In a petition for review of an order of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) denying petitioner’s request for a waiver of preemption under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, the petition is granted where the DOE’s stated justifications demonstrated an arbitrary and capricious failure meaningfully to address petitioner’s application for a waiver. Read California [...]
In an action by an insurer seeking a declaration that it had no obligation to defend or indemnify defendant against a certain claim because he failed to give proper notice of the claim to insurer, default judgment for plaintiffs is reversed where intervenor-Northwest Airlines should have been permitted to defend the declaratory relief action on [...]
In a prisoner’s action claiming that an official violated his First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances, summary judgment for defendants is reversed where there were genuine issues of material fact as to the existence of an adverse action against plaintiff, the causation for the adverse action, the chilling of plaintiff’s [...]
In a prosecution arising from defendants’ conduct relating to their business of sending unsolicited email, or spam, advertising adult websites, defendants’ electronic mail fraud convictions and sentences are affirmed where: 1) no authority supported defendants’ notion that a district court must provide a clear geographic definition of the relevant community in an obscenity prosecution; 2) [...]
In a securities fraud action alleging that defendant failed to disclose material information regarding its cold remedy drug, Zicam, dismissal of the complaint is reversed where: 1) in relying on the statistical significance standard to determine materiality, the district court made a decision that should have been left to the trier of fact; and 2) [...]
Defendant’s mail fraud sentence is affirmed where: 1) a defendant is not entitled to an offset against a loss based on business expenses that confer no benefit upon the victims; and 2) Application Note 2(C) to section 2S1.1 of the Sentencing Guidelines does not preclude an enhancement for obstruction of justice pursuant to section 3C1.1 [...]
In plaintiffs’ case against the Office of the Insurance Commissioner of Puerto Rico and two consecutive Insurance Commissioners claiming that they were investigated and sanctioned for Insurance Code violations solely because of their political affiliations, district court’s judgment in favor of the plaintiffs in the amount of $4.7 million and a permanent injunction is affirmed [...]
In plaintiff’s section 1983 action against the town and employees arising from his arrest for simple assault of his estranged wife, grant of defendants’ motion for summary judgment is affirmed as an officer had sufficient information to conclude that the state offense of simple assault had taken place, and as such, there was no violation [...]
In plaintiffs’ suit against defendant for breach of contract and related claims arising from an Asset Purchase Agreement, summary judgment in favor of defendant is affirmed for the most part and reversed in part where: 1) the district court correctly granted summary judgment to defendant with respect to most of the claims; but 2) reversal [...]
The issues of binge drinking and the drinking age continue to be hot topics on college campuses as the fall semester moves forward. [CR] President John McCardell was in Maine this week for a debate at Colby College – for Thursday night’s event, he debated David Rosenbloom, President of the National Center for Addiction and [...]