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In Drippe v. Tobelinski, No. 08-4616, the Third Circuit faced a challenge to the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the officer in an inmate’s 42 U.S.C. section 1983 suit claiming denial of prompt medical treatment. The court first declined to hold as a matter of law, that the Prison Litigation Reform Act imposes a strict timing requirement on institutional defendant. Next, in holding that the district court violated Rule 6(b) by granting the officer’s third and final motion for summary judgment on the even of trial, the court remanded the case to permit defendant to file a motion for an extension of time under Rule 6(b)(1)(B) of Fed....

The U.S. Supreme Court recently delivered an opinion in Fernandez v. California, where it held that Georgia v. Randolph – which holds that one co-tenant’s consent to search does not override another co-tenants refusal to consent to search – does not apply when the occupant objecting to the search has been removed, and the remaining occupant provides consent “well after [the other occupant] has been removed from the apartment they shared....

In an action based on injuries sustained by plaintiff while on defendant’s boat, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed in part where: 1) substantial evidence supported the district court’s conclusion that defendant breached a duty of reasonable care if plaintiff was seated on the bow cushion when the boat came on plane; and 2) the district court’s finding that defendant’s negligence was a proximate and substantial cause of plaintiff’s injuries was not clearly erroneous....

Not only does Facebook have a new name, but the company can also take credit for helping establish a new test for demand futility for derivative lawsuits under Delaware law. The new test, adopted by the Supreme Court of Delaware in United Food and Commercial Workers Union and Participating Food Industry Employers Tri-State Pension Fund v. Zuckerberg, establishes a director-by-director analysis to address demand futility. Read this opinion and thousands more with a free trial of Westlaw Edge....

Here at FindLaw, we understand the pressures of being a legal professional - most of us are recovering lawyers - so we want to help by tossing you that preferred life preserver of the legal profession, the short list. Today’s offering: five things to know about practicing before the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. To learn more about the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, or to read opinions issued by the court, check out the wealth of information on the Sixth Circuit website....

Petition for review a denial of Kenyan petitioner’s application for asylum by the BIA is granted where the Board wrongly held that a group must have social visibility to be a particular social group. Further question is whether the Kenyan government is either complicit in the tribe’s persecution of defectors from the group or unable or unwilling to protect. In regards to petitioner’s wife’s derivative claim, BIA’s denial on grounds that the the wife did not file within the one-year limit is vacated where the one-year deadline became relevant to her situation only much later when her spouse sought asylum....

In a constitutional challenge to a Utah statute requiring attorneys who acted as trustees of real property trust deeds in Utah to maintain a place within the state to meet with trustors in connection with foreclosures, summary judgment for Defendant is affirmed where Plaintiff failed to present evidence that could satisfy his burden to establish a discriminatory effect. Read Kleinsmith v. Shurtleff, No. 07-4187 Appellate Information Filed July 6, 2009...

In a class action against local government officials for surreptitiously recording phone calls from the local finance department, alleging violations of the Fourth Amendment brought under 42 U.S.C. sec. 1983 and Title III, district court’s denial of summary judgment is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff presented sufficient evidence of a violation of the Fourth Amendment to withstand summary judgment, as he demonstrated a reasonable expectation of privacy in his phone line at work and that the workplace search was unreasonable in scope; 2) at the time of the recording, it was sufficiently clear that government employees enjoyed a reasonable expectation of privacy in the workplace to preclude qualified immunity; and 3) the district court properly found that defendants waived the qualified immunity defense to the Title III claims as they failed to raise the issue in their original submission....

Attorney Charlie Peirson does a good job, but he doesn’t feel so good about it. Like some 650 lawyers serving as public defenders in Oregon, Peirson works on a flat-fee basis. The state pays them per case, and it pushes the limits of their representation just to make a living. Peirson, for one, says he doesn’t always have time for his clients. Sometimes, it takes him six weeks just to meet them....

In an action against the U.S. for encroachment onto plaintiffs’ easement, the dismissal of the action for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Quiet Title Act is vacated where the district court needed to determine whether plaintiffs could assert jurisdiction under the Federal Tort Claims Act. Read Robinson v. US, No. 07-17052 Appellate Information Argued and Submitted April 17, 2009 Filed November 2, 2009 Judges Opinion by Judge Nelson...

