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

WCC, an employers' association, challenged the district court's order vacating an award issued in an arbitration between WCC and the District Council. The district court vacated the award, holding that the award did not draw its essence from the parties' collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and conflicted with the district court's earlier order approving the CBA. The court concluded, however, that the arbitrator properly exercised his authority to interpret the CBA, and that his award did not violate the judicial order of approval. Accordingly, the court vacated and remanded for the district court to revisit its decision to approve the CBA with the benefit of the arbitrator’s interpretation of its two‐man job provision. View "NYC & Vicinity Dist. v. Ass'n of Wall-Ceiling and Carpentry Indus." on Justia Law

Tarala, a Colorado corporation that is the principal supplier of clothing and military equipment to Nepal, and Wu Lixiang, the director of the company that helps Tarala coordinate the logistics of its international transactions, appealed the default judgment and dismissal of their complaint against Rastra Bank and the Department. The court agreed with the district court's determination that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction because both Rastra Bank and the Department, as political subdivisions or agencies of Nepal, are immune from suit under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA), 28 U.S.C. 1602 et seq. Therefore, the court need not address the issue of service. The court affirmed the judgment. View "Chettri v. Nepal Rastra Bank" on Justia Law

Defendant John G. Rowland, the former governor of Connecticut, appealed his conviction of seven counts of violating campaign-finance laws and falsifying records. The court concluded that the broad language of 18 U.S.C. 1519 encompasses the creation of 18 documents - like the contracts at issue here - that misrepresent the true nature of the parties’ negotiations, when the documents are created in order to frustrate a possible future government investigation; the court rejected defendant's assertion that principles of contract law prevent the court from concluding that documents styled as contracts are “falsified” within the meaning of the statute; the court determined that the government adequately disclosed Lisa Wilson‐Foley’s statements to defendant, and that even if it did not, he is not able to show that he was prejudiced by the deficiency; and the court rejected defendant's challenges to the District Court’s other rulings at trial and at sentencing. View "United States v. Rowland" on Justia Law

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA), 17 U.S.C. 512(c), establishes a safe harbor which gives qualifying Internet service providers protection from liability for copyright infringement when their users upload infringing material on the service provider’s site and the service provider is unaware of the infringement. Plaintiffs filed suit against Vimeo alleging that Vimeo is liable for copyright infringement by reason of 199 videos posted on the Vimeo website, which contained allegedly infringing musical recordings for which plaintiffs owned the rights. In this interlocutory appeal on certified questions from rulings of the district court interpreting the DMCA, the court concluded that the safe harbor of section 512(c) does apply to pre-1972 sound recordings, and therefore protects service providers against liability for copyright infringement under state law with respect to pre-1972 sound recordings, as well as under the federal copyright law for post-1972 recordings. Therefore, the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment to plaintiffs with respect to Vimeo’s entitlement to the safe harbor for infringements of pre-1972 recordings is vacated. The court also concluded that various factual issues that arise in connection with a service provider’s claim of the safe harbor are subject to shifting burdens of proof. Because, on a defendant’s claim of the safe harbor, the burden of showing facts supporting a finding of red flag knowledge shifts to the plaintiff, and the district court appears to have denied Vimeo’s motion for summary judgment as to a number of videos on this issue based on a test that would improperly deny service providers access to the safe harbor, the court vacated the denial of Vimeo’s motion for summary judgment on that issue. The court remanded for reconsideration and further proceedings. Finally, the court rejected plaintiff's argument that the district court erred in its ruling in Vimeo’s favor as to plaintiffs’ reliance on the doctrine of willful blindness. Accordingly, the court affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for further proceedings. View "Capitol Records, LLC v. Vimeo, LLC" on Justia Law

In 2004, an AG investigation focused on an alleged bid‐rigging scheme involving Marsh and several insurance carriers. Marsh's counsel asked two employees, William Gilman and Edward McNenney, Jr., to sit for interviews, but neither employee complied with the request. The employees subsequently filed suit against Marsh after the company fired them "for cause," and denied them unvested, deferred compensation as well as severance. The district court granted summary judgment for Marsh. The court concluded that the interview demands were reasonable as a matter of law because at the time they were made, the employees were Marsh employees who had been implicated in an alleged criminal conspiracy for acts that were within the scope of employment and that imperiled the company. The court also concluded that there are no triable issues of facts as to whether Marsh fired the employees for cause. The court rejected the employees' argument that they were let go routinely as part of a reduction in force and the argument that Gilman could not be fired because he had preemptively resigned. Finally, the court rejected the employees' contention that, in light of Marsh’s cooperation with the AG, Marsh’s requirement that they answer potentially incriminating questions amounted to state action, and was thus unreasonable. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment because Marsh had cause to fire the employees and they were not entitled to the employment benefits at issue. View "Gilman v. Marsh & McLennan Cos." on Justia Law

