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

Albuquerque police sergeant Adam Casaus had ended his shift when he drove home in his squad car, lights flashing and going at a high rate of speed. He ran a red light, hitting Ashley Browder's car. Browder died, and her sister Lindsay suffered serious injuries. Casaus was ultimately charged with reckless vehicular homicide in state court. Lindsay and her parents filed a civil suit under 42 U.S.C. 1983 seeking damages. Casaus moved to dismiss on qualified immunity grounds. The district court denied relief, and Casaus appealed to the Tenth Circuit. Finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court's decision. View "Browder v. City of Albuquerque" on Justia Law

Petitioner-Appellant Douglas Carter, a Utah inmate, appealed the district court’s denial of his petition for writ of habeas corpus challenging his conviction and death sentence. Carter was convicted of the murder of Eva Olesen in Provo, Utah in 1985 and subsequently sentenced to death. Carter raised seven claims of error: (1) ineffective assistance of guilt-phase counsel; (2) ineffective assistance of appellate counsel; (3) ineffective assistance of sentencing counsel at his 1992 resentencing; (4) denial of due process and right to remain silent based on two of the prosecutor’s comments at closing argument; (5) denial of Confrontation Clause rights at resentencing; (6) denial of Fifth Amendment rights based on the admission of an involuntary confession; and (7) cumulative error. After review, the Tenth Circuit concluded that the district court abused its discretion in refusing to allow Carter to supplement his habeas petition with claims based on newly discovered evidence of prosecutorial misconduct and suppression of evidence. Because the district court did not address whether a stay of these claims to permit exhaustion was appropriate, the Court remanded to allow this determination in the first instance. As to his remaining claims (with the exception of his claim of cumulative error), the Court affirmed the district court’s denial of habeas relief: "[w]e conclude that these claims can be resolved even given the possibility of future evidentiary development of his prosecutorial-misconduct and suppression-of-evidence claims. Further delay and subsequent re-briefing of the other claims is not justified given the protracted time period[(]now over thirteen years[)] Mr. Carter’s federal habeas petition has been pending." The Court vacated as to Carter’s claim of cumulative error, and remanded to the district court based on the possibility that Carter’s supplemental claims could alter the cumulative error analysis. View "Carter v. Bigelow" on Justia Law

Kansas developed a school financing scheme that sought to avoid “mak[ing] the quality of a child’s education a function of his or her parent’s or neighbors’ wealth.” Displeased with the outcome of school finance litigation in state court, plaintiffs, parents of students in the relatively wealthy Shawnee Mission School District (“SMSD”), sought federal intervention to upend decades of effort toward establishing an equitable school finance system in Kansas. Adopting a "kitchen-sink approach," they claimed that aspects of the state’s school financing regime violated their rights to free speech, to petition the government, to associate, to vote, to education, to equal protection of the laws, to direct the upbringing of their children, and to dispose of their property. Upon review of plaintiffs' "novel and expansive claims," the Tenth Circuit found no support and affirmed the district court’s orders denying plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction, granting in part defendants’ motions to dismiss, and denying reconsideration. View "Petrella v. Brownback" on Justia Law

Movant-Appellant Kit Carson Electric Cooperative, Inc. (KCEC) appealed the district court’s denial of its motion seeking intervention as of right or permissive intervention in a pending case. Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, Inc. (Tri-State), a Colorado non-profit regional cooperative that provides wholesale electric power, filed suit against the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission (NMPRC) seeking declaratory and injunctive relief under 42 U.S.C. 1983. Tri-State argued that the NMPRC’s exercise of jurisdiction and suspension of Tri-State’s wholesale electric rates in New Mexico violated the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. In September 2013, Tri-State approved a wholesale rate increase for 2014 and filed an Advice Notice with the NMPRC. After rate protests by KCEC and three others, the NMPRC proceeded to suspend Tri-State’s 2014 rate increases as well. The NMPRC consolidated the proceedings on both the 2013 and 2014 wholesale rates. These proceedings remained pending before the NMPRC. In February 2014, Tri-State filed an amended complaint adding factual allegations regarding the NMPRC’s suspension of its 2014 wholesale rate. Tri-State’s amended complaint asserted Tri-State was entitled to declaratory and injunctive relief because “[t]he Commission’s exertion of jurisdiction to suspend and subsequently review and establish Tri-State’s rates in New Mexico constituted economic protectionism and imposed a burden on interstate commerce in violation of the Commerce Clause.” KCEC sought to intervene as of right pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 24(a)(2) and permissively pursuant to Rule 24(b). Tri-State opposed intervention, but the NMPRC did not. Though not a party to the litigation, KCEC filed an answer to Tri-State’s complaint in which it asserted essentially the same affirmative defenses to Tri-State’s claims as had the NMPRC. The only unique defense KCEC presented was that Tri-State’s complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. Prior to the district court’s ruling on KCEC’s motion, the NMPRC moved for summary judgment, arguing both that: (1) Tri-State was estopped from challenging the NMPRC’s rate-making jurisdiction given its agreement to the earlier Stipulation; and (2) the NMPRC’s order did not violate either New Mexico law or the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution. Though still not a party to the litigation, KCEC filed a proposed response to the NMPRC’s motion for summary judgment, presenting essentially the same arguments as the NMPRC and providing no additional evidence. The district court then denied KCEC’s motion to intervene, finding that neither intervention as of right nor permissive intervention was appropriate. The Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court, finding that KCEC did not show that the district court’s denial of permissive intervention was “arbitrary, capricious, whimsical, or manifestly unreasonable.” View "Tri-State Generation v. NM Public Regulation Comm." on Justia Law

