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

The Eighth Circuit reversed the district court's order granting summary judgment for Dollar General in an action brought by plaintiff, after returning from military service, alleging that the company denied him reemployment as required under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). The court held that there was a genuine dispute of material fact as to plaintiff's resignation; a reasonable jury could find that plaintiff's application for the store manager position at the Bryant store was sufficient to give a reasonable employer adequate notice that he was a returning service member seeking reemployment; Dollar General was not entitled to judgment as a matter of law on plaintiff's USERRA claim because he was not obligated to seek reemployment through the leave coordinator; and judicial estoppel did not bar plaintiff's USERRA claim. View "Scudder v. Dolgencorp, LLC" on Justia Law

Offer of compromise is not a reasonable alternative to seizure under 26 C.F.R. sec. 301.6334-1(d)(1), which requires an alternative for collection, not an alternative to collection. The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of the government's petition for permission to levy taxpayer's home and to apply the proceeds toward her debt. The court rejected taxpayer's claim that the government must respond to her offer to compromise the debt before the court may levy on her principal residence. View "United States v. Brabant-Scribner" on Justia Law

On remand from resentencing, the Eighth Circuit reversed the district court’s application of the USSG 2K2.1(b)(6)(B) sentencing enhancement for possessing a firearm in connection with another felony offense, and remanded with instructions to resentence defendant without the enhancement. The court explained that, because the other felony offense in this case was mere possession of drugs, the district court must affirmatively make a finding that the weapon facilitated the drug offense for the enhancement to apply.The court held that the government failed to meet its burden to show more than a generalized connection or that the weapons were connected to a different felony offense. In this case, the resentencing record did not support the enhancement and it was clear error to find the firearm facilitated the possession where the weapons were in the trunk and the user quantity of cocaine was inside the car. View "United States v. Walker" on Justia Law

Plaintiff brought a putative class action against Air EVAC asserting three claims for relief under Arkansas law. The district court dismissed all claims as preempted by the express preemption provision in the Airline Deregulation Act (ADA).The Eighth Circuit affirmed on a narrower basis and held that the fairness of plaintiff's transaction with Air EVAC and the reasonableness of Air EVAC's price were governed by federal law. Likewise, the court held that the ADA preempted plaintiff's claim that Air EVAC may not seek restitution against class members because it lacked clean hands. Finally, the court held that plaintiff's declaratory judgment claims, like his fraud claims, were ADA-preempted. The court noted that plaintiff's may bring contract defenses and unpreempted judicial remedies were also available. View "Ferrell v. Air EVAC EMS, Inc." on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit vacated the tax court's valuation of Medtronic's true income for the 2005 and 2006 tax years. The Commissioner claimed that Medtronic shifted income from its highly profitable U.S. operations and intangibles to an offshore subsidiary operating in a tax haven in Puerto Rico by charging an artificially low rate for the intangibles.The court held that the tax court's factual findings were insufficient to enable the court to conduct an evaluation of the tax court's determination that the Pacesetter agreement was an appropriate comparable uncontrolled transaction (CUT) because it involved similar intangible property and had similar circumstances regarding licensing. In this case, the tax court did not address in sufficient detail whether the circumstances of the settlement between Pacesetter and Medtronic US were comparable to the licensing agreement between Medtronic and Medtronic Puerto Rico; did not analyze the degree of comparability of the Pacesetter agreement's contractual terms and those of the Medtronic Puerto Rico licensing agreement; did not evaluate how the different treatment of intangibles affected the comparability of the Pacesetter agreement and the Medtronic Puerto Rico licensing agreement; and did not decide the amount of risk and product liability expense that should be allocated between Medtronic US and Medtronic Puerto Rico. View "Medtronic, Inc. & Consolidated Subsidiaries v. Comissioner" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed movant's 10 year sentence where he accepted the government's reoffer of the sentence in a plea agreement. The court held that the appeal was timely filed because the district court's order granting relief under 28 U.S.C. 2255 did not become final until after resentencing. The court also held that the district court did not clearly err in determining that movant would not have accepted the second plea offer and in any event whether both plea bargains were reoffered was irrelevant because the district court could have rejected either or both proposals. View "Wiggins v. United States" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction for production of child pornography. The court held that the district court did not err by denying defendant's motion to suppress evidence seized from his home during a warrantless search because he consented to the search; the scope of the search did not exceed the scope of defendant's general consent; there was no err in admitting evidence of molestation of the victim and the pornographic anime defendant showed her because it established the context in which he took nude photos of her, as well as his grooming process; there was no error in admitting other child pornography found on defendant's computer; there was no error in admitting picture of defendant's ex-wife wearing a bondage costume identical to the one shown in the photos of the victim, as the picture tended to prove defendant took the photos of the victim; the district court did not abuse its discretion in limiting defendant's cross-examination of the victim concerning her depression and counseling as he failed to make any offer of proof to show how the questioning would have been relevant to the witness's credibility or bias. View "United States v. Steinmetz" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the County and others in a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action alleging that plaintiff was sexually assaulted by former corrections officer Louis Campana. The court held that the claims against the County were properly dismissed where plaintiff failed to show that the County itself caused the constitutional violation at issue; nothing in the record established that any failure to train Campana caused him to assault plaintiff or that the County was deliberately indifferent to plaintiff's rights; two supervisors' negligence was not sufficient to establish section 1983 liability; a reasonable officer in Sheriff Samuelson's position would not have known that he needed to more closely supervise Campana, and the Sheriff was entitled to qualified immunity; and a reasonable officer in Defendant Gregg's position would not have concluded on this record that Campana posed an obvious risk to commit sexual assault. View "Marsh v. Phelps County" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of Robert McChesney's suit against the Commission after it imposed a civil penalty on him as treasurer of Bart McLeay's campaign for United States Senate in Nebraska. In this case, the Commission found that McChesney failed to file certain notices of campaign contributions that must be reported within 48 hours.As a preliminary matter, the court held that it was not reversible error for the district court to rule based on the record that was available to it, and the court rejected the Commission's contention that McChesney did not bring a proper challenge. On the merits, the court rejected McChesney's claim that the Commission failed to establish the 2014 penalty schedule and held that the statute did not require the Commission in 2014 to conduct the sort of evaluative review that McChesney sought; the district court properly declined to set aside the 2014 penalty schedule based on an alleged violation of the Sunshine Act or implementing regulations; and McChesney did not plead a plausible claim for relief based on alleged flaws in the Commission's voting procedure. View "McChesney v. Hunter" on Justia Law

The Eighth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the school district in an action filed by plaintiffs of a student, alleging violation of the student's rights under the Rehabilitation Act when the school district failed to make reasonable accommodations for her. The court held that the parents' complaint sought relief available under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) -- relief for the denial of a free and appropriate public education-- and thus they must exhaust their administrative remedies unless an exception to the exhaustion requirement applied. In this case, none of the three exceptions to the exhaustion requirement applied. Therefore, the district court properly granted summary judgment for failure to exhaust administrative remedies under the IDEA. View "Nelson v. Charles City Community School District" on Justia Law