134 results for 'judge:"Wood "'.
J. Wood finds the Workers Compensation Commission properly denied the Development Center employee���s claim for benefits for a back injury sustained when she was assisting an obese client in getting up from a couch. The commission weighed the medical evidence, concluding that the prescription for muscle spasms was not an objective finding of an injury in light of evidence. The commission specifically found the claimant���s testimony that she suffered from muscle spasms as a result of the injury not credible and found ���no probative evidence of record demonstrating that she was suffering from muscle spasms.��� The court of appeals defers to the commission���s finding. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wood, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: CV-22-699, Categories: Health Care, Tort, Workers' Compensation
J. Wood finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for aggravated assault, sentencing him to two years��� probation, a $250 fine, court costs and anger-management class attendance. The boyfriend of defendant���s ex-girlfriend testified that defendant drove his car at a high rate of speed at him, on his own property, and had previously threatened him. The boyfriend, who knew the ex ���carried,��� fired a warning shot into the ground and called 911. The girlfriend, alerted by the shot, looked outside to see defendant leaving. Defendant returned later, driving back and forth in front of the house and the police were called again. Substantial evidence supports the finding that defendant purposely accelerated his vehicle to within five feet of the boyfriend, creating a substantial danger of death or serious injury and showing indifference to the value of human life. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wood, Filed On: October 4, 2023, Case #: CR-23-40, Categories: Evidence, Assault
J. Wood partially grants the defendant nonprofit���s motion to dismiss a trademark suit brought by the plaintiff nonprofit. The suing nonprofit, which works to benefit people living in Chicago���s Chinatown neighborhood, claims the sued nonprofit is unfairly competing with it using a name nearly identical to its own, especially in abbreviation ��� CCBA vs. CCBASC. The court grants the defendant nonprofit���s motion to dismiss only as to the plaintiff���s claim for usurpation of corporate opportunity. The remaining trademark, breach of fiduciary duty and conversion claims still stand.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Wood, Filed On: September 30, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv4370, NOS: Trademark - Property Rights, Categories: Trademark, Fiduciary Duty, Conversion
J. Wood finds that the county court improperly granted the landlords' motion for summary judgment, dismissing with prejudice the tenant's complaint for forcible entry and detainer, trespass, and conversion. The landlords acknowledge that they did not seek summary judgment against the tenant, and they do not contest the argument for reversal on this issue. When ruling on a motion for summary judgment, a circuit court cannot grant relief beyond that prayed for in the motion. Other issues regarding the tenant's wife's party to the lease were properly dismissed. Reversed in part.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wood , Filed On: September 27, 2023, Case #: CV-22-581, Categories: Civil Procedure, Landlord Tenant, Conversion
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J. Wood finds that the county court improperly granted the romantic partner's motion to dismiss as untimely his partner's breach of contract claim arising from the couple's purchase of a home in Arkansas with plans of selling their Oregon homes. The relationship deteriorated and one of the partners asked the other to leave the Arkansas home. The parties��� oral agreement did not require the execution of a joint deed the moment a partner gave her home sale proceeds to the other, and the court of appeals is not required to determine when the breach occurred, but rather whether the statute of limitations bars the claim. Because the complaint does not allege a precise time that the partner was required to add the other's name to the deed, the untimeliness determination cannot be made. Reversed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wood , Filed On: September 27, 2023, Case #: CV-22-509, Categories: Property, Contract
J. Wood finds the circuit court properly denied defendant's petition to correct an allegedly illegal sentence for manslaughter and robbery after his convictions for murder, aggravated robbery, and aggravated assault were reversed on appeal. Defendant's use of a firearm and his status as a habitual offender enhanced his sentence on his guilty-plea conviction to manslaughter and robbery. His negotiated plea deal and agreement with the enhancements resulted in a sentence falling within the prescribed maximum. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Supreme Court, Judge: Wood , Filed On: September 21, 2023, Case #: CR-22-561, Categories: Robbery, Sentencing, Manslaughter
J. Wood finds the Board of Review properly required the unemployment benefits recipient to repay $972 in overpaid state benefits received along with federal pandemic assistance. The overpayment was not received as a direct result of an error by the Division of Workforce Services, and there is substantial evidence to support the Board���s findings. However, the Board failed to make any findings regarding the two prongs of the pandemic assistance waiver analysis, and this part of the appeal is remanded. Another amount was not appealed to the Tribunal and the order for repayment is vacated. Affirmed in part.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wood , Filed On: September 20, 2023, Case #: E-22-346, Categories: Employment, Government, Covid-19
J. Wood finds the trial court properly convicted and sentenced defendant for trafficking meth, maintaining a drug premises within 1,000 feet of a church, and possessing drug paraphernalia and marijuana. After the investigator responded to several anonymous tips about drug activity centered in defendant's apartment, he spoke with her, noticing an odor of marijuana coming from inside her apartment. All evidence supports the convictions. No directed-verdict motion provided a specific ground. Counsel did not mention constructive possession or joint occupancy, which are defendant's sole arguments on appeal. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wood , Filed On: September 13, 2023, Case #: CR-22-783, Categories: Drug Offender, Evidence
J. Wood denies the Illinois Secretary of State's motion to dismiss one of its former employee's discrimination claims. The former employee, who is Black, helped a friend get a restricted driving permit without taking a road test, for which she was fired. Despite the Secretary of State's arguments to the contrary, the court finds her claims are timely, and that she has plausibly alleged that the Secretary of State's Office allowed other non-Black employees get away with similar behavior.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Wood, Filed On: September 13, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv5722, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Government, Employment Discrimination
