Recent Articles from All Practice Groups
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Arthur D. Burger Will Speak at Panel During Legalweek 2022
On February 3, 2022, Arthur D. Burger, Chair of Jackson & Campbell's Professional Responsibility Practice Group, will speak in New York City at “Legalweek 2022,” Law.com’s annual conference, on a panel titled, “New Rules & New Realities: Ethically Managing Remote Work.” Joined by speaker Deborah Winokur, Esq., Professional Responsibility & Compliance Counsel at Cozen O'Connor, they will spotlight ethical challenges ... Read More
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Virginia Supreme Court Authorizes Removal Of General Robert E. Lee Statue In Richmond
A large statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee has stood for over 100 years on Monument Avenue in Richmond, along with statues of other Confederate notables. Times changed, and calls to remove the statues intensified. Governor Ralph Northam authorized the removal of the statues, but two lawsuits were filed by private individuals to protect Lee’s monument. In both cases, ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Bare Majority Of Court Allows Texas Abortion Law To Go Into Effect
The Texas Heartbeat Act created a private right of action to sue anyone who performed or assisted in performing an abortion after a heartbeat had been detected in a fetus—generally after about six weeks from conception, but well before the viability benchmark established in Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973). Abortion providers sued a state court judge, a state ... Read More
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Considerations for Employers Mandating Vaccines in a Post-EUA World
The FDA’s recent approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has ushered in a new wave of employer vaccine mandates. Private employers had the right to impose such mandates even when the three vaccines available in the U.S. – Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – were available only under emergency use authorization (EUA). This was made clear by a memorandum ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Blocks CDC Moratorium On Evictions
Congress twice passed a law imposing a moratorium on certain types of eviction during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention each time extended the moratorium, claiming authority under Section 361(a) of the Public Health Service Act. That statute permitted the CDC to “make and enforce such regulations as . . . are necessary to prevent ... Read More
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Real Estate Update: Easement drafting news in the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland
The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland has issued a decision giving a word of caution to easement drafters. In Joe the Grinder, Riva Road, LLC v. Riva, LLC, the Court held that an easement referencing a right of way for “vehicular ingress and egress” was ambiguous as the easement further described only a single-lane driving aisle “to” a traffic ... Read More
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Court Opinion: D.C. Circuit Rejects Challenge To House Resolution Allowing Proxy Voting During Pandemic
In May of 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted House Resolution 965, which allowed House members to cast votes and mark their presence by proxy during the public health emergency caused by COVID-19. The Republican minority filed suit challenging the Resolution, arguing that it was unconstitutional because the Constitution required that members be physically present on the House floor ... Read More
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National Survey of COVID-19 Immunity Legislation
(as of July 23, 2021) [1] The below survey of federal and state legislation, guidance, and executive action provides information regarding enacted and proposed legislation and executive orders issued to provide immunity protections for liability, in certain respects, to health care professionals, facilities, and volunteers in the course of their treatment of individuals during the course of the COVID-19 ... Read More
TAGGED: Medical Malpractice, COVID-19
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Health Law Practice Group Update: Attorneys secure dismissal of a conversion case styled as patent infringement
Attorneys Crystal Deese and Sarah Godfrey recently secured dismissal a conversion case styled as patent infringement in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The plaintiff, a biomedical research tech, sued the head of his former research laboratory for allegedly “stealing” his intellectual property. Plaintiff claimed the theft occurred when the lab director permitted one of plaintiff’s colleagues to ... Read More
TAGGED: Patent Infringement, conversion claim
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Health Law Practice Group Update: Summary Judgment in Premises Liability Case
The Health Law Practice Group obtained summary judgment in a premises liability case. Plaintiff claimed she slipped and fell on liquid an employee allegedly deposited and left on a hospital floor. She claimed a permanent wrist injury following a surgical procedure negatively impacted nearly all activities of daily living. Judge Shana Frost Matini in the Superior Court of the District ... Read More
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Health Law Practice Group Update: Attorneys Win Motion to Limit Plaintiffs’ Economic Damages
Attorneys Crystal Deese and Pam Diedrich recently won a Motion to Limit Plaintiffs’ Economic Damages. Plaintiffs sought to recover the entire amounts of their medical bills rather than the far lower figure the hospital received in payment. Judge José M. López in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia ruled that Plaintiffs can only claim the amounts actually paid ... Read More
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Health Law Practice Group Update: Attorneys Successfully Asserts Claim-Splitting Doctrine
This month, Edward Sedlacek and Crystal Deese secured dismissal of an individual physician from a malpractice suit despite Plaintiff's two-pronged attempt to add her into the litigation. Plaintiff sued a hospital in 2019 claiming permanent injuries due to inappropriate postoperative management. In 2021, Plaintiff filed a separate suit making the same allegations against his surgeon. We moved to dismiss the ... Read More
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Client Alert: Watts-Dowd v. SJH Property Management, LLC
The Court of Special Appeals of Maryland has affirmed a trial court’s denial of an adverse possession claim in which the plaintiff submitted evidence as to each of the traditional necessary elements but failed to establish the location of the actual property at issue. In Watts-Dowd v. SJH Property Management LLC, the Court was presented with an all too familiar ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Corrects Mischaracterization Of State Court’s Analysis Of Ineffective Counsel Claim
In Dunn v. Reeves, after Reeves was convicted of murder, he argued to the state court that he received ineffective assistance of counsel under Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668 (1984). However, he did not call his attorneys to testify to rebut the presumption that counsel acted reasonably. The state appellate court denied relief because of the lack of evidence, ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Charitable Donors Protected From Disclosure Under First Amendment
