Justia U.S. 1st Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Plaintiff was injured while receiving treatment at a federally funded healthcare facility. Plaintiff later filed an administrative claim with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) using a Standard Form 95 (SF 95). Plaintiff, however, failed to fill out the box for a sum certain. HHS denied Plaintiff’s claim. Thereafter, Plaintiff sued the United States seeking damages under the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA). The United States moved to dismiss the case for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the basis of Plaintiff’s failure to provide a timely sum-certain demand. The magistrate judge treated the motion as one for summary judgment and recommended that judgment enter for the United States, concluding that Plaintiff did not timely satisfy the FTCA’s requirements. The district judge adopted the magistrate judge’s recommendation on de novo review. The First Circuit affirmed, arguing that, where Plaintiff’s SF 95 did not include a sum certain, none of Plaintiff’s arguments for reversal had merit. View "Holloway v. United States" on Justia Law

Erasmo Rodriguez-Vazquez (Rodriguez) successfully worked to obtain the reversal of several wrongfully convicted individuals. Those individuals and/or their heirs or assigns brought two suits, consolidated into this case, against the police officers and prosecutors who were involved in their prosecutions. The parties reached a settlement. The district court issued a report that the parties and the district court have treated as a gag order barring the parties from disclosing the terms and conditions of the settlement. Rodriguez subsequently made statements about the settlement to the press. The district court held Rodriguez in contempt and referred him to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico’s Supreme Judicial Court for disciplinary review. The First Circuit reversed the district court’s decision and vacated the contempt and sanctions order, holding that the district court’s contempt finding and sanction were based on clearly erroneous findings of fact because Rodriguez did not violate what the parties all treat as a confidentiality order issued by the district court. View "Rodriguez-Vazquez v. Solivan Solivan" on Justia Law

While she was a student at Harvard Law School (HLS), Megon Walker was a member of the staff of the Journal of Law and Technology. During Walker’s final semester, concerns arose regarding a draft article (the Note) that Walker had written. After a hearing, the HLS Administrative Board (Board) found that the Note contained plagiarism. Walker received a formal reprimand, which ultimately appeared on her transcript. Walker graduated from HLS despite the reprimand, but the notation placed on transcript caused the loss of a lucrative employment offer. Walker filed suit against the President and Fellows of Harvard College, the then-Dean of Students at HLS, and the former Chair of the Board, seeking to have the notation removed from her transcript. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Defendants on all counts. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that the district court correctly granted summary judgment against Walker on her claims of breach of contract and defamation. View "Walker v. Harvard University Fellows" on Justia Law