2014 First Circuit US Court of Appeals Case Law

Justia Opinion Summary: A package was shipped from a FedEx location in Eureka, California to an address in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The printed address label inadvertently showed an incorrect address, that address being Plaintiff’s address.…

Justia Opinion Summary: When Appellant, a resident of the Pondview Condominiums, did not pay his condominium fees on time, the condominium trustees hired law firm Marcus, Errico, Emmer and Brooks, P.C. (“MEEB”) to collect Appellant’s debt. MEEB…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a Colombian national, was convicted of participating in a conspiracy to import cocaine to the United States. Prior to trial, Defendant moved to suppress an identification that he argued had been obtained by a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a coconspirator in a 2010 murder in Rhode Island, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit robbery affecting commerce, robbery affecting commerce, and possessing and discharging a gun in relation to a crime of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Under current Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security protocols, some passengers cannot pass through some security checkpoints in U.S. airports without submitting to a standard pat-down, which includes…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, a tornado ripped through the downtown area of the City of Springfield, Massachusetts and caused significant damage. City officials quickly determined that the South Commons Condominiums were among the properties…

Justia Opinion Summary: Rosana Claudio-de Leon (Claudio) and the University of the East of the Ana G. Mendez University System (SUAGM) entered into an employment contract that contained a forum selection clause precluding adjudication in…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Appellant was sentenced to 144 months’ imprisonment, a sentence below that suggested by the United States…

Justia Opinion Summary: After T G Plastics Trading Co., Inc. (“National Plastics”) allegedly fell behind on payments owed to Toray Plastics (America), Inc., Toray filed suit. The parties settled the lawsuit, and the terms of the settlement were…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was involved in a wide-ranging drug trafficking organization. After a trial, in which she was tried alone, Appellant was found guilty of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute controlled substances and…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal concerned a commercial dispute between business rivals. Ira Green, Inc. (Green) sued Military Sales & Service Co. (MilSal) in federal district court, alleging tortious interference and defamation. After an…

Justia Opinion Summary: Pamela Manning, who suffers from type I diabetes, resigned from her employment at Kohl’s Department Stores, Inc. after Kohl’s refused to grant her request for a steady work schedule. The Equal Employment Opportunity…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1997, Appellant began working for Banco Popular de Puerto Rico (BPPR). After Appellant retired in 2009, BPPR made a final calculation of Appellant’s pension, which yielded monthly payments significantly lower than…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial in Massachusetts state court, Petitioner was convicted of assaulting and raping a two-year-old child and sentenced to life imprisonment. Petitioner’s application for further appellate review was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, a former plumbing inspector for the Town of Sangerville, sued a Town Selectman, asserting claims of common law slander and violations of his constitutional right to due process. The claims stemmed from the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was an anatomically male prisoner in her mid-sixties who suffered from gender identity disorder and self-identified as a female. Plaintiff, who was incarcerated in a medium security male prison in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants in this case were the Governor of Massachusetts, the Secretary of the Executive Office of Health and Human Services, and the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families (DCF). Six…

Justia Opinion Summary: A district court issued an arrest warrant for Brian Hunt for failing to pay a fine. Hunt had actually paid the fine, but the payment wasn’t recorded. Four police officers served the warrant at the home of Hunt and his…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted on federal criminal charges of conspiracy and attempt to affect commerce by robbery, among other charges. The First Circuit vacated Defendant’s sentence and remanded for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant entered a conditional plea of guilty to being a felon in possession of two firearms, reserving the right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress. The district court subsequently sentenced Defendant as an…

Justia Opinion Summary: South Kingstown School Committee (Committee) runs one of Rhode Island’s public school districts. Rhode Island has accepted federal funding under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Appellant, the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants Manuel Trinidad-Acosta and Ed Cogswell were involved in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine base, or crack cocaine. A grand jury indicted Defendants on one count of conspiracy to possess with the intent to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant and numerous co-defendants were convicted of conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine. The sentencing judge made individual drug-quantity determinations based on his review of the record, relying heavily on…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of conspiring to possess illegal drugs with intent to distribute, conspiring to possess a firearm during and in relation to a drug-trafficking crime, and possessing a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury and carriage of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence. After a disposition hearing, the district court varied upward and imposed…

Justia Opinion Summary: This long-running dispute over Puerto Rico’s dairy industry resulted in the principal parties settling. Pursuant to the settlement, the Department of Agriculture for the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and others…

Justia Opinion Summary: Russ Irwin brought an arbitration proceeding against Lyman Morse Boatbuilding, Inc. (LMB) of Maine and Cabot Lyman, the controlling owner of LMB, claiming damages related to the allegedly defective construction of a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Ven-A-Care of the Florida Keys, Inc. filed the first of two qui tam actions alleging that Baxter Healthcare Corporation had defrauded the federal Medicaid and Medicare programs. Ven-A-Care and Baxter eventually reached a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and Defendant entered into an asset purchase agreement (the Agreement) that contained a provision requiring submission of all disputes concerning the “validity, interpretation and enforcement” of the Agreement…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff owned a vacant lot in Alton, New Hampshire. In 2002, Plaintiff deeded the lot to his son. Because the town of Alton then held a lien due to unpaid taxes, Plaintiff did not then hold complete title to the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff and his wife purchased a home in Massachusetts that was encumbered by a mortgage. The mortgage was eventually assigned to Defendant CitiMortgage, Inc. Defendant ultimately invoked its statutory power of sale…

Justia Opinion Summary: In Puerto Rico, the Controlled Access Law (CAL) allows private citizens to protect themselves against violent crimes by maintaining gated residential communities that incorporate public streets. In 2004, two corporations…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether New Hampshire law requires a foreclosing entity to hold both mortgage and note before it can exercise a power of sale under N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. 479:25, which authorizes a mortgagee to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to travel with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Defendant lodged no written objection to the sentence recommendations contained in the ensuing presentence report, nor did he object…

Justia Opinion Summary: For more than twenty years, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provided Medicaid coverage for nineteen- and twenty-year-old children whose families met low-income requirements. In 2012, Maine DHHS…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and heroin and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Upon Defendant’s third sentencing, the district court found Defendant…

Justia Opinion Summary: Following a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of possession with intent to distribute both marijuana and cocaine. Defendant appealed, arguing, among other things, that the district court erred in denying his motion to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Pursuant to a plea agreement, Defendant entered guilty pleas to robbing an individual of a United States passport (count 1), brandishing a firearm during a crime of violence (count 2), and being a convicted felon in…

Justia Opinion Summary: During the underlying litigation, Attorney Jeffrey Ryan, counsel for the plaintiff, attempted to engage in allegedly surreptitious communication with his client while a question was pending at a deposition. The district…

Justia Opinion Summary: With the threat of foreclosure looming on his home, Plaintiff sued Bank for failing to consider him for a mortgage loan modification, which a California class action settlement agreement required Bank to do before…

