A company president who signed three agreements with a Chinese company that contained clauses requiring arbitration of any disputes in China could not use his unilateral decision not to hire his own Chinese counsel or his own independent Chinese interpreter ...

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

Where there is a “branch office” within 200 miles of the borrower’s home, federal regulations require a bank to conduct a face-to-face meeting before initiating foreclosure proceedings. However, that obligation is only triggered where the “branch office” conducts some business ...

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

Where a judge presiding over a criminal trial had prosecuted the defendant for bank robbery in 1989, mandamus was denied because it was not certain that the prior conviction would be relevant. The judge could preside over the case and ...

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

Where the sentencing court considered the factors in 18 U.S.C § 3553 and addressed the defendant’s argument that his purportedly de-escalating criminal history made a Guidelines sentence appropriate, the sentence was neither procedurally nor substantively unreasonable, even if it was ...

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

Although the defendant argued that officers engaged in an illegal trespass by intruding the curtilage of his home, it was not “clear and obvious” that the officers exceeded the scope of their implicit license to enter his driveway. Because the ...

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

Where the search of the defendant’s home, vehicles and storage unit was supported by warrants based on probable cause, there was no Fourth Amendment violation. As such, a separate search four months later was not tainted fruit of a poisonous ...

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

The defendant’s argument that one use of a firearm in the simultaneous commission of two predicate drug-trafficking offenses will not support separate § 924(c) convictions and sentences is foreclosed by Fourth Circuit precedent. And he was not entitled to relief ...

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

Where a defendant’s “gross driver error” resulted in a fatal crash, an odor of alcohol was coming from his car and he was combative with first responders, there was probable cause to take blood for a toxicology analysis or, at ...

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

Where the defendant filed his appeal 283 days after the entry of judgment, the district court’s failure to advise him of his right to appeal at his sentencing did not prevent his appeal from being dismissed as untimely. Background Kirk ...

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

Where a suit against an employer was originally filed in the name of a man who died two days before his claims were filed, there was no Article III standing and the error could not be cured through substitution of ...

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