Latest 6 Cases This Week: Bolton v. United States (5th Cir.), Bourgeois v. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (5th Cir.), ...

Can a President Who Is Reelected After Being Acquitted in One Impeachment Case be Retried by a Subsequent Senate?

VIKRAM DAVID AMAR

Illinois law dean and professor Vikram David Amar considers whether a President who has been impeached and acquitted may, if reelected, be retried by a subsequent Senate. Amar acknowledges that it is unclear whether the Fifth and Sixth Amendments’ criminal procedural protections apply to impeachment proceedings, but he offers two key reasons that re-litigation of impeachment allegations after presidential reelection would be improper.

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Bolton v. United States

Court: US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

Docket: 18-60700

Opinion Date: December 30, 2019

Judge: Jerry E. Smith

Areas of Law: Personal Injury

After plaintiffs filed suit against two federal agents for making allegedly defamatory comments to a local news station, the district court denied scope-of-employment discovery, substituted the United States as the proper defendant, and dismissed for failure to file an administrative claim. The Fifth Circuit held that the offending statements were made in the scope of the agents' employment; plaintiffs have no right to even limited discovery, because they failed to allege any facts that, taken as true suggested that the agents acted outside of the scope of their employment; and reconsideration was not warranted by any supposed additional evidence.

Bourgeois v. Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs

Court: US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

Docket: 19-60337

Opinion Date: January 2, 2020

Judge: Stephen Andrew Higginson

Areas of Law: Admiralty & Maritime Law, Labor & Employment Law, Personal Injury

The Fifth Circuit denied the petition for review of the Board's decision affirming the ALJ's conclusion that plaintiff did not suffer more severe shoulder and back injuries for the purpose of receiving benefits under the Longshore and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act (LHWCA). The court held that the ALJ did not err in concluding that defendants' medical expert was more credible than plaintiff's treating physician, thus rebutting the presumption of a causal nexus. The court also held that the Board did not err in refusing to consider plaintiff's new argument, presented for the first time in his motion for reconsideration, that the 2017 shoulder surgery was intended to address an AC joint sprain. Finally, the court held that the ALJ's finding that plaintiff did not suffer from lumbar facet arthrosis was supported by substantial evidence.

Caballero v. Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionaria

Court: US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit

Docket: 19-4037

Opinion Date: December 27, 2019

Judge: Paul Joseph Kelly, Jr.

Areas of Law: Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Personal Injury

Antonio Caballero filed the underlying lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Utah seeking a “judgment on a judgment” he had obtained from a Florida state court. The complaint asserted he expected to proceed against assets located in Utah pursuant to the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (“TRIA”). Caballero served defendants with process in the federal suit; none answered or otherwise participated i the Utah action. The federal district court registered the Florida state-court judgment under 28 U.S.C. 1963, but denied all other relief because Caballero did not establish personal jurisdiction over the defendants. As a result, Caballero could not utilize federal district court collection procedures. Caballero moved to alter or amend the judgment, which the district court denied. He appealed both orders. The Tenth Circuit determined section 1963 applied only to registration of federal-court judgments in federal courts, not to state-court judgments. Consequently, the Court reversed the district court’s judgment registering the Florida state-court judgment in Utah federal court. The Court determined Caballero’s civil cover sheet filed with the district court indicated the basis of jurisdiction was federal question; Caballero might have been able to establish federal subject-matter jurisdiction under the TRIA if permitted to amend his complaint. The Tenth Circuit reversed to allow Caballero to amend his complaint.

Waugh v. Genesis Healthcare LLC

Court: Maine Supreme Judicial Court

Citation: 2019 ME 179

Opinion Date: December 30, 2019

Judge: Ellen A. Gorman

Areas of Law: Labor & Employment Law, Personal Injury

The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the summary judgment entered in the superior court in favor of Defendants on Plaintiff's complaint for defamation and "slander/libel per se," holding that the superior court did not err in concluding that the statements at issue were subject to a conditional privilege. Plaintiff sought compensatory and punitive damages in her complaint alleging defamation and slander or libel per se, alleging that Defendants terminated her contract as a registered nurse based on false allegations of patient abuse. The superior court granted a summary judgment in favor of Defendants as to both counts. The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed, holding (1) Plaintiff failed to present prima facie evidence that Defendants abused the conditional privilege that otherwise protected the statements at issue; and (2) therefore, Defendants were entitled to summary judgment in their favor as to Plaintiff's claims.

High Country Paving v. United Fire & Casualty Co.

Court: Montana Supreme Court

Citation: 2019 MT 297

Opinion Date: December 31, 2019

Judge: Gustafson

Areas of Law: Insurance Law, Personal Injury

The Supreme Court answered in the negative a question certified to it by a federal district court regarding tension in case law between an insurer's duty to a third-party claimant and its duty to its insured. As a result of an accident caused by High County Paving, Inc., one person died and another was critically injured. United Fire & Casualty Co., High County's insurer, advance-paid the medical expenses of the injured parties prior to a final settlement. High County argued that any further payments to the injured parties without obtaining a release for High County would violate United Fire's duties to High Country, as general damages are not a type of damages that are required to be advance-paid to an injured third party. United Fire argued it was required to tender a payment of policy limits to the injured parties without a release for High Country because total damages exceeded policy limits. The Supreme Court held that an insurer does not breach its duty to its insured when it pays policy limits to an injured third party, without a release for its insured, after a motor vehicle accident when both liability for the accident is reasonably clear and it is reasonably clear that total damages caused by the insured exceed policy limits.

Lewis v. Albuquerque Public Schools

Court: New Mexico Supreme Court

Citation: 2019-NMSC-022

Opinion Date: November 18, 2019

Judge: Barbara J. Vigil

Areas of Law: Civil Procedure, Government & Administrative Law, Labor & Employment Law, Personal Injury

Following the death of Patricia Lewis (Worker), her widower Michael Lewis (Petitioner) was awarded death benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) based the award on the finding that Worker, while employed with Albuquerque Public Schools (Employer), contracted allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA) which proximately resulted in Worker’s death. Employer appealed the award to the Court of Appeals. Pertinent here, the appellate court concluded: (1) the WCJ correctly rejected Employer’s argument that Petitioner’s claim for death benefits was time-barred; and (2) he WCJ erred in excluding from evidence certain medical testimony and records which Employer contended related to Worker’s cause of death. The Court of Appeals therefore remanded the case for retrial on whether Worker’s ABPA “'proximately result[ed]’” in her death. On the first issue, the New Mexico Supreme Court agreed with the Court of Appeals that Petitioner’s claim for death benefits was not time-barred, and affirmed. On the second issue concerning the WCJ’s exclusion of medical testimony and evidence on Worker’s cause of death, the Supreme Court held the Court of Appeals erred in its interpretation of Section 52-1-51(C), but agreed based on the Supreme Court's own interpretation of Section 52-1-51(C) that the case had to be remanded for further proceedings. In all other respects, the opinion of the Court of Appeals was affirmed.