Justia Opinion Summary: Dragon Systems, Inc. (Dragon), a voice recognition software company that faced a deteriorating financial situation, hired Goldman Sachs (Goldman) to provide financial advice and assistance in connection with a possible…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a Canadian company, contracted with Plaintiff, a Massachusetts investment bank, to be its exclusive financial advisor for the sale of its business. The parties negotiated and executed the agreement from their…

Justia Opinion Summary: An initial criminal complaint issued against Defendant on August 6, 2010 charging him with a drug-related offense. Over the next fourteen months, the government brought four superseding indictments against him. Five days…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a seventeen-day jury trial, Appellants, a brother and sister, were found guilty of multiple bankruptcy-related crimes designed to conceal the brother’s assets and avoid his obligations to creditors. Appellants…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of two counts of passing altered obligations of the United States with intent to defraud and one count of inducing the interstate transportation of currency with intent to…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendants, James Prange and John Jordan, were convicted of multiple fraud-related counts based on their participation in an FBI securities fraud sting. The district court sentenced both Defendants to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Mother and Father had two minor children. The family lived in Canada for approximately three and a half years before Mother relocated the children to the United States, where the entire family had never lived together.…

Justia Opinion Summary: The decedent died from electrocution while working on a telephone pole that was the purported partial responsibility of Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). Appellants, the decedent’s sisters, filed a wrongful…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants, Crystal Litz and Amanda Payne, earned more than $100,000 per year as project managers for The Saint Consulting Group, Inc. Appellants claimed unpaid overtime compensation under the Fair Labor Standards Act…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a complaint against Titeflex Corporation, the manufacturer of Gastite, for an alleged product defect in Gastite corrugated stainless steel tubing (CSST). The complaint asserted four causes of action, each…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of conspiring to distribute cocaine base. Appellant was sentenced to seventy months in jail. On appeal, Appellant challenged his conviction and his sentence. The First Circuit…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of possessing cocaine base with intent to distribute. The First Circuit affirmed the conviction, holding (1) the district court did not err by declining to grant Appellant’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued Frontier Fishing a notice of violation and assessment and a notice of permit sanction after determining that Frontier Fishing was liable for trawling in a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Brendon Lydon, a member of Local 103 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, sued Local 103 in district court, alleging that the union violated several federal labor laws by running its hiring hall in a…

Justia Opinion Summary: This interlocutory appeal concerned a preliminary injunction entered against Joshua Powell in litigation resulting from several contracts between the company Powell founded and a new joint venture formed with a…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this case involving a class action complaint filed against CVS Pharmacy Inc. in Massachusetts Superior Court for wage and hour violations, the First Circuit clarified the removal time periods and mechanisms under the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, an Indonesian citizen, submitted an application for asylum, alleging that she experienced persecution as an Indonesian Christian. An Immigration Judge (IJ) denied Petitioner’s application for asylum and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, the parents of a minor child with Asperger’s Syndrome, filed suit against the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rico Department of Education under a number of federal and state statutes for alleged…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the regulation by the state of Massachusetts of the display of billboards and other outdoor signage. Plaintiffs, related companies engaged in the business of erecting and displaying billboards…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pleaded guilty to two counts related to his involvement in a drug ring. After a plea colloquy, the district judge sentenced Appellant to 327 months on count one and life imprisonment on count two, to run…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed a medical malpractice complaint in the Puerto Rico Court of the First Instance then voluntarily dismissed their suit and re-filed in federal court. In their federal complaint, Plaintiffs named as…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Appellant entered into a written plea agreement with a commitment that the government would recommend a sentence of no more than fifty-six months.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty under a plea agreement to conspiring to distribute at least fifty kilograms of marijuana and to distributing or aiding and abetting the distribution of marijuana. A judge with the First Circuit used…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Town of Mendon, Massachusetts set forth zoning restrictions regulating the size and height allowances for buildings operating adult-entertainment businesses, limiting the operating hours of such businesses, and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was driving a rental car he had retrieved from his son’s girlfriend when he was stopped by a police officer. The officer subsequently discovered a bag on the passenger seat containing a gun and two boxes of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was an exotic dancer employed by an adult entertainment club (“Club”) operated in Providence, Rhode Island by Defendant, a Rhode Island corporation. Plaintiff sued the Club, alleging that she was injured when a…

Justia Opinion Summary: After Plaintiff retired from his employment with the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) he filed an administrative claim for employment discrimination,…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the mandatory detention provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. 1226(c), which provides that the Attorney General shall take into custody any alien who has committed certain…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of being a felon in possession of one or more firearms and of knowingly possessing one of more firearms. Defendant appealed, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to prove…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1996, TWA Flight 800 exploded in mid-air and crashed eight miles south of Long Island, New York. After an investigation that was the largest and most expensive in the history of the National Transportation Safety…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff received benefits under her employer’s long-term disability benefit plan before the administrator for the long-term disability program determined she was no longer eligible for benefits. The administrator…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was a popular restaurant in Puerto Rico owned by Lorraine Enterprises, Inc. The corporation was owned by Defendant Lorraine Lago and her husband. The Secretary of Labor sued the restaurant, Lago,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pled guilty to one count of distributing oxycodone. In sentencing Appellant, the district court found that other uncharged drug sales were relevant to determining Appellant’s guideline sentencing range. On…

Justia Opinion Summary: Alasko Foods, Inc. (“Alasko”), a Canadian corporation that sells frozen produce to retail outlets, and Foodmark, Inc. (“Foodmark”), a Massachusetts corporation that assists food manufacturers in marketing branded-label…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner filed a motion for relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2255, alleging that he was denied his Sixth Amendment right to counsel at stages during his criminal proceeding and that he was forced to represent himself at…

Justia Opinion Summary: The “B Prong” of the Massachusetts Independent Contractor Statute, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, 148B(a)(2), requires that workers perform a service outside the usual course of the employer’s business to be classified as…

Justia Opinion Summary: While Plaintiff was imprisoned in the Massachusetts Department of Correction (DOC) he committed misconduct that resulted in an administrative sanction of a ten-year term in the Department Disciplinary Unit (DDU), a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was one of seventeen passengers in an open boat that was intercepted by Coast Guard and Border Patrol officials twenty-three nautical miles off the coast of Puerto Rico. Defendant was subsequently convicted of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a native of Uganda, was convicted of conspiring with his friend and countryman, whose permission to remain in the United States had expired, to arrange a sham marriage for his friend in order to secure a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Santana-Concepcion underwent exploratory brain surgery around a “symptomatic arachnoid cyst” during which a neurosurgeon placed a shunt to relieve pressure created by the cyst. Santana-Concepcion, along with her husband…

