The agreement between the taxpayer and a third-party to finance the payment of property taxes owed on his residential home was a consumer credit transaction and the taxpayer had standing to bring claims for violations of federal statutes where the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Commercial Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Any error resulting from the district court’s application of a sentencing enhancement for career offenders was harmless because, even if the enhancement was not applied, the court would have imposed the same sentence and that sentence would have been reasonable. ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Where the government failed to demonstrate that booking.com was a generic term that could not be trademarked, and Booking.com demonstrated that the descriptive term has gained a secondary meaning, the website is entitled to a trademark. Background Booking.com operates a ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Intellectual Property Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Despite being conducted in a public area, an officer’s strip search of the passenger of a car stopped for a traffic violation did not violate the passenger’s Fourth Amendment rights because the search was limited in scope and manner and ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Defendants who collected fines imposed in traffic and misdemeanor cases in municipal court were sued for overseeing and enforcing policies and practices that allegedly violated plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. The defendants could not immediately appeal the denial of their pre-discovery immunity ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Civil Rights Judge Allyson K. Duncan

In upholding the granting of summary judgment to the North Carolina Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration, the court rejected claims by Outer Banks residents that the agencies violated federal laws in approving the Pamlico Sound bridge. Background ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Administrative Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Although a man charged with fraudulently procuring and laundering funds argued that he needed relief from restraints on his real properties in order to retain counsel of his choice, the district court did not err in maintaining the restraints because ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Criminal Judge Allyson K. Duncan

Because an aviation maintenance technician’s complaint failed to plead facts sufficient to infer that United Airlines presented false invoices to the federal government for payment, the district court correctly dismissed two claims under the False Claims Act. However, because the ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Allyson K. Duncan Tort

A lawyer charged with helping his wife plunder money from the campaign chest of a Virginia state senator and two other organizations cannot shield his two homes from possible forfeiture, a federal appeals court ruled last month. The 4th U.S. ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Judge Allyson K. Duncan Judge T.S. Ellis III

Direct evidence of government payment and receipt of fraudulent services must be alleged at the pleading stage for a qui tam action to survive a motion to dismiss, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Despite this, a ...

Tagged with: 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals News Judge Allyson K. Duncan Judge Barbara Milano Keenan Whistleblower