Tax Court decision reversed

Forfeiture Deadline Not Jurisdictional

By Deborah Elkins
Published: December 13, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Four defendants convicted as part of a drug-trafficking operation lose their appellate challenge to the belated forfeiture of their property under 18 U.S.C. § 983, including over $400,000 in currency from several accounts, a Mercedes automobile and several million dollars in drug proceeds, as the 4th Circuit holds the time deadline for forfeiture under Rule [...]

$10.5M Arbitration Award on Coal Contract Upheld

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 19, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Contract, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

An arbitration panel did not exceed its powers when it considered the validity of a 2008 agreement between Central West Virginia Energy Company and an industrial park in Kanawha County, W.Va., for CWVE to supply coal to the park for a two-year period, and the 4th Circuit upholds a $10.5 million award to the industrial [...]

Remand for Review of Residency Requirement

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 13, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Rights, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

A former independent candidate for Congress wins remand of his challenge to a Virginia statutory requirement that petition signatures in support of his candidacy be witnessed by a resident of the Congressional district; the 4th Circuit says the limited rationale underlying the case relied on by the lower court has been superseded by later Supreme [...]

No Sentence Reduction Based on Defendant’s Meds

By Deborah Elkins
Published: July 6, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

A sentencing court erred in applying the Rule 35(b) “substantial assistance” ground to reduce a sentence for distribution of child pornography from 96 months to one day; the 4th Circuit vacates the sentence reduction because it was based not on the substantial assistance provided to the government by the defendant, but on the sentencing court’s [...]

Crack Sentencing Statute Not Retroactive

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 12, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Drug evidence found in a suitcase belonging to defendant, an unregistered motel guest, need not be suppressed, the 4th Circuit says, even if searching the suitcase went beyond a “protective sweep”; and the 4th Circuit joins its sister circuits and holds that the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 does not apply retroactively to allow defendant [...]

No Contribution from U.S. in Sailor’s Death

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 12, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Admiralty, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

In this appeal of a $1.25 million wrongful death award against Vulcan Materials Company in a suit in admiralty after the death of a 19-year-old seaman when his rigid-hull inflatable boat collided with a tug during a Navy training exercise on the James River, the 4th Circuit affirms the district court award to the seaman’s [...]

Grant of Habeas Relief Reversed

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 3, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Criminal, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

A Virginia federal trial court erred in granting a writ of habeas corpus to a petitioner who raped and murdered an 88-year-old woman in her home; the 4th Circuit says the district court erred by relying on evidence from its own hearing in assessing petitioner’s mitigation-related Strickland claims. In the fall of 2002, a jury [...]

A&E must pay $4M for man’s vision for ‘Flip This House’

By Peter Vieth
Published: April 25, 2011
Tags: Contract, Federal Courts, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

A lot of people think someone ought to make a television show about their jobs. Richard Davis made it happen. Not only did Davis’s vision of a program based on his business of buying, fixing and reselling homes become a cable TV show, it became a hit. The only snag was the network that put [...]

Company Wins ACPA Damages, Lawyer Sanctions

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 20, 2011
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Intellectual Property, Judge Allyson K. Duncan

The owner of a website that started with city information about Newport News, but then began adding women’s fashions and put a seven-figure price tag on its domain name sought by a women’s clothing company, must pay the clothing company $80,000 in statutory damages under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act; the 4th Circuit also hits [...]