Saturday, November 21, 2015
- First Circuit: In affirming $50,000 jury verdict in 4th Amendment claim arising out of warrantless entry into home, the court found that officer was not entitled to qualified immunity because she was indisputably engaged in an ongoing criminal investigation when the warrantless search occurred, and the community caretaking exception thus did not apply; and affirmed $134,642.35 attorney’s fee award despite trial court’s use of an an across-the-board hourly rate for plaintiff’s attorneys, rather than a rate that distinguished between core and non-core functions
- First Circuit: In reversing dismissal of employee’s breach of contract claim under Labor Management Relations Act, the court held that plaintiff was not required to exhaust procedures in collective bargaining agreement because he, the union, and employer had signed a memorandum of understanding (a “last chance agreement”) that waived, for a twelve-month period, use of the CBA’s grievance and arbitration procedures if he were terminated for violating employer’s generally applicable work standards
- Ninth Circuit: Following administrative law judge’s ruling that school district’s proposed IEP was inadequate because it did not provide a legally adequate way for student with disabilities to receive g-tube feedings, the court reversed and remanded trial court’s rejection of parents’ $1.4 million application for attorney’s fees, finding that the relief obtained through the ALJ’s decision was more favorable to the parents than the offer of settlement and that the parents were substantially justified in rejecting the offer (the IDEA otherwise disallows the recovery of attorney’s fees)
- HUD: proposed Gender Identity Rule would require recipients and sub-recipients of assistance from HUD’s Office of Community Planning and Development, as well as owners, operators, and managers of shelters, buildings, and facilities with shared sleeping quarters or shared bathing facilities to provide transgender persons and other persons who do not identify with the sex they were assigned at birth with access to programs, benefits, services, and accommodations in accordance with their gender identity
- EEOC: Annual Performance and Accountability Report cites that 44 percent of conciliations were successfully resolved and the EEOC filed 142 lawsuits alleging discrimination during fiscal year 2015
- US DOJ: McDonald’s will pay $355,000 in civil penalties for longstanding practice of requiring lawful permanent residents to show a new permanent resident card when their original document expired when it did not make the equivalent request to its U.S. citizen employees who showed documents that later expired
- Bangor Daily: Jury awards Rockport man $155,000 in motorcycle crash
