Justia U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

In this litigation, Appellants (plaintiffs below) brought an action under 42 U.S.C. 1983, challenging the statutory scheme by which the state of Kansas funds its public schools. The district court dismissed their suit for lack of standing. Upon review of the matter and the applicable statutory authority, the Tenth Circuit concluded that the Appellants had standing because their alleged injury, unequal treatment by the state, would be redressed by a favorable decision. Accordingly, the Court reversed and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Petrella, et al v. DeBacker, et al" on Justia Law

Plaintiff-Appellant, the Northern Arapaho Tribe, sued various state and county officials in Wyoming, seeking an injunction against the state’s imposition of certain vehicle and excise taxes in an area that Appellant contended was Indian country. Appellant claimed that the state may not tax its members in Indian country, and that the Indian country status of the land was conclusively established by an earlier decision of the Wyoming Supreme Court. The district court dismissed the action with prejudice for failure to join a party under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(7) after determining, pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19(b), that two absent entities (the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the United States) were necessary parties who could not feasibly be joined, and in whose absence the action could not proceed. The district court also concluded that the Indian country status of the land had not been conclusively determined by the earlier state litigation. Appellant appealed both determinations. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit agreed with the lower court that the dismissal of the action was proper because the Eastern Shoshone was necessary party that could not feasibly be joined, but vacated the judgment and remanded with instructions to dismiss without prejudice. View "Northern Arapaho Tribe v. Harnsberger, et al" on Justia Law

Defendant-Appellant Jeffrey Shaun Bagby was indicted on one count of possessing, with intent to distribute, fifty grams or more of cocaine base (crack), and one count of being a felon in possession of ammunition. On the morning his jury trial commenced, Defendant, against the advice of the district court, waived his right to counsel and proceeded to represent himself. The jury convicted him on the drug count but acquitted him on the ammunition count. Because of his prior felony drug convictions, Defendant received a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison. He appealed his conviction and sentence, alleging errors at trial and in the imposition of sentence. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit concluded that any error committed by the district court was harmless. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the district court's imposition of a mandatory life sentence. View "United States v. Bagby" on Justia Law

In consolidated interlocutory appeals, Defendants-Appellants, natural gas producers with wells in south central Kansas, challenged a preliminary injunction enjoining them from further gas production from those wells. The district court entered the preliminary injunction after concluding there was a substantial likelihood that Plaintiff-Appellee Northern Natural Gas Co. would prevail on its state-law claim alleging that Defendants' natural gas production from these wells was an actionable nuisance because it was disrupting Northern's nearby underground storage of natural gas. The parties agreed that, to prevail on its nuisance claim, Northern needed to establish four things: 1) Defendants acted with the intent to interfere with Northern's use and enjoyment of the storage field; 2) there was some interference with the use and enjoyment of the Field of the kind Defendants intended; 3) that interference was substantial; and 4) the interference was of a such a nature, duration or amount as to constitute unreasonable interference with the use and enjoyment of the Field. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit affirmed, concluding that district court did not abuse its discretion in determining that there was a substantial likelihood that Northern could prove all four of those elements of its nuisance claim. View "Northern Natural Gas Company v. L.D. Drilling, Inc., et al" on Justia Law

