Although an employee was injured on a bridge spanning navigable waters, the location of the injury was insufficient to trigger coverage under the Longshore and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act, or LHWCA. Background Kenneth Muhammad, a railroad employee, was injured while ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Paul V. Niemeyer Tort

The district court did not err in sentencing the defendant to a longer term because of three prior convictions for criminal domestic violence, because those convictions categorically qualified as a “violent felony” under the Armed Career Criminal Act, or ACCA. ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge William B. Traxler Jr.

The Department of Homeland Security’s decision to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy established in 2012 was arbitrary and capricious because the memo explaining that decision did not identify any basis for the department’s view that the program ...

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

A majority of the en banc court held a Chapter 13 plan may bifurcate a claim based on an undersecured homestead mortgage into secured and unsecured components and cram down the unsecured component, overruling a 1997 decision that had been ...

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

A restaurant that refused to allow a child with a severe gluten sensitivity to bring in his own homemade meal could be sued for discrimination in violation of the American with Disabilities Act. Background J.D. is an 11-year-old boy who ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Albert Diaz

A satellite television provider is responsible for a $61 million judgment because its outside sales agent violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, by calling persons on the national Do-Not-Call registry. Background Dr. Thomas Krakauer brought suit against Dish ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Consumer Protection Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III

The district court erred by revoking the defendant’s supervised release on the basis he had been found guilty of possession with intent to distribute “crack cocaine” because the evidence showed the drug was powder cocaine. However, because possessing and intending ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Roger L. Gregory

A defendant could not argue the statute of limitations expired on his illegal reentry charge because he fled from justice in the intervening years, which tolled the statute of limitations. Background Delfino Natalio De Leon-Ramirez was indicted for illegal reentry ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Henry E. Hudson

Where a defendant’s in-house counsel told the plaintiff that they were not planning to object to the federal court’s subject matter jurisdiction and their outside counsel later discovered that the defendant’s corporate citizenship negated the complete diversity of the parties, ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Practice Judge Anthony J. Trenga

The Board of Immigration Appeals acted arbitrarily and capriciously when it upheld the decision of an immigration judge denying asylum to a victim of domestic violence whose uncontroverted testimony established that the police in her home country frequently ignored her ...

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