J. Wood partially grants the motion to dismiss by the ship owner, charterer, operator and agent as to the local companies' claims seeking natural resource damages and subsistence use damages under the Oil Pollution Act in a negligence, trespass and public nuisance action arising after a shipping vessel capsized in the St. Simons Sound. Eight of the company parties did not present claims for property damages under the Act, therefore the motion to dismiss is also granted as to those claims. The Act also displaces the companies' federal maritime negligence claim against the ship parties and the agent. However, the motion to dismiss is denied with regard to property damages claims asserted by nine of the company parties.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Wood, Filed On: September 13, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv86, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Maritime, Negligence
J. Wood grants the motion to dismiss by the ship owner, charterer, operator and agent as to the shrimping and crabbing companies' claims for natural resources damages and subsistence use damages under the Oil Pollution Act in a negligence action arising after a shipping vessel capsized in the St. Simons Sound. The companies' federal maritime negligence claims against the ship parties and the agent are displaced by the Act, therefore the motion to dismiss is also granted as to those claims. However, the ship parties' motion to dismiss is denied as to the companies' claim for property damages under the Act. The agent's motion to dismiss is denied as to the companies' state law claims for negligence, public nuisance and trespass.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Wood, Filed On: September 13, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv85, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Maritime, Negligence
J. Wood finds the trial court properly convicted defendant for rape and sexual assault of his 7-year-old granddaughter. The child had stayed with her grandparents for some time before her parents began noticing that she did not want to leave their sides and had begun to experience pain or difficulty urinating, as well as bed-wetting. After defendant claimed that he removed a tick from the girl's private area, she explained that he had touched her several times. The child's testimony that defendant touched her ���privates��� multiple times provides substantial evidence of sexual gratification sufficient to support the convictions. The weight of testimony concerning access to defendant's computer, which contained searches for ���does masturbation cause precocious puberty��� and ���precocious erotic stories" was properly left to the jury to decide. Affirmed.
Court: Arkansas Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wood , Filed On: September 6, 2023, Case #: CR-22-224, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Wood finds the governor and other political entities are not entitled to sovereign immunity on due process and constitutional claims brought by bar owners for forced closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. The owners were not required to seek injunctive relief in their initial filings and could request damages without violating the previously upheld mandate to seek the least intrusive remedy available. Meanwhile, the complaint clearly implicates the bar owners' right to earn a living under the North Carlina Constitution and so the lower court properly denied the governor's motion to dismiss. Affirmed.
Court: North Carolina Court of Appeals, Judge: Wood, Filed On: September 5, 2023, Case #: COA22-571, Categories: Government, Immunity, Covid-19
J. Wood partially denies the motion by the ship owner, charterer, operator and agent to dismiss a negligence, trespass and public and private nuisance action brought by the county for damages arising after a car and truck shipping vessel capsized in the Saint Simons Sound and leaked thousands of gallons of fuel. The motion is denied as to the county's claim under the Oil Pollution Act. The county's presentment gave the parties enough information to enable them to investigate the claims and provided a fixed amount of damages from which settlement negotiations could begin. However, the motion to dismiss is granted as to the county's federal maritime negligence claim because it is displaced by the Act.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Wood, Filed On: September 1, 2023, Case #: 2:22cv28, NOS: Other Statutory Actions - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Negligence
J. Wood rules in favor of the county and the former elections supervisor in a civil rights action brought by the city commissioner alleging that a criminal trespass warning issued to her violated her First Amendment rights by banning her from all polling places in the county except to vote. The warning was issued after the commissioner and the supervisor got into an altercation stemming from the commissioner either asking questions about a voting machine's buttons or touching the buttons while assisting an illiterate voter. The commissioner was later arrested for refusing to leave. The warning was not drafted or issued by either the county or the supervisor. The commissioner failed to show that the warning issued by the city police officer is a policy or unofficial custom or practice of the county. The warning restricts speech in a nonpublic forum, is viewpoint neutral and was reasonable in light of the disturbance caused by the commissioner.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 31, 2023, Case #: 5:20cv151, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: First Amendment
J. Wood grants the hospital's motion for partial summary judgment in a medical malpractice and fraud action brought by the couple arising from chronic pain and other health complications suffered by the husband after a septoplasty and inferior turbinate reduction procedure. The couple also alleged the hospital altered and fabricated parts of the husband's medical records. The couple's informed consent, Georgia Health Records Act and punitive damages claims are dismissed. There is no genuine issue of fact as to the hospital's compliance with Georgia's informed consent law and there is no evidence showing that the husband was under anesthesia when he signed the informed consent form.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 31, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv21, NOS: Personal Injury - Medical Malpractice - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Fraud, Medical Malpractice
J. Wood partially grants several European confectionary companies��� motion to dismiss race discrimination and wrongful termination claims brought by a Black former maintenance employee. The Black former employee claims his white supervisor fired him from his job in the companies��� Illinois production facility for no reason other than his race. The court finds the former employee didn���t exhaust all his non-legal options before pursuing his race discrimination Title VII claim, but allows his successor liability claim against the Italian company that bought the Illinois facility from the Swiss company to stand.
