J. Rothstein dismisses the job applicant's complaint that the temp agency violated Washington law by not disclosing the wage scale or salary range of its job openings. The job applicant alleges a technical or procedural violation, which does not qualify as a concrete injury, and he must allege at least that he and others applied for the job with good faith intent and suffered risk of harm by that violation.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: Rothstein, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv1680, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment
J. Boasberg largely grants the employer and co-worker's motion for summary judgment in the employee's suit against them alleging that his hours were cut and he was terminated after objecting to discriminatory comments by the coworker. The employee has adequately pleaded that the employer's stated reason for a reduction of overtime opportunities was pretextual, but has not made that same showing for his other claims.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Boasberg, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv275, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Employment Retaliation
J. Wilson finds that the appellate division improperly dismissed a developer's claims seeking damages for breach of a redevelopment contract based on repudiation. The agreement to turn a single-room-occupancy hotel into a mixed-use residential/commercial building required that the site include some low-income housing, which was complicated by a subsequent court settlement mandating the addition of rent-stabilized units. Written notification stating the property owner could not agree to the latter as altering the parties' original contract supported allegations of anticipatory repudiation. Reversed in part.
Court: New York Court Of Appeals, Judge: Wilson, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 30, Categories: Damages, Contract
Per curiam, the appellate division finds that the lower court improperly denied the flooring subcontractor's motion for a property inspection in a trip and fall suit alleging a woman tripped over a vent hole in the carpet. The contractor is entitled to inspect the site of the incident giving rise to the woman's serious injuries, even if the vent cover has already been replaced. Reversed.
Court: New York Appellate Divisions, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 02251, Categories: Evidence, Tort
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J. Bloom approves a state commission’s motion to dismiss employment discrimination claim by a former employee who alleged he was harassed and fired due to a disability that made him fall asleep on the job. Because the former employee took no action for more than two years after initiating the case, he did not make a good faith effort to serve notice, as required.
Court: USDC Middle District of Pennsylvania, Judge: Bloom, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1820, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Civil Rights, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Ervin-Knott finds that the trial court should not have found for a hotel on a guest's negligence action after he was injured in a robbery in the hotel parking area. Although the hotel presented evidence to show that there was no prior criminal activity in the parking area, there is a genuine issue of material fact regarding the foreseeability of criminal activity. In this case, the location, nature, and condition of the hotel were not taken into account. This court has repeatedly found that a lack of prior criminal acts at a certain place does not automatically render a crime unforeseeable. Further, the guest testified to New Orleans' high crime rate at the time of the incident, and the lack of a manager or hotel workers in the lobby at the time of the robbery. Reversed.
Court: Louisiana Court Of Appeal, Judge: Ervin-Knott, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 2023-CA-0731, Categories: Evidence, Negligence
J. Lewis finds a lower court properly dismissed a Bangladesh national's motion to remain in the U.K. The Bangladesh national argued that he is entitled to live in the U.K. based on his tier one highly skilled person. However, the Home Department sufficiently showed in court that he invested in a bogus company that made fraudulent transactions. Affirmed.
Court: Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, Judge: Lewis, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: CA-2023-1822, Categories: Immigration
J. Kahn finds that the district court properly held that a school district did not violate a student's due process rights by denying a medical exemption from the Covid-19 masking mandate because the student's fundamental rights had not been violated, and the mandate was reasonably related to legitimate health and safety concerns. However, the court improperly held that administrative remedies had not beeen exhausted when such was not required to bring disability claims alleging failure to accommodate the student's asthma. Affirmed in part.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Kahn, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 23-582-cv, Categories: Ada / Rehabilitation Act, Education, Covid-19
J. Stabile finds that the lower court partly improperly sustained the preliminary objections of a mother and CEO of a language services company against her son, the company’s former vice president. The declaratory judgment and minority shareholder oppression causes of action in son’s 2021 complaint are sound in equity and therefore can go forward. Reversed in part.
Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court, Judge: Stabile, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: J-A24008-23, Categories: Civil Procedure, Property, Business Practices
J. Wecht finds that the superior court improperly affirmed the trial court’s decision to not award certain damages in this suit wherein a couple alleges they were fraudulently induced to purchase life insurance from a financial company. Treble damages under the Consumer Protection Law are available to the the couple in this case. Reversed.
Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court, Judge: Wecht, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: J-59-2023, Categories: Fraud, Insurance, Damages
J. Pulliam denies a franchisee’s motion to dismiss after he and his company were sued by a franchisor in a contract dispute. While that franchisee argues that this court lacks jurisdiction, he is “closely related to the dispute” and therefore “bound by the forum selection clause contained within the Franchise Agreement,” which specifies that either the Western District of Texas or Travis County state court will be the forum for any contract disputes.
