97 results for 'filedAt:"2023-12-04"'.
J. Segal affirms the defendant's criminal sexual conduct convictions and the district court's decisions to sentence him an engrained offender and to impose lifelong conditional release. The testimony of the teenager he was accused of abusing was sufficiently reliable to support a conviction, and while the district court erred in finding that he qualified for sentencing as a dangerous offender since he has only one prior violent-crime conviction, its determination that he "previously committed" a predatory crime was not erroneous. Affirmed.
Court: Minnesota Court Of Appeals, Judge: Segal, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: A23-0133, Categories: Sentencing, Sex Offender
J. Winmill grants in part an employee's motion for sanctions in a suit where she alleges that her supervisor sexually harassed her. During litigation, the employer was sanctioned for concealing evidence and misrepresenting facts and later held in contempt for failing to make any effort to pay the employee's award of attorney fees. The employee now alleges discovery misconduct relating to other evidence. The employer's failure to produce the documents prejudiced the employee. The employer is prohibited from contesting the employee's claim that the company had fifteen or more employees, finding "this less drastic remedy is a sufficient sanction."
Court: USDC Idaho, Judge: Winmill, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 4:19cv287, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Sanctions, Discovery
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J. Falk finds a lower court properly dismissed British Telecommunications' motion for debt relief concerning non- payment from retail customers. The telecommunications company argued that it timely filed for insolvency, and that its tax imposition should be reduced under the old scheme. However, the revenue and customs authority presented sufficient evidence in court that it was not unjustly enriched when it when it collected tax and unpaid restitution from the company under new tax laws. Affirmed.
Court: Her Majesty's Court of Appeal, Judge: Falk, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: CA-2021-700, Categories: Bankruptcy, Tax
J. Bacon finds the trial court properly denied defendant's request for a provocation jury instruction because the driver of the other vehicle involved in the shooting was not the victim, and even if he had been, erratic driving is insufficient to require such an instruction. Furthermore, although defendant had been threatened by the driver of the other vehicle and knew he had guns, there was a vehicle in between the two and no shots had been fired at the time defendant opened fire, all of which prevented the issue of a self-defense instruction. Affirmed.
Court: New Mexico Supreme Court, Judge: Bacon, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: S-1-SC-39211, Categories: Firearms, Murder, Jury Instructions
J. Lynch finds the trial court properly allowed the victims' interview with personnel from the children's hospital to be admitted during defendant's trial on rape and sexual imposition charges. Although the interview took place more than a year after the abuse, the children had to that point received no medical treatment, which allowed its admission under the medical assessment hearsay exception. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Lynch, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-4374, Categories: Evidence, Sex Offender, Child Victims
J. Chesney dismisses class claims against Monsanto Co. from consumers who say they bought a "concentrated form of Roundup" that lacked clear expiration labels, resulting in consumers being led to believe that the product could be used indefinitely. The consumers claim that the products begin to develop unlawful levels of NNGs, a carcinogen, after being stored at length, but all of their claims fail for not bringing forward hard evidence that NNGs could develop beyond the EPA's hard limit of 1 part per million in pesticide products.
Court: USDC Northern District of California, Judge: Chesney , Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 3:22cv4260, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Fraud, Product Liability, Class Action
J. Bustamante finds the environmental impact board improperly granted the natural gas plant's application for an air quality permit. It used the appropriate significant impact level test measurements to determine the environmental impact of ozone pollution by the plant and relied on properly authenticated expert testimony, including hypothetical modeling that showed emissions would reach only 5 percent of the impact level threshold. Affirmed.
Court: New Mexico Court of Appeals, Judge: Bustamante, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: A-1-CA-39522, Categories: Environment, Evidence, Experts
J. Pitman partially denies summary judgment to a Texas county after it was sued by citizens following the suicide of their relative in county jail. While the citizens cannot proceed with failure to train claims, they can proceed with claims over conditions of confinement because there are genuine concerns raised over the jail’s policy of “allowing inmates to hang blankets across their cell bars to prevent staff from looking inside.”