Court: USDC Northern District of Illinois, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 29, 2023, Case #: 1:19cv7119, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment, Employment Discrimination
J. Wood partially grants the department's motion to dismiss a civil rights and disability discrimination action brought by an individual arising from his DUI arrest after he failed three balance-oriented tests but registered a blood-alcohol content of zero on a breathalyzer test. The individual alleges that he was unfairly arrested due to the balance-impairing symptoms of his hydrocephalus disability. The ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims against the department for money damages are dismissed. However, the claims for declaratory and injunctive relief may move forward, as well as the civil rights claim against the police officer. The officer is not entitled to qualified immunity because he lacked arguable probable cause to arrest the individual. The commissioner's motion to dismiss is granted because the individual failed to properly serve him.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 28, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv107, NOS: Other Labor Litigation - Labor, Categories: Civil Rights, Ada / Rehabilitation Act
J. Wood denies the home sellers' motion for summary judgment in a fraud, negligent misrepresentation and breach of contract action brought by the buyers arising after they discovered extensive water damages to the home. The buyers presented sufficient evidence that the sellers misrepresented the state of the home to create a genuine issue of fact as to their fraud claim. The buyers' partial motion for summary judgment is denied as to the sellers' liability for the fraud and negligent misrepresentation claims. However, the buyers' motion is granted as to sellers' malicious prosecution counterclaim.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 5:22cv10, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Contract
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly refrained from reaching the federal constitutional issues in this suit over the superintendendant's refusal to provide bussing services to a Catholic school because there was another Catholic school in the same area that already received bussing services. The school prevailed on its state-law claims and cannot pressure the federal court into issuing an advisory opinion. Further, the school waived their requests for damages under state law in prior litigation, and parties must be held to their choices. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 14, 2023, Case #: 22-2786, Categories: Constitution, Education, Damages
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly entered a $3.3 million jury award against the medical device maker on a strict liability failure-to-warn claim stemming from the fracturing of a patient's retrievable intravascular filter that left pieces embedded in the wall of her heart. The device maker did not show that the 510(k) clearance of its Meridian filter was based on the FDA's determination that it complied with any specific safety standards, rather than its similarity to previously approved devices. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 11, 2023, Case #: 22-2610, Categories: Health Care, Damages, Product Liability
[Consolidated.] J. Wood finds that the lower court properly ordered defendant to pay $455,000 for obtaining thousands of free and discounted White Sox tickets and selling them online for profit. The absence of a preliminary order outlining defendant's required forfeiture did not prejudice him, as the court orally announced the forfeiture as part of its judgment. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 22-1293, Categories: Fraud, Forfeiture
J. Wood finds that the lower court properly denied defendant's habeas petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. Defense counsel's performance was "deeply troubling," but the state court found that counsel made a strategic decision to pursue acquittal even when her cross-examinations "were a disaster," and this finding is not unreasonable. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 9, 2023, Case #: 22-2393, Categories: Habeas, Ineffective Assistance
[Consolidated.] J. Wood finds that the lower court properly entered a preliminary injunction ordering the school districts to allow three transgender boys to use the boys' bathroom and locker room. The boys say they plan to use the stalls in the locker room to change in privacy and do not seek access to the locker room showers. Therefore, there is evidence other boys will be exposed to nude transgender students, or threat to student privacy. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Wood, Filed On: August 1, 2023, Case #: 22-1786, Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Restraining Order