The 4th Circuit upholds defendant’s firearm convictions and 100-month sentence, holding that police were entitled to stop and search defendant’s car, based on their corroboration of details provided by a confidential informant who had arranged a drug buy from defendant. The totality of the circumstances afforded the police reasonable suspicion to stop the car defendant [...]
Police Confirmed Informant Drug-Buy Details
↧
↧
Charterer Can’t Collect with Alter Ego Theory
A district court had admiralty jurisdiction to consider appeal of a ship charterer’s attempt to collect on a judgment against the ship’s owner by attaching a vessel docked at Baltimore, but the 4th Circuit upholds the district court’s decision to vacate its ex parte order of attachment and dismiss the ship charterer’s complaint based on [...]
↧
Sex Offender Registration Upheld for Juvenile Offender
An appellant adjudicated a juvenile delinquent for the aggravated sexual abuse of his two half-sisters, ages six and 10, while his family resided in Japan with his mother who was on active duty with the U.S. Navy, is required to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, 42 U.S.C. [...]
↧
Payment to Surety Not ‘Preference’
A $1.375 million transfer by debtor, an environmental engineering firm, to a Miller Act surety within 90 days of debtor’s bankruptcy filing was not an avoidable preference under 11 U.S.C. § 547(b), and the 4th Circuit affirms summary judgment for the insurance company in this suit filed by the bankruptcy trustee. The trustee filed an [...]
↧
Trademarking Counterfeiting Convictions Vacated
In their prosecution of two defendants for a scheme to import and resell counterfeit pieces of computer networking equipment, including some with a Cisco Systems trademark, the government’s theory of prosecution based on a “material alteration” theory of counterfeiting trademarks is not cognizable under the criminal counterfeiting statute on the facts of this case, and [...]
↧
↧
Contractor’s Fraud Debt Not Dischargeable
The 4th Circuit affirms a judgment upholding the bankruptcy court’s decision that debtor cannot discharge a debt obtained by fraud from a home building company for which debtor’s contracting firm performed site work, for which debtor failed to channel payments to subcontractors and suppliers for work. In February 2009, SG Homes sued Chesapeake Site Contracting [...]
↧
No Privacy Interest for Vehicle Claimant
A defendant who showed up to claim a Ford Explorer that was discovered to be carrying $3 million worth of cocaine in its gas tank, did not show any indicia of ownership or other possessory or privacy interest in the vehicle, and the 4th Circuit upholds denial of defendant’s motion to suppress and his drug [...]
↧
Hospital Policy Protects in Title VII Harassment Case
The 4th Circuit affirms summary judgment for defendant hospital in a Title VII suit filed by a female radiologic technologist because the hospital had communicated its anti-harassment policy to hospital personnel and promptly attempted to investigate plaintiff’s unspecified claim of “horrific” conduct by her male supervisor; despite plaintiff’s complaint that the supervisor had required her [...]
↧
Lanham Act Preemption May Work in Ethanol Case
Plaintiff trade groups that represent the natural gas and oil industry who want to enjoin enforcement of North Carolina’s Ethanol Blending Statute get another chance to prove Lanham Act preemption; the 4th Circuit agrees with the district court’s grant of summary judgment for defendants, the state and a marketing association, on plaintiffs’ preemption challenges under [...]
↧
↧
No Due Process Claim from Contraband Cigarette Sting
The sale of untaxed cigarettes by government agents during a two-year investigation of trafficking in contraband cigarettes was not so “outrageous” and “shocking” as to violate defendant’s right to due process, and the 4th Circuit affirms his convictions under 18 U.S.C. § 371 and § 2342(a). Significant state-by-state disparities in the amount of taxes levied [...]
↧
Court Rejects Claim of Note Cancellation
A borrower who executed a promissory note to a North Carolina bank cannot overturn summary judgment for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the bank’s receiver suing to recover on the notes, by arguing that his production of an IRS 1099-C Form alone raised a fact issue that the note had been cancelled or assigned; the [...]
↧
New Sentence Not Barred by Mandate Rule
A defendant whose original 150-month sentence for crack cocaine possession was vacated and remanded under U.S. v. Simmons cannot invoke the mandate rule to overturn his resentence to an above-guidelines sentence of 120 months on remand; although the district court erred in saying the Fair Sentencing Act could not apply retroactively, the 4th Circuit says [...]
↧
No Bivens Claim for Military Sexual Assault
The 4th Circuit affirms dismissal of this suit filed against the U.S. Secretary of Defense by 28 current and former member of the U.S. armed forces who allege they were sexually assaulted by fellow service members during their military careers and defendants’ acts and omissions contributed to a military culture of tolerance of sex crimes; [...]
↧
↧
Qualified Immunity Holds for Inmate Assault
A correctional officer who allegedly assaulted a restrained inmate who was changing cells has qualified immunity from the inmate’s suit alleging excessive force, the 4th Circuit says; although the law changed in 2010, the governing standard for an excessive force claim in 2007 applies and medical records showed no more than a de minimis injury ...
↧
No Re-Entry for Convicted Legal Resident
The 4th Circuit declines to review a decision to remove petitioner, an Indian citizen who had legal permanent resident status but also had drug, theft and murder convictions, when he returned to the U.S. after a 17-day trip to India. To challenge the removal decision, petitioner cites Rosenberg v. Fleuti, 374 U.S. 449 (1963), under ...
↧
Dismissal for discovery ‘defalcations’ is upheld
A new decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is a case study in how to get your lawsuit dismissed for discovery abuse. Here’s what a litigant should not do: Wait until the discovery deadline has passed to come up with a multi-million dollar figure for the damages you want, belatedly deliver thousands ...
↧
Dismissal Sanction Upheld for Discovery Abuse
A trial court did not abuse its discretion in dismissing a government subcontractor’s suit against the general contractor for alleged unpaid invoices for operations support to develop an Iraqi civilian police force; in light of the subcontractor’s repeated discovery abuses, the 4th Circuit upholds the sanction. In this case, the district court concluded that all ...
↧
↧
Delegation Does Not Preclude Payroll Tax Liability
Although wife said she delegated to husband the daily operation of the “Koba Institute,” which she took over after husband failed to make payroll tax payments for the related “Koba Associates Inc.,” she was a “responsible person” who willfully failed to pay payroll trust fund taxes and is liable for the “100 percent penalty”; the ...
↧
Court Could Adjudicate ‘Sexually Dangerous’ Claim
Appellant, as a D.C. offender, was “in the custody of” the Bureau of Prisons for purposes of certification under 18 U.S.C. § 4248 as a “sexually dangerous person,” and the 4th Circuit affirms the district court decision that it had jurisdiction to adjudicate appellant as a “sexually dangerous person.” Citing our decision in U.S. v. ...
↧
Targets Must Produce Foreign Bank Records
In a grand jury investigation of a couple’s possible use of secret Swiss bank accounts to hide assets from the IRS, two targets cannot quash subpoenas duces tecum for their foreign banking records; the 4th Circuit says the “required records” doctrine overrides the targeted couple’s Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. John and Jane Doe (the ...
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
