Justia U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

After Jeffrey West died shortly after he was released from the prison where he was being held as a pre-trial detainee, West's estate filed suit under federal and Alabama law against Escambia County and the Escambia County Sheriff, as well as multiple fictitious defendants, initially identified only as prison guards, medical professionals, doctors, and nurses. In this case, West had a staph infection, and after inconsistent medical attention that did not address his underlying symptoms, he died from complications related to the infection. The district court ultimately entered an order pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a)(1)(A)(ii) and dismissed all claims with prejudice. After the Estate moved to reopen and the district court agreed, the district court found that it had jurisdiction over the Estate's claims because it could reopen the case under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 60(a) but granted summary judgment to defendants because the Estate's claims were time-barred.The Eleventh Circuit vacated the district court's order purporting to reopen the case because the parties' filing of the stipulation of dismissal left the district court without jurisdiction over the Estate's claims pursuant to Rule 41(a)(1)(A)(ii). Furthermore, the district court could not reopen the case under Rule 60(a). View "Estate of Jeffrey West v. DeFrancisco" on Justia Law

Property owners filed suit after the Town of Redington Beach passed an ordinance that granted the public certain access to the dry sand beaches. After the lawsuit was filed, Plaintiff Fields was asked to resign from her position on the Board of Adjustment (which reviews requests for variances from the Town's zoning code), because she had filed this suit against the Town.The Eleventh Circuit vacated and remanded the district court's grant of summary judgment to the property owners on their claims that the ordinance violated Florida law and constituted an unlawful taking. The court concluded that the district court erred in declaring the ordinance void under Florida Statute 163.035; the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the property owners on the Town's customary use defense; and the district court erred in finding a facial and an as-applied taking. The court also vacated and remanded the district court's grant of summary judgment to Plaintiff Fields on the First Amendment retaliation claim. View "Buending v. Town of Redington Beach" on Justia Law

In 2012, LaTele, a Venezuelan television corporation, acting through its president, Fraiz, sued the American television network Telemundo, claiming that Telemundo infringed LaTele’s copyrighted telenovela. While the lawsuit was pending in Miami, a Venezuelan criminal court appointed a governmental board, “La Junta” to displace Fraiz and manage the affairs of LaTele. Fraiz asked the district court to determine that he was the proper representative of LaTele and that La Junta should be excluded from participating in the lawsuit. In 2018, the district court lifted its stay, removed Fraiz’s attorneys from participation in the case, and affirmed that La Junta’s attorney was counsel of record.The Eleventh Circuit dismissed an appeal after holding that it had jurisdiction to entertain the matter. Under the collateral order doctrine, the district court’s order can be treated as final for purposes of appeal. The order conclusively determined an important issue that was completely separate from the merits of the copyright claim, and would otherwise be unreviewable on appeal from a final judgment. However, La Junta and Telemundo challenged Fraiz’s standing to bring the appeal on behalf of LaTele. The district court correctly determined, based on its review of four foreign court orders, that La Junta has the lawful authority to manage the affairs of LaTele and this lawsuit. View "Latele Television, C.A. v. Telemundo Communications Group, LLC" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit granted rehearing en banc and this is the decision of the en banc court vacating the panel opinion and remanding the case to the panel for further proceedings.The en banc court held that Supreme Court precedent requires the use of the preponderance standard of predictive proof in ultimate discovery exception cases. Even if the court were not to do so, the court held that the preponderance standard must be used because of the advantages it has over the reasonable probability standard when it comes to finding whether evidence ultimately would have been discovered through lawful means if the constitutional violation had not taken place. View "United States v. Watkins" on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the tax court's memorandum opinion upholding adjustments contained in five notices of deficiencies (NODs) issued by the IRS against petitioner for the tax years 1999, 2000, and 2001, as well as the tax court's adoption of the Commissioner's computations under Tax Court Rule 155 and its denial of several of petitioner's post-trial motions.In regard to jurisdiction issues, the court concluded that the Commissioner did not need to comply with the requirement of the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 (TEFRA) that it issue Final Partnership Administrative Adjustment (FPAAs) to GG Capital to notify petitioner of adjustments to partnership items. The court explained that GG Capital's attempted TEFRA election on its 1997 return was not valid; GG Capital was required to attach a statement signed by all of its partners in order to elect into the TEFRA procedures under I.R.C. 6231(a)(1)(B)(ii); but GG Capital did not do so for either 2000 or 2001 and was therefore not subject to the TEFRA regime. The court also concluded that the tax court did not err in finding the 2004 NOD was timely mailed on October 15, 2004 adjustments; because the limitations period for making assessments against petitioner related to the converted items was suspended by virtue of the pendency of the AD Global case, the 2009 NOD was timely as to the 1999 tax year; and the court rejected petitioner's remaining jurisdictional claims.The court concluded that the tax court properly upheld the Commissioner's adjustments to the NODs. In this case, the court declined to look behind the 2009 NODs in assessing their validity; the tax court did not fail to impose the proper burden of proof and the tax court did not abuse its discretion in denying the motion to reopen the record to allow petitioner to introduce new evidence so late into the action; and there was no error in the tax court's post-trial rulings. View "Greenberg v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue" on Justia Law