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pulliam, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv1531, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Jurisdiction, Venue, Contract
J. Simons finds that the trial court lacked jurisdiction to order restitution after the end of defendant's probation on a hit-and-run conviction. Where a restitution order is for losses caused by a collision and not for the criminal act of leaving the scene, the order is a condition of probation and jurisdiction may not extend beyond the termination of probation. Reversed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Simons, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: A167703, Categories: Restitution, Vehicle, Jurisdiction
J. Miller finds that the trial court properly concluded that a doctor did not have a right to a hearing before his application for privileges at two hospitals was denied. The doctor had a history of unprofessional behavior at other hospitals and was the subject of a disciplinary order and public reprimand by the state medical board. The hospitals' agreement with the doctor's medical group, which established the eligibility requirements, disallowed staff privileges for doctors with such histories, and the hospitals have quasi-legislative authority to establish the requirements. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Miller, Filed On: April 25, 2024, Case #: A166748, Categories: Employment, Due Process, Contract
J. Erickson finds a lower court properly dismissed a case manager and a corrections employee's motion for qualified immunity concerning an inmate's Eighth Amendment claims. The case manager and the corrections employee argued that they did not act with deliberate indifference when they deprived him from obtaining toothpaste. However, the inmate sufficiently showed in court that he used his money from an inmate account to buy toothpaste, and suffered tooth decay as a result of not receiving it. Affirmed.
Court: 8th Circuit, Judge: Erickson, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 22-3617, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Immunity
J. McKeown grants the National Labor Relations Board’s application for enforcement of its order directing Starbucks in Seattle to cease and desist from failing and refusing to recognize and bargain with a union. The Board held that by refusing to recognize and bargain with the union, Starbucks engaged in unfair labor practices. Starbucks refused to recognize and bargain with the union, claiming that the regional director should have ordered an in-person election instead of a mail-in vote. The Board correctly applied its own law in determining that the regional director appropriately exercised its discretion to hold a mail-ballot election. The certification of the union’s representative was proper, and the Board correctly found that Starbucks committed a violation by refusing to bargain.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: McKeown, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 22-1969, Categories: Employment, Labor / Unions
J. Moeller finds that the district court properly held that a Department of Water Resources enforcement action was not barred by a two-year limitations period. The period began to run when the department's director became aware that a landowner had not completed the streambank restoration required by a consent order. The landowner was involved in ongoing negotiations with the department over his compliance, so the director would have first known he did not plan to comply when he sought declaratory relief. Affirmed.
Court: Idaho Supreme Court, Judge: Moeller, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 50273, Categories: Environment, Water
J. Dennis, in this interlocutory discovery appeal, finds the district court properly affirmed the magistrate's ruling the non-party genetic testing services failed to establish privilege. An owner of a testing facility was indicted for fraud and offering kickbacks related to services for Medicare beneficiaries. A protocol order challenged by the non-parties, which required a filter team to review their documents material to the indictee owner's defense, is not the basis for the magistrate's decision. The non-parties are required to sustain assertions of privilege under standards of federal common law. The magistrate correctly found the non-parties’ privilege logs “do not provide a description for the documents...to explain why each should be protected.” Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Dennis, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 22-30316, Categories: Dna, Fraud, Discovery
J. King finds in favor of the city against the protester's complaint that several of the city's unnamed officers used unreasonable force against her during a Seattle protest against George Floyd's murder on the night of June 7, 2020. The protester's First Amendment claim fails because he was not protesting or filming for journalistic purposes, he violated dispersal orders, and he does not produce any evidence that the police retaliated against him or the crowed for protected activities.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: King, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv1343, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, First Amendment, Police Misconduct
J. Boomgaarden finds that the lower court properly convicted defendant of felony stalking. Defendant claims there was not enough evidence on the record to support conviction, but entered into the record were numerous texts, repetitive communications and phone calls that contained a "malicious nature." Any rational jury could find these amounted to a specific intent to harass the victim. Affirmed.
Court: Wyoming Supreme Court, Judge: Boomgaarden, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: S-23-0236, Categories: Harassment
J. Cooper partially grants the television network's motion to dismiss its former Capitol Hill producer's suit alleging that he was fired for opposing false reporting of voter fraud and inaccurate coverage of the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The producer has not plausibly alleged that he was discriminated against because of his political affiliation, since a D.C. law barring such discrimination narrowly defines "political affiliation" as membership in or endorsement of a political party. He also has not alleged that he was terminated as a reprisal for political activity, nor cited an established policy that the network violated by firing him. While he purports that the network's stated reason for firing him, failing to show up to work when he called in sick, was pretextual, he has plausibly stated a claim of retaliation under the Sick Leave Act because of that stated reason for termination.
Court: USDC District of Columbia, Judge: Cooper, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv3401, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Jackson-Akiwumi finds that the lower court finds that the landlord's successor in interest is entitled to collect damages for unpaid rent from Saks, which guaranteed it would pay rent on a department store retail space if the tenant did not pay. Saks waived the right to present affirmative defenses to liability in the guaranty it signed. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Jackson-Akiwumi, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 23-1489, Categories: Landlord Tenant, Contract
J. Morrison denies the medical provider's motion for summary judgment, ruling undisputed facts show it prevented the claim recovery company from accessing its billing systems following a dispute about the parties' contract, which is sufficient for the breach of contract claim to proceed.
Court: USDC Southern District of Ohio, Judge: Morrison, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 2:21cv1501, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Evidence, Health Care, Contract
J. Sykes finds that the lower court properly found for the insurer, ruling that its policy with a dialysis provider contains a bacteria exclusion that precludes coverage of a $2 million judgment against the provider stemming from a patient's sepsis diagnosis after suffering repeated infections resulting from his dialysis treatment. The bacteria exclusion plainly applies, and the insurer was not required to conduct any further investigation into the man's claims before denying coverage. Affirmed.
Court: 7th Circuit, Judge: Sykes, Filed On: April 24, 2024, Case #: 22-1983, Categories: Insurance, Indemnification, Contract