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Does the unauthorized disclosure of confidential medical information by a clinic’s employee create a right of action for breach of a fiduciary duty against the clinic under New York law? Does it matter if the blabbermouth employee acted outside the scope of her employment? If she was not the plaintiff’s treating physician? Before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals answers these questions, it wants a little guidance from the New York Court of Appeals because the New York courts are virtually silent about a plaintiff’s ability to sue a medical corporation directly for a non-physician employee’s ultra vires disclosure of the plaintiff’s confidential medical information....

A trust can be a great way to manage property and financial assets, both during life and after. But there’s something about adding family to the mix that runs the risk of taking a great thing and making it not-so-great. While we love family, internal rivalries, grudges, and simple failures to communicate can turn a family trust into a family nightmare. Here are three ways a family trust can go wrong, and how to avoid them:...

Big Lagoon Rancheria, an Indian tribe near Humboldt County, CA, won a major victory in a recent Ninth Circuit decision. Following the decision, the tribe may finally be able to go forward with its plans to build a new Indian casino and hotel. The lawsuit involved a few acres of land near Humboldt County. In 1994, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) gave this land in trust to Big Lagoon Rancheria, a small but federally recognized tribe....

If Congress ends up in another Stolen Valor battle, you can blame Justice Stephen Breyer. “Wait,” you say. “Didn’t the Supreme Court just strike down the Stolen Valor Act?” Why, yes. That did happen. Now we’ve moved on to new incarnations of the law. Congress adopted the Stolen Valor Act in 2005, making it a crime to falsely claim receipt of military decorations or medals, and providing an enhanced penalty for false claims involving the Congressional Medal of Honor....

Under what’s known as the medical deferred action program, severely ill undocumented immigrants are able to request that their deportation proceedings be delayed while they receive potentially life-saving treatment. Or, at least, they were able to until last month, when U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services quietly announced it would no longer consider deferred action for medical reasons. But amid a public backlash that included accusations that “Donald Trump is literally deporting kids with cancer,” immigration officials changed course somewhat, saying they would reopen deferred action cases that were pending on August 7, when the agency ended the program....

Police departments frequently make use of citizen volunteers to help them keep the peace. Typically, these volunteers operate as members of police “auxiliary” units and help with such tasks as crowd control and traffic control.​ But a small Oregon town has taken the concept a bit further. On Nov. 12, the city council members of Cave Junction (population 1,971) voted unanimously to launch a policing system featuring surveillance cameras managed by civilian volunteers....

After the Solicitor General filed responses to three anti-Obamacare lawsuits earlier this week, it seems as it the Court is getting closer and closer to resolving the critical mass of cases challenging the employer mandate on religious freedom grounds. Meanwhile, even if the religious freedom lawsuits don’t undermine Obamacare, two other recently-initiated lawsuits may also end up in the Supreme Court: one challenging the IRS’s ability to penalize states for failure to provide health coverage, and another challenging subsidies to individuals who obtain insurance through the federal Obamacare exchange....

In Burton v. Fabian, No. 09-2137, a prosecution for criminal sexual conduct, aggravated robbery, burglary, and related crimes, the court of appeals affirmed the denial of petitioner’s habeas petition, holding that petitioner was not permitted to collaterally attack his sentence based on Cunningham v. California, 549 U.S. 270 (2007). In US v. Asset Based Res. Group, No. 09-2548, a challenge to the district court’s approval of a foreclosure agreement in a receivership proceeding, the court of appeals dismissed a creditor’s appeal from the order, holding that, because the creditor did not move to stay the sale pending appeal, the appeal was moot....

In a dispute involving pension benefits brought under ERISA, summary judgment for plaintiff is affirmed where the court did not err in finding that the defendant wrongfully suspended plaintiff’s monthly pension benefits, as his new employment used different skills and was not in the same trade or craft as the position from which he had retired. The court erred in awarding plaintiff attorneys’ fees under ERISA as the Plan’s position was not untenable, indefensible, overbroad or unwarranted....

For teachers, National Teachers Day, also known as National Teacher Appreciation Day, which happens on the first full Tuesday of May each year, can be a real treat – that is if their students recognize them. Teachers who do and don’t get recognized might have all sorts of legal questions as a result of the oddly timed holiday, and below you can read about some of the most common questions teachers might have....

