Notice of Appeal

11th Circuit today

In the haze of these summer months, we have been remiss in bringing you recent cases on a day-to-day basis. In the interest of bringing you the newest of the news, we will pick up with today's cases and keep moving forward to keep you abreast of the latest legal developments. Meanwhile, we will also periodically bring you summaries cases decided in the last several weeks that merit special attention.

We have two 11th Circuit cases today -- one is a Chapter 11 case analyzing a fraudulent transfer, and the other addresses calculation of the value of counterfeit goods in a sentencing case.

11th Circuit Recent Opinions

Yesterday in the 11th Circuit, the Court reversed and remanded Harris v. Coweta County (involving a sheriff's ramming a car to stop a suspect), based on the Supreme Court's decision in the case, styled Scott v. Harris in that court. Our previous discussion of the Supreme Court's decision in that case, reversing the 11th Circuit, is here.

On Friday, the Eleventh Circuit released three published opinions in civil cases involving a FOIA request investigating FEMA's management of hurricane disaster assistance, a Burger King franchisee's standing to bring a false advertising claim against McDonald's, and application of the FLSA to a domestic service employee (applying the Supreme Court's recent opinion in Coke v. Long Island Care at Home).

11th Circuit oral argument en banc -- a securities case

An alert BME intern was down at the 11th Circuit today for en banc arguments, and had the following report:

The Eleventh Circuit heard oral argument en banc today in Steven I. Weissman v. National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc. et al.  The issue before the court was whether NASDAQ enjoyed absolute immunity as a self-regulatory organization (SRO) for the advertisements described in Weissman’s complaint. The complaint contained the allegation that:

11th Circuit -- Recent Cases

The 11th Circuit has released 18 opinions in the last couple of weeks, and we'll summarize them here over the next few postings. Briefly, though, four of the opinions (Rivera, Delgado, Niftaliev and Morales) address similar asylum or withholding of removal claims; and five of the opinions (Martinez, Presley, Dean, Quirante, and Thomas) address various criminal issues, the latter two primarily related to sentencing.

Of the civil cases, two (Edwards and Bodie) interpret Alabama law, two (Asbestos Settlement Trust and Smith) involve some federal procedural issues, and two (Jordan and Dyer) are Section 1983 cases. Finally, there is an interesting decision regarding applicability of the student exception to FICA to medical residents (USA v. Mt. Sinai), a 1st Amendment case involving a South Beach dance club and a noise ordinance (DA Mortgage), and a case analyzing whether the FLSA applies to travel to and security screening at the worksite (Bonilla).

Stay tuned for more details...

11th Circuit -- Title VII judgment caps, a Ponzi scheme, and more...

The Eleventh Circuit has not been as prolific as the Georgia Supreme Court this week, having issued just 5 published decisions on a variety of topcs in the first part of the week.

The case of Bradshaw v. School Board, in an opinion written by 7th Circuit Judge Cudahy, takes on the overlap between Title VII's limits on recovery and a Florida state statute's somewhat different limit on recovery against a governmental body.  Bradshaw's award was $500,000.  Under Title VII, which limits damages based on the number of employees, the cap on recovery under that statute is $300,000. Under general Florida tort law, waiver of sovereign immunity is subject to a cap of $100,000. So it stands to reason that Bradshaw should get $400,000, right?

Eleventh Circuit Caps off the Week (Part II)

Friday in the Eleventh Circuit brought a host of opinions, including one on sanctions against a government for repeatedly violating the automatic stay in bankruptcy; two white collar criminal cases involving both sufficiency and sentencing issues; a habeas case on the AEDPA statute of limitations; and an appeal of a drug smuggling conviction.

