17 results for 'judge:"Higginbotham"'.
J. Higginbotham finds the district court improperly found for a school district on a hearing-impaired student's allegations it failed to properly accommodate her with interpretation services, as required by the Americans with Disabilities Act. The district court misinterpreted the guiding case law, essentially discharging the school district's duties under the ADA without judicial review. The ADA claim is not precluded by proceedings before the Texas Education Agency, and the cited case shows she was not required to exhaust her Individuals with Disabilities Education Act claim in order to pursue her separate ADA claim. Vacated.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 22-50854, Categories: Civil Rights, Education
J. Higginbotham finds the district court improperly denied Ferrellgas's motion for judgment as a matter of law. The customer was injured while using a Ferrellgas propane tank and alleges a manufacturing defect and negligence. The injured party did not produce evidence showing why a cap over the tank's valve would be considered a seal. Packaging of the tank is not sealed and there is no way of showing what might have occurred during shipping. Reversed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: March 21, 2024, Case #: 23-10019, Categories: Negligence, Product Liability
J. Higginbotham finds the district court properly convicted defendant for producing child pornography. Law enforcement learned that internet addresses associated with a church uploaded child pornography images to a website. A warranted search of the church yielded a hard drive with videos of children taking baths in the church's offices. Certain videos captured defendant working with the pastor to set up the porn shoots. The court properly denied defendant's motion to suppress statements made to investigators where he admitted to setting up the shoots, or in excluding a psychologist's testimony that defendant shows no signs of pedophilia. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: February 23, 2024, Case #: 23-40144, Categories: Sex Offender, Child Pornography, Jury Instructions
J. Higginbotham finds the district court properly convicted defendant by guilty plea for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 500 grams of meth. Defendant says the judge coerced him into withdrawing his objections to the presentence report's calculation of drug amounts by threatening to deny his acceptance of responsibility points. Even assuming the court coerced defendant, he still does not show the error affected his substantial rights. Furthermore, his contention as to how his sentencing range was affected is factually incorrect. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: February 21, 2024, Case #: 22-50837, Categories: Drug Offender, Judiciary, Sentencing
[Consolidated] J. Higginbotham finds the district court properly convicted defendants by guilty plea for fraudulent Medicare billing. The owner and an employee of the mental health rehab clinic stipulated to a loss of $3.5 million and recommended the judge order that much in restitution. Both defendants now argue the restitution order was erroneous, with the employee also saying the loss should not have been attributed to her. There was an adequate factual basis to support the pleas, and the restitution did not exceed the actual loss. The court appropriately used the total amount when calculating the sentences and defendants received the benefit of their plea agreements when the more-than-50-count indictment was dismissed. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 22-30242, Categories: Fraud, Restitution, Plea
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J. Higginbotham finds the district court properly granted the county's motion to dismiss the estate's excessive force claims. The officer fatally shot the driver after a traffic stop for toll violations, who claimed he might have his driver's license in the trunk. He opened the trunk, opened the driver's side door, then began driving away as the officer ordered him to stop. The officer is shown on dash cam reaching into the vehicle and firing. The officer was still hanging onto the moving vehicle, believing it would run him over, which supports his reasonable belief his life was in danger. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: January 23, 2024, Case #: 22-20519, Categories: Evidence, Wrongful Death, Police Misconduct
J. Higginbotham finds the trial court improperly enhanced defendant's sentence under the Armed Career Criminal Act on his conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm. Because defendant was convicted under the Texas statute for causing serious bodily injury, absent proof he used physical force, his prior offenses are not crimes of violence for purposes of the act. Furthermore, burglary of a habitation also no longer qualifies as a violent felony in Texas. Vacated.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: December 5, 2023, Case #: 19-40811, Categories: Firearms, Sentencing, Assault
J. Higginbotham finds the district court improperly found for a school district in this suit filed by a student alleging it failed to accommodate her hearing impairment. Although the district court held the student did not administratively exhaust her claims under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, mandated administrative proceedings are non-preclusive. Vacated.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham, Filed On: November 16, 2023, Case #: 22-50854, Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Due Process
J. Higginbotham finds the district court properly upheld the chemical refinery facility builder's research tax deficiency resulting from its claim for a technology research tax credit. The builder contracted away all rights to its work product and it was not paid specifically for doing research. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: November 13, 2023, Case #: 22-30764, Categories: Tax, Contract, Technology
