It’s a big day for published opinions today, with four.
First up is a criminal affirmance with odd facts. Waterman was a police officer. One day, he up and told a supervisor he had downloaded 20 child porn videos. The FBI interviewed him about it — a year and a half later. Waterman told the FBI that he threw away the hard drive when it died. But the next day, he was caught in his patrol car breaking apart a computer circuit board (which doesn’t store data); also in the car was an already damaged hard drive (which does). He was convicted of destroying evidence and his sentence was enhanced for interfering with administration of justice. On appeal, CA3 held it was not clear error to apply the enhancement even though no one saw him destroy the hard drives after the FBI interview.
The case is US v. Waterman. Opinion by Mariani MDPa by designation, joined by Fisher and Scirica. Arguing counsel were Maggie Moy of the FPD for Waterman and John Romano for the USA.
Today’s second opinion is a reversal in an asbestos case. When one former asbestos defendant went bankrupt, two others brought a bankruptcy claim seeking the money it owed a joint settlement fund. CA3 held that the bankruptcy claim stated a valid claim for breach of contract and reversed.
The case is In re G-I Holdings. Opinion by Fisher, joined by Scirica and Mariani MDPa. Argued by Rachel Bloomekatz and Stephen Hoffman for the appellants and Andrew Rossman for the debtor.
The third opinion arose from an FMLA employment suit. The employee sued claiming that he was punished for taking health leave. The district court granted summary judgment for the employer, and CA3 affirmed.
The case is Ross v. Gilhuly. Opinion by Jordan, joined by Ambro & Roth. (The opinion is filled with acronyms. Jordan is mighty lucky he’s not a D.C. Circuit lawyer.) Arguing counsel were Charles Sipio, a 2012 Widener law grad, for the employee, and Madeline Baio (her web page reveals that she won an award for best brief as a 1L in 1981) for the employer.
The final opinion involves a public employee who alleged discrimination, and his employer punished him because it believed his allegations contained false statements. He sued, and the district court invoked Younger abstention and dismissed. Interpreting the 2013 Scotus ruling in Sprint Communications, CA3 affirmed.
The case is Gonzalez v. Waterfront Commission. Opinion by Smith, joined by Rendell and Hardiman. The case was decided without oral argument.