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

Plaintiffs, entities with rights or licenses to registered trademarks bearing the "Guggenheim" name, filed suit alleging trademark infringement and other federal and state law claims after defendant solicited investors to buy various financial products while presenting himself as "David B. Guggenheim." On appeal, defendant challenged the district court's entry of default judgment against him. The court concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion by entering a default judgment against defendant where the district court was presented with a plethora of evidence to support its finding that he willfully defaulted. Moreover, defendant's asserted defense failed on the merits because his conduct plainly failed to satisfy the elements of a legitimate fair use defense, even if the district court erred by not specifically addressing this defense. View "Guggenheim Capital, LLC v. Birnbaum" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs appealed the district court's dismissal of their complaints alleging that defendants failed to compensate them for work performed during meal breaks, before and after schedule shifts, and during required training sessions. The court affirmed the district court's dismissal with prejudice of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. 201 et seq., gap-time, conversion, estoppel, fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), 18 U.S.C. 1961, claims. The court remanded, however, the FLSA and New York Labor Law claims, the NYLL gap-time claims, the breach of express and implied oral contract claims, the breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing claims, the quantum meruit claims, and the unjust enrichment claims for amended pleading. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded for further proceedings. View "Nakahata, et al. v. New York-Presbyterian HealthCare System, Inc. et al." on Justia Law

Plaintiff and his former employers (collectively, the "MTA") dispute whether the district court had subject matter jurisdiction to hear an appeal from a decision of a special adjustment board. At issue was whether a party waived a challenge to the jurisdiction of a special adjustment board by explicitly conceding before the board that the board had jurisdiction. The court affirmed under these circumstances, holding that plaintiff conceded the Board's jurisdiction in his submission to the Board and the court declined to consider his waived jurisdictional challenge. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Sokolwski v. Metropolitan Transportation Authority" on Justia Law

Petitioners, undocumented aliens, petitioned for review of the Board's ruling that they were precluded from receiving an award of backpay from their employer pursuant to Hoffman Plastic Compounds, Inc. v. NLRB. The court granted the petition for review to the extent that the matter was remanded to the Board for consideration of issues relating to petitioners' request for conditional reinstatement where the ALJ Order did not recommend conditional restatement despite the findings in the ALJ Decision that reinstatement offers would be appropriate and that the company had not met its obligations to make such offers, and despite an explicit request by the General Counsel for an order requiring offers of conditional reinstatement; petitioners did not file any exceptions with the Board despite the failure of the ALJ Order to recommend conditional reinstatement; and the Board did not consider whether an order requiring offers of conditional reinstatement would be appropriate. The court considered petitioners' remaining arguments and found them to be without merit and, therefore, denied the petition for review to that extent. View "Palma v. NLRB" on Justia Law

Petitioner appealed the district court's denial of his 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion to vacate his conviction and sentence based on ineffective assistance of counsel. The court concluded that petitioner was not entitled to discovery, a hearing, or vacatur of his conviction based on his claim of ineffective assistance of counsel with respect to his plea of guilty. The court concluded, however, that petitioner was entitled to resentencing and to be represented by competent counsel at the resentence where counsel's performance was deficient with regard to sentencing and petitioner was prejudiced by counsel's performance. View "Gonzalez v. United States" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed his sentence after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography. The court concluded that because Vermont's statutory rape provision under which defendant was convicted was non-divisible, the district court should have applied a categorical approach, without recourse to the underlying facts of defendant's state convictions. The court also concluded that, under the categorical approach, Vermont's statutory rape provision was related to abusive sexual conduct involving a minor within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. 2252(b)(2), thereby triggering that section's sentencing enhancement. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's judgment. View "United States v. Barker" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment dismissing their complaint challenging the constitutionality of New York State Penal Law 400.00(14). Penal Law 400.00(14) permits New York City to set and collect a residential handgun licensing fee that exceeds the maximum fee allowable under state law in other parts of New York State. The court affirmed the judgment, holding that Admin. Code 10-131(a)(2), which sets the residential handgun licensing fee in New York City at $340 for a three-year license, was a constitutionally permissible licensing fee; the court need not definitively answer the question of whether Admin. Code 10-131(a)(2) should be subject to any form of heightened scrutiny because the court concluded that it survived "intermediate scrutiny" in any event; Penal Law 400.00(14) was subject only to "rational basis" review under the Equal Protection Clause because it "neither burdens a fundamental right nor targets a suspect class;" and Penal Law 400.00(14) survived "rational basis" review. View "Kwong, et al. v. Bloomberg, et al." on Justia Law

Plaintiffs, employees of Gristede's supermarkets, moved for partial summary judgment on the issue of whether John Catsimatidis, the chairman and CEO, could be held personally liable for damages. The court affirmed the district court's decision so far as it established that Catsimatidis was an "employer" under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), 29 U.S.C. 203(d), based on his actions and responsibilities. The court vacated and remanded, however, the grant of partial summary judgment on plaintiffs' New York Labor Law (NYLL), N.Y. Lab. Law 190(3), 651(6), claims in light of the possible disagreement between the parties regarding the need for the court to decide an issue of state law and in light of the absence of discussion of the issue in the district court's decision. View "Irizarry v. Catsimatidis" on Justia Law

Plaintiff appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the USCIS and the agency's New York District Director. The district court determined that the statements plaintiff submitted to show that he was entitled to derivative United States citizenship were inadmissible hearsay. Plaintiff's brother was killed on Pan Am Flight 103 by Libyan terrorists, and if plaintiff were able to prove derivative citizenship, he could ostensibly be entitled to compensation. The court affirmed the district court's judgment, concluding that the district court did not abuse its discretion in admitting the statements under the family history exceptions to the hearsay rule. The court concluded that the district court correctly determined that plaintiff was not entitled to derivative citizenship because he submitted no sufficient admissible evidence establishing his mother's age at relocation. View "Porter v. Quarantillo" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit against the SPCA and others, seeking damages as a result of a search of her property and her arrest based on allegations of equine abuse. The district court applied claim splitting principles to dismiss plaintiff's 42 U.S.C. 1983 action because she filed a suit for tort damages based on the same facts in state court. Applying the Supreme Court's Colorado River abstention standard, the court concluded, however, that the district court's decision to dismiss the federal claim because of a similar pending state court litigation was erroneous. The court held that the district court erred in dismissing plaintiff's declaratory judgment claim because Brillhart/Wilton abstention could not apply when plaintiff sought damages in addition to declaratory relief. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded for further proceedings. View "Kanciper v. Suffolk County SPCA" on Justia Law