Short Form: 3/20

Second Circuit:

Arzuaga v. Quiros, Faucher, Cieboter, et al. -- Prisoner law - Where a petitoner received back SSA payments, it is not a cause for revocation of IFP (pauper) status, as they cannot access these finds while incarcerated;  IFP does not require prisoner to exhaust all personal resources in costs of the appeals.                                                                                                                                                   

Fourth Circuit:

Amanda Smith v. R. Ray S1983 - Denial of qualified immunity upheld, as excessive force need not be on all fours with that described in precedent to be clearly prohibited by the Constitution; tackling the suspect in response to an innocent question was too much.

Bonnilyn Mascio v. Carolyn Colvin  --  SSI/Administrative Law - ALJ erred in not specifically defining the other work that the petitioner was capable of; There is no per se rule for remand in these cases, but remand should be ordered where the ALJ's analysis sufficiently frustrates appellate review.

 US v. Xavier Lymas -- Sentencing - Court committed procedural error in not sufficiently explaining its reasons for the departure from Guidelines where it simply believed that the Guidelines didn't effectuate goals of sentencing, even in a 'mine run' case.

Fifth Circuit:

Wendy Davis, et al v. Rick Perry, et al -- Election Law/ Fee Shifting:  Where a district during the pendency of a challenge adopts the court-authorized plan, the plaintiff is not necessarily entitled to fees where the specific challenges raised by the suit are not remedied in the plan.

USA v. Justin Ortiz -- Fourth Amendment: Given that the deft was told that he was free to leave, the stop was noncustodial, and no Miranda warning was needed prior to the admissions.  Dissent: when they went into the government's car, things changed.

Sixth Circuit:

Elizabeth Goodwin v. City of Painesville  -- S1983: Denial of Qualified Immunity in tasering case.

Lexon Insurance Co. v. Aziz Naser --- FRCP/ K -- Appeals clock ran from entry of amended judgment, not the simple ruling on the Rule 59(a) motion; as the Officer of the Corporation signed the instrument twice, once in personal capacity, once in corporate.

USA v. Raymond Burch, Jr.  -- FRCP - When challenging a post-judgment ancillary order allowing a party additional time to file a motion, a motion to dismiss does not reach the question -- there must be a cross-appeal of the ancillary order.

Eighth Circuit (Summaries from Circuit):

133265P.pdf  03/20/2015  Karl Adams  v.  ActionLink
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   13-3265
                          and No:   13-3380
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas - Little Rock   
   [PUBLISHED] [Melloy, Author, with Benton and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Fair Labor Standards Act. The district court did not err in 
   determining that certain of defendant's employees were non-exempt under 
   the Fair Labor Standards Act as they performed non-exempt promotional work 
   for the company to stimulate sales that would be made by someone else and 
   were not, themselves, outside salesman for FLSA purposes; nor were they 
   administrative employees as they did not meet the tests for administrative 
   employees established in 29 C.F.R. Sec. 541.200; the district court erred 
   in determining that one group of the employee plaintiffs had waived their 
   right to pursue additional claims against defendant by cashing proposed 
   settlement checks; the court joins other courts which have held that the 
   plain language of 29 U.S.C. Sec. 216(c) requires an agreement by the 
   employee to accept a certain amount of back wages and requires the 
   employer to pay those wages; this involves more than simply tendering a 
   check and having the employee cash it, as an agreement must exist 
   independently of the payment; here, the language on the checks was 
   insufficient as a matter of law to constitute proper notice to the 
   employees and did not serve as a release of their rights. 
  
141595P.pdf  03/20/2015  Tri-National, Inc.  v.  Canal Insurance Company
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   14-1595
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - Cape Girardeau   
   [PUBLISHED] [Riley, Author, with Colloton and Kelly, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Motor Carrier Act of 1980. Tri-National held a default 
   judgment against Canal's insured and was the real party in interest under 
   Missouri law; Alabama court did not render a final judgment on the merits 
   of Tri-National's present claim on the MCS-90 endorsement issue since that 
   claim was voluntarily dismissed, and the present claim was not barred by 
   res judicata; Tri-National could assert its rights as a member of the 
   general public under the MCS-90 endorsement and that fact that its insurer 
   had satisfied its claim did not preclude this action or absolve defendant 
   of its obligations under the endorsement. 


