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

Plaintiff appealed the district court's grant of summary judgment to defendants on his claims under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and the Fourth and Fifth Amendments for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and violation of due process. Plaintiff's claim stemmed from his arrest and charge in connection with a bar brawl that resulted in one dead victim and another severely injured victim. The Second Circuit held that the district court's grant of summary judgment on the false arrest and malicious prosecution claims was premature, because disputed questions of material fact remained regarding key aspects of the criminal investigation and subsequent prosecution. The panel concluded that those same questions of material fact preclude a grant of qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage. However, the court agreed with the district court that plaintiff's due process claim failed as a matter of law. Accordingly, the court affirmed in part, and vacated and remanded in part. View "Dufort v. City of New York" on Justia Law

The Second Circuit granted leave to file a petition for 28 U.S.C. 1292(b) review. At issue was whether petitioners' notice of appeal, which was filed within ten days of the district court's order sought to be reviewed, was the functional equivalent of a section 1292(b) petition to invoke the court's jurisdiction over a later filed petition. The court held that, under all the circumstances of this case, the timely filed notice of appeal was sufficient to invoke the court's appellate jurisdiction over the section 1292(b) petition. View "Yu v. Hasaki Restaurant, Inc." on Justia Law

Three groups of creditors appealed MPM's substantially consummated plan of reorganization under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The Subordinated Notes holders challenged the lower courts' conclusions that their claims were subordinate to the Second-Lien Notes holders' claims; the Senior-Lien Notes holders contended that the lower courts erroneously applied a below-market interest rate to their replacement notes; the Senior-Lien Notes holders challenge the lower courts' rulings that they were not entitled to a make-whole premium; and debtors argued that the court should dismiss these appeals as equitably moot. The Second Circuit found merit only in the Senior-Lien Notes holders' contention with respect to the method of calculating the appropriate interest rate for the replacement notes. The court held that the Second-Lien Notes stand in priority to the Subordinated Notes; held that the Senior-Lien Notes holders were not entitled to the make-whole premium; declined to dismiss any of the appeals as equitably moot; and remanded to the bankruptcy court to assess whether an efficient market rate could be ascertained, and if so, applied to the replacement notes. View "In re MPM Silicones, LLC" on Justia Law

The Second Circuit reversed the district court's denial of qualified immunity for federal law enforcement authorities in an action for money damages pursuant to Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 403 U.S. 388 (1971), based on alleged Fourth and Fifth Amendment violations in procuring and executing a search warrant. The court held that plaintiff failed to plead a plausible Fourth Amendment claim of unreasonable search and seizure because a corrected affidavit supports both probable cause for and the scope of the challenged search; plaintiff failed to plead a plausible Fifth Amendment claim that fabricated evidence (in the search warrant affidavit) deprived him of property without due process because the warrant would have issued on a corrected affidavit and thus any deprivation of the seized property was not the result of the fabricated evidence; plaintiff could not plausibly plead that defendants' alleged failure to intercede in the challenged search caused him preventable constitutional harm; plaintiff failed to plead any clearly established right to have federal officials state in a search warrant affidavit whether each referenced person is or is not then a target of investigation, nor a right to have federal officials so state after the fact if the search becomes public knowledge; and plaintiff failed to plead sufficient facts as to the supervisor defendants' personal involvement in the submission of any misstatements to the magistrate judge. Accordingly, the court remanded for entry of judgment for defendants. View "Ganek v. Leibowitz" on Justia Law

The Second Circuit vacated the district court's order granting summary judgment for Postal Holdings on Connecticut state law claims of private nuisance and negligence brought by plaintiffs. The court remanded with instructions to dismiss plaintiffs' First Amended complaint for lack of supplemental jurisdiction because a federal district court cannot exercise supplemental jurisdiction over state law claims unless it has subject matter jurisdiction over the federal claims originally presented. In this case, under the Contract Disputes Act, 41 U.S.C. 7101–7109, the district court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over Postal Holdings' Third Party Complaint. Therefore, the district court correctly dismissed the Third Party Complaint and thus lacked supplemental jurisdiction over plaintiffs' state law claims. View "Cohen v. Postal Holdings, LLC" on Justia Law

The Second Circuit vacated the district court's judgment in favor of shipowners in a negligence action filed by plaintiff after a deckhand unclipped a weighted halyard and it struck plaintiff in the head. The court held that plaintiff's evidence satisfied her burden of making a prima facie showing of entitlement to res ipsa loquitur. Moreover, the shipowners failed to rebut her evidence. The court explained that while no doubt things can happen at sea that could cause an extended halyard to slip out of a seaman's grasp without negligence, plaintiff's evidence was sufficient to show that this did not ordinarily happen without negligence. View "Manhattan by Sail, Inc. v. Tagle" on Justia Law

Defendant appealed his 180 month sentence after he was convicted of assaulting a federal officer and was sentenced as a career offender. In light of Beckles v. United States, 137 S. Ct. 886 (2017), the Second Circuit found that New York first‐degree robbery categorically qualifies as a crime of violence under the residual clause and the court therefore need not address defendant's argument based on the force clause. The court also found that defendant's sentence was substantively reasonable. Accordingly, the court affirmed the sentence and remanded for further considerations. View "United States v. Jones" on Justia Law

The Second Circuit reversed the district court's denial of the police's motion for qualified immunity. Plaintiff, a teenaged train enthusiast, was stopped and handcuffed after the police department received a 911 report that someone holding an electronic device was bending down by the tracks at a rail crossing. The court held that it could not be said that every reasonable officer in their circumstances would know that the conduct complained of violated clearly established law. In this case, plaintiff's unlawful arrest claim failed because his handcuffing was an investigatory detention that never ripened into an arrest and was supported by reasonable suspicion; if Officers McVeigh and Farina had a duty to intervene, that duty was not clearly established and defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on the failure to intercede claim; and defendants were entitled to qualified immunity on a supervisory liability claim. View "Grice v. McVeigh" on Justia Law

FHFA, as conservator for government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs), filed suit against defendants, alleging violations of the Securities Act of 1933 and analogous "Blue Sky laws," the Virginia Securities Act, and the D.C. Securities Act. The FHFA alleged that representations regarding underwriting criteria for certificates tied to private-label securitizations (PLLs) was a material misstatement. The district court rendered judgment in favor of the FHFA under Sections 12(a)(2) and 15 of the Securities Act, and analogous provisions of the Virginia and D.C. Blue Sky laws. The district court also awarded rescission and ordered defendants to refund the FHFA a total adjusted purchase price of approximately $806 million in exchange for the certificates. The Second Circuit found no merit in defendants' argument and held that defendants failed to discharge their duty under the Securities Act to disclose fully and fairly all of the information necessary for investors to make an informed decision whether to purchase the certificates at issue. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Federal Housing Finance Agency v. Nomura Holding America, Inc." on Justia Law

The Second Circuit granted in part and denied in part a motion to abate David Brooks' offenses related to fraud and securities laws. Brooks was the founder, Chair of the Board of Directors, and CEO of DHB Industries, a publicly traded company. The court held that Brooks' counts of conviction resulting from the verdict abated with his death, but not the counts resulting from his guilty plea. The court also held that the bail bond subscribed by Brooks and his family remained forfeited. Finally, the order of restitution related to the fraud and securities laws counts was abated but not the order of restitution related to the tax counts. View "United States v. Brooks" on Justia Law