In cross-appeals, the parties raised challenges to various rulings made by the district court in a section 1983 action arising out of an allegedly unlawful seizure. Defendants Gary Carson and Don Mangin, employees of the New Mexico Department of Corrections, observed Plaintiffs Phillip Martinez and Ricardo Sarmiento sitting or standing with a third man in a low-lit area outside an apartment building in a high-crime neighborhood at night. Defendants pulled up to the apartment building in an unmarked police car and turned on the emergency lights. Defendants forced Plaintiffs to the ground, handcuffed them, drew weapons, and conducted a pat-down search. When additional Rio Rancho officers arrived on the scene a few minutes later, Defendants transferred Plaintiffs, still in handcuffs, into the custody of these officers. The Rio Rancho police officers eventually arrested and booked Plaintiffs, holding Mr. Martinez for twelve hours and Mr. Sarmiento for five hours before their release. In their 1983 action, Plaintiffs raised claims of unlawful seizure against several Rio Rancho police officers as well as the named Defendants in this appeal. Defendants moved for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. The Rio Rancho defendants subsequently settled the claims against them and were dismissed from the action. Defendants filed a third motion for summary judgment and Plaintiffs filed a crossmotion for partial summary judgment. The district court denied both motions, citing multiple factual disputes. The court held that the pertinent question for the jury to decide was whether Defendants had reasonable suspicion of criminal activity when they detained Plaintiffs, and if so, the brief seizure was warranted as an investigative detention responsive to officer safety concerns; if not, it was an illegal seizure. The court further held that Defendants could only be held liable for their own allegedly unlawful conduct, not for the actions of the Rio Rancho officers. The case then proceeded to trial, where the jury found for Plaintiffs on their unlawful seizure claim, finding Defendants lacked reasonable suspicion to justify the initial seizure, and awarded Plaintiffs compensatory and punitive damages totaling $5,000 each. Plaintiffs appealed the district court's orders limiting Defendants' liability to the first few minutes of the seizure, as well as a discovery sanction. On cross-appeal, Defendants raised issues regarding (1) the district court's denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity, (2) the district court's denial of their Rule 50(b) motion for judgment as a matter of law, (3) various evidentiary rulings the district court made at trial, and (4) the inclusion of a punitive damages jury instruction. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court's sanctions order, reversed the district court's summary judgment order limiting Defendants' liability, and remanded the case back to the district court for a new trial limited to the issue of whether (and to what extent) Defendants reasonably should have known their unlawful seizure of Plaintiffs would have resulted in a prolonged detention and, if so, whether any additional damages were appropriate. Defendants' cross-appeal was dismissed. View "Martinez v. Carson" on Justia Law

In this appeal the Tenth Circuit addressed: (1) whether a foster child in Oklahoma had a "contractual or statutory" relationship with the insurance company that provided foster care liability insurance to the foster child's foster parent, such that the insurer owed the foster child either contractual obligations or an implied duty of good faith and fair dealing; (2) whether a judgment creditor may garnish a judgment debtor's insurance policy in excess of the insurer's actual liability to the judgment debtor; and (3) whether a defendant's status as intervenor in a co-defendant's cross-claim against a plaintiff was relevant to matters adjudicated solely between the defendant and the plaintiff. Upon review, the Court concluded that the answer to all three questions was no. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the judgment of the district court. View "Colony Insurance v. Burke" on Justia Law

Two direct criminal appeals arose from the same incident and had one sentencing issue in common. The crime in which the two Defendants-Appellants, Johnson Joe and Cynthia Jones participated included a brutal beating and sexual assault that came at the end of a bout of heavy drinking. Joe and Jones each eventually entered a guilty plea to a single charge of aggravated sexual abuse. After the guilty pleas, the district court directed the preparation of a presentence report (PSR) for each of them. In both cases, the PSR recommended that the offense level be increased by four under U.S.S.G. 2A3.1(b)(1) because the offense involved the use of force against the victim. In the case of Ms. Jones, the PSR also recommended that her offense level be further increased by two under U.S.S.G. 3A1.3 because the victim had been restrained during the offense. In the case of Mr. Joe, the government objected to the PSR because it did not include an enhancement for the restraint of the victim. Neither Defendant contested the facts underlying the recommendations. Both Defendants, however, objected to the recommendation (that of the PSR in the case of Ms. Jones and of the government in the case of Mr. Joe) to apply both the use-of-force and the restraint-of-the-victim enhancements. The district judge overruled these objections in both cases. In Ms. Jones’s case, the PSR found that the applicable sentencing range under the advisory Guidelines was 168 to 210 months of imprisonment. The district judge decided to vary downward from that range and sentenced her to 140 months’ imprisonment. In Mr. Joe’s case, the PSR found that the applicable Guidelines range was 125 to 168 months, but with the restraint-of-the-victim enhancement added by the court, the resulting advisory Guideline range was the same as for Ms. Jones – 168 to 210 months. The district judge again decided to vary downward from that range and sentenced Mr. Joe to 110 months’ imprisonment. Both Defendants were also sentenced to a life term of supervised release to commence upon their release from incarceration. Neither Defendant objected to this provision of extended supervised release. On appeal, both Mr. Joe and Ms. Jones contended that the district court erred by applying both the enhancement for the use of force and the enhancement for the restraint of the victim. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit held that the district court erred when it enhanced Defendants’ offense levels for physical restraint of the victim as well as enhancing for the use of force against her. The government, which has the burden of proof of showing harmlessness, did not show that this error was harmless. Case law lead the Court to conclude that the error was not. The Court did not find, however, that there was plain error in the imposition of the lifetime term of supervised release. Therefore, the Court remanded the cases back to the district court to vacate Defendants' sentences and for resentencing. View "United States v. Joe" on Justia Law