Life can be confusing, especially when it comes to gestational surrogacy. In New York, for example, a gay couple has sued a fertility institute for mixing up their sperm. The men wanted to have a woman bear their children by artificial insemination, but something went wrong at the clinic. In Doe v. New England Fertility Institute, they blame the doctor for producing the wrong baby. It was supposed to be the other father’s....

It turns out that a horse racing track in Indianapolis was a horse racing business and not just a rich man’s hobby. But the Seventh Circuit came to this conclusion for reasons altogether different than those used by the lower tax court. The lower court got the result right, but used erroneous and “goofy” reasoning, according to Judge Posner. Indiana entrepreneur Merrill Roberts first became interested in horse racing back in 1999 and built a track on land he owned in the state....

Jones v. Harris Assocs. L.P., No. 08-586, involved an action by shareholders in mutual funds managed by defendant investment adviser alleging that defendant violated section 36(b)(1) of the Investment Company Act of 1940. The Supreme Court vacated the Seventh Circuit’s order affirming the district court on alternative grounds, holding that, based on section 36(b)’s terms and the role that a shareholder action for breach of the investment adviser’s fiduciary duty plays in the Act’s overall structure, Gartenberg v....

Justice Anthony Kennedy ended the 2011 Term not as a swing vote, but as a philosopher. In his last majority opinion of the term, Justice Kennedy explained that the Stolen Valor Act, as written, violates the First Amendment, and that public should fight liars with words, not laws. “The remedy for speech that is false is speech that is true. This is the ordinary course in a free society. The response to the unreasoned is the rational; to the uninformed, the enlightened; to the straight-out lie, the simple truth,” Kennedy wrote....

U.S. Coast Guard and Santa Barbara Sheriff’s officials believe they have recovered 33 of the 34 bodies of those who died in a boat fire off the coast of Southern California’s Santa Cruz Island. The victims were sleeping below deck of the commercial dive boat Conception when the fire erupted around 3:30 a.m. Monday morning. Five crew members, including the captain, were on the vessel’s third deck and were able to jump off before being rescued, while another crew member below deck perished....

District court judgment granting the motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim is affirmed where: 1) the Minneapolis ordinance uncapping the number of taxi licenses did not amount to an unconstitutional taking of private property requiring compensation under the Fifth Amendment, as the holders of the licenses did not have a protected property interest in the value of the licenses on the secondary or re-sale market; 2) the ordinance does not violate due process rights as the holders of the licenses did not have a protected property interest; and 3) plaintiffs do not have standing to raise an unconstitutional exaction claim as the complaint does not allege a relationship between its member-licensees and the licensed service companies affected by the new ordinance’s provisions on fuel efficiency and wheel-chair access, and thus, they cannot show an injury in fact....

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but shanks will earn you jail time. The Ninth Circuit clearly does not understand life on the inside. When someone in prison calls you a bitch, you’re allowed to defend yourself; at least that’s what Lenny Urena claimed. This week, however, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Urena’s appeal to a conviction stemming from a prison fight that started with name-calling. Federal prisoner Gary Dennis grabbed Urena, a fellow inmate, and called him a “bitch....

Broke college students and law students have long relied on selling plasma for extra cash. Last week, the Ninth Circuit ruled that people can also sell blood stem cells, a critical component of bone marrow. A three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that a donor can accept compensation for marrow cells because the cells are blood parts rather than organ parts, reports the Los Angeles Times....

Paul Everett Rich III was just a wee lad of 14 when he committed his first crime: robbery with a dangerous weapon. That case was adjudicated and later “dismissed” as that term is used in Oklahoma Courts. Two serious crimes later and a trip to a nightclub with a Bersa Thunder strapped to his hip, and he was arrested for being a felon in possession of a firearm. He pleaded guilty to the charge and then faced a sentencing enhancement under the Armed Career Criminals Act, which includes “juvenile delinquency involving the use of or carrying of a firearm, knife, or destructive device” in its definition of prior “violent felonies....

Though it might sound like karmic justice for the utility company blamed for massive California wildfires to be declaring bankruptcy, the victims who lost their homes and livelihoods are still waiting for compensation so they can start over. Recently, PG&E asked the court to approve a $105 million fund for those victims in need of urgent assistance. In the recent Paradise fire, 80 percent of the population was displaced, and victims from prior fires are still waiting to be compensated for their lost property....