Farm Worker Rules Invalidated

No Fair Housing Claim from HOA’ ATV Denial

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 21, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Rights, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

A homeowners association for Lee’s Crossing subdivision wins a housing discrimination suit under the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 filed by a family who was denied the right for their disabled adult son to use an all-terrain vehicle on the subdivision’s unpaved roads; the 4th Circuit affirms summary judgment for the HOA and on [...]

Claim Mooted for Prison Visitation Denial

By Deborah Elkins
Published: May 21, 2013
Tags: Civil Rights, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Restoration of a prison inmate’s visiting privileges has mooted his appeal of suspension of those privileges for a two-year period as a penalty for the inmate’s suspected receipt of contraband; the 4th Circuit further concludes that the prison warden who imposed the suspicion is shielded by qualified immunity because the inmate did not have a [...]

No UM/UIM ‘Stacking’ for Policy Omission

By Sarah Rodriguez
Published: May 21, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Insurance, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

Although an auto liability policy failed to specify any specific amount of uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage provided, that omission did not mean the policy terms prohibiting “stacking,” or combining coverage for multiple insured vehicles, were ambiguous under Virginia law and would allow stacking, and the 4th Circuit affirms the district court’s denial of additional coverage to [...]

Airport Shuttle Driver Must Arbitrate Claims

By Deborah Elkins
Published: April 2, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Contract, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

An arbitration clause in a franchise agreement signed by a driver for an airport shuttle service is not unconscionable because it includes a class action waiver and a requirement to split arbitration fees, and the 4th Circuit vacates the district court decision and remands the case for entry of an order compelling arbitration. Appellant was [...]

Defendant Missed Three Chances to Amend

By Deborah Elkins
Published: March 20, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Procedure, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

In this trademark infringement case, the defendant waived its affirmative defenses of claim preclusion and issue preclusion by waiting three months to ask to amend its answer to include these defenses, and the district court erred in setting aside the jury verdict for plaintiff and entering judgment for defendant, based on these preclusion defenses; the [...]

Investor Not ‘Customer’ of Marketing Firm

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 12, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Contract, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

A company that valued and marketed certain bond funds purchased by plaintiff investors through a brokerage firm is not subject to FINRA arbitration proceedings, the 4th Circuit says, because the investors were not “customers” of the marketing company under the controlling FINRA rule; the district court order enjoining arbitration is affirmed. FINRA, the Financial Industry [...]

No Qualified Immunity for Repeated Taser Use

By Deborah Elkins
Published: February 6, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Civil Rights, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

A police officer who repeatedly used a Taser on a man after he stopped resisting arrest does not have qualified immunity in this civil rights suit filed by the estate of the man, who died after the incident; the 4th Circuit upholds qualified immunity for two officers who entered the Baltimore County home, but reverses [...]

No FCA Claim from ‘Off-Label’ Marketing

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 17, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Contract, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan

A pharmaceutical company employee has not stated a claim under the False Claims Act with general allegations that the company’s marketing of its “off-label” prescriptions and unnecessarily high-dose prescriptions of the company’s Kapidex drug necessarily meant that false claims for reimbursement had been submitted to federally sponsored health care plans; the 4th Circuit affirms dismissal [...]

Three-Hour Detention Was Unlawful Custody

By Deborah Elkins
Published: January 8, 2013
Tags: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Judge Barbara Milano Keenan, Search & Seizure

Police violated defendant’s Fourth Amendment rights by holding him for three hours while they obtained a warrant to search the premises after observing a suspected drug transaction at the convenience store where defendant worked and lived; the 4th Circuit vacates defendant’s firearms convictions as the two later Miranda warnings did not remove the illegal taint [...]