Court: USDC Western District of Texas , Judge: Pitman, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv149, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Government
J. Lee finds that the district court improperly entered summary judgment for the government including the Fish and Wildlife Service on an easement and remanded with instructions for the Service and the U.S. Army to reevaluate its water-savings analysis in a new biological opinion. The action was brought by environmental organizations challenging a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biological opinion concerning the use of water from the San Pedro River Basin in Arizona. Reversed.
Court: 9th Circuit, Judge: Lee, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 22-15809, Categories: Environment, Water
J. Ray directs the tenants to submit an amended complaint in an action against the company and city seeking damages for wrongful eviction. The complaint is deficient because the tenant who is listed as a plaintiff is not the tenant who signed the complaint. The action failed to sufficiently establish a basis for the court's subject matter jurisdiction by failing to include information on the citizenship of the parties and omitting a specific monetary amount of damages sought.
Court: USDC Southern District of Georgia, Judge: Ray, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 4:23cv341, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Landlord Tenant
J. Usman finds the lower court properly terminated the parental rights of a mother to her three minor children on grounds of abandonment by failure to visit, abandonment by failure to support, abandonment by failure to provide a suitable home, substantial noncompliance with a permanency plan, persistent conditions, failure to manifest an ability and willingness to assume custody, and that it is in the children’s best interests. The children were removed from the mother’s care after the Tennessee Department of Children’s Services received a referral regarding the children’s living conditions and mother’s drug use. Because the mother failed to establish a stable residence, did not comply with the permanency plan, and continued using drugs, her parental rights were ultimately terminated, with all grounds of termination sufficiently supported by evidence. Affirmed.
Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals, Judge: Usman, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: M2023-00096-COA-R3-PT, Categories: Family Law, Juvenile Law
J. Lynch finds the trial court properly allowed the prosecution to name a witness the day before she testified in defendant's trial on attempted murder charges. Not only was the existence of the witness discovered while prosecutors prepped another witness for trial, but her testimony about phone calls exchanged with defendant on the day of the shooting was not particularly important to the case. Meanwhile, although there was some evidence to support defendant's self-defense claim, including threats made by the victim, his motion for acquittal on these grounds was properly denied. He knew the victim did not have a gun at the time of the shooting and knew exactly where the victim would be at that time of day. Affirmed.
Court: Ohio Court Of Appeals, Judge: Lynch, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 2023-Ohio-4368, Categories: Firearms, Murder, Self Defense
J. Kearney grants a state prosecutor’s motion to dismiss a now-exonerated mother's pro se suit alleging negligent investigative techniques were used to criminally convict her for interfering with a shared child custody order by taking her child to Florida. The prosecutor has absolute immunity against the mother’s suit.
Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court, Judge: Kearney, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv2612, Categories: Government, Immunity, Negligence
J. Gruender finds a lower court properly dismissed a defendant's challenge of removal proceedings for sexually abusing a minor. The defendant, a Native of Mexico, argued that "sexual abuse of a minor" is generic. However, the government sufficiently showed in court that sexual abuse of a minor is an aggravated felony. Affirmed.
Court: 8th Circuit, Judge: Gruender, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 22-3598, Categories: Immigration, Sex Offender
J. King awards the insured $582,200 in non-economic damages in his lawsuit trying to collect on an underinsured motorist policy after he was injured in a vehicle collision and suffered a mild traumatic brain injury. The insured presents sufficient evidence that his injury and attendant cognitive deficits impair, and will continue to impair, his ability to lead a normal life. The insurance company does not sufficiently argue that the insured's ability to enjoy some of his former hobbies negates the seriousness of his injuries.
Court: USDC Western District of Washington, Judge: King, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 2:20cv1250, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Damages, Contract
J. Gabriel finds the lower court termination of its jurisdiction over the child welfare case for the county's failure to prosecute precluded it from ruling on the ombudsman's request for production of an unredacted agency report; therefore, the court improperly disclosed the document, especially considering it dealt mainly with accusations of favoritism within the county's board of commissioners and was not relevant to the child welfare case. The ombudsman's request was entirely outside the scope of previous filings in the case and, therefore, did not deal with the court's continuing jurisdiction over already settled matters, which requires the ombudsman to destroy all copies of the report.
