18 results for 'judge:"Seabright"'.
J. Seabright refuses to dismiss part of a fired employee’s complaint against state deputy attorneys general for informing his Japanese employer about his previous litigation history. One of these attorneys general does not have qualified immunity as there is evidence of the deputy attorney general contacting his former employer. There is also evidence of malice and that she would have known about the employee’s employment contract at the Japanese company. Emotional distress claims are dismissed, however, as the act was not “outrageous.”
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: April 29, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv359, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Government, Interference With Contract, Employment Retaliation
J. Seabright denies reconsideration and a motion to stay an order to quash issued against owners of a copyrighted film that subpoenaed the communications company for its subscribers’ information. The communications company merely assigning IP addresses to its users does not constitute a referral to copyrighted material nor does not preventing its routing or filtering equal transmitting the material. Because the communications company has previously worked with the owners and committed to preserving the information regardless of subpoenas or quashes, staying is not necessary.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv426, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Communications, Copyright, Evidence
J. Seabright partially dismisses parts of a wrongful termination suit against the orchestra and the musicians’ union by a former flutist with the orchestra, which fired her after she did not get a Covid-19 vaccine. The flutist’s claim that the union aided and abetted the firing is preempted by labor laws. In claims against the orchestra, claims related to religious and disability accommodations are not dismissed, as the orchestra did not engage in an interactive process with the flutist who attempted to bring evidence of her religious beliefs and documented sensitivity to vaccines to the orchestra before her firing. Retaliation claims do partially survive though, as the flutist was subject to adverse action without even going through the interactive process.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: March 29, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv415, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Covid-19, Employment Discrimination, Employment Retaliation
J. Seabright refused to completely dismiss an employment suit against the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra by its former bassist, who said his termination based on his refusal to get a Covid-19 vaccination constituted religious discrimination. The orchestra did not show how an interactive process for the bassist’s religious exemption would have caused undue hardship or that placing the musician on leave was an adverse action. Further, allowing the bassist to play while being tested and masked would have fallen under the mayor’s pandemic proclamation exception, especially since he plays an instrument that would not require removal of a mask. Part of a retaliation claim is dismissed though as the bassist does not show being placed on leave was solely due to his refusal to vaccinate.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: March 28, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv395, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Covid-19, Employment Discrimination
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J. Seabright partially denies summary judgment to the university in a dispute with its women’s softball head coach, who claims the school refused to pay her the full salary for head coaches, despite paying male coaches more. The coach established that she and the male coaches, including her predecessor, were similarly experienced and were classified as part-time, just as she was, despite the university claiming her lower pay was based on the job status. The coach’s retaliation claims, however, meet the burden for summary judgment as there is no evidence that she suffered negative consequences for reported the pay gap, as was even promoted to head coach after the initial complaints.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: March 13, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv400, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Education, Evidence, Employment Discrimination
J. Seabright quashes a subpoena to the communications companies issued to discover the IP addresses of those filesharing and distributing a studio’s copyrighted films. The communications companies were used only as a “conduit” for the distribution and therefore falls under a safe harbor provision that renders the subpoena invalid. Just because the companies assigned an IP address to the distributors does not mean that they provided links or referrals to the copyrighted material.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: January 30, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv426, NOS: Copyrights - Property Rights, Categories: Copyright
J. Seabright dismisses claims against the president, several states and their attorney generals blaming them for a self-representing individual’s student loan debt, finding that they all possess 11th Amendment immunity from the claims.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: December 12, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv470, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Debt Collection, Government
J. Seabright denies the suing insurance company’s motion to dismiss a counterclaim for failure to plead a written agreement’s existence. The counterclaim does not allege that the reinsurance agreement is missing nor was it the only an oral contract. The sued insurer’s counterclaim is plausible, setting forth enough detail to explain the contract’s existence.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: October 31, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv198, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Seabright denies summary judgment to the government and the IRS in case of a Japanese resident’s failure to file a foreign bank account report for several years. The failure to file was likely not willful, but rather a result of the fact that the resident does not speak English and lives primarily in Japan, and relied on an accountant and a mistranslated form that indicated that non-residents were exempt from this filing.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: October 10, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv63, NOS: Taxes (U.S. Plaintiff or Defendant) - Federal Tax Suits, Categories: Government, Tax
J. Seabright grants the various dismissal motions filed in this pro se lawsuit alleging multiple constitutional violations "against scores of defendants." The complaint, which totals over 500 pages in length, contains "highly generalized claims, with little reference to specific harm caused by any defendant to plaintiff." The court will dismiss all of the federal claims, though the plaintiff will be given an opportunity to explain how the complaint could be amended "to state a timely claim under federal law."