J. Higginbotham finds the trial court properly found Honda liable for severe injuries sustained by the driver and passenger in a Honda CR-V from a side-impact accident. The court awarded over $21 million in damages. The severest injury was not caused by vehicle impact, but by the driver’s ejection from his seatbelt, causing his head to hit the passenger’s. An expert explained that the crash should have been without serious injury because the “configuration and severity” were below parameters of testing set by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. He also said that Honda’s representative admitted that it did not “run a side impact test with a far side crash test dummy.” The testimony was properly admitted, with opinions based on reliable methodologies. There was sufficient evidence for the jury to find Honda liable, and the court’s application of the statutory presumption of nonliability was properly executed on all fronts. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham, Filed On: November 7, 2023, Case #: 22-40790, Categories: Evidence, Product Liability, Experts
J. Higginbotham finds the district court properly denied qualified immunity to the Louisiana Corrections supervisory officials in this suit brought by a former inmate alleging that he was wrongfully detained for sixty days after the expiration of his prison sentence. Requiring "overdetained" inmates to rely on state habeas would deprive them of a remedy under the federal Constitution. Judge Higginbotham also states, "The problem is endemic in Louisiana, where the process for calculating release dates is so flawed... that roughly one in four inmates released will have been locked up past their release dates—for a collective total of 3,000-plus years." The officials are not entitled to qualified immunity. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: September 5, 2023, Case #: 22-30184, Categories: Civil Rights, Prisoners' Rights
J. Higginbotham finds the district court properly dismissed this employment dispute with prejudice, brought by the former employee of the Louisiana judicial district who was fired for making alleged racially motivated comments and Facebook posts. The judicial district lacks the capacity to be sued, the employee failed to plausibly allege that she was treated differently from anyone else and the judge who terminated the employee is entitled to qualified immunity. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham, Filed On: August 16, 2023, Case #: 22-30490, Categories: Judiciary, Immunity, Employment Discrimination
J. Higginbotham finds the trial court properly convicted defendant by plea agreement for possession of a firearm after a felony conviction, sentencing him to 189 months in prison after applying an Armed Career Criminal Act enhancement. A cited case that defendant says undermines another case’s conclusion that “robbery-by-threat” constitutes a violent felony does not reach the crime at issue, as it addresses offenses criminalizing attempted robberies without a use or threat of force. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 22-10544, Categories: Firearms, Robbery, Threats
J. Higginbotham finds that the trial court properly convicted defendants -- a medical doctor and two pharmacists -- of drug-related crimes under the Controlled Substances Act for their roles in a pill-mill drug trafficking operation. All evidence supports the convictions, and the prosecution's arguments are all consistent with the evidence. Defendants fail to make showings necessary to warrant plain error reversal. The pharmacist's refusal to be represented by her retained attorney amounted to a voluntarily waiver of counsel, and she fails to show the necessary prejudice for her challenges to the denial for a continuance. Affirmed.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham , Filed On: July 25, 2023, Case #: 21-10620, Categories: Drug Offender, Evidence, Conspiracy
J. Higginbotham finds the district court improperly entered summary judgment in favor of the prosthetic manufacturer in this product liability suit arising from an implant surgery resulting in a severe infection requiring removal of the device. Though the company later advised hospitals as to certain devices being subject to “cleaning processes that could result in elevated levels of bacteria,” the district court found the claims were prescribed, and that no evidence showed unreasonable danger. But the record is unclear as to whether complications ended after removal, such that the patient’s recovery would have alerted him to fault before the manufacturer’s advisement. Relevant questions are best left to a jury. Reversed and remanded.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham, Filed On: July 21, 2023, Case #: 22-30405, Categories: Health Care, Product Liability, Discovery
J. Higginbotham finds the district court, sitting as appellate court, properly dismissed the asset manager’s appeal of the bankruptcy court’s dismissal of its objection to an order to pay professional fees associated with a complex bankruptcy proceeding. The asset manager fails to establish that the adversary proceeding impacts it other than speculatively. Case law pointed to in an attempt to argue that inclusion in the interests supports a right of action addresses only shareholder claims against a federal agency under the Administrative Procedure Act, and is not a bankruptcy case, doesn’t address the bankruptcy code, the person aggrieved standard, or issues related to the appeal.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham, Filed On: July 19, 2023, Case #: 22-10575, Categories: Bankruptcy, Securities, Business Expectancy
J. Higginbotham finds the district court improperly dismissed this suit arising from alleged violations of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. A school employee assigned to accommodate the party’s minor son’s disabilities allegedly verbally harassed him and threw a trash can at him, causing injury. Certain claims were filed out of court, but the mother still had the right to file a separate action, though the court dismissed it for failure to exhaust administrative remedies. This suit was then filed and dismissed on grounds of issue preclusion. The Supreme Court recently concluded in a similar case that IDEA claims do not require administrative exhaustion “where a plaintiff brings a suit under another federal law for compensatory damages.” Vacated and remanded.
Court: 5th Circuit, Judge: Higginbotham, Filed On: June 22, 2023, Case #: 22-50295, Categories: Civil Rights, Education, Due Process