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

Defendant was convicted of offenses arising from his malfeasance as an air monitor for asbestos abatement projects. Defendant was sentenced to five years' probation after the district court granted his motion under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29 to dismiss the conspiracy charge. On appeal, the court reinstated the conviction for the conspiracy charge and remanded for resentencing. The court concluded that the sentence was procedurally unreasonable and vacated and again remanded for resentencing. View "United States v. Desnoyers" on Justia Law

Petitioner (Father) brought this suit under the International Child Abduction Remedies Act (ICARA), 42 U.S.C. 11603(b), seeking the return of his two minor children to Turkey, as well as an order enforcing his rights under Turkish law to visit the children as long as they stayed in the United States with their mother. The court held that the Father had demonstrated that he retained custody rights under Turkish law and that the Mother's removal of the children from Turkey in 2011 interfered with the exercise of his custody rights. With regard to visitation claims, the court held that section 11603(b) created a federal right of action to enforce "access" rights protected under the Hague Convention. With regard to costs, however, the court concluded that in light of the particular circumstances of this case, an award of full costs would be "clearly inappropriate." Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's return order and vacated the costs award. View "Ozaltin v. Ozaltin" on Justia Law

Petitioner, a tenant-stockholder of a cooperative housing corporation, appealed from the tax court's denial of her petition for a redetermination of a deficiency determination by the Commissioner. The tax court granted the Commissioner's motion for summary judgment, ruling that petitioner held no property interest in the cooperative's grounds sufficient to entitle her to the claimed deduction. The court concluded that petitioner had a sufficient interest in "property" within the meaning of 165(c)(3), and the Commissioner's arguments in support of the tax court's ruling were without merit. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded for further proceedings. View "Alphonso v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue" on Justia Law

Plaintiff brought a putative class action against defendants, alleging that defendants violated Section 10(b) and Section 20(a) of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, 15 U.S.C. 78u-4(b)(2)(A), by issuing a misleading press release concerning the results of a clinical trial for a drug called bapineuzumab. Plaintiff appealed from the district court's dismissal of his amended complaint with prejudice for failure to state a cause of action under Rule 12(b)(6) and denying leave to amend. The court concluded that, in the context of the full presentation of the details surrounding the study of the drug, nothing omitted from the press release rendered it false or misleading to a reasonable investor. Moreover, the court held that plaintiff offered insufficient additional allegations to cure this deficiency. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Kleinman v. Elan Corp., PLC" on Justia Law

Plaintiff appealed from the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Merck and the dismissal of her products liability claim for failure to provide an adequate warning regarding the risks associated with Fosamax. Fosamax has allegedly been linked to osteonecrosis of the jaw and plaintiff claimed that Merck should have known of a possible link between the drug and the condition. At issue was whether the district court erred in granting Merck's summary judgment motion after discrediting expert testimony from plaintiff's treating physician. Because the physician's expert testimony contained contradictions that were unequivocal and inescapable, unexplained, arose after the motion for summary judgment was filed, and were central to plaintiff's failure-to-warn claim, the court held that the district court did not err in determining that there was no genuine dispute of material fact raised by the later testimony. View "In Re: Fosamax Products Liability Litigation" on Justia Law

Petitioner appealed from the district court's denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus. The district court held that petitioner's trial counsel was not constitutionally defective for failing to challenge a second offender notice filed by the government, which caused the five year mandatory minimum sentence for petitioner's convictions to increase to ten years. Given the defense bar's long-held position that Connecticut narcotics convictions categorically qualified under 21 U.S.C. 851, it did not constitute ineffective assistance for trial counsel to fail to challenge the second offender notice. Even if trial counsel's performance was deficient, there was not a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "McCoy v. United States" on Justia Law

Plaintiff appealed from the district court's grant of summary judgment denying injunctive relief from New York's statutory handgun licensing requirement. The district court concluded that the statute limited the grant of handgun licenses to domiciliaries of the state and plaintiff was a part-time New York resident who was not a domiciliary of the state. The court held that certification of the statute's interpretation to the New York Court of Appeals was warranted. View "Osterweil v. Bartlett" on Justia Law

Plaintiff sued her employer, alleging violations of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. 12131 et seq. Plaintiff alleged that her job as a librarian at the Library was terminated because of behavior symptomatic of her chronic mental illness. Because the court concluded that Title II did, in some circumstances, require reasonable departures from standards established by state laws, the court vacated the district court's judgment of dismissal in that respect. Because the court concluded, based principally on the structure of the ADA, that Title II did not apply to employment discrimination, the court affirmed the district court's judgment of dismissal of that claim. View "Mary Jo C. v. New York State and Local Retirement Sys." on Justia Law

Kathy Joy Kirkendall and her co-plaintiffs filed this putative class action suit, pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1002-1461, which included claims for redetermination of benefits and for improper amendment of plan terms. Plaintiffs filed suit without first availing themselves of the procedure described for "benefits claims" in pension plan documents and the district court dismissed based on Kirkendall's failure to exhaust her administrative remedies. The court held that because Kirkendall reasonably interpreted the plan's exhaustion requirement not to apply to a determination of future benefits and did not exhaust her administrative remedies as a result, she was not required to exhaust her administrative remedies. The court also held that Halliburton's actions did not constitute an amendment within the meaning of ERISA section 204(g). View "Kirkendall et al v. Halliburton, Inc. et al" on Justia Law

This case stemmed from defendant's arrest for bank fraud. The government appealed the district court's denial of its motion in limine to admit a state court temporary restraining order as evidence against defendant. The court held that, because the government was seeking to admit the state court order for a non-hearsay purpose and because the district court's analysis pursuant to Federal Rule of Evidence 403 did not account for the order's probative value if offered to show knowledge, the court vacated the district court's order and remanded for further proceedings. View "United States v. Dupree" on Justia Law