132918P.pdf   03/19/2015  Sletten & Brettin Orthodontics  v.  Continental Casualty Company
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:  13-2918
   U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis    
   [PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Murphy and Smith, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Insurance. The policy in question excluded coverage for 
   intent-to-injure acts; since the complaint against the insured alleged 
   defamation with intent to injure,the policy did not provide coverage and 
   the insurer did not have a duty to defend the suit. 


Ninth Circuit:


ABDULHALIM ALI V. ROBERT ROGERS -- Employment/Admiralty -- As the claims sounded in statutory contract, not Admiralty tort, the proper defendant was the government, not the ship's owner.

SOPHIA DAIRE V. MARY LATTIMORE -- AEDPA - Deference to state court holding on Ineffective Assistance claim.


BERNARD PICOT V. DEAN WESTON -- Personal Jurisdiciton -- Insufficient purposeful availment even when the deft travelled to the forum state in order to make the agreement and the agreement had ties to the forum state.


FREDDY CURIEL V. AMY MILLER -- AEDPA/Habeas - Two unadorned citations in summary denial of Habeas did not mean that the Court reached the merits of the claim in a manner that vacated the procedural default found by the court below; No equitable tolling of AEDPA SOL, even given pro se petitioner.


CHRIS KOHLER V. EDDIE BAUER -- ADA: Court erred in finding compliance, given statements in DOJ manual interpreting the Act.


BRUCE LISKER V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES -- S1983/FRCP: Police fakery of reports is not so inextricably tied to their testimony at trial so as to give them immunity; Motion for summary judgment on merits can't be reached here under ancillary jurisdiction.


Eleventh Circuit:



Curtis J. Collins v. Experian Information Solutions, Inc. -- Summary denial of rehearing, as issue was waived by not being raised below.


George Russell Curtis, Sr. Living Trust, et al. v. William F. Perkins -- FRE - Although summares based on reports were hearsay due to the underlying data, they were admnissible under the Business Records exception, which can be established using hearsay testimony.

USA v. Bobby Jenkins -- Question certified to Florida: whether a guilty plea under a withheld adjudication counts as a conviction for purposes of being a predicate offense.  (State courts had hinted yes, binding Circuit precedent said no.)



Federal Circuit:

SENJU PHARMACEUTICAL CO. v. LUPIN LIMITED -- Patent: Obviousness. [Which isn't to us.]





DC Circuit:

USA v. Luis Munoz Miranda -- Crim/Extraterritorial jurisdiction:  Unconditional guilty pleas waived all grounds for appeal except subject matter jurisdiction; Extraterritorial application of a statute goes to merits and is therefore subject to waiver of appeal in guilty plea; Whether the Act applies to a specific ship is a question of subject-matter jurisdiction for the courts and not an element to be found by the finder of fact; Vessels were in fact covered by the Act, given deference to intermediate factual findings below.

USA v. Mark-Anthony Adams -- Sentencing: Appeals waiver not subject to the miscarriage of justice exception despite bar of proffered medical testimony.

Short Form: 3/18

First Circuit:

Vaello-Carmona v. Siemens Medical Solutions USA,  -- ADA:  ADA and correlative Puerto Rico law claim survive the death of the plaintiff and can be inherited.

US v. Ngige  -- Conspiracy/SOL -  Deft claiming that prosecution for Conspiracy was time-barred relied on a different theory of the crime than articulated in the indictment.  As there were overt acts in furtherance within the relevant time frame according to the indictment's theory of the conspiracy, the case is not time-barred; Sufficient evidence.

US, ex rel. Escobar v. Universal Health Services, Inc  -- FCA/Fraud: Complinace with appropriate regulations is a precondiiton of payment for purposes of the False Claims Act (and therefore, a breach of same gives the c/a); Claim pleaded with sufficient particularity.

Second Circuit:

Ricci v. Teamsters Union Local 456 -- Communications/SOP Web hosting company shielded from liability under safe harbor in the Communications Decency Act; Union's claims time-barred.