Tracy Broadcasting is a Nebraska corporation that operated an FM radio station in Wyoming. In 2008, Tracy Broadcasting executed a promissory note for a $1,596,100 loan from Valley Bank & Trust Company (Valley Bank). The note was secured by an agreement dated December 13, 2007, which granted Valley Bank a security interest in various assets, including Tracy Broadcasting's general intangibles and their proceeds. In 2009, Spectrum Scan, LLC obtained a judgment in Nebraska federal court against Tracy Broadcasting in the amount of $1,400,000. Seven months later, Tracy Broadcasting filed a petition under Chapter 11 in Colorado bankruptcy court. The two primary creditors of Tracy Broadcasting were Valley Bank and Spectrum Scan, which was unsecured. The most valuable asset listed was the broadcasting license. The schedules stated that the “proceeds” of the license were “secured to Valley Bank.” Spectrum Scan brought an adversary action to determine the extent of Valley Bank’s security interest. The bankruptcy court ruled that Valley Bank had no priority in the proceeds of the sale of Tracy Broadcasting’s license. The United States District Court for the District of Colorado affirmed. The issue before the Tenth Circuit centered on whether a creditor with a security interest in the general intangibles (and their proceeds) had priority over unsecured creditors in the proceeds of the sale of the license. The bankruptcy court and the district court held that it did not. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit disagreed: "Federal law permits a licensee to grant a security interest in the economic value of its license, and Nebraska law recognizes that a security interest in the proceeds of a license sale attaches when the licensee enters into the security agreement, regardless of whether a sale is contemplated at that time." View "Tracy Broadcasting Corp. v. Spectrum Scan, LLC" on Justia Law

Plaintiffs brought a trespass action for damages to their land caused by Defendant's seismic exploration activities. Plaintiffs originally filed their action in Oklahoma state court, but Defendant removed it to federal district court based on diversity of citizenship. Defendant moved for summary judgment, arguing that it had permission to enter the property and conduct seismic testing from owners of the mineral rights and/or oil and gas leasehold rights, which lie under the surface estate of Plaintiffs' properties. The district court agreed and granted summary judgment for Defendant. Defendant then sought an award of attorney's fees pursuant to title 12, section 940(A) of the Oklahoma Code. The district court awarded Defendant $71,560 in attorney's fees as the prevailing party. Plaintiffs appealed both the summary judgment and the award of attorney's fees. Upon review, and "in the face of […] clear Oklahoma precedent," the Tenth Circuit concluded there was no merit to Plaintiffs' challenge to the grant of summary judgment, or their argument that section 940(A) did not apply to the facts of the case. Furthermore, the Court concluded the district court did not abuse its discretion in arriving at the final amount of the fees. Accordingly, the Court affirmed the district court's judgment. View "Kimzey, et al v. Flamingo Seismic" on Justia Law

Defendant Joseph Mendiola appeals from the district court's imposition of a two-year term of imprisonment following revocation of his supervised release. Defendant argued that in light of the Supreme Court's recent decision in "Tapia v. United States," (131 S. Ct. 2382 (2011)), the district court committed plain error in basing the length of the revocation sentence on Defendant's need to participate in a prison-based drug rehabilitation program. Upon review, the Tenth Circuit agreed and reversed the district court's judgment and remanded the case with directions to vacate Defendant's revocation sentence and for resentencing. View "United States v. Mendiola" on Justia Law