A California law requires charitable organizations to disclose the names and addresses of their major donors, presumably to police charitable misconduct. In Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, two nonprofits refused to make that disclosure, and were threatened with suspension of their registration and fines. The nonprofits filed suit, arguing that the disclosure law violated their First Amendment rights and ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Upholds Arizona Voting Restrictions Against Voting Rights Act Challenge
The case of Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee involved two voting laws enacted in Arizona. The first mandated that if a person voted in person on election day in the wrong precinct, their vote would not be counted. The second made it illegal to engage in “ballot harvesting,” in which a third party (other than those expressly allowed by the ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Narrowly Declines To Lift Nationwide Moratorium On Evictions—For Now
In the early days of the pandemic, Congress enacted a temporary hold on evictions nationwide that expired in July of 2020. On September 4, 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued an order creating another nationwide moratorium on most evictions, purportedly under authority of the Public Health Service Act. A variety of realtors challenged the order, and ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Denies Bond Hearings To Previously-Removed Undocumented Immigrants
Normally under 8 U.S.C. sec. 1226, an immigrant may apply for release on bond or parole pending a decision on whether they are to be removed from the country, with detention becoming mandatory once there is a final decision to remove. If an immigrant is removed, then re-enters the country illegally, the prior order to remove is reinstated, that decision ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Narrows Application Of Assignor Estoppel In Patent Cases
The doctrine of assignor estoppel precludes the assignor of a patent from later challenging the validity of that patent, under the premise that doing so is not fair dealing. In Minerva Surgical, Inc. v. Hologic, Inc., the developer of a patent treating abnormal uterine bleeding through a moisture-permeable applicator head gave the patent to his company, Hologic, then left and ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Natural Gas Act Permits Private Entities To Condemn State Property
In 1947, Congress amended the Natural Gas Act to permit the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to issue certificates to natural gas companies enabling those companies to exercise federal eminent domain power in order to obtain the land needed to build their pipelines based on “public convenience and necessity.” In PennEast Pipeline Co, LLC v. New Jersey, PennEast received a certificate ... Read More
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Court Requests Additional Examination Of Evidence In Excessive Force Case
The case of Lombardo v. City of St. Louis involved a detainee who died after police officers sought to restrain him after an apparent suicide attempt. After the detainee resisted, he was handcuffed and put in leg irons, and then placed prone on the floor, face down, with four officers applying pressure to hold him down. After 15 minutes of ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: No Exhaustion Requirement To Contest A Fifth Amendment Taking
In Pakdel v. City and County of San Francisco, a married couple who owned part of a multiunit residential building sued when the City of San Francisco required that they offer a lifetime lease to their tenant as part of allowing them to convert the building into a condominium, arguing that the lifetime lease requirement was an unconstitutional regulatory taking ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Mere Violation Of A Statutory Right Not Inherently Sufficient To Provide Standing In Class Action
Over 8,000 individuals sued as a class under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, alleging that TransUnion falsely inserted alerts on their credit histories because they happened to have the same first and last name as serious criminals monitored by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and that TransUnion had formatting errors in its reports. At trial, the ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Protects Small Refinery Exemptions To Renewable Fuel Program
As part of a renewable fuel program enacted by Congress under the Clean Air Act, the law allowed small refineries to be exempt from the Program’s requirements until 2011, then permitted the Environmental Protection Agency to extend that exemption for at least two more years if not doing so would cause “disproportionate economic hardship,” and further allowed any small refinery ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Alaska Native Corporations Eligible For Funds From CARES Act
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act allocated $8 billion to “Tribal governments” to pay for coronavirus expenditures. In Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, the question was whether Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs) were eligible to receive any of those funds. The term “Tribal government” was defined as the “recognized governing body of an Indian tribe” as ... Read More
TAGGED: CARES Act, Alaska Native Corporations, Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, recognized governing body of an Indian tribe, Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, plain meaning
SCOTUS Opinion: Federal Housing Finance Agency’s Structure Deemed Unconstitutional
The Federal Housing Finance Agency was created under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act to have certain conservatorship powers to address the aftereffects of the 2008 housing bubble bursting. The Agency was under the Executive Branch, but the Act only allowed the President to remove the Agency’s Director “for cause.” Soon after it was created, the Agency entered into a ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Law Allowing Labor Unions Access To Private Land Deemed An Unconstitutional Taking
California enacted a regulation allowing labor organizations a limited duration right to access private farms to solicit support from farm workers thereon. Two such farmers filed suit seeking an injunction, arguing that the regulation was an unconstitutional per se physical taking without compensation. The district court and Ninth Circuit denied relief on the basis that the regulation did not allow ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Pursuit Of A Fleeing Misdemeanor Suspect Does Not Automatically Permit Warrantless Entry Into Home
The Fourth Amendment permits police officers to enter a home when “the exigencies of the situation” create a compelling law enforcement need. The question in Lange v. California was whether pursuit of a fleeing misdemeanor suspect categorically qualified as an exigent circumstance. In this case, the suspect was driving while listening to loud music and honking his horn. When an ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Cheerleader Wins First Amendment Case Involving Off-Campus Speech
When a high school student failed to make the varsity squad, she posted her frustrations on Snapchat using vulgar language. When the school learned of the posts, the student was suspended from the junior varsity squad in punishment. The student sued, arguing that her punishment violated her First Amendment rights under Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 ... Read More
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SCOTUS Opinion: Court Fine-Tunes Review Standard For Securities Class Actions
In Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, shareholders alleged securities fraud by Goldman Sachs and sought a class action certification. The shareholders invoked a presumption under Basic Inc. v. Levinson, 485 U.S. 224 (1988), that investors are presumed to rely on the market price of a company’s security, which is presumed to reflect all of the company’s ... Read More