Third Circuit:

John Cottillion v. United Refining Co -- ERISA: Employees did not have to exhaust Plan-based remedies to vindicate statutory rights, as there was a fixed policy denying the claims; Early Retirement claims vested according to the terms of the Plan, so those denied the benefit have standing to challenge, notwithstanding the fact that the denial did not invade the statutory bottom limit for such benefits;  "(I)mpermissible sur-reply" stricken.

Sixth Circuit:

Sierra Club v. EPA  -- Standing/ Environmental:  Reasonable inference of direct increase of emissions due to challenged policy suffices for Article III Injury for Club member living in the metropolitan area; Chevron deference to Agency interpretation; State must assess whether company is takking all reasonable measures to abate pollutants, regardless of whether the regulatory threshold measurement is exceeded.

Seventh Circuit:


Emir Lenjinac v. Eric Holder, Jr Immigration:  For a Convention Against Torture claim,  Petitioner must establish preponderance of likelihood of adverse treatment, not merely that the potential harms are congruent with those envisaged by the statute; At one point, Court uses "fulsome" to mean "complete," causing minor conniptions on this end. 

Eighth Circuit (Summaries from Court)

142805P.pdf  03/18/2015  United States  v.  Michael Munz
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   14-2805
   U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Dubuque   
   [PUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Loken, Bye and Smith, Circuit Judges] 
   Criminal case - Sentencing. The district court did not err when it 
   declined to consider a proposed Amendment to the guidelines in setting 
   defendant's sentence; sentence was not substantively unreasonable. 
 
  
146034P.pdf  03/18/2015  Jack Bowman  v.  Daniel J. Casamatta
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   14-6034
   U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Nebraska - Omaha   
   [PUBLISHED] [Nail, Author, with Kressel and Schermer, Bankruptcy Judges] 
   Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. The bankruptcy court did not abuse its 
   discretion by denying debtors' motion to reopen where their case had been 
   dismissed for cause before it was fully administered; no error in refusing 
   to hold a hearing on the motion as there is no requirement in Section 350 
   that the court provide a hearing on a motion to reopen. 
  
146045P.pdf  03/18/2015  Daniel Gess  v.  Randolph Brooks Credit Union
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   14-6045
   U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis   
   [PUBLISHED] [Federman, Author, with Saladino and Nail, Bankruptcy Judges] 
   Bankruptcy Appellate Panel. Order granting Credit Union relief from the 
   automatic stay with respect to debtors' vehicle affirmed as the Credit 
   Union had a perfected security interest in the van and established that 
   its interest was not adequately affected. 


142805P.pdf  03/18/2015  United States  v.  Michael Munz
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   14-2805
   U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Iowa - Dubuque   
   [PUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Loken, Bye and Smith, Circuit Judges] 
   Criminal case - Sentencing. The district court did not err when it 
   declined to consider a proposed Amendment to the guidelines in setting 
   defendant's sentence; sentence was not substantively unreasonable. 


   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - Cape Girardeau   
   [PUBLISHED] [Kelly, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Smith, Circuit 
   Judge] 
   Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Defendant Corey Turner lacked 
   standing to contest the issuance of warrants for Precise Location 
   Information on two other defendants' cell phones as he did not own, 
   possess or use the cell phones which were the objects of the warrants and 
   did not have a legitimate expectation of privacy in the phones or the 
   location information; the government made the requisite showing of 
   necessity to justify the issuance of wiretap orders; assuming that Corey 
   Turner's cell phone was a tracking device for the purposes of the 
   procedural requirements of Rule 41, the combination order in the case, 
   granting both wire tap authorization and permission to seize PLI from 
   Corey Turner's phone, failed to meet a substantial number of Rule 41's 
   procedural requirements; while the court is concerned about the number of 
   Rule 41 violations in the case, Turner has failed to show any prejudice or 
   that the government acted in reckless disregard of the Rule, and exclusion 
   of the evidence is not the proper remedy for the violations; in order to 
   admit testimony from a co-conspirator regarding the meaning of certain 
   drug-related terms in intercepted calls, the government should have 
   qualified her as an expert; however, the error did not affect the jury's 
   verdict as she and other witnesses interpreted the terms without 
   objection; before admitting evidence regarding defendants' prior drug 
   convictions, the court should have required the government to explain its 
   purpose in offering the evidence to exclude the possibility that the 
   evidence was being admitted solely to prove propensity; any error in 
   admission of the evidence in this case was harmless in light of the other 
   evidence in the case; where only the video, without sound, of defendant 
   Anthony Turner's prior arrest was played, any error in playing the video 
   was harmless as the jury did not hear the statements to which Turner 
   objected; evidence was sufficient to support defendant Donald Turner's 
   conviction for conspiracy as it was up to the jury to determine the 
   credibility of the witnesses against Turner and the jurors were properly 
   instructed on their responsibilities, including weighing any benefits the 
   witnesses received for their testimony; evidence was sufficient to support 
   defendant Antonio Turner's conviction for conspiracy; Antonio Turner's 
   sentence was set by the enhanced penalty provisions of 21 U.S.C. Sec. 851 
   and any error in calculating the quantity of drugs attributable to him was 
   harmless; no error in admitting evidence of drugs distributed by 
   co-defendants where the distribution was reasonably foreseeable by 
   defendant Donald Turner; the Section 851 notice provided defendant Donald 
   Turner was adequate and any error in the notice did not deprive him of due 
   process; claims of ineffective assistance at sentencing should be raised 
   in a collateral proceeding under 28 U.S.C. Section 2255. 