This case involves the authority of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to issue nationwide permits under section 404(e) of the Clean Water Act. These permits authorized activities involving discharge of dredged or fill material in U.S. waters and wetlands. TransCanada Corporation proposed to rely on the nationwide permit to build an oil pipeline, the Gulf Coast Pipeline, running approximately 485 miles and cross over 2,000 waterways. The Corps issued letters verifying that Nationwide Permit 12 would cover the proposed construction. Shortly thereafter, TransCanada began constructing the pipeline, which was completed. Three environmental groups (Sierra Club, Inc.; Clean Energy Future Oklahoma; and East Texas Sub Regional Planning Commission) challenged the validity of the nationwide permit and verification letters. The district court rejected these challenges and entered judgment for the defendants. After review, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the entry of judgment in favor of the defendants. View "Sierra Club v. Bostick" on Justia Law

At issue in this case was the district court's grant of summary judgment to the court-appointed receiver for Winsome Investment Trust, a business entity whose founder, Robert Andres, caused it to illegally distribute funds as part of a Ponzi scheme. The court found that Andres had fraudulently transferred funds from Winsome to William Cornelius and his law firm, Cornelius & Salhab, and that the receiver could recover these funds on Winsome's behalf under the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act (UFTA). Cornelius, who was unaware of the fraud, raised several challenges to the district court's jurisdiction and its judgment on the merits. Finding no reversible error, the Tenth Circuit affirmed: the receiver was entitled to sue Cornelius in Utah, and no federal jurisdictional impediments prevent the district court from reaching the UFTA claim. The district court also correctly concluded the payments to Cornelius violated the UFTA and the four-year statute of limitations did not bar the receiver's claim. View "Klein v. Cornelius" on Justia Law

Plaintiff-appellant Sabreen Gad filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Kansas State University, alleging she was discriminated against in her effort to obtain a tenure-track position. Despite the EEOC sending her a formal charge document to sign and verify, as both Title VII and EEOC regulations required, she never did so. The EEOC elected not to pursue her case; she brought a Title VII suit against KSU. The issue this appeal presented for the Tenth Circuit's review centered on whether Title VII's requirement that a claimant verify the charges against an employer was a jurisdictional prerequisite to suit: if yes, then the district court correctly concluded that it lacked Article III subject-matter jurisdiction and dismissed the complaint; if the verification requirement was a non-jurisdictional condition precedent to suit, it could be waived without defeating jurisdiction. The Tenth Circuit concluded the verification requirement was non-jurisdictional and did not divest the federal courts of subject-matter jurisdiction. Consequently, the Court reversed the district court's contrary decision and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Gad v. Kansas State University" on Justia Law

Defendant-Appellant Antonio Esquivel-Rios appeals from the district court's order denying his motion to suppress evidence. Defendant was arrested on drug trafficking charges following a police stop. In his first direct appeal, the Tenth Circuit concluded that the record lacked the quality and quality of information necessary to determine whether defendant's Fourth Amendment rights had been violated. The case was remanded to allow the district court to reconsider its ruling in light of the Tenth Circuit's review. With the benefit of additional evidence and briefing, the district court concluded that defendant's Fourth Amendment rights had indeed been violated but that suppression was not appropriate given the lack of police culpability. Accordingly, the district court denied defendant's motion to suppress for a second time. Defendant again appealed, and the Tenth Circuit, finding no reversible error this time, affirmed. View "United States v. Esquivel-Rios" on Justia Law

Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., d.b.a. LegalShield, sued its former employee Todd Cahill, claiming Cahill had breached his contract, unlawfully misappropriated Pre-Paid’s trade secrets, and tortiously interfered with contract and business relations. Cahill removed the case from state to federal court based on diversity jurisdiction, and moved to stay the district court proceedings under the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) so the parties could pursue arbitration. Thereafter the district court stayed litigation pending arbitration. Cahill failed to pay his share of the arbitration fees, and the arbitrators terminated arbitration proceedings. Pre-Paid moved the district court to lift the stay and resume with litigation. The court granted the motion, adopting a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation. Finding that the district court did not err in lifting the stay under 9 U.S.C. Section 3 of the FAA because the arbitration "ha[d] been had in accordance with the terms of the agreement” and Cahill was “in default in proceeding with such arbitration," the Tenth Circuit affirmed the district court's ruling. View "Pre-Paid Legal Services v. Cahill" on Justia Law

Defendant-appellant Dejuan Hill was indicted, tried, and convicted of bank robbery and for taking part in a larger conspiracy to rob banks, a credit union, and four pharmacies in the Tulsa area from 2009 to 2011. Before and during trial, Dejuan filed motions related to the four issues that he now raised on appeal to the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals: (1) a motion to dismiss Count One, arguing that a fatal variance existed because the Indictment against him charged a single global conspiracy but the evidence at trial instead proved multiple, smaller conspiracies; (2) a pretrial motion for misjoinder of defendants, contending that joining his charges to those of his co-defendants was improper and so prejudicial that a separate trial was required; (3) a motion in limine to exclude evidence of gang affiliation, arguing that the evidence was both irrelevant to his charges and unfairly prejudicial to him; and (4) a motion for judgment of acquittal at the close of the evidence, arguing that the government produced insufficient evidence to convict Dejuan of any of his three charges. The district court denied each of these motions. While the Tenth Circuit agreed with defendant that there was a variance between the single conspiracy charged in the Indictment and the evidence of individual conspiracies presented at trial, the Court concluded that this variance was insufficiently prejudicial to affect Dejuan’s substantial rights. The Court affirmed on all other issues raised on appeal. View "United States v. Hill" on Justia Law