Turner, a Wisconsin resident, filed a putative class action against Costa, an Italian cruise operator, and its American subsidiary, alleging that their negligence contributed to an outbreak of COVID-19 aboard the Costa Luminosa during his transatlantic voyage beginning on March 5, 2020. The Luminosa had evacuated a passenger, who subsequently died of COVID-19, from a cruise immediately preceding Turner’s cruise. Costa told passengers that the ship was safe. It did not hire any experts to verify that the ship had been sufficiently cleaned and allegedly failed to refuse boarding to individuals who had COVID-19 symptoms or had traveled to high-risk areas. On March 8, the Luminosa had docked to transport passengers with COVID-19 symptoms to the hospital but did not inform passengers of those circumstances, When passengers disembarked on March 19, 36 of the 75 passengers tested positive for COVID-19. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Turner’s complaint on forum non conveniens grounds. Turner's passage ticket contract included a forum selection clause requiring that all claims associated with his cruise be litigated in Genoa, Italy. Forum selection clauses are presumptively valid and enforceable; Turner failed to defeat the presumption by showing that the clause was induced by fraud or overreaching, that he would be deprived of his day in court because of inconvenience or unfairness, the chosen law would deprive him of a remedy or enforcement of the clause would contravene public policy.’ View "Turner v. Costa Crociere S.P.A." on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit joined the Fourth and Sixth Circuits in holding that a sentence imposed upon the revocation of supervised release qualifies for a reduction under section 404(b) of the First Step Act when the underlying crime is a covered offense under the Act.However, the court also concluded that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's motion for a sentence reduction. In this case, the district court provided an alternative reason for the denial of a sentence reduction based on defendant's "unwillingness or inability to abide by the law" and his "continued lawless behavior"—as demonstrated by his prison disciplinary record and most recent drug and firearm offenses—and a concern about recidivism. The court concluded that the district court's reasons were clear, supported by the record, and did not constitute an abuse of discretion. View "United States v. Gonzalez" on Justia Law

Germain was admitted to the U.S. in 2007 as a lawful permanent resident. Roughly 10 years later, he was convicted of conspiracy to commit an offense to defraud the government, 18 U.S.C. 371, and three counts of making a false statement in an immigration application, 18 U.S.C. 1546(a). Charged as removable under 8 U.S.C. 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii) as an alien convicted of an aggravated felony based on his section 1546(a) convictions, Germain argued that those convictions did not qualify as “aggravated felonies” under 1227(a)(2)(A)(iii). He sought cancellation of removal. under section 1229b(a). Germain argued that the parenthetical “(related to document fraud)” in 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(43)(P) limited the qualifying 1546(a) convictions to those expressly involving document fraud.The IJ ordered Germain removed, reasoning that 1546(a) was divisible because it enumerated four distinct offenses in its four paragraphs. Applying the modified categorical approach, the IJ determined that Germain’s indictment showed that he had pleaded guilty to three counts of making a false statement of material fact on an immigration application, all of which qualified as aggravated felonies because they were offenses described in 1546(a). The BIA dismissed Germain’s appeal. The Eleventh Circuit dismissed his petition for review. All four paragraphs of section 1546(a) relate to document fraud and the plain text and structure of the Act demonstrate that the parenthetical “(relating to document fraud)” is merely descriptive of 1546(a), rather than limiting. View "Germain v. U.S. Attorney General" on Justia Law

Johnson, who is hearing-impaired, filed two lawsuits against gas station owners, asserting failure to provide closed captioning or a similar capability that would allow him to comprehend the television media features on gasoline pumps, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. 12101, (ADA) and the Florida Civil Rights Act. Johnson had filed 26 other identical cases against gas station owners located throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Dinin represented Johnson in each case.The district court found that Johnson and Dinin were running an illicit joint enterprise, consisting of filing frivolous claims, knowingly misrepresenting the time they counted as billable, making misrepresentations to the court, and improperly sharing attorney’s fees. The court imposed sanctions, including monetary penalties, community service, and an injunction prohibiting them from filing future ADA claims without approval. The Eleventh Circuit dismissed an appeal by Dinin, who lacked standing because he has not shown how he has suffered an injury in fact. The court affirmed as to Johnson, In the majority of his cases, Johnson did not seek injunctive relief fixing the accessibility problem, but only sought payment of legal fees which he split with his lawyer. Johnson never stopped filing claims for damages under Florida law, although he knew them to be objectively frivolous since he had not exhausted his administrative remedies. View "Johnson v. 27th Avenue Caraf, Inc." on Justia Law

The Eleventh Circuit granted Ridgewood's petition for review of the Board's order finding that Ridgewood committed several unfair labor practices in violation of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The court agreed with Ridgewood that it did not coercively interrogate Preferred applicants during job interviews; that the Board's discriminatory hiring finding is not supported by substantial evidence; and that Ridgewood was not a Burns successor and was not obligated to recognize and bargain with the union or respond to the union's information requests. Accordingly, the court denied the Board's cross-petition for enforcement. View "Ridgewood Health Care Center, Inc. v. National Labor Relations Board" on Justia Law