Ninth Circuit:


USA V. ESTEFANI ZARAGOZA-MOREIRA --  Crim. Pro:  Border Agent had duty to preserve video, as it was manifestly relevant to deft's claim of Duress.  


SETH BAKER V. MICROSOFT CORPORATION -- Class Actions: Denial of certification reversed (after stipulation to voluntary dismissal of claim with prejudice and without settlement given denial of attempt at interlocutory appeal); District court erred in holding that individual issues predominated over shared issues;   Special Concurrence: denial of certification in a sister District is entitled to a rebuttable presumption of correctness.
SEATTLE MIDEAST AWARENESS CAMP V. KING COUNTY -- Free Speech: Ads on busses are a limited public forum; denial of specific ad wasn't viewpoint-based , as all ads referencing the issue in question were banned; Dissent: Designated public forum was created by selling ads.

Tenth Circuit:

Nixon v. Pryor -- Prisoner Claim: Actual innocence claim insufficient to toll Statute of Limitations.

Short Form: 3/17

Balance of summaries TK.  - MB

First Circuit:

US v. Gray  -- Amended opinion. [cf. https://youtu.be/EBHLcBxQZiM ]

United States v. Brigham and Women's Hospital  -- FRCP: JMOL 50(b) motion can only restate those grounds raised in a 50(a) motion (failure to argue insufficient evidence at the wrap-up of the other side's case means that you can't argue insufficient evidence after the case is decided); sufficient evidence for finder of fact to rule for deft, even when deft calls no expert witnesses; In ruling on a Motion for a New Trial, court need not individually re-weigh evidence, but need only conclude that the finder of fact could reasonably decided as they did; No abuse of discretion in case (without written explanation) not being reassigned on remand, despite standing court rule to the contrary; Hard data underlying expert witnesses' findings can be inadmissible hearsay; No abuse of discretion in allowing Relator to be questioned as to his financial motives for bringing the FCA suit; No reversible error in jury instructions or special verdict form that divided liability findings between the defts.

US v. Rossignol  Sentencing: No procedural error in within-guidelines drug conspiracy sentence not reduced due to deft being senior, upstanding member of the community where court says that it is increasing the sentence due to the fact that the deft was a senior, upstanding member of the community.

Second Circuit:

Fischer v. Smith -- AEDPA: State Court still entitled to double deference on Ineffective Assistance claim resolved briefly and in the alternative. 

Fourth Circuit:

Roman Zak v. Chelsea Therapeutics International  -- Securities; FRCP:  Sufficient context-intensive strong inference of scienter in pleadings, given that the drug company left out a few hurdles to drug approval when talking to investors; Error in allowing court to take judicial notice of internal SEC documents showing that the defts did not transact the stock during the period in question was not harmless.

US v. Jorge Cornell  -- RICO, Sufficient Evidence.

Oteria Moses v. Cashcall, Inc -- Bankruptcy, Arbitration -  Court did no err in retaining piece of Bankruptcy action in face of compelled arbitration.