In Mason v. Smithkline Beecham Corp., No. 08-2265, the Seventh Circuit faced a suit against the maker of the popular antidepressant Paxil brought by the parents of a 23-year-old who committed suicide two days after she started taking the drug. In light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Wyeth v. Levine, 555 U.S. _, 129 S.Ct. 1187 (2009), the court stated: “Although the Court found that preemption did not exist in Levine, it held that there could be preemption if the manufacture met the stringent standard of proving that there was clear evidence the FDA would have rejected the proposed change in the drug’s label....

Brittany and Emily Morrow were bullied severely by several students only to have the school suggest that the Morrows should move to a different school. In an answer to their claims for federal relief, the Third Circuit opined that the school is not legally liable for allowing children to be bullied by other students. The Morrows filed suit under 42 USC 1983, claiming that the school officials had violated their daughters’ substantive due process rights under the 14th Amendment....

The U.S. Supreme Court has taken the highly unusual move of referring a lawyer to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Disciplinary Board for investigation. The case involves an appeal by Michael Ballard, who was sentenced to death in 2010 for killing his ex-girlfriend and three others, The Wall Street Journal reports. Ballard’s attorney, Marc Bookman, the director of the Atlantic Center for Capital Representation, filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Ballard’s behalf....

Also, Decisions in Contract, Criminal and Property Matters Usery v. Anadarko Petroleum Corp., No. 09-1113, concerned an action to quiet title to a mineral interest. The Eighth Circuit reversed the denial of plaintiffs’ motion to remand the action to state court, holding that defendants’ evidence did not establish that the value of the mineral interest exceeded $75,000 and thus that diversity jurisdiction was proper. In US v. Robertson, No. 09-1612, the court of appeals affirmed in part defendant’s convictions for attempted aggravated sexual abuse and attempted abusive sexual contact in Indian country, holding that 1) the government proved that defendant had the intent to commit attempted aggravated sexual abuse; 2) nothing in the instructions permitted the jury to disregard the mens rea standard of specific intent; and 3) defendant did not meet his burden of showing that any improperly admitted hearsay statements prejudiced his substantial rights....

Casualties, tragically, are a part of war. Soldiers, and their countries, enter into battle knowing that they may pay the ultimate price. And legally, soldiers’ families can’t sue over their lost lives. But what happens when those sacrificed lives are taken by those outside of the war? As Alison Frankel explains for Reuters, the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1992 (ATA) gives these causalities a right of action against certain parties. And the families of a few fallen soldiers are now invoking that law against some of the largest banks in Europe, claiming that they conspired to evade sanctions on Iran, and that the funding passed through was used to sponsor Iranian-trained groups that attacked U....

In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that federal workplace anti-discrimination laws cover gay and transgender workers. The 6-3 ruling brings immediate relief to millions of LGBTQ workers across the country, who can no longer be fired or otherwise punished simply because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. LGBTQ Discrimination Is Sex Discrimination, Court Says In its ruling, the court stated that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans workplace discrimination based on race, color, sex, national origin, pregnancy, disability, age, and religion, also applies to sexual orientation and gender identity....

Defendant’s perjury and fraud convictions are affirmed where: 1) the district court correctly instructed the jury on the materiality element of the perjury and fraud charges; 2) there was no use of the Phase II counts or evidence in the Phase I proceedings of defendant’s trial, and thus the bifurcation process was not so manifestly prejudicial as to require reversal; and 3) the district court should have consulted the parties or counsel before responding to the jury’s request to see the indictment, but the error was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt....

Last week, we discussed an email scam about fake court cases. But Minnesota courts are actually experiecing a number of other scams, ranging from phony warrants to threatening phone calls. Here’s a rundown of three scams to look out for: Have any other information on scams rocking the Eighth Circuit? Tweet us at @FindLawLP and we’ll pass them along. Related Resources: Government Shutdown? No Problem! 8th Cir. Is Open for Business (FindLaw’s U....

Some people are nostalgic about old printed books. Don’t be that person when it comes to your outdated law books. Unless you have a first edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, those old books are probably good for little more than decoration at your office. They do look nice along a blank wall, until somebody notices they are criminally outdated. Then they are just embarrassing. In any case, we’re not book collectors here....

This post was updated on March 30, 2022 A will makes the lives of those you love easier after your life ends. It lays out your intentions for the inheritance and disposal of your belongings, whether that includes money, property, stamp collections, or sewing machines. You can pass whatever you cannot take with you to the living. If you wrote your will years ago, however, there’s a decent chance that your will is not of much use to anyone if a lot changed in your life and your loved ones’ lives since you created it....