Federal Circuit: Mortgage Grader Inc. v. First Choice Loan Services

Patent, FRCP

Sufficient cause to overwhelm presumption of non-diligence when an element of claim dropped in initial proceedings is revived in final proceedings, given intervening holding from S.Ct.

Consideration of cause does not necessitate inquiry into prejudice.

Claims not patent-eligible, as they are directed at abstract ideas without an inventive concept.

Limited consideration of expert depositions permissible in summary judgment.

http://www.cafc.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/opinions-orders/15-1415.Opinion.1-15-2016.1.PDF




Eleventh Circuit: Christopher Brooks v. Warden, et al.

Death Penalty.

District court denial of stay upheld, as petitioner didn't make sufficient showing of there being a better combination of drugs to cause death.

Claim time barred, as it accrued on the switch to lethal injection, and not when the drugs at issue changed.

The fact that other suits were challenging the method of prompting death doesn't affect the equities of  considering the petitioner's delay in joining a similar suit.

http://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201515732.pdf

[Brief editorial: The death penalty is morally unjustifiable.  -CB]


Tenth Circuit: Christy v. Travelers Indemnity

Insurance, Contracts

Not disclosing a change of form from sole proprietorship to corporation is not, as a matter of law, a material misrepresentation under state law when renewing an insurance policy.

Questions of duty that sound in tort implicate public policy; questions of duty involving contracts don't.

Breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing is not necessarily a question of fact.

https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/14/14-2168.pdf


Tenth Circuit: NLRB v. Community Health Services

Labor

Deference to NRLB award of back pay without offset for interim wage where the employee was adversely affected, but employment didn't end, so there was no explicit duty to mitigate.

Dissent: No basis in statute for the purposes outlined by the adjudication.

https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/14/14-9614.pdf

Tenth Circuit: American Fidelity Assurance v. Bank of New York Mellon

FRCP, General Jurisdiction

Party waived general jurisdiction challenge, as it didn't raise it initially, and the recent S. Ct. holding in Daimler restated the already-prevailing standards for general jurisdiction.

https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/opinions/15/15-6009.pdf

Ninth Circuit: Damous Nettles v. Randy Grounds

Going to en banc.

https://d3bsvxk93brmko.cloudfront.net/datastore/opinions/2016/01/20/12-16935.pdf

Ninth Circuit: Hector Ramirez v. Loretta E. Lynch

Immigration, Predicates

State statute is not categorically an aggravated felony for immigration purposes, and the statute isn't divisible.

https://d3bsvxk93brmko.cloudfront.net/datastore/opinions/2016/01/20/08-72896.pdf

Ninth Circuit: Nat'l Federation of the Blind v. United Airlines Inc.

Preemption, administration

State law claims not expressly preempted by Federal airline deregulation act, as the information kiosk at issue is an amenity peripheral to the business of transportation.

State law claims preempted by an implied field preemption manifested by a Federal regulation promulgated during the pendency of the suit.

Concurrence: no need to reach the first part of the holding.

https://d3bsvxk93brmko.cloudfront.net/datastore/opinions/2016/01/19/11-16240.pdf

Ninth Circuit: Mirsad Hajro v. USCIS

Amended opinion.
https://d3bsvxk93brmko.cloudfront.net/datastore/opinions/2016/01/19/11-17948.pdf

Seventh Circuit: USA v. Julius Lawson

Crim, Brady

Single witness' testimony sufficient evidence for conviction for use of a firearm.

Jury instruction holding that deft could know of weapon either before or during the crime (proper: before) held harmless error.

Brady error in withholding of police misconduct file not material, as the officer in question provided merely forensic evidence.

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2016/D01-19/C:14-3276:J:Kanne:aut:T:fnOp:N:1688989:S:0

Seventh Circuit: Thomas Costello v. BeavEx, Incorporated

Preemption, Class Actions

Federal motor carrier act does not expressly preempt state wage law, as the purposes of the state law aren't relevant to the purposes of the Federal act.

State statute seeming to require individual assessment of plantiff's future employment doesn't categorically bar a finding of predominance for class certification.

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2016/D01-19/C:15-1110:J:Kanne:aut:T:fnOp:N:1689158:S:0

Seventh Circuit: USA v. Rico J. Speed

Sentencing

For plain error to apply on appeal, trial court must specifically ask parties whether the main arguments in mitigation have been addressed -- a simple "anything further" doesn't suffice.

Where a condition of the sentence does not appear in the statute or guidelines, review is for abuse of discretion, not plain error.

Sentence conditions (association with those convicted of felony, consumption of alcohol, dangerous weapons) upheld.

http://media.ca7.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/rssExec.pl?Submit=Display&Path=Y2016/D01-19/C:15-1561:J:Manion:aut:T:fnOp:N:1688655:S:0


Fifth Circuit: Jerry Hartfield v. Frank Osborne, Sheriff

Habeas

When a state prisoner's speedy trial Federal Habeas claim shifts from a pretrial Habeas to a postconviction Habeas during the pendency of the appeal, the appeals court must dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.

(The only issue in the COA was the threshold question of whether the pretrial Habeas standard for state exhaustion was met.)

http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/15/15-20275-CV0.pdf

Third Circuit: In re: Thomas C. Wettach

Bankruptcy, Burdens

At trial, bankruptcy petitioner has production burden to show that funds transferred were used for household purposes, although the creditor still retains the burden of persuasion on the voidability of the transfer.

Burden under constructive transfer state statute is identical to the Federal.

No clear error in trial court factual findings on the transfer.

http://www2.ca3.uscourts.gov/opinarch/143140p.pdf


Second Circuit: T.K. v. N.Y.C. Dep’t of Educ.

IDEA

School system's refusal to discuss bullying concerns with parents was a denial of a free appropriate public education under the act.

Finding in equity that private school funds were reimbursable.

http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/0b6bfc4e-816c-4c93-9b12-e9c8a95d89c0/1/doc/14-3078-cv_opn.pdf#xml=http://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/decisions/isysquery/0b6bfc4e-816c-4c93-9b12-e9c8a95d89c0/1/hilite/