39 results for 'judge:"Hurd"'.
J. Hurd partially denies Hamilton College’s motion for summary judgment and preserves a male college student’s Title IX and breach of contract claims alleging the college’s decision to expel him on charges of sexual assault was motivated by anti-male bias. The court finds a jury could conclude the college exhibited gender bias due to several irregularities in his hearing, as well as external pressures from the U.S. Department of Education to aggressively pursue complaints of sexual misconduct.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: April 18, 2024, Case #: 6:22cv214, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Education
J. Hurd dismisses claims for due process, age discrimination and equal protection against an Upstate New York municipality and its town board members alleging they unlawfully reduced and altered a retired officer’s medical insurance benefits and subsequently remands his remaining state law claims back to New York Supreme Court. Notably, his due process claim fails because he fails to allege that he has a cognizable property interest in his retiree health benefits.
Court: USDC Western District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: March 26, 2024, Case #: 5:23cv1467, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Due Process, Equal Protection, Employment Discrimination
J. Hurd preserves an employment discrimination, retaliation and quid pro quo sexual harassment case against a Hudson Valley-based healthcare provider. The litigant alleges the company’s owner touched her inappropriately throughout her employment and ultimately fired her after she denied his advances. Though many of the acts that she alleges under her claim for hostile work environment occurred prior to 2018, the court finds the continuing violation doctrine applies. However, claims filed by the litigant’s daughter, alleging she also suffered sex discrimination and retaliation, are dismissed.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: March 20, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv1184, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment Discrimination
J. Hurd preserves claims for employment discrimination and retaliation brought against a healthcare while at the same time enters judgment in its favor on a claim for disparate pay. The litigant, a Black woman employed as a coding analyst, sufficiently alleges the decision to terminate her employment was pretext for race discrimination and in retaliation for her complaint for sexual harassment. The court says a jury will have to determine whether the sexual harassment she endured was sufficiently severe or pervasive to establish a claim for gender discrimination.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: March 15, 2024, Case #: 5:20cv1382, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
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J. Hurd preserves claims for takings, excessive fines and unjust enrichment, finding they plausibly allege a New York county violated their rights under the Constitution’s takings and excessive fines clauses when it sold their homes at tax foreclosure sales to recover unpaid taxes without providing them the excess proceeds. A rash of similar complaints have been filed throughout the state following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that found a Minnesota resident successfully challenged the county’s decision to retain the surplus proceeds from the sale of his condo.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: March 12, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv1311, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Tax
J. Hurd tosses a self-represented New York State Thruway employee’s discrimination and retaliation complaint, finding it fails to allege the agency’s decision to issue him several warnings for refusing to wear a mask around employees during the Covid-19 pandemic, which led to a negative performance review, was motivated by either discriminatory or retaliatory animus.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: 6:22cv337, NOS: Other Labor Litigation - Labor, Categories: Covid-19, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Hurd grants partial summary judgment to a group of Onondaga County sheriffs on a retired sergeant’s First Amendment retaliation claims, finding his allegations that he suffered retaliation after he reported several incidences of misconduct during his tenure, including allegations that a doctor at the Onondaga County Justice Center altered the records of an inmate who committed suicide, are wholly speculative.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: February 28, 2024, Case #: 5:18cv1218, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Employment Retaliation, First Amendment
J. Hurd grants summary judgment to the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Department on a woman’s false arrest, unlawful search and seizure and municipal liability claims stemming from charges that she used counterfeit money to buy groceries at a Wegmans supermarket. It was later discovered that she obtained the fake bills from an ATM installed at the grocery store and was soon after released from police custody. The officer had probable cause at the time to arrest her following a review of in-store surveillance footage and after she admitted to using the counterfeit money.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: February 22, 2024, Case #: 5:18cv837, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Police Misconduct
J. Hurd enters default judgment against an electrical subcontractor, finding it liable for violations under New York Lien law in the amount of $920,000 stemming from its unfinished work on a solar electricity construction project. The litigant, a general contractor, alleged the subcontractor walked off the project prior to completing its work and then demanded an additional sum to resume. However, the court sets aside default judgment against the subcontractor’s owner, finding his absence was not willful, his defenses to the claims are meritorious and the order will not prejudice the litigant.c
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: February 20, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv771, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Construction, Contract
J. Hurd declines to reconsider a prior court ruling dismissing a engineering consultancy firm’s requests for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against a former executive which seek to prevent him from taking any actions that would violate the restrictive covenants of his employment contract. The court ruled the former executive’s pending California lawsuit to determine his rights under the contract takes priority, and the firm fails to present any new evidence or law that would counteract that ruling.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: February 14, 2024, Case #: 1:24cv76, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Restraining Order, Contract
J. Hurd grants a self-represented litigant’s motion for reconsideration and reinstates his fabricated evidence claim against a group of Syracuse police officers and detectives. He alleges the authorities fabricated evidence to frame him for a murder cold case. The court finds that, due to a change in the prevailing law following Second Circuit’s ruling in Barnes v. New York City, the underlying events in his claim satisfy the requirement that he show a causal connection between the alleged falsified evidence and a deprivation of his liberty interests.