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: August 22, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv6, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Procedure, Constitution
J. Seabright partially denies summary judgment in a Fair Credit Reporting Act case to Experian, finding that Experian did not willfully misrepresent a consumer’s credit but may have negligently done so when relying on information provided by the bank. However, summary judgment is granted to Experian in regards to the consumer’s damages as she did not submit proper testimony that the credit report affected her medical well-being or that the report caused her to be denied a credit card.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: August 4, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv334, NOS: Consumer Credit - Other Suits, Categories: Bankruptcy, Consumer Law
J. Seabright grants summary judgment to a Hawaii Police Department officer for false arrest claims brought by an individual he arrested for a sexual assault. The officer had probable cause to arrest the suspect based on the victim’s positive identification and other evidence, as he did not know at the time that the suspect was being monitored via ankle monitor. Although the suspect’s monitor showed that he was miles away, evidence indicated that the ankle monitor had been tampered with, granting the officer probable cause.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: July 12, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv264, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Police Misconduct
J. Seabright dismisses an amended complaint by a former Republican candidate for governor claiming that Hawaii’s current governor and lieutenant governor were illegally sworn into office while their elections were supposedly still being contested. The former candidate is still unable to state a claim beyond a “generalized grievance.” His former candidacy in the primary elections does not grant him standing to challenge the general election.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: July 3, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv528, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Civil Rights, Elections
J. Seabright dismisses wrongful foreclosure and real estate fraud claims brought by several individuals against the state, court employees, including two judges, law firms, financial institutions and loan servicers. The complaint does not detail how each played a role in the foreclosure process. The state and court officials are immune to the claims.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: June 21, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv432, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Fraud, Foreclosure
J. Seabright dismisses claims of Environmental Species Act violations against several American Samoan telecommunication companies. Neither the American Samoa residents who brought the complaint nor the telecommunications companies have any significant ties to Hawaii and therefore lack jurisdiction to bring the complaint to the Hawaiian district court. Related motions for temporary restraining orders and for summary judgment are also denied.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: June 16, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv377, NOS: Environmental Matters - Other Suits, Categories: Environment, Jurisdiction
J. Seabright partially grants summary judgment to the U.S. Postal Service on several claims of retaliation brought by an employee. The employee could not show that five of the seven alleged retaliatory acts were related to either his filing of a equal employment opportunity complaint or that his supervisors had knowledge that he was affiliated with another employee that filed an complaint. A claim for hostile work environment therefore also is denied.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: June 2, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv553, NOS: Civil Rights - Habeas Corpus, Categories: Employment Retaliation
[Consolidated.] J. Seabright denies a former state prosecutor’s petition to release from custody following her conviction for conspiracy and fraud. Her multiple claims of ineffective counsel for separate trial attorneys are time-barred as she did not file those claims until over year after the trial and a forfeiture order filed after the judgment does not restart or extend the statute of limitations. Covid-19 quarantine restrictions demonstrably did not prevent her from filing the petition on time as she did have access to law library computers. The attorneys’ failure to file the petition within the proper is further not considered ineffective counsel as there is no constitutional right to counsel in post-conviction proceedings.
Court: USDC Hawaii, Judge: Seabright, Filed On: May 17, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv336, NOS: Motions to Vacate Sentence - Prisoner Petitions, Categories: Government, Legal Malpractice, Covid-19