Justia U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Plaintiff appealed from the district court's grant of defendants' motions for summary judgment on all of plaintiff's claims under 42 U.S.C. 1983. Plaintiff, a pro se prisoner, affirmatively signed a consent form indicating that he did not consent to disposition of the case by the Magistrate Judge. On the present record, the court could not say that plaintiff gave his implied consent. As a pro se litigant, he could not have appreciated that participating in proceedings before the Magistrate Judge could impugn the effectiveness of his written refusal to consent. The court also held that the lack of consent was a jurisdictional defect that could not be waived. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded to the district court. View "Yeldon v. Fisher et al" on Justia Law

Defendant, a police officer, appealed from the district court's denial of his motion for qualified immunity in a claim brought by plaintiff under 42 U.S.C. 1983. Plaintiff alleged that defendant violated her Fourth Amendment rights when, while searching her car with her consent during a traffic stop, he read a piece of her mail. The piece of mail was a court document pertaining to the arrest of plaintiff's husband "for possession," and a letter that plaintiff had written to a judge. The court concluded that, while the scope of plaintiff's consent was not limited to a search for any particular object or contraband, it did not extend to the text of her mail. However, since this right was not clearly established at the time of the search, defendant was entitled to qualified immunity. Accordingly, the court reversed the judgment of the district court. View "Winfield v. Trottier" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs in this consolidated action sought relief on behalf of two large putative classes - one whose members bought auction rate securities and one whose members issued them - alleging that defendants triggered the market's collapse by conspiring with each other to simultaneously stop buying auction rate securities for their own proprietary accounts. The district court dismissed plaintiffs' complaints pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). The court affirmed, holding that plaintiffs' complaints did not successfully allege a violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1. Although the court did not reach the district court's implied-repeal analysis under Credit Suisse Securities (USC) LLC v. Billing, the district court was ultimately correct that the complaints failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. View "Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Citigroup, Inc." on Justia Law

Petitioner sought review of the ARB of the DOL affirming an ALJ order dismissing petitioner's retaliation claim under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 18 U.S.C. 1514A. The court held: (1) To prevail on a whistleblower claim under the Act, an employee must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he or she engaged in a protected activity; the employer knew that he or she engaged in the protected activity; he or she suffered an unfavorable personnel action; and the protected activity was a contributing factor in the unfavorable action. If the employee proved these four elements, the employer could rebut this prima facie case with clear and convincing evidence that it would have taken the same unfavorable personnel action in the absence of the protected behavior. (2) The ARB did not act arbitrarily or capriciously, or abuse its discretion, in affirming the ALJ's dismissal of the complaint under the correct legal standard. (3) Petitioner's remaining claims lacked merit. View "Bechtel v. Admin. Review Bd." on Justia Law

Defendants Michael Nouri, Eric Nouri, and Anthony Martin appealed convictions stemming from their involvement with a market manipulation scheme with Smart Online, Inc. stock. On appeal, defendants contended that the district court erred in instructing the jury on fraud by deprivation of honest services, especially in the context of securities fraud, and that there was insufficient evidence to sustain convictions for securities fraud. Martin also contended that there was insufficient evidence to convict him of honest-services wire fraud, that the district court erroneously limited his examination of a witness, and that his sentence was unreasonable. The court affirmed the judgment, finding no merit in defendants' arguments. View "United States v. Nouri" on Justia Law

Plaintiff brought suit against the City pursuant to, inter alia, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 12101 et seq., claiming that the City's response to his request for accommodations was insufficient. Plaintiff's severe disability, schizophrenia, required treatment that prevented him from arriving to work at a consistent time each day. The district court granted summary judgment to the City and dismissed plaintiff's claims with prejudice, noting that it could not distinguish between absenteeism and tardiness. The court concluded that the district court did not conduct a sufficiently detailed analysis of the facts that tended to undermine the City's claim that a specific arrival time was an essential function of plaintiff's position before granting summary judgment for the City. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded. View "McMillan v. City of New York" on Justia Law

The County sued defendants to recover its expenditures in responding to, and cleaning up after, the 2009 crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407. The district court granted defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint under Rule 12(b)(6), finding that the County's claims were barred by New York law. The court affirmed the district court's judgment, concluding that public services provided in response to an emergency were not subject to reimbursement. View "County of Erie, New York v. Colgan Air, Inc." on Justia Law

Defendant appealed from the district court's judgment convicting him of conspiring to commit and committing three Hobbs Act, 18 U.S.C. 1951, robberies and of brandishing a firearm during two of the robberies. On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's determination that it was required to impose consecutive mandatory minimum terms of imprisonment of seven and twenty-five years on the gun counts. The court agreed with its sister circuits, which have consistently upheld sentences imposing consecutive mandatory minimum terms for multiple 18 U..S.C. 924(c) convictions in the same proceeding. Accordingly, the court held affirmed the judgment. View "United States v. Robles" on Justia Law

Plaintiff appealed the district court's dismissal of its complaint for failure to state a claim. At issue was whether plaintiff had stated plausible claims under sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933, 15 U.S.C. 77a et seq. The court held that allegations in the complaint stated a plausible claim that the offering documents for the security misstated the applicable underwriting standards in violation of sections 11, 12(a)(2), and 15. The court also held that the alleged misstatements were not immaterial as a matter of law. Finally, the court vacated the district court's holding that plaintiff, even as the representative of a proposed class, lacked standing to pursue claims based on securities in which it had not invested. Rather than addressing this issue, the court instructed the district court to reconsider it in light of the court's intervening opinion in NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund v. Goldman Sachs & Co. Accordingly, the court reversed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for further proceedings. View "New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund v. The Royal Bank of Scotland" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs, on behalf of a purported class of similarly situated employees, appealed from the district court's dismissal of their claims under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. 201 et seq., the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1961-1968, and the New York Labor Law (NYLL), NYLL 663(1). Plaintiffs alleged that CHS failed to compensate them adequately for time worked during meal breaks, before and after scheduled shifts, and during required training sessions. The court affirmed the dismissal of the FLSA and RICO claims for failure to state a claim. The court affirmed the dismissal of the NYLL overtime claims, which have the same deficiencies as the FLSA overtime claims. However, because the district court did not explain why plaintiffs' NYLL gap-time claims were dismissed with prejudice, the court vacated that aspect of the judgment and remanded for further consideration. View "Lundy v. Catholic Health System of Long Island Inc." on Justia Law