News

Case Summaries

Tax Law

[08/19] US v. Farr
A conviction for tax fraud is reversed where during trial the government constructively amended the indictment against her, trying her not just for the crime described in the indictment (failure to pay quarterly employment taxes for a medical clinic) but also for a separate and additional offense (failure to pay a trust fund recovery penalty assessed against her personally). The circuit court does, however, reject a claim that there was insufficient evidence in the record to sustain her conviction, and that consequently she could not be subjected to retrial under a lawful indictment.

[08/19] US v. City of New York
In a qui tam False Claims Act action challenging a local law requiring non-resident city employee-plaintiffs to pay a fee equivalent to the municipal income taxes paid by resident city-employees, motion to dismiss plaintiffs' appeal is granted where: 1) since the government has declined to intervene in a False Claims action, it is not a party to the action within the meaning of Fed. R. App. P. 4(a)(1); and therefore, 2) a notice of appeal had to be filed within 30 days.

[08/15] County of Humboldt v. McKee
In an action by county to assess property taxes on defendants for parcels transferred to third party purchasers, decision in favor of defendants is reversed where: 1) subsequent to the adoption of the 1978 Guidelines, which set forth revised regulations governing agricultural preserves, the parties voluntarily renewed their contract numerous times; 2) the new contract created with each renewal incorporated the 1978 Guidelines; and 3) thus, the 1978 Guidelines can be applied constitutionally to a Williamson Act contract executed in 1977.

Read More

International Law

[08/15] Chhay v. Mukasey
Petition for review of a decision denying Cambodian national petitioner asylum and related relief is denied where: 1) the court lacks jurisdiction over an asylum claim because she had not exhausted her administrative remedies; 2) the record did not contain evidence that petitioner experienced any persecution prior to her exodus from Cambodia; 3) petitioner did not satisfy burden of proof of likelihood of future persecution; 4) petitioner did not prove that it was more likely than not that she will be tortured if removed to her homeland; and 5) the IJ fully considered documentation proffered by petitioner and did not violate her right to due process, and put sufficient weight to evidence of general conditions in Cambodia.

[08/14] In re: Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) Antitrust Litig.
In an antitrust action brought against U.S. and foreign manufacturers and sellers of DRAM computer memory by a British computer manufacturer that purchased DRAM outside of the U.S., dismissal of the complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction under the Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvement Act (FTAIA) is affirmed where: 1) "but for" causation cannot suffice for the FTAIA domestic injury exception to apply, and instead a direct or proximate causal relationship is required; 2) under such standard, plaintiff failed to establish a causal link between the domestic effects of higher U.S. prices for DRAM and its foreign injury; and 3) there was no abuse of discretion in denying leave to amend.

[08/14] In Re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2001
In tort actions brought by persons who incurred losses in September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, dismissal of claims against certain Saudi Arabian defendants for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and personal jurisdiction is affirmed where: 1) the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) grants immunity to individual officials of a foreign government for their official-capacity acts, and thus four Saudi princes were entitled to immunity; 2) the district court properly concluded that a Saudi High Commission was an "agency or instrumentality" of the Kingdom and therefore entitled to immunity under the FSIA; 3) none of the exceptions to the FSIA applied; and 4) plaintiffs did not establish a prima facie case that the district court had jurisdiction over defendants.

Read More

Bankruptcy Law

[08/19] In Re: Holland
A dispute in a bankruptcy case over which state's law should determine whether real property owned by debtor should be exempted from the bankruptcy estate is dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction where the district court's order ruling that Florida law applied and remanding to bankruptcy court, without deciding whether Florida law granted an exemption, was not a final order subject to appeal.

[08/18] In the Matter of: N A Flash Found. Inc.
In a bankruptcy case, refusal to avoid transfers made by debtor to one of its creditors just prior to its bankruptcy filing is affirmed where under state law, creditor was a beneficiary of a construction trust fund of which debtor was trustee, and would be entitled to full recovery of the funds transferred, even in a Chapter 7 proceeding.

[08/14] Chartschlaa v. Nationwide Mutual Ins. Co.
In an action arising out of defendant-insurer's termination of its relationship with plaintiffs-former sellers of its insurance police, district court's denial of defendant's motion for judgment as a matter of law is reversed where the claims of former sellers belong to the bankruptcy estate of former insurance seller, and not to either of the plaintiffs.

Read More