The court found an employee’s claims that her supervisor’s use of the N-word, together with evidence of race-based comments and conduct, supported a hostile work environment claim, but that the conduct and mistreatment were not so intolerant as to support ...

Tagged with: Employment Discrimination Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

A defendant seeking federal jurisdiction in a negligence case may filed an amended removal notice to correct technical errors. Background On March 2, 2016, while plaintiff was at the commissary located on Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, a basketball goal ...

Tagged with: Civil Practice Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

In a case where the defendant is alleged to have defrauded elderly victims, the age and financial circumstances were admissible at trial to support the government’s theory that the scheme targeted unsophisticated investors. Background Raeann Gibson is charged with multiple ...

Tagged with: Criminal Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Plaintiffs, parents of a minor child, sued to recover the fees and costs they incurred in successfully prevailing in a school proceeding involving discipline of their child. An individual who assisted plaintiffs in that proceeding moved to intervene in the ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Based on plausibly-alleged alternative theories of when her personal property sustained water damage, a plaintiff’s state-law claims against the company that both stored and shipped her property were not pre-empted by federal law governing interstate carriers. Background As alleged in ...

Tagged with: Contract Judge Mark Davis Property Tort U.S. District Court - Eastern District

An accreditation agency’s decision to withdraw the plaintiff’s accreditation as a cosmetology school was not unduly tainted by the fact that one of the commissioners was the executive and part-owner of a similar institution in a nearby city. Background This ...

Tagged with: Administrative Constitutional Due Process Education Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Following contentious patent litigation, the court declined to award attorneys’ fees requested on grounds that the patent owner’s claims and litigation conduct were exceptionally unreasonable. Background Plaintiff CertusView Technologies LLC holds five related patents related to its “e-Sketch” technology, which ...

Tagged with: Attorneys Fees Business Law Civil Practice Intellectual Property Judge Mark Davis Sanctions U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The court held that a nonprofit group providing housing assistance did not fail to make reasonable accommodations and/or housing modifications at the request of a client who requested wheelchair-accessibility construction. Plaintiff Veda Evans is a disabled mother of three young ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

The statutory procedural requirement that a debt collector accurately report that a consumer debt is disputed is a substantive right enacted by Congress in the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and plaintiff has alleged an injury in fact from an ...

Tagged with: Consumer Protection Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District

Defendant prison officials win summary judgment in an inmate’s suit alleging their failure to provide a separate pill-call time for inmates fasting during Ramadan violated his rights under the First Amendment and the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act; ...

Tagged with: Civil Rights Judge Mark Davis U.S. District Court - Eastern District