Calvary Christian Center v. City of Fredericksburg, Va. A church that filed a lawsuit challenging a city’s denial of a special use permit to allow it to expand its child-care program could not amend its complaint because the complaint already had been dismissed by the district court; the 4th Circuit says there simply was no complaint pending to amend.

Tagged with: 4th Circuit

A pair of rare conviction reversals by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on search-and-seizure grounds signal that contrary to the assumptions of many in the defense bar, it’s worthwhile to challenge government evidence on Fourth Amendment grounds, defense attorneys told Lawyers Weekly. However, the reversals shouldn’t be interpreted as an ideological sea change on one of the most conservative federal courts in the nation, attorneys said.

Tagged with: 4th Circuit search & seizure

EEOC v. Washington Suburban Sanitary Comm’n (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-01-0131, 17 pp.) (Wilkinson, J.) No. 09-2263, Jan. 26, 2011; USDC at Greenbelt, Md. (Williams, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: Although the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission claims legislative immunity against an EEOC ...

Tagged with: 4th Circuit Age Discrimination Labor & Employment

L.J. v. Wilbon (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-01-0130, 25 pp.) (Duncan, J.) No. 09-2259, Jan. 26, 2011; USDC at Baltimore, Md. (Motz, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: The Baltimore City Department of Social Services is not entitled to vacatur of a 1988 ...

Tagged with: 4th Circuit Civil Practice

U.S. v. Thorson (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-01-0129, 39 pp.) (Niemeyer, J.) No. 07-4787, Jan. 28, 2011; USDC at Greenbelt, Md. (Titus, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A lawyer who doctored documents and acted as the “closer” for a scheme to solicit ...

Tagged with: 4th Circuit Attorneys Criminal Practice

U.S. v. Slade (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-01-0128, 11 pp.) (Gregory, J.) No. 08-4932, Jan. 27, 2011; USDC at New Bern, N.C. (Flanagan, Ch.J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A mid-level drug dealer who did not supervise others should not have received a ...

Tagged with: 4th Circuit Criminal Practice sentencing

Precon Development Corp. Inc. v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-01-0127, 30 pp.) (Duncan, J.) No. 09-2239, Jan. 25, 2011; USDC at Norfolk, Va. (Smith, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: A Chesapeake developer planning a 658-acre mixed use ...

Tagged with: 4th Circuit Environmental jurisdiction

Barbour v. Int’l Union, United Automobile, Aerospace & Agric. Implement Workers of America (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-01-0126, 68 pp.) (Hamilton, J.) No. 08-1740, Jan. 27, 2011; USDC at Baltimore, Md. (Davis, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: The en banc 4th Circuit ...

Tagged with: 4th Circuit Civil Practice Remand Removal

Simmons v. United Mortgage & Loan Investment LLC (Lawyers Weekly No. 11-01-0108, 24 pp.) (Hamilton, J.) No. 09-2147, Jan. 21, 2011; USDC at Charlotte, N.C. (Mullen, J.) 4th Cir. Holding: Where defendants’ offer to settle plaintiffs’ FLSA claims did not ...

Tagged with: 4th Circuit Civil Practice subject-matter jurisdiction

The "junior asset managers" of a Charlotte mortgage-servicing firm answered phones and collected payments. They didn't supervise others, didn't make final decisions on how to process accounts - and at one point they were asked to fill out time cards to document their hours. Yet the workers at United Mortgage and Loan Investment routinely were asked to work more than 40 hours a week and were deemed exempt from federal wage and hour laws that require overtime pay.

Tagged with: 4th Circuit first impression Wage & Hour Act