Bottom Limit Set for Conspiracy Charge

Former Employees Win Arbitration & Fees

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 24, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Attorneys, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

A securities firm that lost its FINRA arbitration proceeding against former employees who left to work for a competitor winds up paying over $1 million in attorney’s fees under a South Carolina statute that penalizes frivolous lawsuits; the 4th Circuit affirms the district court order refusing to vacate the arbitration award in favor of the [...]

States Can’t Get Forfeited Escrow Funds

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 24, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

The 4th Circuit vacates a district court forfeiture order for funds escrowed by defendant cigarette manufacturer, a nonparticipant in the tobacco-litigation settlement agreement who was prosecuted for tobacco-related crimes, because the district court granted an interest in the escrowed funds to two states who failed to prove they had a superior legal interest in the [...]

Tort Claim for Medication Pump Preempted

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 1, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Allyson K. Duncan, Products Liability

The 4th Circuit upholds the district court decision that plaintiff has no common law tort claim against defendant Medtronic, maker of the allegedly defective SynchroMed pump for delivery of medication through a catheter, as her claim is preempted by the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 and regulations which provided for premarket approval by the federal [...]

Intracompany Complaints Are ‘Protected Activity’

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 31, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Allyson K. Duncan, Labor

A medical technologist’s complaints within her company about time-sheet alterations that allegedly violated the Fair Labor Standards Act are protected activity and she may sue under the FLSA’s antiretaliation provision, 29 U.S.C. § 215(a)(3), on a complaint that she was terminated for her intracompany complaints. Plaintiff was a medical technologist at defendant laboratory. She met [...]

‘Anonymous’ Witness OK for Gang Trial

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 25, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

The 4th Circuit says a defendant convicted of racketeering and various gang-related crimes cannot overturn his convictions with a claim that his Confrontation Clause rights were violated because the government allowed two El Salvadorian police officers to testify without revealing their identities to the defense. Defendant Israel Ramos-Cruz is a citizen of El Salvador who [...]

‘Project Exile’ Case Not Selective Prosecution

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 25, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

An African-American defendant prosecuted in Richmond federal court for firearms possession under Project Exile cannot show racially discriminatory “selective prosecution” because two white defendants who stole the firearms in Campbell County and sold them to defendant were prosecuted in state court; the 4th Circuit says factors such as prosecution by different sovereigns in different jurisdictions [...]

Contractor Can Sue Iraq in U.S. Court

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 10, 2012
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Contract, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

In this dispute over a company’s contract with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense to refurbish and dispose of Iraqi military equipment, the district court did not err in denying Iraq’s motion to dismiss on the basis of foreign sovereign immunity, the 4th Circuit says. Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, 28 U.S.C. §§ 1602-11, a [...]

Damage Award for Yacht Owner Upheld

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 27, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Admiralty, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

When the captain of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers vessel fell asleep at the wheel and struck plaintiff’s 70-foot yacht, the Marquessa, docked at the pier at Ocean Marine marina in Portsmouth, the yacht was a constructive total loss based on two of three opinions in this battle of the experts, and the 4th [...]

4th Circuit hears former congressman’s appeal

By The Associated Press
Published: December 19, 2011
Tags: Criminal, Federal Courts, Judge Allyson K. Duncan, Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, Judge T.S. Ellis III

(AP) The business dealings that resulted in a former Louisiana congressman’s corruption convictions were not “official acts” under federal bribery law because they had nothing to do with the legislative process, his attorney told a federal appeals panel Dec. 9. Lawrence Robbins, an attorney for former U.S. Rep. William Jefferson of New Orleans, told a [...]