Defendant pleaded guilty to child pornography charges and was sentenced to 60 years in prison. On appeal, defendant challenged his sentence, arguing that the district court miscalculated his guidelines range and that the sentence is otherwise procedurally and substantively unreasonable. The court rejected defendant's challenge to the guidelines calculations. However, the court concluded that the sentencing transcript suggests that the district court may have based its sentence on a clearly erroneous understanding of the facts. In this case, given the district court's emphasis on the fact that defendant destroyed the lives of "three specific children," when one of the victims had no knowledge of having been victimized by defendant, the court concluded that it is appropriate to remand for resentencing to ensure that the sentence is not based on a clearly erroneous understanding of the facts. View "United States v. Brown" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit alleging trademark infringement in violation of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1114, and other claims on the basis that defendant's trademark logo was confusingly similar to plaintiff's trademark. The district court granted permanent injunctive relief, prohibiting defendant from using its marks within plaintiff’s geographic service area (Guthrie Service Area), but held that defendant may continue to use its marks everywhere outside the Guthrie Service Area, as well as without restriction in Internet transmissions, on defendant’s websites and on social media. The court agreed with the district court’s liability determination that there is a likelihood of confusion between plaintiff’s and defendant’s trademarks. The court concluded, however, that, in restricting the scope of the injunction, the district court misapplied the law, and failed to adequately protect the interests of plaintiff and the public from likely confusion. The court concluded that it is correct that a senior user must prove a probability of confusion in order to win an injunction. But it does not follow that the injunction may extend only into areas for which the senior user has shown probability of confusion. Accordingly, the court affirmed in part, vacated in part, and expended the scope of the injunction, remanding for further consideration. View "Guthrie Healthcare Sys. v. ContextMedia, Inc." on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit asserting claims for violation of his First Amendment rights under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents, and for false imprisonment and negligence under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA), 28 U.S.C. 1346(b), 2671–2680. Plaintiff alleged that he was placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for publishing an on-line article. The court concluded that, in light of the different interests at stake, the court's case law establishing a prisoner’s right to file a lawsuit or grievance does not clearly establish a prisoner’s right to publish an article under a byline. Therefore, the court held that Defendant Rivers, a BOP employee, is entitled to qualified immunity from the Bivens claim and did not reach the question of whether Rivers violated plaintiff's First Amendment rights. The court also concluded that the district court correctly dismissed plaintiff’s negligence claim on the ground that it lacks a private analogue. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "McGowan v. United States" on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 and state law for false arrest, excessive force, assault, failure to intervene, and unlawful entry. The district court granted summary judgment as to the claims of unlawful entry and the other claims were tried to a jury. After a verdict in favor of plaintiff on the remaining counts, the district court granted judgment for defendants under Fed. R. Civ. Pro. 50(b). The court agreed with the district court's disposition of plaintiff’s false arrest claims. Because the trial record establishes that a reasonable law enforcement officer could have concluded that there existed probable cause to arrest plaintiff, defendants can claim the protection of qualified immunity. The court concluded that the force used in effecting plaintiff’s arrest was reasonable as a matter of law, and found no error in the district court’s dismissal of unnamed defendants or discovery rulings. Therefore, the court affirmed the judgment insofar as it disposed of plaintiff’s claims for false arrest, excessive force, and assault, dismissed unnamed defendants, and refused to permit further discovery. However, the district court erred in concluding, as a matter of law, that defendants had no realistic opportunity to intervene in an alleged assault on plaintiff by an unidentified police officer and that plaintiff lacked a legitimate expectation of privacy in his mother’s apartment. Accordingly, the court vacated the judgment in regard to the failure-to-intervene and unlawful-entry claims and remanded for further proceedings. View "Figueroa v. Mazza et al." on Justia Law

Plaintiff filed a qui tam action under the New York False Claims Act (NYFCA), N.Y. Stat Fin. Law 187 et seq., on behalf of the State and the City against Wells Fargo for fraudulent avoidance of New York tax obligations. The district court dismissed for failure to state a claim. The court concluded that, with no special state interest, and with no indication of congressional preference for state-court adjudication, the exercise of federal jurisdiction in this case is fully consistent with the ordinary division of labor between federal and state courts. The court also concluded that the complaint did not plausibly allege that the Wells Fargo trusts were not qualified to be treated as Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits (REMICs). Therefore, the complaint failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted under the NYFCA for any false statement or record affecting the trusts' entitlement to exemption from income tax under the New York tax laws. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "State of New York ex rel. Jacobson v. Wells Fargo" on Justia Law