Although 15 months elapsed between the date the school board learned about a teacher’s membership in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the decision to not renew her contract, four discrete incidents of retaliatory animus that ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the police had a lawful basis to arrest the defendant, whose phone was “within inches” of his hands at the time the police approached him, the phone was properly seized as a search incident to arrest related to child ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where there was a 4½-year gap between the protected activity and the adverse employment action, and no recurring pattern of retaliatory conduct to bridge the temporal divide, the plaintiff’s retaliation claim was dismissed. And because the ADA’s nondisclosure provision did ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where the substitute trustee sought to appeal from an order granting the bankruptcy trustee partial summary judgment on claims for breach of fiduciary duty and violation of the automatic stay, the appeal was denied because there was no final order ...

Tagged with: Bankruptcy Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The customer, an African American woman who strictly adheres to the Islamic faith, including the traditional dress code, alleged that the store refused service until she showed her face, and then called the police to remove her from the store. ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A party that was not aggrieved by the bankruptcy court’s order because it lacked a pecuniary interest in its outcome lacked standing to appeal the denial of that order. Background Mar-Bow appeals several orders of the bankruptcy court. The orders ...

Tagged with: Bankruptcy Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A borrower who failed to allege full compliance with Wells Fargo’s alleged representations about refinancing could not assert a claim for fraud because her failures rendered the falsity of Wells Fargo’s representations speculative. Background Denise M. Barnette originally brought this ...

Tagged with: Banking Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Qualified immunity is not available to a jail official who caused the strip search of a nurse on her first day of employment for the jail’s health care contractor because the rights he violated were “clearly established.” As such, the ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A recent Fourth Circuit decision holds that there must be independent evidence beyond the defendant’s statement, establishing his guilt. Because the only evidence here was the defendant’s own statement in connection with acquisition of a firearm, even though that statement ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge David J. Novak U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Where a mortgage borrower’s argument that loan servicing companies tacitly consented to arbitration by their silence was frivolous, and he refused to withdraw a motion to confirm an “arbitration” award after receiving a Rule 11 safe harbor letter, he was sanctioned ...

Tagged with: Judge David J. Novak Sanctions U.S. District Court - Eastern District