Fifth Circuit:

USA v. Kendrick Fulton -- Prisoner litigation - petition was second/successive.

Sixth Circuit:

Brenda Colosi v. Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc.   Discovery/Fees: Where one party delivers actual computer in response to demand for computer files, the court does not err in listing the required technical services as costs that can be potentially shifted against the party if otherwise prompted.

Eighth Circuit: (Summaries from Circuit website)

133252P.pdf  03/17/2015  Argonaut Great Central Ins.  v.  Audrain County Joint
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   13-3252
   U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri - Hannibal   
   [PUBLISHED] [Bye, Author, with Colloton and Gruender, Circuit Judges] 
   Civil case - Torts. The court had jurisdiction in this interlocutory 
   appeal over the question of whether defendant's purchase of insurance 
   waived the common law sovereign immunity it might otherwise have under Mo. 
   Rev. Stat. Sec. 537.600; the court lacked jurisdiction to address the 
   question of whether defendant's purchase of insurance also waived any 
   statutory immunity it might have under Mo. Rev. Stat. Sec. 190.307 as a 
   911 call center, as that statute does not extend to defendant a 
   substantive right to be free from the burdens of litigation; the district 
   court did not err in determining that defendant did not present sufficient 
   evidence that it and its insurer had a pre-existing agreement to attach a 
   sovereign immunity endorsement to the insurance policy and made a mutual 
   mistake when they failed to do so; the district court did not err, 
   therefore in determining defendant waived the common law sovereign 
   immunity provided by Sec. 537.600 through the purchase of insurance. 
  
141659P.pdf  03/17/2015  United States  v.  Anthony Bearden
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   14-1659
   U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Springfield   
   [PUBLISHED] [Kelly, Author, with Bye and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] 
   Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. Defendant lacked standing to 
   challenge police officers' entry onto another individual's property and 
   the resulting seizure of evidence from that property; officers had a 
   reasonable, articulable suspicion that defendant was engaged in criminal 
   activity and his detention was justified; defendant consented to a search 
   of his home; the district court did not err in classifying defendant as a 
   career offender under Guidelines Sec. 4B1.1 as his Missouri conviction for 
   second-degree burglary qualified as crime of violence. 
  
142772P.pdf  03/17/2015  United States  v.  Bobby Clark, Jr.
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   14-2772
   U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska - Lincoln   
   [PUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Loken, Smith and Colloton, Circuit 
   Judges] 
   Criminal case - Sentencing. No error in imposing enhancements under both 
   Guidelines Sections 2G2.1(b)(2)(A) and 2G2.1(b)(4) as application of both 
   enhancements is not impermissible double counting; alternatively, the 
   court clearly stated it would impose the same sentence with or without the 
   enhancements, and any error in imposing them would be harmless. 
Ninth Circuit:
FAIRFIELD-SUISUN USD V. EDU-CA -- (Statutory) Standing: School Districts do not have implied right of action under IDEA.


Federal Circuit:


MOBILEMEDIA IDEAS LLC v. APPLE INC. -- Patent.

Short Form 3/16

Third Circuit:

Zachary Wilson v. Secretary Pennsylvania Departm  -- Prisoner Habeas - District Courts have jurisdiction over 60(b) motions seeking to modify grants of the Writ; Where a prisoner seeks to prevent retrial by filing a  Rule 60(b) motion after the State has not retried him or her according to the Writ, he or she must first exhaust State remedies where there are new substantive questions of fact or law.

Eighth Circuit:

Jerry Capps  v.  David Olson -- S1983  - Denial of qualified immunity for police officer who shot suspect, as, among other things, the first wound was in the suspect's back.

Tenth Circuit:

United States v. Cuevas-Bravo -- Sentencing - below-Guidlelines sentence upheld as presumptively reasonable against implicit challenges to Violent Burglary predicate, as, contrary to the stipulations in the PSR, the site wasn't a dwelling, and no violence was involved.

Jones v. McHugh -- Employment Law (Military) Position being made non-supervisory to ensure compliance with regs suffices for sufficient non-discriminatory motive to defeat per se showing of discrimination, Plaintiff did not respond;  Quite a few swipes at pro se brief.

