Where an operator has complied with the water-quality standards promulgated under the Clean Water Act, an assertion that same conduct violates the Surface Mining Act fails because the Mining Act’s saving clause prevents liability for conduct that is otherwise shielded ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Julius N. Richardson Tort

Where a 911 caller requested medical care for the decedent because of his consumption of alcohol and prescription drugs, and the officers knew the man was substantially inhibited in his ability to talk, walk or sit and they witnessed his ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Julius N. Richardson

Officers that arrested and jailed a severely intoxicated man who later died of an overdose are not entitled to qualified immunity in a lawsuit alleging they should have sought medical help, a federal appeals court has ruled. The ruling by ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Julius N. Richardson Overdose

Where an owner’s decades of familiarity with his property enabled him to form an opinion of its value based on comparable property sales, his intended testimony regarding a technical valuation by an undisclosed expert and about which he lacked knowledge ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Commercial

Where French trial and appellate courts previously declared the French Republic, and not a California company, is the rightful owner of the domain name France.com, the French Republic was immune from France.com’s trademark and cybersquatting suit. Background In 1994, a ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge Diana Gribbon Motz

Where a prison guard argued the 18 U.S.C. § 1519 obstruction of justice charge required the government to prove he intended to obstruct an investigation that he knew would become a federal investigation, because knowledge of a federal investigation under ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge G. Steven Agee

Where a Black Annapolis police officer was diagnosed with a permanent knee impairment that rendered him disabled, he offered no evidence to support his race bias claim and his failure to accommodate claim failed because disability retirement isn’t a reasonable ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Employment Law Judge Albert Diaz

Where the defendant was overseas on a Navy base when he used the internet to coerce a Virginia-based minor into sexual activity, his extraterritorially argument was rejected because the focus of the conduct and the child victim was in the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Pamela A. Harris

Where the Turkish government communicated instructions through a Turkish businessman to an executive at the Flynn Intel Group who followed those instructions, his convictions for acting as an unregistered foreign agent and conspiring to do so were reinstated. Background A ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge James A. Wynn Jr.

Where a defendant convicted for sex trafficking minors and using interstate facilities to promote an enterprise involving a prostitution offense claimed on appeal that motions to suppress should have been granted, expert testimony was improperly allowed and evidentiary rulings were ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal