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

The First Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court concluding that Defendant violated the conditions of his supervised release term and the length of his revocation sentence, holding that any error was harmless.Defendant pleaded guilty to participation in a conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and was sentenced to a 120-month term of imprisonment to be followed by a sixty-month term of supervised release. The district court subsequently found that Defendant committed a violation of his supervised release, revoked the supervised release, and sentenced Defendant to a sixty-month term of imprisonment to be followed by a thirty-six month term of supervised release. The First Circuit affirmed, holding (1) even if the admission of certain testimony was error, the error was harmless; and (2) the district court did not clearly or obviously err in imposing the revocation sentence that it did. View "United States v. Cintron-Ortiz" on Justia Law

The First Circuit vacated the judgment of the district court granting summary judgment to Defendants and dismissing Plaintiff's claims challenging the termination of his employment on free speech grounds, holding that summary judgment was improper in this case.Plaintiff, a former bus driver for the Worcester Regional Transit Authority (WRTA), brought this action under 42 U.S.C. 1983 claiming that Defendants violated his right to free speech under the First Amendment to the federal constitution and the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act (MCRA) when they terminated his employment following public comments that he made to a television network about proposed budget cuts to the WRTA. The district court granted summary judgment for Defendants. The First Circuit remanded the case, holding (1) the district court erred in concluding that, as a matter of law, Plaintiff was not speaking "as a citizen" during the television interview; and (2) Defendants did not have an adequate justification for treating Plaintiff differently from other members of the general public by terminating him for his protected speech. View "Bruce v. Worcester Regional Transit Authority" on Justia Law

In this interlocutory appeal, the First Circuit affirmed the judgment of the district court denying Defendant's motion to dismiss this suit pursuant to both the Eleventh Amendment and the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), 48 U.S.C. 2101 et seq., holding that the district court did not err.The plaintiff in this case was the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo (CPI), a non-profit media organization based in Puerto Rico. Plaintiff sued the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico, alleging that the Board improperly ignored their requests for documents or provided less than complete responses in violation of P.R. Const. 4. The Board moved to dismiss the claim for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and for failure to state a claim. The district court denied the motion. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that Defendants were not entitled to Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity. View "Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, Inc. v. Financial Oversight & Management Board for Puerto Rico" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the order of the district court entering summary judgment in favor of RentGrow, Inc. and dismissing Plaintiff's complaint alleging that RentGrow willfully violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. 1681-1681x, holding that summary judgment was properly granted.Plaintiff commenced a civil action in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, sued on her own behalf and as the representative of a putative class of similarly situated persons, alleging that Defendant was liable for both negligent and willful noncompliance with the FCRA. The district court entered summary judgment in Defendant's favor, denied class certification, and dismissed the action. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that Plaintiff did not meet her burden of adducing competent evidence sufficient to prove each and every element of her claim. View "McIntyre v. RentGrow, Inc." on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the order of the district court granting the government's motion to dismiss this lawsuit alleging improper termination and breach of contract for failure to state a claim on the grounds that the claims were time-barred, holding that there was no basis to disturb the district court's decision.This matter arose out of a contract for between J-Way Southern and the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) for dredging water waters in Menemsha Harbor, Martha's Vineyard. After USACE terminated the contract J-Way filed suit, alleging improper termination and breach of contract. The district court granted USACE's motion to dismiss, concluding that J-Way's claims were time-barred. The First Circuit affirmed, holding (1) the district court had jurisdiction over this maritime contract dispute; and (2) the district court properly denied the government's motion to dismiss. View "J-Way Southern, Inc. v. United States Army Corps of Engineers" on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the decision of the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico dismissing without prejudice this collection and foreclosure action that VS PR, a limited liability corporation, brought against several defendants, holding that the district court did not err in denying Defendants' motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.In a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, Defendants argued that VS PR had not established that complete diversity between the parties existed as required by 28 U.S.C. 1332(a)(1). The district court denied the motion to dismiss without prejudice. VS PR later filed a motion to dismiss the complaint voluntarily pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41(a)(2). The district court granted the motion for voluntary dismissal and dismissed the action without prejudice. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that Rule 41(a) requires that an action must be dismissed with prejudice following a voluntary dismissal pursuant to a court order only when the court order so provides. View "VS PR, LLC v. ORC Miramar Corp." on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the entry of final judgment entered in favor of Defendant on Plaintiff's wage and employment misclassification claims, holding that the Massachusetts Wage Act, Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 149, 148 (MWA), did not apply to the undisputed facts in this case.Plaintiff, a Florida-based financial planner with a Massachusetts-based financial services company and office, sued his former broker-dealer in a Massachusetts federal district court alleging that Defendant had misclassified him as an independent contractor instead of an employee in violation of Massachusetts law. The district court concluded that Defendants were entitled to judgment as a matter of law and granted Defendants' motion in its entirety. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that the district court correctly concluded that the MWA did not apply to Plaintiff's employment relationship with Defendant. View "Viscito v. National Planning Corp." on Justia Law

The First Circuit affirmed the ruling of the district court denying Appellant's motion for compassionate release pursuant to 18 U.S.C. 3582(c)(1)(A), as amended by the First Step Act (FSA), holding that Appellant was not entitled to a sentence reduction.After a jury trial, Appellant was convicted of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, murder in aid of racketeering, and other crimes. The district court imposed three concurrent life sentences for the racketeering charges. Following the passage of the FSA, Appellant filed a pro se motion for compassionate release, arguing that the age at the time of his crimes, the length of his sentence, and his rehabilitation efforts warranted the reduction of his sentence. The district court denied the request. The First Circuit affirmed, holding that the district court did not err in finding that no extraordinary and compelling reasons existed so as to warrant a reduction of Appellant's life sentence. View "United States v. Sepulveda" on Justia Law

The First Circuit reversed the judgment of the district court denying Defendants' motion for entry of an automatic stay under 11 U.S.C. 922, incorporated into Title III of the Puerto Rico Oversight, Management, and Economic Stability Act (PROMESA), 48 U.S.C. 2101-2241, through 48 U.S.C. 2161(a), holding that Defendants were entitled to an automatic stay.Plaintiffs, who owned an operated the Integrand Assurance Company, sued Defendants, Puerto Rico government officials whose defense was assumed by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico pursuant to the Commonwealth's legal representation and indemnification statute, alleging, among other claims, that the government officials violated their First Amendment rights, the Equal Protection Clause, and the Due Process Clause. Defendants, who were granted legal representation under Law 9, filed a notice of automatic stay. The district court denied the motion, concluding that PROMESA did not stay the litigation. The First Circuit reversed, holding that the automatic stay provision in Title III of PROMESA applied to this action. View "Victor J. Salgado & Associates v. Cestero-Lopategui" on Justia Law

The First Circuit vacated Defendant's sentence entered after he pleaded guilty to illegally possessing a machine gun, holding that Defendant's upwardly variant sentence could not stand.After a hearing, the sentencing judge imposed a variant sentence of forty-eight months - eighteen months more than the top of the recommended sentencing range. On appeal, Defendant argued that his incarcerative term was procedurally and substantively unreasonable. The First Circuit agreed with one of Defendant's claims of procedural error, holding (1) under United States v. Rivera-Berrios, 968 F.3d 130 (1st Cir. 2020), when neither the judge nor the record identifies a "special characteristic attributable either to the offender" or the circumstances of the offense that removes the "case from the mile-run," the upwardly variant sentence "cannot endure"; and (2) the judge erred in sentencing Defendant. View "United States v. Flores-Gonzalez" on Justia Law