14 results for 'judge:"Urias"'.
J. Urias grants the employer's motion to dismiss, ruling the employee's failure to provide evidence any major life activity was limited by an adverse reaction to a previous vaccine prevents him from establishing a disability that would allow his discrimination claims to proceed. Meanwhile, the employee's failure to file administrative remedies for religious discrimination with the EEOC constitutes a failure to exhaust his administrative remedies and requires dismissal of the religious discrimination claims.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: April 26, 2024, Case #: 1:23cv361, NOS: Other Labor Litigation - Labor, Categories: Covid-19, Employment Discrimination
J. Urias denies, in part, the sheriff's department's motion to dismiss, ruling the detective's allegations of frivolous disciplinary write-ups and a demotion after he reported misconduct by several coworkers and the undersheriff are sufficient to support his claim for violations of the New Mexico Whistleblower Protection Act. However, even though the detective's reports of misconduct qualify as protected speech, his First Amendment retaliation claim must be dismissed because he fails to show how any of the individual defendants violated his free speech rights.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: April 15, 2024, Case #: 2:23cv355, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Evidence, Employment Retaliation, First Amendment
J. Urias denies, in part, the employer's motion to dismiss, ruling the employee's complaints to HR about discriminatory treatment constitute protected activity, while her negative performance reviews and interrogations by supervisors were undoubtedly adverse employment actions that can be used to support her retaliation claim. However, Supreme Court precedent prevents application of an equal protection "class of one" theory to public employment jobs; therefore, that claim will be dismissed.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: March 11, 2024, Case #: 1:21cv600, NOS: Employment - Civil Rights, Categories: Government, Equal Protection, Employment Retaliation
J. Urias denies the doctor's motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, ruling that because she owns property and registered her medical license in Maryland, diversity requirements are met and this court has jurisdiction over the estate's medical malpractice claims. Meanwhile, the federal government's motion to dismiss will also be denied to allow for limited discovery on the issue of whether the doctor was an independent contractor that would render her an employee of the U.S.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: March 6, 2024, Case #: 1:22cv188, NOS: Personal Injury - Medical Malpractice - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Government, Jurisdiction, Medical Malpractice
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[Consolidated.] J. Urias denies the gun rights advocates' motion for a preliminary injunction, ruling they are unlikely to prevail on Second Amendment claims related to the state's public health order prohibiting the carry of firearms through public parks and playgrounds. Similar bans have been implemented and upheld throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, while parks could also be considered "sensitive places" outlined by the Supreme Court in rulings that limit the scope of the right to bear arms.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: October 11, 2023, Case #: 1:23cv773, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Constitution, Firearms, Injunction
J. Urias denies the insurer's motion for summary judgment, ruling the time to sue provision in its policy with the auto body shop is ambiguous. It is not contained in the expanded business coverage section of the policy under which the claim was filed and, therefore, a jury must resolve the ambiguity and decide the case.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: August 15, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv841, NOS: Insurance - Contract, Categories: Insurance, Contract
J. Urias denies summary judgment to an equipment services company because there is genuine dispute as to whether the person who brought this suit qualifies as an oil-and-gas “broker” or “consultant,” a detail that will ultimately determine whether his claims are barred by New Mexico’s fraud law after he sued the company for allegedly breaking an oral contract.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: August 10, 2023, Case #: 1:21cv715, NOS: Other Contract - Contract, Categories: Fraud, Damages, Contract
J. Urias denies a racehorse trainer’s motion for remand after he sued the head of the New Mexico Racing Commission and others for civil rights claims. The trainer said they had suspended his license and taken other actions against him for allegedly doping his horses without giving him the opportunity to defend himself. While some parties in this case in this may have waived their right to removal given the case’s litigation history, they did not waive their “right to consent to removal by the later-served defendants.”
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: August 2, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv740, NOS: Other Civil Rights - Civil Rights, Categories: Administrative Law, Civil Rights, Jurisdiction
J. Urias grants a third-party company’s motion to intervene in a putative class-action over the alleged misclassification of workers as independent contractors. The third-party’s arguments are relevant to this case because the company not only runs an app to connect oil-and-gas workers, including the plaintiffs in this case, with jobs, but also requires users to agree to a “dispute resolution” process.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: July 31, 2023, Case #: 2:21cv1125, NOS: Fair Labor Standards Act - Labor, Categories: Employment, Technology, Labor
J. Urias denies motions for summary judgment in a convoluted dispute involving multiple trucking companies, an insurance company and others over a vehicle accident that damaged pharmaceutical goods in transport. A trucking company that was not transporting the products but was involved in the wreck brought counterclaims after it alleged that another trucking company was responsible for the incident by failing to move their vehicle out of the roadway, resulting in a rear-end collision. Other parties involved in the case sought summary judgment on those claims. Summary judgment is not appropriate at this time because there are still genuine disputes regarding this case, including whether the pharmaceutical company had entered a “principal-agent relationship or an independent contractor relationship” with the company transporting its goods.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: June 15, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv336, NOS: Other Personal Injury - Torts - Personal Injury, Categories: Tort, Vehicle, Damages
J. Urias remands to state court a lawsuit between representatives of a ranch and neighbors which the ranch alleges have failed to “properly maintain” oil and gas facilities, damaging the land. Those neighbors, the defendants in this case, were properly joined because they all conducted oil and gas operations nearby and were linked by a “common ‘series of occurrences,’” removing the “diversity jurisdiction” that would have allowed this court to hear this case.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: May 24, 2023, Case #: 1:22cv515, NOS: Torts to Land - Real Property, Categories: Environment, Tort, Jurisdiction
J. Urias mostly denies motions for summary judgment brought by an insurance company in a lawsuit against a trucking company that allegedly caused an accident with another truck carrying pharmaceutical products insured by the insurance company, damaging those products. A motion declaring the “wholesale acquisition costs” of the products to be “the accurate measure of damages” is denied because the trucking company disputes this measure and this disagreement would be best resolved through specific pretrial motions — though this court has “serious doubts” about the trucking company’s proposed analysis of damages. Summary judgment is partially granted on the trucking company’s “Affirmative Defense of Mitigation” because while the trucking company can argue at trial that the insurance company and its client did not do enough to save the products, it has not provided yet adequate evidence of this assertion.
Court: USDC New Mexico, Judge: Urias, Filed On: May 16, 2023, Case #: 1:18cv336, NOS: Other Personal Property Damage - Torts - Personal Property, Categories: Civil Procedure, Insurance, Damages