so.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Sweazea, Filed On: August 30, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv828, NOS: Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) - Other Suits, Categories: Consumer Law, Jurisdiction
J. Ritter grants, in part, the insurer's motion to dismiss, ruling the estate representative lacks standing to bring a contract-based claim because the insurer did not violate the terms of the life insurance policy when it paid the death benefit to the contingent beneficiary, the only beneficiary remaining at the time of the policyholder and primary beneficiary's deaths.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Ritter, Filed On: August 29, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv687, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Khalsa grants the government's motion to dismiss, ruling the employee of the Medicaid health care organization cannot bring suit under the False Claims Act. He was not the primary source of the allegations regarding the company's refusal to refund overpayments, which bars his suit under the public disclosure doctrine.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Khalsa, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: 1:16cv1148, NOS: False Claims Act - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Government, Health Care, False Claims
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J. Fashing grants the government's motion for summary judgment, ruling the supervising nurse cannot establish a prima facie case for gender discrimination because he provides no direct evidence and his only claim of disparate treatment is the agency's decision to allow security to be present for several meetings with a female subordinate. Regardless, the nurse's frequent demeaning behavior toward subordinates and his weeks-long absence for alleged medical conditions for which he provided no documentation gave the government a legitimate reason to fire him, while his retaliation claim also fails because he engaged in no protected activity before his termination.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Fashing, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv500, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Employment, Employment Retaliation
J. Johnson grants the investor's partial motion for summary judgment, ruling the individuals who solicited his investment in the company who lied about its earnings and growth potential can be held liable for securities violations. The evidence in the record prevents those individuals from proving they were unaware of the lies used to coerce investors.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: August 25, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv564, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Securities, Contract
J. Yarbrough denies FedEx's motion to dismiss a minimum wage case, ruling the flat rate exception to the Fair Labor Standards Act does not apply to the company's policy of paying certain package delivery employees a steady, daily wage regardless of the number of hours they work or packages they deliver. Although the package deliverers are rewarded for efficiency in the same way as flat rate employees, there is a critical distinction in that flat rate employees are paid for one task calculated to take a certain number of hours, while the number of packages delivered by the FedEx employees varies greatly from day to day.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Yarbrough, Filed On: August 22, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv1052, NOS: Other Labor Litigation - Labor, Categories: Class Action, Labor
J. Strickland grants the dental licensing board members' motion to dismiss, ruling the dentist's claims are time-barred because he failed to file them within three years of his license revocation, the latest time at which his due process and conspiracy claims began to accrue.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Strickland, Filed On: August 21, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv189, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Licensing, Due Process
J. Johnson grants the state Republican Party's motion to declare several campaign finance laws unconstitutional. The limit on contributions made by state political parties to county political parties is too far removed from the state's concern of "big-money" donors' support of individual candidates to sufficiently address the problem of quid pro quo corruption and, therefore, must be enjoined. Additionally, the law seeking to limit contributions from state parties to individual candidates is not "closely drawn" to address the corruption problem and sets limits drastically lower than similar ones upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, while the state has also failed to provide evidence regarding the cost of a typical campaign to support the limits.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 1:11cv900, NOS: Constitutionality of State Statutes - Other Suits, Categories: Constitution, Elections, First Amendment
J. Wormuth denies the student's motion for summary judgment, ruling she cannot prevail on her Equal Protection sexual harassment claim against her former teacher. Although he pleaded guilty to criminal charges that stemmed from his behavior, he never admitted to touching students for his sexual gratification, a requirement of the Equal Protection claim.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Wormuth, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv574, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Evidence, Due Process, Equal Protection
J. Wormuth grants, in part, the female student's motion for summary judgment, ruling the former teacher's sexual harassment, including grabbing the student's butt on several occasions, touching her thigh inappropriately while she slept on a school bus, and hugging her excessively, meets the level of behavior required under the conscience shocking standard and entitles the student to judgment on her substantive due process claim. However, despite the teacher's guilty plea to criminal charges that stemmed from his behavior, he did not admit to engaging in the conduct for the purposes of sexual gratification and so the student is not entitled to judgment on her Equal Protection sexual harassment claim.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Wormuth, Filed On: August 17, 2023, Case #: 2:20cv276, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Due Process, Equal Protection
J. Johnson denies the securities sellers' motion for summary judgment, ruling the promissory note signed over to them by the investor qualifies as a security under federal law, while statements about the startup's income, which is purported to be $10 million but is actually less than $100,00 annually, and the potential return on investment are sufficient at this stage to show reckless disregard on behalf of the sellers.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv564, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Securities, Contract
C.J. Johnson denies the startup's motion for summary judgment, ruling disclosures about its stock price to the investor were not sufficient for the investor to believe there was an obvious risk he would lose his entire $750,000 investment. Furthermore, the claim he did not read the promissory note before signing it is irrelevant because the note said nothing about the company's performance, only that his money would be repaid with interest within one year.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Johnson, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv564, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Securities, Contract
