In this case, we consider whether Virginia’s "Partial Birth Infanticide" Act, Va. Code Ann. § 18.2-71.1 (the "Virginia Act"), is facially unconstitutional. After the Commonwealth of Virginia enacted the Virginia Act in April 2003, but before its July 1, 2003 effective date, Richmond Medical Center and its owner and medical director, Dr. William Fitzhugh (collectively, "Dr. Fitzhugh"), commenced... More...   $0 (07-03-2009 - VA)

We are asked in this appeal to determine whether an action will lie under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to challenge the treatment Appellant’s decedent received (or did not receive) at the Appellee nursing home – treatment Appellant argues violated the Federal Nursing Home Reform Amendments (FNRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1396r et seq. We answer that question in the affirmative and will reverse and remand the cause ... More...   $0 (07-03-2009 - PA)

We decide in this case whether a statutory right to participate in class action lawsuits can permissibly be foreclosed by a provision in a consumer contract compelling individual arbitration. The plaintiffs, John A. Feeney and Dedham Health and Athletic Complex (Dedham Health), appeal from an order of a judge in the Superior Court compelling arbitration of their claims--brought as a putative class... More...   $0 (07-02-2009 - MA)

This appeal arises from a partition action brought by plaintiff Daniel Massey against defendant Lucille Hrostek. In that action, Hrostek was ordered to sign over title to their jointly owned $450,000 vacation home on nineteen acres of land without receiving any compensation from Massey. We reverse and remand.

¶ 2. When Massey brought this partition action, the parties were th... More...   $0 (07-02-2009 - VT)

In 2002, then-Boston Police Commissioner Paul Evans terminated William Broderick as a police captain in the Boston Police Department. Broderick sued and in the district court a jury returned a verdict against Evans under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (2006) and against the City of Boston under the Massachusetts whistle blower statute, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, § 185 (2009). The defendants now appeal and Brode... More...   $0 (07-02-2009 - MA)

On the Christmas weekend of 2000, James A. Warshaw, M.D. (Dr. Warshaw) was the on-call attending physician for the defendant, Atwood Medical Associates, Ltd. (Atwood), a medical group serving about 5,000 patients, including the plaintiff, Kenneth J. Gianquitti. Atwood had become involved in Gianquitti’s care in August 2000 for the treatment of a deep-vein thrombosis, or blood clot, that had deve... More...   $0 (07-01-2009 - RI)

Byron Chapman (“Chapman”) sued Pier 1 Imports (U.S.), Inc. (“Pier 1 Imports”) under the Americans with Disabilities Act, (“ADA”) 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101 et seq., the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Cal. Civ. Code §§ 51 et seq., and the Disabled Persons Act, Cal. Civ. Code §§ 54 et seq., after visiting Pier 1 Imports’s Vacaville, California location (the “Store”) and encountering five ac... More...   $0 (07-01-2009 - CA)

Sergeant J. A. Wood appeals the district court’s denial of qualified immunity in this civil suit arising out of Wood’s warrantless entry into the plaintiffs’ home. Because the objective circumstances confronted by defendant on the night in question suggested that plaintiffs’ home was being vandalized and that a missing teenage girl was in the house and in need of assistance, the search was... More...   $0 (06-29-2009 - VA)

We hold that an employee who, on behalf of himself and other employees, sues an employer under the unfair competition law (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200 et seq.) for Labor Code violations must satisfy class action requirements, but that those requirements need not be met when an employee‘s representative action against an employer is seeking civil penalties under the Labor Code Private Attorneys G... More...   $0 (06-29-2009 - CA)

After certification by the appellate division of the superior court, this court ordered the present appeal, six individual cases which have been consolidated, transferred to it. (Cal. Rules of Court, rules 8.1002 and 8.1005.) The respondents are six laborers who worked for an unlicensed drywall subcontractor, Humberto Figueroa Drywall Company (Humberto). Donald Sanders, doing business as Sanders C... More...   $0 (06-29-2009 - CA)

We are asked here to determine whether plaintiff‟s suit alleging the negligence of a public-entity health-care provider must comply with the statutes of limitations in both the Government Claims Act (Gov. Code, § 945.6) involving actions against public entities, and the Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) (Code Civ. Proc., § 340.5) governing medical negligence suits. Patricia Ann Ro... More...   $0 (06-29-2009 - CA)

Plaintiff James S. Phelps, as trustee of the John Wilson Phelps Trust (trust), challenges the action of respondent Webster J. Guillory, Orange County Assessor (Assessor), in reassessing a shopping center complex (property) held by the trust upon the death of Wilson W. Phelps (Wilson), an income beneficiary of the trust, and the decision of respondent Orange County Assessment Appeals Board No. 1 (a... More...   $0 (06-29-2009 - CA)

Randall Young, his wife, and their minor child have asserted health care liability and derivative claims and appeal the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants (collectively, Memorial) on the element of causation. We affirm.