Justia Opinion Summary: On October 27, 2011, the McLaughlin Group brought suit against the United States, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, and the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, challenging the constitutionality of Section 3 of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of the Dominican Republic, married a United States citizen and obtained permanent resident status on a conditional basis. After Petitioner and his wife divorced, Petitioner applied for a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellants, employees of Puerto Rico’s Department of Transportation and Public Works and members of Puerto Rico’s Popular Democratic Party, were relieved of their job responsibilities and lost supervisory authority upon…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, two limited partnerships, each owned an apartment building in Puerto Rico that qualified for low-income housing tax credits. Defendant was the agency responsible for allocating the credits. Plaintiffs and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to one count of failing to register as a sex offender. The plea agreement contained a waiver of appeal provision, which provided that if the court accepted the agreement and sentenced Defendant…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs were inmates in the Massachusetts state prison system who suffer from HIV. Plaintiffs sued the Massachusetts Department of Corrections after the Department decided, rather than to provide the inmates with…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of the Dominican Republic, was physically removed from the United States to the Dominican Republic in 2002 after he received two state convictions with immigration consequences. In 2006,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Officers from the Puerto Rico Police Department stopped a vehicle in which Defendant was a passenger for a traffic infraction. Suspecting that the car may have been stolen, the officers asked the driver to exit the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff’s property was subject to a mortgage. Plaintiff discussed refinancing with a predecessor in interest to Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., as well as a mortgage broker and his firm, whom Plaintiff referred to as “agents”…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, who had signed an agreement with FedEx classifying him as an independent contractor, filed two claims under Massachusetts law that apply only to employees. The district court dismissed Plaintiff’s claim that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Section 1692g(b) of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) requires that a debt collector’s collection activities and communications “not overshadow or be inconsistent with the disclosure of the consumer’s right…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant sued Appellees in Massachusetts state court, asserting claims for, inter alia, embezzlement and fraud. Appellees subsequently filed for bankruptcy, and the state court stayed Appellant’s action. The bankruptcy…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, who suffered from Crohn’s disease, brought suit against the University of Puerto Rico, her former employer, and Marisol Gomez-Mouakad (Gomez), her former supervisor, alleging that the defendants did not renew…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, citizens of Rhode Island, brought state law contract claims against Defendants, alleging, among other claims, breach of an oral contract. After the Rhode Island state court dismissed the only non-diverse…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Somalian national, was charged with removability as an alien present without having been admitted or paroled after inspection. Petitioner filed a second application, the first of which was deemed abandoned,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Jeffrey Healey and Edward Given, residents of the Massachusetts Treatment Center, were each civilly committed as a sexually dangerous person. Plaintiffs brought separate suits, which were later consolidated, challenging…

Justia Opinion Summary: The states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island each tax the transfer of real estate. In separate actions, the Town of Johnston, Rhode Island and the Commissioners of Bristol County, Massachusetts (the municipalities)…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial in 1998, Petitioner was convicted iof first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. This appeal concerned Petitioner’s petition for habeas relief in which Petitioner sought to invalidate his…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was the fiduciary implications of a life insurance company’s decision to pay benefits through a retained asset account (RAA) that allows the insurance company to invest the retained assets for its…

Justia Opinion Summary: A Boston police officer spotted two men, including Appellant, matching the general description of culprits who had recently robbed a cell phone store. The officer stopped the men and questioned them. During the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a law firm, contracted with Plaintiff for Plaintiff to provide title insurance on two mortgages that Defendant took as security from a client indebted to Defendant. Upon foreclosure of liens that were superior…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants worked as corrections officers at a jail where Matthew Lalli was being held as a pre-trial detainee. Defendants were involved in a series of troubling events that led to Lalli’s attempted, and almost…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2008, Plaintiff purchased a home in Bar Harbor, Maine from Defendants for $2.9 million. After his purchase, Plaintiff spent in excess of $1.5 million in repairs to the property. Plaintiff brought suit against…

Justia Opinion Summary: From 2005 to 2010, Plaintiff, a Maine resident, worked as a salesman for Alpha Networks, which was based in California, pursuant to a written employment agreement. Plaintiff left Alpha having received no commissions on…

Justia Opinion Summary: Police officers discovered Thomas Locke, a US Airways mechanic at Logan International Airport, filching company property. US Airways entered into a “Last Chance Agreement” with Locke in lieu of termination and provided…

Justia Opinion Summary: The three defendants in this appeal - Jose Vizcarrondo-Casanova, Carlos Aponte-Sobrado, and Erik Diaz-Colon - were convicted of crimes related to the kidnapping, robbery, and homicide of Elis Manuel Andrades-Telleria, a…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of robbing a bank using force and intimidation (Count One) and of carrying and brandishing and firearm to commit that robbery (Count Two). The district court imposed a…

Justia Opinion Summary: In a previous decision of an appeal of a case brought under the Employees Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, the First Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Plaintiff that the First Circuit should not longer apply…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant and three co-defendants were recorded on three different videos engaging in sex acts with a fourteen-year-old girl. Defendant was subsequently charged with aiding and abetting the production of child…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1995, a number of government agencies opened investigations into the dealings of Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc. with various federally funded health-care programs. In 2000, Fresenius entered into a series of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of El Salvador, submitted an application for “temporary protected status,” which affords aliens protection from removal from the United States upon a determination that conditions in the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, who was blind, requested transportation subsidies from a Maine state agency. The agency refused the request. After an unsuccessful appeal to an administrative hearing officer, Plaintiff brought suit in the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm that had traveled in interstate commerce. Defendant moved to suppress the firearm, arguing that the officers who frisked him had no reasonable suspicion…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, holders of PHC, Inc. stock, filed separate but similar class actions suits in Massachusetts, alleging that an announced merger between PHC and Acadia Healthcare Company, Inc. was the result of an unfair…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants Rivera-Rodriquez and Mercado-Cruz appealed their convictions and sentences on drug possession and distribution charges. The court affirmed Mercado-Cruz's conviction and sentence. However, the court vacated…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute a controlled substance. The court concluded that the evidence was sufficient to convict defendant of the conspiracy; the two…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his sentence and conviction for wire fraud. The court concluded that there was more than sufficient evidence from which a jury could have reasonably concluded that the government proved all of the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence for three counts of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of possession of child pornography. The court concluded that the sexual abuse evidence at issue was…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant appealed his sentence after pleading guilty to taking a motor vehicle by force, violence, and intimidation with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm. The court concluded that defendant's upward…

Justia Opinion Summary: Pinpoint and Atlas filed federal court actions against each other based on a 2009 contract between them. Two months after answering and counterclaiming Pinpoint in the Virginia action, Atlas filed for bankruptcy under…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging that police officers used excessive force when they shot and killed her sixteen-year-old son (Anthony). The district court granted the police officers' motion for…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983, alleging First and Fourteenth Amendment violations concerning the rescission of a bid award for a potential, but unexecuted, insurance brokerage contract with the Puerto Rico…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, an Indonesian citizen, unsuccessfully applied for asylum eight years ago and now seeks to reopen that earlier request. The court concluded that petitioner failed to show changed country conditions - the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Robert George, a criminal-lawyer-turned-criminal, was convicted of money-laundering conspiracy, aiding and abetting money laundering, money laundering, and structuring financial transactions to avoid reporting them.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Guatemala, came to the United States on a tourist visa and later conceded removability. Petitioner sought relief, including withholding of removal, claiming that she had a problem in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of El Salvador, filed applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. An Immigration Judge (IJ) denied relief, and the Board of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Michael Dunn worked for Boston University (BU) from 1992 until 2010, at which time Dunn’s job was allegedly eliminated due to restructuring. Dunn brought suit against BU in Massachusetts superior court, claiming age…

