Case Summaries
Injury & Tort Law
[01/05]
Cibula v. US
In a medical malpractice suit brought under the Federal Tort Claims Act, the district court erred by applying Virginia law and deciding not to place damages for future medical expenses into a reversionary trust. On remand, the court must apply California law, that being the state in which Plaintiffs were domiciled at the time of the underlying incidents, and determine whether the creation of a reversionary trust would impose liability on the government in the same manner and to the same extent as a private individual.
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Government Benefits
[12/15]
Ketelboeter v. Astrue
Denial of application for disability insurance benefits is affirmed. ALJ's decision to give greater weight to the state-agency doctors' opinions is supported by substantial evidence, where the treating physician's conclusion was internally inconsistent and there was scant objective evidence in support of the alleged severity of Plaintiff's self-reported symptoms.
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Criminal Law & Procedure
[01/05]
US v. Dunphy
District court correctly refused to reduce drug offender's sentence below the minimum available to her under the amended guidelines. When a sentence is within the guidelines applicable at the time of the original sentencing, in an 18 U.S.C. section 3582(c) resentencing hearing, a district judge is not authorized to reduce a defendant's sentence below the amended guideline range.
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ERISA
[12/24]
McCauley v. First Unum Life Ins. Co.
In a challenge to defendent-insurer's denial of plaintiff's claim for long-term disability benefits, dismissal of plaintiff's complaint is reversed and remanded where: 1) in light of the Supreme Court decision in Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. v. Glenn, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) plan administrator abused its discretion in denying plaintiff's claim; 2) the administrator had a conflict of interest because it had both the discretionary authority to determine the validity of the employee's claim and paid the benefits under the policy; 3) a reasonable trier of fact would conclude that defendant-insurer's denial of long-term disability was arbitrary and capricious; and 4) plaintiff was entitled to benefits and interest running from September 18, 1995, the date on which defendant-insurer rejected plaintiff's appeal.
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Consumer Protection
[01/05]
Ashley County v. Pfizer, Inc.
In a suit by Arkansas counties against manufacturers and distributors of products containing ephedrine or pseudoephedrine seeking recovery of costs stemming from the methamphetamine epidemic in the state, grant of defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings is affirmed where: 1) the circumstances connecting the sales of cold medication to the provision of government services were simply too attenuated to give rise to an implied contract between the manufacturers and county providers to state a cause of action for unjust enrichment; 2) common law nuisance and Arkansas statutory claims failed for lack of proximate causation.
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Workers' Comp
[12/30]
Bullock v. AIU Ins. Co.
In a lawsuit alleging bad-faith failure to timely pay workers' compensation benefits, summary judgment for defendants is reversed and remanded in light of a Mississippi Supreme Court determination that the suit was timely filed.
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