Court: Colorado Supreme Court, Judge: Gabriel, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 2023CO60, Categories: Family Law, Public Record, Jurisdiction
J. Bunning rules in part for school defendants in employment discrimination claims because the employee failed to demonstrate her due process rights were violated regarding the disciplinary hearing, and claims brought against the superintendent in his individual capacity must be dismissed because any action had been taken against the employee in the superintendent's official capacity. However, sex-based discrimination claims may continue because the employee demonstrated she may have been disciplined more harshly for being a woman.
Court: USDC Eastern District of Kentucky, Judge: Bunning, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 2:23cv93, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment, Due Process, Employment Discrimination
J. Sanchez finds that the trial court properly granted quo warranto relief and ordered the removal of three Mission Viejo city council members who were elected in 2018 to two-year terms. A stipulated judgment settling a lawsuit against the city required the shorter terms in order to switch from district voting to cumulative voting in 2020. The shorter terms would open up all council seats for election at the same time. It turned out that cumulative voting was not implemented in 2020, but the stipulated judgment required the two-year terms and did not allow any extension. Affirmed.
Court: California Courts Of Appeal, Judge: Sanchez, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: G061838, Categories: Elections, Municipal Law
J. Stanceu grants the United States’ motion for summary judgment in this dispute involving the classification of imported goods. United States Customs and Border Protection (Customs), classified the manufacturer's products as medicaments, as they were determined to be medicinal preparations for use in the treatment of human ailments, but the manufacturer argues the proper import category should be medical foods as they are nutritional therapy for infants with disease or disorders, and should be duty-free. The instant court finds that Customs assigned the proper classification and associated duties. Affirmed.
Court: Court of International Trade, Judge: Stanceu, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 23-170, Categories: Commerce, Trade
J. Rossman finds that the lower court improperly found in favor of the Utah Department of Corrections regarding a former employee's failure-to-accommodate claim. The former employee is missing his second and fifth digits on each hand and claims that the department, which hired him with full awareness of his disability, refused to comply with his accommodation request for a different model of handgun that he could more easily handle. While the lower court did properly rule in favor of the department on his disparate-treatment and retaliation claims stemming from the request, his failure-to-accommodate claim should have been allowed to proceed given that it was a "plausibly reasonable" request and was connected to a key feature of his job responsibilities. Affirmed in part.
Court: 10th Circuit, Judge: Rossman, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 21-4127, Categories: Employment, Employment Discrimination
J. Rubin grants, in part, a debt collection law firm’s motion to dismiss this foreclosure case alleging that the mortgage servicer violated the fair debt collection laws. The citizen failed to prove the companies deceived her regarding the loan dismissing all claims but the fair debt collection law. The law firm failed to verify this debt in a timely response.
Court: USDC Maryland, Judge: Rubin, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv452, NOS: Consumer Credit - Other Suits, Categories: Debt Collection, Foreclosure
J. Brennan grants the ERISA plan administrator's motion to dismiss, ruling its failure to transfer assets from certain passively managed investment funds cannot support a fiduciary duty claim because the comparator evidence from the participants involves actively managed funds. Meanwhile, the participants' failure to cite any similar funds with lower management fees requires dismissal of the claim for excessive fees under ERISA.
Court: USDC Northern District of Ohio, Judge: Brennan, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv256, NOS: Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) - Labor, Categories: Erisa, Fiduciary Duty, Class Action
Per curiam, the circuit finds that the district court properly dismissed class claims contending plaintiffs were stiffed on overtime while performing renovations to the Bayonne Bridge connecting New York and New Jersey. Members of Jersey-based labor unions contend they were underpaid based on rates set by union contracts while they worked on the New York side, but they failed to plead sufficient facts to state a claim for relief. Affirmed.
Court: 2nd Circuit, Judge: Per curiam, Filed On: December 4, 2023, Case #: 21-473, Categories: Labor / Unions