Justia Opinion Summary: Attorney Valeriano Diviacchi represented Camilla Warrender in an action brought against Warrender by her mortgagee, Sovereign Bank, which sought to collect on a loan secured by certain real property. Shortly after…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a citizen of Guatemala, applied for asylum and withholding of removal, claiming that he left for the United States because he feared a gang would kill him. An Immigration Judge (IJ) denied the application.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Brazil, entered the United States on a tourist visa in 2011. Petitioner married a United States citizen in 2004, at which point he was granted conditional permanent resident status.…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant, who provided tax preparation and filing services, was convicted of ten counts of submitting fraudulent federal tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The First Circuit affirmed,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, a seaman, was diagnosed with aplastic anemia, a blood condition that preventing him from continuing to work. Appellant brought a personal injury action against his employer, alleging negligence under the Jones…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native of Guatemala and an indigenous Mayan Quiche, entered the United States without inspection. After Petitioner was charged with removability, Petitioner filed requests for asylum, withholding of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pleaded guilty to 126 counts, spread over two separate indictments, of aiding and abetting others in stealing or knowingly converting postal money orders from the United States Postal Service (USPS). The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs were four customers who purchased cable television, internet, or telephone services from Charter Communications Entertainment I, LLC and Charter Communications, Inc. (together, Charter). After a severe snow…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff alleged that he was the victim of a fraudulent scheme in which he allowed an attorney to take title to his home and strip it of its equity by granting a new mortgage. Plaintiff filed suit against the mortgagee…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted on three counts of distributing cocaine base. During trial, the court allowed testimony from a cooperating witness who purchased cocaine base from Defendant on three occasions,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The City of Quincy passed an ordinance demanding that bidders on municipal public works projects engage in a specific type of apprentice training program. Plaintiffs, a trade association of construction companies and two…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a complaint against his employer, the U.S. Army, alleging that his direct supervisor harassed and discriminated against him on account of his disability. The Army dismissed the complaint as untimely, and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner filed an application for adjustment of immigration status. An Immigration Judge (IJ) denied Petitioner’s application on the basis of numerous child abuse/neglect reports, as well as a criminal charge, and…

Justia Opinion Summary: A civilian was shot without justification by an on-duty police officer, Javier Pagan-Cruz. Plaintiffs, the victim’s family, filed suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 against Pagan, his two on-scene colleagues, and five supervisors…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a citizen of China then still in China, married an American citizen. Two years later, Petitioner entered the United States and was granted conditional permanent resident status on the basis of her marriage.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, two conservation groups, brought two citizen enforcement suits alleging that endangered fish pass through the turbines of four hydroelectric dams operated by Defendants on the Kennebec River, resulting in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Brazil, was charged with being unlawfully present in the United States. Petitioner conceded removability and applied for withholding of removal and other forms of relief, claiming that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native of Germany, lawfully entered the United States in 1959. In 2004, Petitioner pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography under Connecticut law. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) later…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a citizen of El Salvador, entered the United States without being admitted or paroled. The next year, Petitioner was detained after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at her place of employment.…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this case was whether alleged misrepresentations made by Defendants were made “in connection with” a transaction in covered securities under the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (SLUSA).…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Brazil, was charged with removability for being convicted, after his admission into the United States, of two crimes involving moral turpitude. The crimes were committed in 2009 and…

Justia Opinion Summary: George Schussel’s former company fraudulently transferred millions of dollars to him in order to avoid paying income taxes. The IRS, which is authorized by statute to collect a person’s tax debt by reclaiming assets the…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of distributing cocaine. On appeal, Appellant argued that two instances of prosecutorial misconduct deprived him of a fair trial. The First Circuit affirmed the conviction,…

Justia Opinion Summary: The Maine State Prison has a longstanding practice of issuing footlockers with padlocks to most inmates. Appellants, inmates in the Prison, were each seriously injured in assaults by other inmates who used prison-issued…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, agents intercepted a call between James Brichetto and a potential customer, Michael Leavitt, in which Leavitt sought to purchase approximately 100 oxycodone pills. Brichetto asked whether Leavitt was with…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner Ali Shah entered the country in 2002. His removal proceedings lasted for well over ten years. He had the benefit of two de novo hearings before two different IJs, and his appeals were considered by the BIA on…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs challenged an insurance company's use of "retained asset accounts" (RAAs) as a method of paying life insurance benefits in the ERISA context. They presented the district court with two basic questions: (1)…

Justia Opinion Summary: Maribel Vazquez-Robles (Plaintiff) commenced a civil action in a federal district court against CommoLoCo, Inc. (Defendant), her former employer, alleging workplace discrimination claims. Plaintiff served the summons and…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, the Maine Legislature made certain amendments to Maine’s public employee retirement system. In general, the retired Maine employees stood to be paid significantly less cost-of-living adjustments as a result of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners were brothers and natives and citizens of Guatemala. While they lived in Guatemala, their father was kidnapped and murdered by the family of a business associate. Petitioners had paid a ransom to the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Robert Snyder operated a business in a building that he owned in the city of Waltham, Massachusetts. After Snyder fired an employee who served as a member of the Waltham city council, the former employee complained to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, conspiracy to commit robbery affecting interstate commerce, and felon in possession of a firearm. Appellant subsequently pleaded guilty to all…

Justia Opinion Summary: Mark Hansen was a former vice president of Wilcox Industries Corp. After Hansen left Wilcox, he founded his own company, Advanced Life Support Technologies. Wilcox filed a complaint against Hansen, alleging that Hansen…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1999, Petitioner admitted to a single count of shoplifting in Massachusetts state court. In 2012, Petitioner admitted to an amended charge of larceny by inducement. The following year, Petitioner was charged with…

Justia Opinion Summary: After an Attorney’s representation of the Debtor in this current action ended, the Debtor was left owing the Attorney $62,000. The Debtor later filed petition for bankruptcy protection and listed the amount owing to the…