First, in the Bureaucratic Persistence Department, we have Florida Department of Revenue v. Omine. The dispute centers around the Florida DOR's attempts to collect a Hawaii welfare payment to Omine's ex-wife and children. Omine and his second wife, now living in Florida, declared bankruptcy, and the automatic stay went into effect; the Hawaii debt obligation was part of their Chapter 13 plan. Nevertheless, the Florida DOR continued its collection efforts. Each time, the DOR would agree to stop collection efforts in view of the stay, but a short time later, the DOR would initiate yet another collection effort. After five of such incidents, the Omines filed a motion for sanctions, which the bankruptcy court granted, and the district court's order leaving the sanctions ruling in place (albeit modifying the relief awarded) was affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit.

Eleventh Circuit caps off the week (Part I)

After being quiet for a week, the Eleventh Circuit issued a wave of opinions Thursday and Friday. This post covers the two opinions issued by the court on Thursday, one on an issue of choice of (foreign) law for a tortious interference case, and the other involving application of the USDA's regulations regarding federal disaster assistance.

The case of Grupo Televisa v. Telemundo Communications Group arose when a Mexican soap opera actor under exclusive contract to Televisa (a spanish-language TV production conglomerate) accepted a role in a soap opera produced by rival Telemundo, sparking a tortious interference suit by Televisa. Televisa, a Mexican company, maintains an office in Florida, but broadcasts in the U.S. via license to Univision. Telemundo is owned by NBC Universal, and is headquartered in Hialeah, Florida. The district court found, under Florida's "most significant relationship" test, that the contacts with Mexico outweighed those with Florida; and since Mexican law does not have a cause of action for tortious interference, it granted summary judgment to Telemundo.

Having a Bad Day?

Evidently Officer Timothy Brown, one of Atlanta's finest, was having a bad day on July 10, 2003. It was a summer evening after a thunderstorm in an intown Atlanta neighborhood, and Laura Skop arrived home to find a tree down further up the street, and police car parked across the road diagonally to block further access -- with the rear corner of the car sticking out about a foot into her driveway -- while Officer Brown did paperwork.

Ms. Skop just wanted to park in her garage. She put her turn signal on. No response. She honked the horn. No response. She tried rolling down her window and asking the officer to move. He rolled down the window, but did not respond. She got out and went to his window and tapped on it. He rolled down the window, told her this was a dangerous area, and rolled it back up. This happened twice. From the other side of the closed window, she mouthed a request for his name and badge number. This got his attention: he hopped out and started coming towards her. She asked him to move up a foot so she could get in her driveway. And Officer Brown did what any reasonable officer would do in this situation -- he...

More Eleventh Circuit News

First, the Supreme Court today issued an opinion with the style Scott v. Harris which, interestingly, reverses the Eleventh Circuit (not usually known for being hard on police) in a Fourth Amendment police chase case, Harris v. Coweta County [and Scott], finding that ramming into the fleeing car to cause a wreck is justified because the chase itself is dangerous to the public. (The opinion reviewed by the Supreme Court was issued in place of the original opinion, which was vacated sua sponte by the panel.)

As SCOTUSBlog notes, this is the first time the Supreme Court has provided a link to a video (the police dashboard video, a la 'Cops') related to the opinion. Read other interesting commentary about the issues in this case (including, whether the rule that courts should rule on the underlying constitutional issue first, before determining whether it was clearly established, in qualified immunity cases should be overturned) as SCOTUSBlog here.

In other news, today, the Eleventh Circuit issued an opinion in Hanley v. Roy resolving an international child custody dispute under the Hague Convention on Child Abduction and the International Child Abduction Remedies Act.

En banc/cert issue alert

On Friday, the Eleventh Circuit issued a lengthy opinion about federal courts' jurisdiction to decide a petition for arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA"), and an even longer special concurrence by Judge Marcus discussing why the issue should be reviewed by the Eleventh Circuit en banc, or by the Supreme Court. The description that follows is lengthy, but the case contains some interesting and important issues.

The case, Community State Bank v. Strong, arises out of a Georgia payday loan class action against Georgia Cash America and affiliates.