In this suit by employees of a Greenville, S.C., poultry processing plant, plaintiffs’ state-law wage claims are preempted by federal labor law, as the parties are subject to a collective bargaining agreement, but the 4th Circuit affirms an award for ...

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

Although federal funding makes a city’s street widening project subject to a federal statute governing land acquisitions, plaintiff car wash cannot use the statute to challenge the city’s “quick take” of the car wash property as the statute, 42 U.S.C. ...

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

Although general tax exemptions applicable to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do not apply to real property taxes, they do cover real property transfer taxes, and the 4th Circuit affirms decisions of district courts in Maryland and South Carolina that ...

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

A citizen of El Salvador who entered the U.S. without authorization wins remand of his request for withholding of removal under 8 U.S.C. § 1231(b)(3) as a “former member” of the MS-13 gang who allegedly faces death if he returns ...

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

A defendant’s 120-month sentence for conspiracy to traffic in crack cocaine cannot be reduced to 60 months under the Fair Sentencing Act, which became effective after defendant was sentenced; defendant’s motion under 18 U.S.C. § 3582(c)(2) is not a vehicle ...

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

In recognizing a German insolvency proceeding for a German semiconductor manufacturer as a “foreign main proceeding,” the bankruptcy court did not abuse its discretion in limiting the German insolvency administrator’s ability to unilaterally reject licenses to the 4,000 U.S. patents ...

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

The 4th Circuit affirms defendants’ convictions for conspiracy to traffic in khat, a leafy substance grown in Africa and containing the controlled substance cathinone, despite defendants’ challenges to jury instructions on how much the Somali native defendants knew about the ...

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

The 4th Circuit says police had a reasonable suspicion to frisk a back-seat passenger:  The traffic stop for running a red light occurred in a high-crime neighborhood at 3:30 a.m., with four male passengers in the vehicle and a driver ...

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

Although a trash can was not placed at the curb for collection, it was situated on common property of an apartment complex, and a “trash pull” by police to search for evidence to corroborate a tip that the tenant’s boyfriend ...

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

An administrative law judge did not improperly limit a coal mining company’s ability to rebut a presumption of black lung benefits for a claimant who had spent at least 15 years in an underground mine and had become totally disabled ...

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