Justia Opinion Summary: When an investigation was initiated into corruption at the Puerto Rico Electrical Power Authority’s (PREPA) Aguadilla Technical Office, Plaintiff, an employee of PREPA at the Aguadilla Technical Office, testified and…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial in federal district court, Petitioner was convicted of child pornography and sentenced to 180 months’ imprisonment. The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Petitioner’s conviction and sentence.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Orlando Alejandro-Ortiz (Alejandro) was injured by an electric shock during an encounter with a power line owned by Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA). Alejandro and his wife, Sonia Rodriguez-Jimenez…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial in Massachusetts state court, Appellant was convicted of the first-degree murder of his estranged wife under both the theory of deliberate premeditation and extreme atrocity or cruelty. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, an African-American woman who was serving in the United States Coast Guard Housing Office at Air Station Cape Cod, filed an employment discrimination action against the Secretary of Homeland Security,…

Justia Opinion Summary: In this insurance coverage dispute, the driver involved in an accident filed a claim with the Insurer of the other vehicle involved in the accident. The Insurer denied the claim. The Office of the Insurance Commissioner…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a class action suit in an Illinois circuit court against Ernida, LLC alleging that Ernida had faxed unsolicited advertisements to Plaintiff and more than thirty-nine other recipients without first…

Justia Opinion Summary: When control of the Puerto Rican government changes parties, the political party assuming office often terminates the employment of public employees affiliated with the party going out of power and fills the vacancies…

Justia Opinion Summary: Cascade Yarns, Inc. (“Cascade”) sued Knitting Fever, Inc. (“KFI”) in federal district court in Washington asserting that KFI made false representations about the cashmere content of its yarns. During discovery, Cascade…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2013, the City of Worcester, Massachusetts adopted the Aggressive Panhandling Ordinance and the Pedestrian Safety Ordinance, which prohibited coercive or risky behavior by panhandlers, other solicitors, and…

Justia Opinion Summary: This case arose from the misconduct of Annie Dookhan, a chemist at a Massachusetts state testing laboratory, who falsely certified drug testing results. Appellant was indicted for possession of crack cocaine with intent…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff received coverage under Johnson & Johnson’s Long-Term Disability Plan while working for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Later, Johnson & Johnson and Medical Card System, Inc. (together, Appellees) terminated…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant entered into a mortgage contract with Pawtucket Credit Union (PCU) for the purchase of real property in Rhode Island. The mortgage agreement included a private contractual remedy, authorized by R. I. Gen. Laws…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted for being a felon in possession of a firearm and for possession of a firearm in a school zone. Defendant was sentenced to sixty months imprisonment on both counts. The First…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pled guilty to robbery and brandishing a firearm during a robbery and was sentenced to prison sentences of seventy-two months and eighty-four months, to be served consecutively. Following the imposition of…

Justia Opinion Summary: John Zullo paid David Lombardo to perform work in Zullo’s house. Lombardo, however, had misrepresented his credentials, and Zullo incurred additional expense to have the inadequate work fixed. Zullo subsequently obtained…

Justia Opinion Summary: The United States sought extradition of Alexander Hilton, a U.S. citizen, to face an attempted murder charge in Scotland. A magistrate judge found Hilton extraditable despite Hilton’s arguments that extradition would…

Justia Opinion Summary: After an oil drilling rig owned by BP Exploration & Production, Inc. and BP America Production Company (collectively, BP) sank of the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and caused a massive oil spill, Packagen, a manufacturer of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Katie Graf was injured on the premises of Fat Cat Bar & Grill. Graf was awarded $500,000 in damages and $111,124 in prejudgment interest against Torcia & Sons, Inc, the owner of Fat Cat. Torcia was insured by Hospitality…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed a putative class action in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, invoking federal diversity jurisdiction, alleging that Defendant, Raytheon Company, negligently exposed…

Justia Opinion Summary: Mother, a citizen of Colombia who entered the United States illegally, and Father, a naturalized U.S. citizen, married and had a daughter, E.G., born in Massachusetts. When E.G. was two years old Mother and E.G. moved to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, a class of investors, brought a securities fraud action against Genzyme Corporation, an international pharmaceutical company, and several of Genzyme’s executives, alleging that Defendants violated the…

Justia Opinion Summary: The lawsuit underlying this action alleged that Glynis McCormack’s ward sexually and physically abused a younger boy. In this declaratory judgment action, the district court ruled that Metropolitan Property and Casualty…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant had worked for twenty-six years with the United States Postal Service as a letter carrier when he was charged with obstructing the mails in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1701. The statute provides that a defendant who…

Justia Opinion Summary: Corizon, Inc. was a private independent contractor that provided healthcare services to inmates at Cumberland County Jail (CCJ) under a contract with the jail. After Paul Galambos, died from self-inflicted injuries that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pleaded guilty to two counts related to his involvement in a drug ring. After a plea colloquy, the district judge sentenced Appellant to 327 months on count one and life imprisonment on count two, to run…

Justia Opinion Summary: At issue in this appeal was a tax credit that offset federal tax owed on income earned in the operation of a business in Puerto Rico. The credit remained available to taxpayers under section 936 of the Internal Revenue…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, drugs found in Appellant’s possession were sent to a Massachusetts testing laboratory, where Annie Dookhan, a chemist, certified that the drugs were crack cocaine. Appellant was subsequently indicted in federal…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff worked in a luggage factory in France that was owned by Samsonite. Samsonite was controlled by an investment group led by Bain Capital, LLC. Bain wanted to shut down the factory, and to avoid paying millions of…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Petitioner was found guilty of second degree murder and unlawful possession of a firearm. Petitioner appealed his conviction, contending that the Commonwealth used its peremptory challenges to exclude…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with several drug trafficking crimes. Defendant engaged in several pre-trial antics in an apparent effort to put off the trial, including seeking continuances of the trial and ostensibly firing his…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, Plaintiff refinanced her home in Massachusetts. The mortgage contract identified MortgageIT as the lender and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) as the mortgagee. MortgageIT sold Plaintiff’s note,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Richard Feingold’s mother purchased a life insurance policy from an Insurer listing her husband as the only beneficiary. Feingold's mother died in 2006. In 2012, Richard informed Insurer of his mother's death. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was prosecuted in federal court for possession of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2252(a)(4)(B), after police officers took several digital devices from his home, including a thumb drive that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a former police officer with the Puerto Rico Police Department (PRPD), was caught providing armed protection for sham drug transactions through a sting operation controlled by the FBI. After a jury trial,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff brought sex discrimination and retaliation claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act against his former employer, DDR Corp., after his employment was terminated. Specifically, Plaintiff claimed that DDR…

Justia Opinion Summary: After Plaintiff attempted to film a police officer as he was conducting a traffic stop, Plaintiff was arrested and charged with violating New Hampshire’s wiretapping statute, among other crimes. Plaintiff was not brought…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was convicted as an accessory before the fact to George Carpenter’s murder. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) reversed the conviction, concluding that the indictment charging Petitioner improperly…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2005, Debtor secured a loan with a mortgage on her home and stayed current on all mortgage payments on the property. Debtor’s bank, however, failed to record the mortgage with the appropriate registry. In 2011, Debtor…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant, a Muslim and a native of Algeria, filed an amended complaint alleging that he was denied a promotion at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (“Department”) based on his religion, race, and national origin.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was convicted in Massachusetts state court of drug distribution and trafficking. While Petitioner’s appeal was pending in the Supreme Judicial Court (SJC), the U.S. Supreme Court decided Melendez-Diaz v.…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1998, Defendant was convicted of the Massachusetts crime of indecent assault and battery of a child under the age of fourteen. Defendant was notified of his obligation to register as a sex offender under the Sex…