EEOC v. Beverage Distributors Company Employment Law - Remedies/ Jury Instructions -- No error in tax offset, as jury awards need not be atypical to justify the offset; Error in jury instruction that required direct proof of direct threat as justification for adverse employment action consequent upon disability, the standard is reasonable belief.

Federal Circuit:

ENZO BIOCHEM INC. v. APPLERA CORP.  Patent - In Statement of Claim, the phrase "At least one component" establishes that there are multiple components to the system.  Dissent: The D-vil you say.


NB, these checks are happening earlier in the day than before, so a lot of opinions will show up in the following day's feed.

-MB

Short Form: 3/11

Second Circuit:

United States of America v. Foreste -- 4A: Successive investigatory stops should be considered together where the probable cause for the stop and the basis for extending the stop are the same.  Where the reason for extending the duration of the stop is different (as here), they may be considered separately;  field performance reports of canine units are relevant and susceptible to discovery requests.

Stryker v. Securities and Exchange Commission -- Administrative Law: Chevron deference to SEC holding that a pre-statute tip is ineligible for a reward under the statute.  Alternative holding: statute not ambiguous.  

Rivas v. Fischer -- Habeas ordered on remand, as no reasonable finder of fact could determine that counsel was not ineffective.


Third Circuit:

Ashley McMaster v. Eastern Armored Services Inc -- FLSA -- Employee is subject to the Act and therefore eligible for overtime, as she is within the small-truck correction to the truck driver carve-out in the Act.

Fourth Circuit:

Fraternal Order of Police v. WMATA -- Subsequent unrelated dismissal of employee ordered reinstated by arbitration does not violate the arbitration order; Grievances should first be addressed by the mechanism in the collective bargaining agreement.

Alfredo Prieto v. Harold Clarke  --  Due Process: Prisoner does not have liberty interest sufficient to challenge harsh and atypical conditions on "Death Row," as there is no valid expectation of avoiding these conditions when sentenced for a capital crime.


Sixth Circuit:

USA v. Manuel Soto 

 USA v. Hector Santana 

 USA v. Christopher Espinoza

USA v. Juan Respardo-Ramirez


Seventh Circuit:


Scott Reeder v.  Michael Madigan


Saley Souley v. Eric Holder, Jr.


Eighth Circuit (Summaries from Court):

131748P.pdf  03/11/2015  United States  v.  Arthur Chappell
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   13-1748
   U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - St. Paul   
   [PUBLISHED] [Riley, Author, with Smith and Shepherd, Circuit Judges] 
   Criminal case - Criminal law. For the court's prior opinion remanding the 
   case for a new trial based on an error in the jury instructions, see U.S. 
   v. Chappell, 665 F.3d 1012 (8th Cir. 2012). On remand, the district court 
   did not abuse its discretion by denying defendant's motion to reopen the 
   record on the issue of probable cause for defendant's arrest; police had 
   probable cause to arrest defendant even if the issue were reopened; claim 
   of vindictive prosecution rejected, as the new charges added after remand 
   concern different criminal acts against mostly difference victims. 

141619P.pdf  03/11/2015  St. Jude Medical S.C., Inc.  v.  Thomas Tormey, Jr.
   U.S. Court of Appeals Case No:   14-1619
   U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis   
   [PUBLISHED] [Bye, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Wollman, Circuit 
   Judge] 
   Civil case - Contracts. Because plaintiff failed to present evidence that 
   a claimed "walk-away"agreement releasing him from liability to repay a 
   loan was in writing as required by Minn. Stat. Sec. 513.33, the district 
   court did not err in granting defendant judgment as a matter of law on 
   this defense or on its collection claim; plaintiff's counterclaims were 
   time-barred; plaintiff failed to object under Fed. R. Civ. P. 72(a)to the 
   magistrate's order denying certain of his discovery requests, and the 
   court was without jurisdiction to review the issue. 




Ninth Circuit:


CPR FOR SKID ROW V. CITY OF LOS ANGELES


AIRCRAFT SERVICE INT'L V. WORKING WASHINGTON


MARGARET RUDIN V. CAROLYN MYLES


NRDC V. USEPA


CHRIS TAYLOR V. JOHN CHIANG



Federal Circuit:


AMERGEN ENERGY COMPANY, LLC v. US 



DC Circuit:




Stone & Webster, Inc. v. Georgia Power Company


Airlines for America v. TSA


Meina Xie v. John Kerry

Eighth Circuit: John Allard v. Tonia Baldwin

S1983 Prisoner medical challenge.