Court: USDC Eastern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 5:20cv1489, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Evidence, Due Process
J. Hurd preserves a hairstylist’s claims for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress and tortious interference with business relations that allege a beauty supply store in Schenectady, New York, falsely accused her of shoplifting and discussed the events in front of other customers, which ultimately hurt her business. She plausibly alleges the store’s allegations to local authorities were made with actual malice. The court also finds that the crime of shoplifting is considered a “serious crime” pursuant to a slander per se claim.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: February 8, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv666, NOS: Assault, Libel, & Slander - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Defamation, Emotional Distress, Interference With Contract
J. Hurd preserves on a motion to dismiss a citizen’s false arrest, excessive force and unreasonable search claims against a group of Upstate New York police officers stemming from an incident during a welfare check. The citizen, who suffers from bipolar disorder and depression and has had suicidal thoughts in the past, sufficiently alleges that the officers entered his house without his consent, arrested him without cause and tasered him even though he posed no immediate threat.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: January 11, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv1358, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Police Misconduct
J. Hurd grants final approval to a class action settlement to resolve claims that Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute failed to reimburse its students for on-campus services after converting to online-only teaching in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. While the full settlement amount was not disclosed in the ruling, named representatives of the class action suit will each receive $10,000, and class counsel will receive $2.16 million in attorney fees and $119,360 in costs.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: January 9, 2024, Case #: 1:20cv470, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Education, Covid-19, Class Action
J. Hurd grants a preliminary injunction and orders the lessor of various parcels of land in Upstate New York for the construction and operation of solar energy farms to execute easements to allow NYSEG, a regional utility company, to connect the facilities to the energy grid. The lessor refuses to execute the easements until it is able to determine whether it can receive federal aid under the Inflation Reduction Act for the projects, which has stalled the projects. The court finds the tenants will most likely prevail on their claims that the forced delays violate their respective agreements and run the risk of damaging the litigants’ reputations with the state’s solar energy department, which could prevent it from receiving state aid for the future projects.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: January 8, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv971, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Energy, Injunction
J. Hurd dismisses a putative class action consumer fraud and false advertising lawsuit against Tom’s of Maine, finding the claims fail to allege a reasonable consumer would be led to believe, based on its packaging, that its antiplaque and whitening toothpaste product helps prevent periodontal diseases like gingivitis.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: December 8, 2023, Case #: 6:23cv110, NOS: Other Fraud - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Consumer Law, Class Action, False Advertising
J. Hurd preserves a homeowner’s single claim for conversion against JPMorgan Chase, which alleges it accepted a joint homeowner’s insurance check for $81,353, issued to cover losses to their home stemming from a frozen pipe that burst, without the homeowner’s endorsement. He provides enough evidence to allege that he had constructive possession of the check, and that the endorsee of the check, who later absconded with the funds, was acting as the co-payee’s agent.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: December 7, 2023, Case #: 5:23cv223, NOS: Negotiable Instrument - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Conversion
J. Hurd rejects a legal challenge to New York State’s firearm licensing requirements brought by two state residents who were denied firearm licenses by a county court judge on the basis of past criminal histories, which they argue is a violation of their constitutional rights. The judge, who acted as a statutory licensing officer in this case, is protected by judicial immunity, their claim for declaratory relief is denied on the basis that they fail to establish the interests of the judge are sufficiently adverse to their own, and their claim seeking an injunction enjoining state officials from enforcing the regulations are barred under federal civil rights law.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: November 21, 2023, Case #: 1:15cv658, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Constitution, Firearms
J. Hurd denies an insurer’s motion to exclude two experts’ testimony seeking to rebut claims that a manufacturer’s exhaust fan was defective and was the source of a fire that damaged an insured’s apartment building. The court finds their testimony, which suggests the fire was resulted from wood placed near a heating source, is sufficiently based on reliable principles and methods. The court further grants the insurer’s motion to preclude the experts’ cumulative testimony.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: November 7, 2023, Case #: 8:22cv1356, NOS: Property Damage Product Liability - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Insurance, Product Liability, Experts
J. Hurd denies, in part, a motion to dismiss and preserves two women’s false arrest, excessive force and malicious prosecution claims against two DeWitt police officers that alleged they forcibly arrested the litigants without cause after they attempted to leave a Walmart following an altercation with a separate group of women inside the store. The court finds their claims are not a rehash of their previous state law action for purposes of res judicata because the state court judge overseeing their claims had exceeded his authority by ruling on the merits of their claims despite initially dismissing the complaint for defective service.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: October 5, 2023, Case #: 5:23cv390, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Jurisdiction, Police Misconduct
J. Hurd preserves claims for excessive force, failure to intervene and battery against a group of police officers and the Village of Clayton stemming from an incident in which the litigant was forcefully ejected from a local bar after starting a fight with other patrons. The court finds poor-quality footage of the incident fails does little to refute the litigant's claims, thus leaves it up to a jury to resolve.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 5:20cv1283, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Police Misconduct
J. Hurd grants class certification to a General Electric employee's one-count class action ERISA complaint that seeks to challenge GE's practice of excluding coverage for mental health and substance abuse treatment which is considered "unproven, experimental or investigational". The litigants suffered a concrete injury for purposes of standing when they were forced to pay more than $68,000 in medical costs for their adoptive son's mental health treatment even though he suffers from disorders which are expressly covered under the health plan.
Court: USDC Northern District of New York, Judge: Hurd, Filed On: September 14, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv553, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Erisa, Class Action