Justia Opinion Summary: Mother and Father had two daughters that were born in the United States. When the girls were four months and just over one year old, the family moved to Singapore after Father’s employer temporarily relocated him. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed suit against Defendant, her employer, pursuant to Title VII and analogous Puerto Rico law, alleging adverse employment action and a failure to hire on account of sex. After deliberations, the jury…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of one count of conspiracy to make false statements on a federal firearms application, three counts of gun possession by a previously convicted felon, and one count of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sued the United States under the Federal Tort Claims Act, alleging that personnel at the Fort Buchanan Post Exchange Store in Puerto Rico had been negligent in failing to both prevent and clean up a spill on…

Justia Opinion Summary: A pension fund and other America Online (AOL) shareholders brought a class action against Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB), former CSFB analysts, and other related defendants (collectively, Defendants), alleging…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native of Guatemala, entered the United States without inspection sometime in 1999 or 2000. In 2006, Petitioner was charged with removability. In 2011, Petitioner conceded removability and filed an…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of China, came to the United States without a visa or other valid entry document. Petitioner applied for asylum, withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant-property owner filed a Chapter 13 petition for bankruptcy and subsequently filed a third amended reorganization plan proposing to bifurcate Appellee-mortgagee’s claim into secured and unsecured portions. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, distribution of cocaine, and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Before Appellant’s sentencing, he learned of the existence of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Indonesia, was charged with removability because he was a noncitizen who overstayed his tourist visa. Petitioner conceded removability but applied for asylum, withholding of removal,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants, Geovanny Ramirez-Negron and Obed Alvarado-Merced pled guilty to aiding and abetting possession with intent to distribute at least one kilogram of heroin, five kilograms of cocaine, fifty grams of cocaine…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, in order to combat the use of anonymous prepaid cell phone for criminal purposes, the Puerto Rico Governor signed into law the Registry Act, which requires telephone companies and other sellers of prepaid phones…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native and citizen of Haiti, was charged with removability. An Immigration Judge (IJ) eventually ordered Petitioner removed to Haiti. Petitioner filed a motion to reopen the proceedings, alleging that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff sought insurance coverage for gastric lap band surgery. Defendant, a health-care insurer that covered Plaintiff by virtue of Plaintiff’s husband’s employment with the federal government, refused to cover the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellee, which manufactures and distributes specialized products for use in the defense, security, and aerospace industries, entered into a consultant agreement with Appellant, under which Appellant agreed to identify…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs in this case were former officers and a former cadet of the Boston Police Department (Department) who were fired after testing positive for cocaine, a current officer who tested positive and underwent…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of fraudulently collecting federal civil service retirement survivor annuity payments intended for her mother. The district court sentenced Defendant to time served plus…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was found guilty of conspiracy with intent to distribute and aiding and abetting in drug distribution. The district court elevated Defendant’s offense level in light of the jury’s finding…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted with one count of cyberstalking in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2261A. Pursuant to a plea agreement, Defendant entered a conditional plea of guilty to the cyberstalking charge. Defendant was sentenced to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a lawsuit against his former employer, a school district alleging that the school district violated the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) when it reassigned Plaintiff to a new position after he…

Justia Opinion Summary: Brothers Angel Ayala-Vazquez (“Alaya”) and Luis Cruz-Vazquez (“Cruz”) (collectively, “Appellants”) were arrested and indicted following a federal investigation into a wide-ranging drug trafficking organization (“DTO”)…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant conditionally pleaded guilty to one count of possessing a firearm following a prior conviction of a misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g)(9) and 924(a). Appellant appealed,…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of several federal crimes related to his efforts to have sex with a child. Some months later the judge sentenced Defendant to life plus ten years in prison. The First Circuit Court of Appeals…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, an Indian national who entered the United States unlawfully in 2003, filed an application for asylum and withholding of removal. After a hearing on the merits, an immigration judge denied Petitioner’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Chinese national, entered the United States without inspection in 1993. Federal authorities soon served Petitioner with a show-cause order charging removability. Petitioner failed to appear at the scheduled…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff purchased property with a mortgage from Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. In October 2006, Plaintiff took out a loan from Countrywide to cure his breach of a divorce agreement. In December 2006, Plaintiff took out a…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2000, Plaintiff, a former scallop fisherman, was prosecuted by an enforcement arm of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (“NOAA”). The ALJ sustained all charges against Plaintiff. The district court…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2006, Michael Wilson, a former Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (“BMS”) sales presentative, filed a complaint alleging that BMS engaged in off-label promotion of certain drugs, and that these actions caused false claims to be…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was fifty-five years old when he was hired to work as an assistant manager at Walgreens. In 2011, Walgreens terminated Plaintiff’s employment after Plaintiff failed to provide what Walgreens considered to be…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1997, in response to Congress’s enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which narrowed the eligibility of non-citizens for Medicaid and other federal benefits, the state of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to commit money laundering as set forth in an indictment that also included drug-trafficking charges. The district court subsequently sentenced Appellant to a term of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native of Nepal, was subject to removal proceedings. In 2010, Petitioner conceded removability and sought asylum, withholding of removal, protection under the Convention Against Torture (“CAT”), and,…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a search of Appellant’s vehicle turned up heroin, cocaine, and oxycodone, Appellant was arrested, indicted, and pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute. Relying on two prior felony convictions that…