I

Thirty-seven-year-old Randall Young, a Louisiana resident, attended a motocross event at Reliant Stadium in Houston, and during... More...   $0 (06-29-2009 - TX)

In the fire department of New Haven, Connecticut—asin emergency-service agencies throughout the Nation—firefighters prize their promotion to and within the officerranks. An agency’s officers command respect within the department and in the whole community; and, of course, added responsibilities command increased salary andbenefits. Aware of the intense competition for promotions, New Haven, ... More...   $0 (06-29-2009 - CT)

The Monsanto Company (“Monsanto”) is a large-scale manufacturer of chemical products, including herbicides and pesticides. In the 1990s it began developing a variety of alfalfa that would be resistant to one of its leading herbicides. The United States Department of Agriculture, through the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (“APHIS”), approved the genetically modified alfalfa in 2... More...   $0 (06-28-2009 - ca)

Defendants Moshen Tavoussi and Orange County Surgery Center, Inc., challenge the trial court‟s denial of their application under Code of Civil Procedure section 473 to vacate a $147,217.07 default judgment against them in favor of plaintiff Carmel, Ltd. (Carmel). Defendants contend the trial court erred when it determined defendants failed to file an attorney affidavit of fault and found they fa... More...   $0 (06-26-2009 - CA)

We granted the defendants' application for further appellate review to consider whether a Superior Court judge erred in denying the defendants' special motion to dismiss, pursuant to G.L. c. 231, § 59H (anti-SLAPP statute). [FN2] Because we conclude that the defendants are entitled to interlocutory appellate review, and that the motion judge erred in denying their special motion to dismiss, we re... More...   $0 (06-25-2009 - MA)

The present civil action stems from the capsizing in the Baltimore Harbor of a double-pontoon vessel called the "Lady D," resulting in the death of five persons thrown overboard and numerous injuries to others on board (the Accident). Prior to the Accident, the United States Coast Guard (the Coast Guard) had certified the Lady D to carry no more than twenty-five persons, based upon the results of ... More...   $0 (06-25-2009 - MD)

State Farm General Insurance Company (State Farm) and Mimin Mintarsih both appeal a judgment in a declaratory relief action. Mintarsih sued State Farm‟s insureds, Dennis Lam and Dina Lam, in the underlying action for false imprisonment and other counts arising from her employment as a domestic servant. She obtained a judgment against the Lams for compensatory and punitive damages, statutory pena... More...   $0 (06-25-2009 - CA)

This lawsuit arises from the efforts of defendant National Credit Acceptance, Inc. to collect a consumer debt from plaintiff Anastasiya Komarova that she did not owe. We review alleged debt collection abuse in the context of a mistaken identity case. Defendant appeals (A121316) from the judgment for plaintiff on jury verdicts finding defendant liable for violations of the Robbins-Rosenthal Fair De... More...   $0 (06-25-2009 - ca)

Code of Civil Procedure1 section 1987.5 provides that “[i]n the case of a subpoena duces tecum which requires appearance and the production of matters and things at the taking of a deposition, the subpoena shall not be valid unless a copy of the affidavit upon which the subpoena is based and the designation of the materials to be produced, as set forth in the subpoena, is attached to the notice ... More...   $0 (06-25-2009 - CA)

The question presented by this case is whether an in-jured seaman may recover punitive damages for his employer’s willful failure to pay maintenance and cure.Petitioners argue that under Miles v. Apex Marine Corp., 498 U. S. 19 (1990), seamen may recover only those dam-ages available under the Jones Act, 46 U. S. C. §30104.We disagree. Historically, punitive damages have beenavailable and award... More...   $0 (06-25-2009 - DC)

These consolidated cases arise from litigation that be-gan in Arizona in 1992 when a group of English Language-Learner (ELL) students in the Nogales Unified School District (Nogales) and their parents filed a class action, alleging that the State was violating the Equal Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 (EEOA), §204(f), 88 Stat.515, 20 U. S. C. §1703(f), which requires a State “to take app... More...   $0 (06-25-2009 - AZ)

This appeal arises from the trial court‟s denial of a physician‟s petition to compel arbitration of the wrongful death action brought by the adult children heirs of his patient, Rafael Ruiz (Rafael).1 Alejandra Ruiz (Wife) and the four adult children, Alejandro, Ana, Diana, and Samuel (collectively referred to as the Adult Children) filed an action against Anatol Podolsky, an orthopedic surgeo... More...   $0 (06-24-2009 - CA)

In 2002, the City of Seattle promulgated a set of rules governing the conduct of visitors to one of its major attractions, an 80-acre public park and entertainment complex known as the Seattle Center. The new rules regulated for the first time the behavior of the Center’s street performers. We consider today the constitutional validity of some of those rules.

Among other provisions, the n... More...   $0 (06-24-2009 - WA)