Justia U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Articles Posted in U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals
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Debtor appealed from the bankruptcy court's order granting creditor relief from the automatic stay to complete its foreclosure proceeding without a further hearing in debtor's case. The bankruptcy appellate panel concluded that the bankruptcy court correctly applied 11 U.S.C. 362(d)(4)(B) with respect to the property at issue to creditor as a creditor whose claim was secured by an interest in the real property. Likewise, the panel did not second guess the bankruptcy court's determination that debtor's bankruptcy filing was part of a scheme to hinder or delay creditors, and that such scheme was one involving multiple bankruptcy filings that affected the property. Accordingly, the panel held that the bankruptcy court's grant of relief from the automatic stay to creditor was proper. View "Behrens v. U.S. Bank N.A." on Justia Law

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Qwest appealed from the district court's order entered on remand from the court's decision in Qwest Corp. v. Minnesota Public Utilities Commission, 684 F3d 721 (8th Cir. 2012). In Qwest, the court held that the district court erred in upholding an order from the commission which asserted that the commission had authority under state law to regulate rates for certain telecommunication network elements that Qwest provided to its competitors voluntarily or as required under the Telecommunications Act of 1996, 47 U.S.C. 271. The court held in Qwest that the commission's order was preempted by its entirety and the court reversed the district court's original judgment with respect to both the elements Qwest provided pursuant to section 271. The court reversed the judgment of the district court again and remanded to the district court with instructions to vacate the whole April 23, 2010 order of the commission as preempted by federal law and to enjoin the commission from enforcing the order in its entirety. View "Qwest Corp. v. MN Public Utilities Comm., et al." on Justia Law

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In an insurance coverage dispute between Macheca and Philadelphia, Macheca contended on appeal for a third time that damages were erroneously reduced by amounts it recovered from a separate insurance carrier, and that the district court erred in denying its request for prejudgment interest. The court affirmed the district court's judgment with respect to all of Macheca's challenges on the issue of the Travelers payment because Macheca was barred from raising the issue in this appeal under the law-of-the-case doctrine; affirmed the district court's denial of prejudgment interest on the claims for lost business income and necessary expenses; and reversed the denial of prejudgment interest on the claim for property damage where the award was reasonably ascertainable. View "Macheca Transport Co., et al. v. Philadelphia Indemnity Ins." on Justia Law

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Plaintiff filed suit against Farmers and American, insurance companies, for breach of contract and various state law violations, seeking recovery for additional loss. The court concluded that plaintiffs' claims for specific performance, unjust enrichment, and bad faith were expressly preempted by federal law; the court affirmed the district court's grant of Farmers' motion to dismiss plaintiffs' extracontractual claims because they were preempted under federal law; and the court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to Farmers on the ground that plaintiffs failed to file a supplemental proof of loss, a strictly construed requirement, and thus did not satisfy the prerequisites for suing on their additional claims, rejecting plaintiffs' estoppel, duress, repudiation, and due process arguments. Further, the court affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment for American, concluding that the American policy was supplemental and plaintiffs could not recover from American for flood damage because they had not exhausted their primary policy with Farmers. View "Gunter, et al. v. Farmers Ins. Co., et al." on Justia Law

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Defendant appealed his conviction for conspiracy to distribute or possess with intent to distribute marijuana. The court concluded that the district court did not err by refusing to give defendant's requested instruction on the lesser included offense of conspiracy to possess marijuana where the evidence would not have allowed a rational jury to find defendant not guilty of the greater offense and guilty of the lesser offense. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. Jangula" on Justia Law

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Defendant pled guilty to possessing with intent to distribute cocaine base, cocaine, and marijuana, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking. On appeal, defendant raised several challenges to his sentence. The court concluded that their was no error, constitutional or otherwise, in the district court calculating the applicable Guidelines range; the district court did not procedurally err in determining the sentence where that court first determined the applicable advisory Guidelines range, considered the 18 U.S.C. 3553(a) factors in conjunction with defendant's particular situation, and provided an individual explanation of the sentence; and the district court did not abuse its discretion by sentencing defendant within the Guidelines range to serve a total of 120 months in prison on the three drug counts. In regards to the five issues raised by defendant in his pro se brief, the court concluded that challenges to the integrity of the superseding indictment had no merit; the district court properly determined a factual basis for the plea of guilty existed before entry of judgment; the district court did not err in finding the PSR correctly represented defendant's criminal history; the district court did not err in entering the amended judgment to include a forfeiture in the amount found in the duffel bag at issue; and the district court did not plainly err by exceeding the maximum penalty for count three. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "United States v. Scale" on Justia Law

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Collateral to an ongoing divorce proceeding in Missouri state court, husband filed an identity theft tort claim in federal court under Mo. Rev. Stat. 570.223 against his wife. The district court dismissed the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the domestic relations exception to federal jurisdiction. Because the remedies requested here effectively would nullify part of the divorce court's judgment based on the same conduct, the two cases were "inextricably intertwined" within the meaning of Kahn v. Kahn. Accordingly, the domestic relations exception precluded subject matter jurisdiction over the case and the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Wallace v. Wallace" on Justia Law

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Petitioners, natives and citizens of Mexico, petitioned for review of the BIA's dismissal of their appeal from an IJ's order denying their motion to suppress evidence and terminate deportation proceedings. Petitioners argued that they alleged sufficient facts before the IJ to demonstrate that the entry and search of their home was an egregious Fourth Amendment violation such that the statements and passports they provided during the search should be suppressed. The court held that, even if petitioners have alleged a Fourth Amendment violation, they did not allege a prima facie case of egregiousness to warrant exclusion of evidence in the deportation context. Further, there was no Fifth Amendment violation for the failure to conduct a hearing. Accordingly, the court denied the petition for review. View "Lopez-Fernandez, et al. v. Holder, Jr." on Justia Law

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Plaintiff filed suit against Riceland, alleging retaliatory discharge after being a witness in an internal investigation into a complaint about a manager. A jury subsequently awarded plaintiff approximately $60,000 in compensatory damages and back pay in regards to his 42 U.S.C. 1981 claim. The court concluded that the district court properly denied Riceland's motion for judgment where the evidence was sufficient for the jury to find retaliation; the district court properly dismissed plaintiff's Title VII claim where, even if plaintiff had properly preserved this claim on appeal, the claim was untimely; it was not necessary to address the district court's grant of summary judgment on plaintiff's state law claim because the state statute would not entitle plaintiff to any additional relief beyond his section 1981 claim; the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying plaintiff's motion for a new trial on punitive damages; and the district court did not abuse its discretion by denying plaintiff's request for reinstatement. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Sayger v. Riceland Foods, Inc." on Justia Law

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This case arose when groups of plaintiffs filed product liability actions against four manufacturers of transvaginal mesh devices, including Boston Scientific. Three groups filed similar motions proposing that the state court assign each group to a single Judge for purposes of discovery and trial. Two district judges granted plaintiffs' motions and remanded to state court on the ground that no case included more than 100 plaintiffs and plaintiffs had not proposed to the state court that the actions be tried jointly. The court granted Boston Scientific leave to appeal and vacated the order remanding to state court where the three groups of plaintiffs have already proposed to try their cases jointly within the meaning of the Class Action Fairness Act of 2005 (CAFA), 28 U.S.C. 1332(d)(11)(B)(i), because plaintiffs' counsel urged the state court to assign the claims of more than 100 plaintiffs to a single judge. View "Atwell, et al. v. Boston Scientific Corp." on Justia Law