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

USPS appealed from the district court's grant of APWU's motion to vacate an arbitral award on the basis that the arbitrator had exceeded his powers under the relevant agreement by applying the doctrine of collateral estoppel against APWU. The court held that the arbitrator's decision to apply collateral estoppel - which was based on his interpretation of particular provisions of the arbitration agreement, and is within an arbitrator's authority to decide under a broad arbitration agreement - did not exceed his powers under the arbitration agreement as would be required to justify vacating the award. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded. View "Am. Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO v. U.S. Postal Serv." on Justia Law

StreetEasy filed suit under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125(d). This appeal arose out of the attempted resolution of a dispute between a real estate listing website and one of its co-founders over the propriety of actions taken by the co-founder when he separated from the company, and the validity of corporate actions that occurred before his departure. Because the order of dismissal failed to retain jurisdiction over enforcement of the parties' settlement agreement, or to incorporate the terms of that agreement, the district court lacked jurisdiction to enforce the agreement. Therefore, the court vacated the district court's orders enforcing the settlement agreement and holding defendant in contempt for noncompliance. Because defendant was properly sanctioned for only one of the three factual contentions identified by the district court as the basis for its sanctions award, the court vacated that award and remanded the matter for reconsideration of the appropriate amount of monetary sanctions in light of this decision. View "StreetEasy, Inc. v. Chertok" on Justia Law

Plaintiff, an architect, and the company through which he does business, filed suit asserting that he created then licensed numerous designs for colonial homes to two construction companies and that these companies and their contractors infringed his copyright in these designs by using them in ways the licenses did not permit after the licenses had expired. Plaintiff also alleged that defendants' actions violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. 1202(b). The district court dismissed plaintiff's claims against some defendants, granted summary judgment in favor of the remaining defendants, and granted attorney's fees to two defendants. The court affirmed in part and held that (1) any copying of plaintiff's designs extended only to unprotected elements of his works, and (2) plaintiff failed to plead a violation of the DMCA. The court vacated in part and held that the district court misapplied the incorrect legal standard in awarding attorney's fees, remanding for the district court to apply the correct standard. View "Zalewski v. Cicero Builder Dev., Inc." on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit under the Sherman Act, 15 U.S.C. 1,2, alleging that defendants, a group of five competing electronics firms, have attempted to leverage their ownership of certain key patents to gain control of a new technology standard for USB connectors and, by extension, to gain monopoly power over the entire USB connector industry. The court held that, under principles articulated in a line of recent Supreme Court decisions extending from Arbaugh v. Y&H Corp. to Sebelius v. Auburn Regional Medical Center, the requirements of the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvement Act (FTAIA), 15 U.S.C. 6a, are substantive and nonjurisdictional in nature. Because Congress has not clearly stated that these requirements are jurisdictional, they go to the merits of the claim rather than the adjudicative power of the court. In so holding, the court overruled the court's prior decision in Filetech S.A. v. France Telecom S.A. The court also concluded that, although the FTAIA's requirements are nonjurisdictional and thus potentially waivable, the court rejected plaintiffs' argument that defendants somehow have waived them by contract in this case; foreign anticompetitive conduct can have a statutorily required direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect on U.S. domestic or import commerce even if the effect does not follow as an immediate consequence of defendant's conduct, so long as there is a reasonably proximate causal nexus between the conduct and the effect; the court rejected the interpretation of "direct...effect" advanced by the Ninth Circuit in United States v. LSL Biotechnologies in favor of the interpretation advocated by amici curiae the United States and the FTC and adopted by the Seventh Circuit in its en banc decision in Minn-Chem, Inc. v. Agrium, Inc.; and the court need not decide, however, whether plaintiff here has plausibly alleged the requisite "direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect" under the proper standard. Accordingly, the court affirmed on alternative grounds the judgment of the district court dismissing plaintiff's claims. View "Lotes Co., Ltd. v. Hon Hai Precision Industry Co." on Justia Law

Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence for assault on a federal officer (Count 1), false personation of a federal officer (Count 2), and concealment of public record (Count 3). The court concluded that the district court did not err in giving jury instructions as to Count One where the district court declined to instruct the jurors that they must agree unanimously as to which theory of the offense supported the verdict; defendant's sentence was both procedurally and substantively reasonable; and the district court did not err in denying defendant's Rule 35 motion where the district court did not err in declining to make a determination whether the federal and state sentences should run concurrently or consecutively. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. McIntosh" on Justia Law