While it might have been medically negligent, treatment did not rise tot he level of deliberate indifference.

John Allard  v.  Tonia Baldwin

Fourth Circuit -- Jerome Williams v. Jon Ozmint

S1983 -- qualified immunity to prison officials, as there is no constitutional right to inmate visitation.

Not exempt from mootness considerations as capable of repetition & evading review as further invocation of the policy can only happen from inmate misconduct.

Jerome Williams v. Jon Ozmint

Ninth Circuit -- PERRY MCCULLOUGH V. CONRAD GRABER

Habeas challenge arguing that petitioner should have been included in presently defunct pilot alternative sentence program is properly dismissed as moot where court can deny eligibility on the merits using plain language of statute.

PERRY MCCULLOUGH V. CONRAD GRABER

Second Circuit -- United States v. Figueroa

Where prisoner stipulates to conduct sanctions incurred during time of incarceration, District Court can properly deny crack/cocaine resentencing for otherwise eligible deft.

United States v. Figueroa

Third Circuit -- Haddrick Byrd v. Robert Shannon

"Three strikes" bar to prisoners' proceeding IFP begins to accrue regardless of whether the prisoner was proceeding IFP in the prior action.

Entire action or appeal must be dismissed to count as a strike.  Circuit split flagged.

Quick dismissal of the claim in the present case (glaucoma eye drops/ 8th amendment)

Haddrick Byrd v. Robert Shannon

Second Circuit -- Proctor v. LeClaire

For purposes of issue and claim preclusion, initial decision to restrain inmate is distinct from subsequent periodic review of the decision.

Proctor v. LeClaire

Fifth Circuit -- Kenneth Richards v. Rick Thaler, Director

Mailbox timestamp rule applies to post-conviction challenges of incarcerated inmates in Texas.

Kenneth Richards v. Rick Thaler, Director

First Circuit -- Brown v. State of RI

Prisoner claim should have been given a chance to amend, as opposed to summary dismissal.  Although the remedy was impossible, the harm might have been real.

Brown v. State of RI 

Seventh Circuit -- Jurijus Kadamovas v. Michael Stevens

Posner -- Reversal of dismissal of 99-page prisoner pro se complaint for unintelligibility.  There's a difference between length and unintelligibility, and Iqbal means that it might take that long to state a claim.

Jurijus Kadamovas v. Michael Stevens

Seventh Circuit -- Hoyt Ray v. Wexford Health Sourc

No cruel & unusual punishment for denial of MRI; no appointment of counsel.

Hoyt Ray v. Wexford Health Sourc

Seventh Circuit -- Bernard Hawkins v. USA

Posner:  Challenge to sentencing guidelines calculation not cognizable review, as the guidelines are now merely advisory.

Dissent: Circuit precedent says that prisoners can challenge career offender status.

Bernard Hawkins v. USA

Third Circuit -- Travis Denny v. Paul Schultz

Where there is some evidence leading to a theory of constructive possession, imposing disciplinary measures on an inmate doesn't violate Due Process.

Travis Denny v. Paul Schultz

Eighth Circuit -- Zachary Smith v. State of Missouri

Despite bankruptcy, state properly took $45 from inmate in compliance with statute authorizing recoupment of costs of incarceration, as the $45 was billed against post-petition costs incurred.

Zachary Smith v. State of Missouri

Ninth Circuit -- REX CHAPPELL V. R. MANDEVILLE

Summary Judgment for prison guards on S1983 claim, as certain conduct prohibitions not clearly established.

Concur -- No DP violation in subjecting to "contraband watch"

Dissent -- No DP violation, but 8A is a closer question.

REX CHAPPELL V. R. MANDEVILLE

Seventh Circuit -- Eugene Devbrow v. Eke Kalu

SOL clock for prisoner deliberate-indifference medical claim does not begin to run until the prisoner learns of the injury.

Eugene Devbrow v. Eke Kalu