Justia Opinion Summary: Green Mountain Realty Corp. (“GMR”) sought to erect a 140-foot cell phone tower in Milton, Massachusetts that would fill a significant gap in the wireless coverage provided by T-Mobile’s networks. The Town of Milton…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner in this case was a native and citizen of Sri Lanka. In 2007, an immigration judge (IJ) rejected Petitioner’s claims for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Pursuant to a plea agreement, Appellant pled guilty to a drug conspiracy charge. On appeal, Appellant argued that the district court made a prejudicial error in its Sentencing Guideline calculation and improperly imposed…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted for aiding and abetting in the possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Defendant filed a motion to suppress a series of inculpatory statements. Specifically, Defendant sought to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants, Jose Cabezudo-Kuilan (Cabezudo) and Heriberto Millan-Isaac (Millan), pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting a robbery and possessing a firearm during a crime of violence. The district court first sentenced…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was charged with structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements in violation of 31 U.S.C. 5324(a)(3). After a trial, Defendant was convicted and sentenced. The First Circuit Court of Appeals…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2002, Appellant was convicted in Massachusetts state court on charges of forcibly raping his nephew, J.B., and J.B.’s friend when both boys were fifteen years old. Appellant appealed his conviction, arguing that his…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs found engineering jobs through Advanced Technology Innovation Corporation (“the company”), a recruiting firm. Plaintiffs were paid by the company. In 2012, Plaintiffs filed suit, alleging that the company…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a Colombian national, obtained a tourist visa to enter the United States. Petitioner overstayed her visa, after which federal authorities initiated removal proceedings against her. Petitioner conceded…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in New Hampshire arrested six aliens who had prior criminal convictions or arrests. The arrests were part of a nationwide enforcement program. The Union Leader, a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was hired by Employer in 1983. Plaintiff was covered by a short-term disability plan, and the Life Insurance Company of North America (“LINA”) had the authority to decide questions of eligibility for coverage…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2010, Plaintiff, then fifty-eight years old, applied for a job with Defendant. Defendant extended a written offer of employment, which Plaintiff accepted, but before Plaintiff started on the job, Defendant rescinded…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2011, the then-Governor of Puerto Rico appointed Plaintiff to the position of Advocate for Persons with Disabilities. In 2013, new legislation established an Office of the Ombudsman for Personal with Disabilities.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Marilyn Davidson, an intellectually disabled individual, was in the care of the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS) most of her life. In 1985, Marilyn was transferred to the Fernald Developmental…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal concerned a heavily contested Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding. After the bankruptcy court determined a secured creditor’s entitlement to post-petition interest under 11 U.S.C. 506(b) and confirmed the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff’s employment with Employer was terminated due to what Plaintiff alleged was disability discrimination and retaliation. Plaintiff filed a discrimination complaint against Employer with the Equal Employment…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and was sentenced to a sixty-month incarcerative term, the maximum sentence allowable under the statute of conviction. Appellant challenged…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was a long-time employee of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Plaintiff was separated from her employment as a result of her inability to return to the workplace resulting from severe depression. Plaintiff…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff obtained a loan secured with a promissory note and mortgage on his Massachusetts home. The mortgage document listed Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) as mortgagee and nominee for the lender’s…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of possessing counterfeit obligations of the United States and sentenced to fifty-one months’ imprisonment. The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, holding (1) the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, Nova Flora Marsadu and Roly Rondonuwu, were a married couple who were native citizens of Indonesia. Marsadu, and later Rondonuwu, filed applications for asylum based on their fears of being persecuted in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant, a citizen and resident of Puerto Rico, borrowed $700,000 from Plaintiff, a citizen and resident of Greece. Plaintiff’s loan was not evidenced by "even a single scrap of paper." The parties subsequently…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal concerned the decade-long litigation regarding the regulation of Puerto Rico’s milk industry. Intervenor Puerto Rico Dairy Farmers Association (“PRDFA”) appealed the district court’s approval of a…

Justia Opinion Summary: This appeal concerned the decade-long litigation regarding the regulation of Puerto Rico’s milk industry. The district court approved a comprehensive Settlement Agreement reached by the original parties: the government…

Justia Opinion Summary: After Westernbank of Puerto Rico was ordered closed in the late 2000s and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) was appointed receiver, the FDIC discovered that certain bank directors and officers had…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff refinanced his residential home mortgage, taking out a loan secured by his home. The mortgage listed Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. (“MERS”) as the mortgagee of record. MERS subsequently…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking offense. Defendant appealed, arguing that the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a charge of gender discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging that the Municipality of Carolina discriminated against her because of her gender by refusing to hire her…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of one count of the crime of possession of a firearm by a felon. Defendant appealed the district court’s denial of his motion to suppress the evidence of a pistol found in his…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs filed a complaint against their bank and others, asserting a cause of action under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), among other claims, asserting that Defendants engaged in an…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant acted as counsel in district court for a criminal defendant (“Defendant”) who pleaded guilty to several charges arising out of a carjacking. The day before a disposition hearing was scheduled to take place,…

Justia Opinion Summary: David Efron and his former wife, Madeleine Candelario-Del-Moral, were engaged in long-running litigation related to their high-stakes divorce. In 2006, a Puerto Rico court in which the divorce proceedings were pending…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a citizen of Argentina, and Respondent, a United States citizen from Puerto Rico, had a child together in 2008. The child (“LAD”) was a citizen of both the United States and Argentina. In 2011, the family…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant pled guilty to two counts of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon. The district court sentenced Appellant to 180 months’ imprisonment, the mandatory minimum for an individual deemed an…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2002, Grand Wireless, Inc. (“Grand”) and Verizon Wireless, Inc. (“Verizon”) entered into an agreement authorizing Grand to act as a Verizon sales agent. The agreement contained an arbitration provision. In 2011,…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 1999, Redondo Construction Corporation pled guilty to aiding and abetting the making of false statements during its work on a federal highway project. The Puerto Rico Highway and Transportation Authority (“PRHTA”) and…

Justia Opinion Summary: On February 26, 2010, Plaintiff, who worked for the Parole Board of Puerto Rico, was terminated pursuant to Law 7, which implemented a brute-force reduction in the size of the government to improve Puerto Rico’s dire…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted of producing child pornography. The district court sentenced Defendant to a term of imprisonment and advised that it would order Defendant to pay restitution to the victim for mental health…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of aiding and abetting interference with commerce by threats of violence and using a firearm during the commission of a crime of violence. On appeal, Appellant argued, among…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was charged in state court with offenses related to the manufacture and possession of marijuana after a neighbor reported to the police that the door was wide open at Plaintiff’s vacant home, and the police…

Justia Opinion Summary: Evan Ardente’s yacht was insured by Standard Fire Insurance Company. After Ardente purchased the yacht, it stopped navigating properly, and its top speed had decreased due to water damage to the yacht’s hull.…

Justia Opinion Summary: Union-affiliated benefit funds (collectively, the Fund) sued Employer to recover unpaid employee-related remittances allegedly due under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The Fund also sought attorneys’ fees and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant confessed to participating in the arson of an African-American church following a seven-hour interrogation. Defendant was subsequently convicted in federal court of conspiracy against civil rights, damage to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs were Massachusetts-based producers of “reggaeton” music. This case centered on seven songs released on an album distributed by Defendants that allegedly infringed upon copyrights held by Plaintiffs and…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff was a real estate broker in Puerto Rico who was a vocal critic of the Puerto Rico Real Estate Examining Board. After the Board denied Plaintiff’s application for a license to establish a bilingual real estate…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs, committed animal rights activists, filed this action seeking declaratory and injunctive relief that the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (“Act”), which criminalizes “force, violence, and threats involving…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, who worked for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. (“MetLife”), made a claim for long-term disability benefits (LTD). In 2005, the claim was approved. That same year, MetLife denied Plaintiff’s assertion that he…