Claimants appealed from the district court's forfeiture orders of 23 of the defendant funds and properties to the United States. The judgments were entered by default after the district court granted the motion of the United States under the fugitive disentitlement statute, 28 U.S.C. 2466, to strike Claimants' claims to the properties on the ground that Claimants Padma and Reddy (the "Allens") remained outside the United States in order to avoid prosecution in a related criminal case. The court rejected the government's contention that the burden of proof as to intent under the fugitive disentitlement statute was on Claimants. However, the court also rejected Claimants' contentions that summary judgment standards were applicable, and that the court was required to find that avoidance of criminal prosecution was the Allens' sole, dominant, or principal reason for remaining outside of the United States. The court concluded that the district court's findings were not clearly erroneous and that its application of the fugitive disentitlement statute was well within the bounds of its discretion. The court considered all of Claimants' challenges and found them to be without merit. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. Technodyne LLC" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that New York City officers used excessive force when arresting her. On appeal, plaintiff primarily seeks a new trial on damages and challenges portions of the district court's order awarding attorney's fees and costs incurred prior to the date of defendants' Rule 68 Offer. The court concluded that the district court did not err in refusing to give a separate charge as to future damages and plaintiff failed to establish that any potentially improper conduct by defense counsel prejudiced the jury's award of punitive damages. The district court properly applied Rule 68 and did not abuse its discretion by reducing the reasonable hourly rate of plaintiff's lead counsel. The court held that Rule 68 offers need not, as a per se rule, expressly apportion damages among multiple defendants. With respect to apportionment, a Rule 68 offer is operative so long as it is capable of being compared to the prevailing plaintiff's ultimate recovery. Because the Offer meets this standard, the court affirmed the district court's decision. The court rejected plaintiff's claim that the district court erred in reducing the amount of her awardable attorney's fees. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment and order of the district court. View "Stanczyk v. City of New York, et al." on Justia Law

Plaintiffs, a class of individuals who participated in the Morgan Stanley 401(k) Plan and the Morgan Stanley Employee Stock Ownership Plan, filed suit alleging violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1001 et seq. In January 2007 and 2008, Morgan Stanley elected to make its employer contributions to the Plans in the form of Company Stock instead of cash. After the stock price plunged in conjunction with the broader economic downturn, plaintiffs sought to recover for losses the Plans suffered as a result of the drop in stock price. The Moench "presumption of prudence" is a pleading standard that presumes plan fiduciaries act in "compliance with ERISA when [a plan] fiduciary invests assets in the employer's stock." The district court found that the Moench presumption of prudence applied to defendants' conduct and that plaintiffs failed to rebut this presumption. The court affirmed the district court's motion to dismiss on the district court's alternative ground because the challenged conduct, even if it negatively impacted the Plans, did not occur in the performance of a fiduciary function and therefore could not trigger fiduciary liability under ERISA. Absent fiduciary liability, plaintiffs' secondary claims also failed. View "Coulter, et al. v. Morgan Stanley & Co. Inc., et al." on Justia Law

Defendants appealed from their convictions of conspiracy; aiding and abetting violations of the Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. 7401; mail fraud; and making false statements to federal officials. Defendants argued that the district court improperly excluded evidence that they acted under a good-faith belief that they were complying with state law and that, in any event, their convictions and sentences were irreparably tainted by prosecutorial misconduct. The Government cross-appealed. The court concluded that, under the circumstances, the court was compelled to conclude that the totality of the Government's misconduct in this case, combined with the district court's erroneous exclusion of evidence favorable to the defense denied defendants their right to a fair trial. Accordingly, the court vacated the judgments of conviction as to CES, Copeland, and Dunn. The court ordered a new trial. The court also concluded that the district court clearly erred in setting the amount of restitution. Finally, factual and procedural errors required the court to vacate the sentences of Allen and Onoff and remand for resentencing. The court need not, and did not, consider whether their sentences were substantively reasonable. View "United States v. Certified Environmental Services, Inc." on Justia Law

Appellants appealed from the district court's dismissal of their claims under the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause, as well as the Religions Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), 42 U.S.C. 2000bb. Appellants challenged two statutory provisions, 31 U.S.C. 5112(d)(1) and 5114(b), which require that the country's motto, "In God We Trust," be placed on all coinage and paper currency. Joining its sister circuits, the court held that sections 5112(d)(1) and 5114(b) do not violate the Establishment Clause, the Free Exercise Clause, or RFRA because the statutes at issue have a secular purpose and neither advance nor inhibit religion and appellants have failed to identify a substantial burden upon their religious practices or beliefs. The court considered appellants' remaining arguments and found them to be without merit. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Newdow v. United States" on Justia Law