J. Urias denies the insurer's motion for summary judgment, ruling the time to sue provision in its policy with the auto body shop is ambiguous. It is not contained in the expanded business coverage section of the policy under which the claim was filed and, therefore, a jury must resolve the ambiguity and decide the case.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv841, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Urias denies summary judgment to an equipment services company because there is genuine dispute as to whether the person who brought this suit qualifies as an oil-and-gas “broker” or “consultant,” a detail that will ultimately determine whether his claims are barred by New Mexico’s fraud law after he sued the company for allegedly breaking an oral contract.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: August 10, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv715, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Damages, Contract
J. Riggs grants summary judgment to a logistics company in a wrongful death lawsuit stemming from a “tragic” and deadly car accident because representatives of a man cannot show that the logistics company, which had contracted a third-party carrier that was directly involved in the accident, could or should have known that the carrier or its employees were unfit.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Riggs, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv73, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Vehicle, Damages, Wrongful Death
J. Yarbrough grants an anonymous student’s motion to file a second amended complaint after she alleged that she was raped by a senior while she was a freshman and that school officials allegedly “protected him from being held accountable.” A second amended complaint would not unfairly prejudice these officials, and important new facts have come to light, including the existence of a second accuser.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Yarbrough, Filed On: August 7, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv1041, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Assault
J. Khalsa partially grants a number of motions from art company Meow Wolf in a copyright dispute brought by an artist formerly affiliated with the group, including one motion dismissing that artist’s claim under the Visual Artists Rights Act. While VARA protects the rights of artists to be credited for their work, “undisputed evidence” in this case shows the artist wanted to be credited “anonymously or pseudonymously” for the artwork now in dispute.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Khalsa, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 1:20cv237, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright, Tort
J. Herrera denies a motion to “exclude the administrative record or to proceed de novo” filed by two former employees of the New Mexico Department of Health after they both “encountered difficulties” obtaining administrative records relevant to their employment suit. Instead, this court will issue notices clarifying the former employees have “timely filed notices of appeal,” which the employees should then be able to use to obtain records from the State Personnel Office’s Adjudication Division without the need for a “more extraordinary remedy.”
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Herrera, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv1129, NOS: Family and Medical Leave Act - Labor, Categories: Civil Procedure, Employment, Government
J. Fouratt denies an aviation company’s motion to compel testimony of two U.S. Department of Interior employees after determining it “lacks authority” to do so under current 10th Circuit precedent. While the aviation company argued DOI could testify regarding “demand for aircraft for the 2022 fire season” and other information relevant to the company’s claim that its insurer caused the company “substantial losses” by not promptly reassembling aircraft, both the company and this court lack clear authority to compel testimony of federal government non-parties.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Fouratt, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv476, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Government, Insurance, Immunity
J. Brack denies an investment company’s motion to compel arbitration after the company was sued by a consumer seeking to void their contract because, while the company is right that a “clickwrap agreement” which the consumer “electronically signed” is a valid contract, the contract does not “clearly and unmistakably delegate arbitrability issues to an arbitrator.”
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Brack, Filed On: August 3, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv62, NOS: Arbitration - Other Suits, Categories: Arbitration, Banking / Lending, Contract
J. Urias denies a racehorse trainer’s motion for remand after he sued the head of the New Mexico Racing Commission and others for civil rights claims. The trainer said they had suspended his license and taken other actions against him for allegedly doping his horses without giving him the opportunity to defend himself. While some parties in this case in this may have waived their right to removal given the case’s litigation history, they did not waive their “right to consent to removal by the later-served defendants.”
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: August 2, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv740, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Administrative Law, Civil Rights, Jurisdiction
J. Urias grants a third-party company’s motion to intervene in a putative class-action over the alleged misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The third-party’s arguments are relevant to this case because the company not only runs an app to connect oil-and-gas workers, including the plaintiffs in this case, with jobs, but also requires users to agree to a “dispute resolution” process.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: July 31, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv1125, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Technology, Labor
J. Wormuth grants a public school teacher’s leave to file an answer after he was sued by a former student for allegedly sexually grooming her and otherwise violating her civil rights — conduct that led to a criminal charge against the teacher for sexual contact with a minor. The teacher has shown “excusable neglect” for failing to timely file, and besides this court prefers to “decide claims on their merits rather than on pleading technicalities” — though he may not assert new qualified immunity defenses, as he has not done so before and his delay on that front is not excusable.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Wormuth, Filed On: July 28, 2023, Case #: 2:20cv276, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Immunity
J. Robbenhaar denies a supermarket company’s motion to dismiss after it was sued by a union seeking to compel compliance with arbitration procedures and to enforce agreements made through prior bargaining. The union has exhausted the grievance procedures available to it through the collective bargaining agreement, and without such an order from this court, the supermarket could once again go through the process of bargaining and arbitration before “again failing to comply with the agreed upon resolution.”
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Robbenhaar, Filed On: July 28, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv335, NOS: Labor/Management Relations - Labor, Categories: Arbitration, Employment, Labor / Unions