Justia Opinion Summary: The IRS held a tax lien against Patrick Hannon’s property, including a parcel of land Hannon owned in Newton, Massachusetts. The IRS discharged that specific parcel from its tax lien under 26 U.S.C. 6325(b)(2)(A) to…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pled guilty to four counts of arson. On appeal, Defendant argued that the district court erred by denying his motion to suppress evidence that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury, use of a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence, and possession of a stolen firearm. Defendant was sentenced to a term of…

Justia Opinion Summary: A law enforcement officer placed a GPS device on Defendant’s vehicle without a warrant and used that device to track Defendant’s movements for forty-seven days. The GPS monitoring ultimately led to Defendant being…

Justia Opinion Summary: Harold Evans-Garcia and Eric Joel Carrion-Cruz (together, Defendants) were each convicted of a carjacking resulting in death and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. Both Defendants committed…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant was charged with possessing body armor after having been convicted of a “crime of violence” as defined by 18 U.S.C. 16. The crimes that Appellant was previously convicted of under Massachusetts law included…

Justia Opinion Summary: On September 22, 2011, a grand jury returned a one-count indictment charging Appellant with conspiracy to defraud the United States. The indictment alleged that, from about March 29, 2005 until at least June 22, 2007,…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial in the U.S. District Court, Appellant was convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm with an obliterated serial number. Prior to trial, Appellant…

Justia Opinion Summary: For twenty years, Defendants, various entities of OneBeacon American Insurance Company (collectively, “OneBeacon”), had a program known as Multiple Line Excess Cover (“MLEC Program”) under which OneBeacon entered into…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2012, a grand jury in the District of Rhode Island served the Narragansett Indian Tribal Historic Preservation Office (NITHPO) with a subpoena duces tecum directing NITHPO to appear before the grand jury with a series…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial in state court, Petitioner was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. After the Supreme Judicial Court affirmed on direct appeal, Petitioner filed a petition for habeas…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed a seven-count complaint against Defendants, asserting claims related to the alleged breach of various agreements involving the sale of aviation equipment. Ultimately, a jury trial was held, and the jury…

Justia Opinion Summary: After Plaintiff applied unsuccessfully to be a firefighter in the Puerto Rico Firefighters Corps of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (“the Corps”) Plaintiff sued the Commonwealth, claiming that the Corps refused to hire…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiffs granted a mortgage on their property in Massachusetts to Ameriquest Mortgage Company, which assigned its interest in the mortgage to Mortgage Electronic Registration System, Inc. (MERS). MERS later purported…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioners, a married couple from Guatemala, entered the United States illegally in the mid-1990s. In 2008, Petitioners applied for asylum. Their application was denied, and removal proceedings subsequently began.…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Petitioner was found guilty of second-degree murder. Petitioner’s conviction was affirmed on appeal by the state court. Petitioner subsequently sought a writ of habeas corpus in the federal district…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, two former San Jan municipal police officers, Raquel Delgado-Marrero (“Delgado”) and Angel Rivera-Claudio (“Rivera”), were convicted on drug and gun charges arising from an FBI reverse sting…

Justia Opinion Summary: Michael Mahon sued the government under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) after falling from a second-story portico during a wedding reception at the Commandant’s House at the Charlestown Navy Yard in Massachusetts.…

Justia Opinion Summary: HSBC Realty Credit Corporation loaned Brandywine Partners, LLC $15.9 million pursuant to a property-loan agreement for the purchase and development of industrial property in Delaware. J. Brian O’Neill, a principal of…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was indicted for two counts of distribution of heroin. The indictment alleged that “death and serious bodily injury resulted from the use of such substance.” In federal prosecutions, under Alleyne v. United…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of possessing with intent to defraud counterfeit United States currency. The First Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction, holding that the district court did not err…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant pleaded guilty to possessing a computer that held child pornography. The presentence investigation report (PSI Report) suggested a guideline sentencing range (GSR) of fifty-seven to seventy-one months. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff filed an action against her former employer (Employer) for violations of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. 2000e et seq., and Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 151B, alleging that she was subject to sexual harassment while working for…

Justia Opinion Summary: This matter began in a New Hampshire family court (“Family Court”) in 2006 and involved Plaintiff’s support obligations to his former wife and son. Due to Plaintiff’s financial evasiveness, the Family Court appointed a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff, the former captain of a village fire department, filed this action against the department, its fire chief, and the board of fire commissioners (collectively, Defendants) after the board chose to terminate…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant entered a guilty plea to possession of ammunition by a convicted felon pursuant to a plea agreement. The probation department recommended a guideline sentencing range (GSR) of up to twenty-seven months based in…

Justia Opinion Summary: Appellant filed an action against her former employer, The Children Place (TCP) and the TCP district manager (collectively, Appellees), alleging that she was fired, harassed, and not rehired on the basis of race. The…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendants worked for Sports Off Shore (SOS), a gambling business based in Antigua. After a jury trial, Defendants were convicted of violations of the Wire Act and other offenses for conducting an illegal gambling…

Justia Opinion Summary: Sixty-four-year-old Plaintiff was born anatomically male but suffered from severe gender identity disorder. In 1992, Plaintiff was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. In 2000, Plaintiff filed a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Plaintiff’s nine-year-old daughter, N.K., was injured when N.K.'s sandals, popularly known as CROCS, were caught in an escalator, causing N.K. to sustain injuries. Plaintiff invoked diversity jurisdiction and brought…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner was charged with removability based on the termination of her conditional permanent resident status. Petitioner conceded removability but filed multiple I-751 forms with the United States Citizenship and…

Justia Opinion Summary: In 2002, the developer of a timeshare real estate venture (Developer) and Ernesto Brito and Marigloria Del Valle (together, Appellees) entered into a purchase agreement pursuant to which the Developer transferred a…

Justia Opinion Summary: Petitioner, a native of Guatemala, illegally entered the United States in 2003. In 2006, Petitioner was charged as removable. Petitioner conceded his removability and applied for withholding of removal, protection under…

Justia Opinion Summary: Giuseppe Cracchiolo fell and drowned after slipping from a hazardous place on a fishery pier while attempting to return to the commercial fishing boat on which he was working. Giuseppe’s wife Carla sued the owner and the…

Justia Opinion Summary: Rafaela Sanchez died due to hemorrhaging after giving birth to her third child. Plaintiff, Sanchez’s husband, sued Rafaela’s doctors for medical malpractice. Plaintiff’s lawyers waited more than two years before…

Justia Opinion Summary: Defendant was convicted on charges of conspiracy and tax evasion. Defendant appealed, arguing that the district court erred in (1) denying his motion to suppress because the premises search conducted by armed agents of…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendants, Catherine Floyd and William Dion, were convicted of conspiracy to defraud the United States of payroll and income taxes and endeavoring to obstruct and impede the Internal Revenue Service…

Justia Opinion Summary: After a jury trial, Defendant was convicted of producing, possessing, and distributing child pornography. Defendant was sentenced to 340 months of imprisonment followed by fifteen years of supervised release. The First…