Vickers v. Superintendent — habeas corpus — reversal — Krause

The Third Circuit reversed a district court’s grant of habeas corpus relief, holding that trial counsel’s failure to secure an on-the-record waiver of his client’s right to a jury trial was deficient performance but that the defendant was not prejudiced given deference to state-court credibility findings. The opinion contains three other notable holdings: (1) that the state court’s ruling was not subject to 28 USC 2254(d)’s limitation on relief because it applied the wrong standard, (2) that prejudice was not presumed because the state court found that defendant had been informed of his jury-trial right, and (3) that the correct prejudice standard for cases like this is whether there was a reasonable probability that the defendant would have opted for a jury trial.

In a blistering footnote, the court catalogued the Washington County (PA) DA’s office’s “‘dereliction of duty'” during the habeas proceedings, noting that it was “deeply disturbed” and urging the office to act with “far greater diligence and professionalism.”

Joining Krause were Fisher and Melloy CA8 by designation. Arguing counsel were Jerome Moschetta for the Commonwealth and David Fine of K&L Gates as amicus counsel for the petitioner. The opinion thanked Fine and his co-counsel Nicholas Ranjan for accepting the court’s appointment pro bono and for the quality of their briefing and argument.

In re: Ross — bankruptcy — reversal — Vanaskie

A homeowner facing foreclosure twice filed bankruptcy petitions to stave off the sheriff’s sale of the home. After the second filing, the district court entered an injunction barring him from future bankruptcy filings without its permission. The district court did not explain its reasoning for imposing this injunction, which was broader than what the bank had requested and broader than what the same court had imposed in a related, similar case.

The Third Circuit held that the bankruptcy code does not prohibit courts from entering filing injunctions after a debtor moves for voluntary dismissal, but that the broad injunction here was an abuse of discretion, noting that abuse-of-discretion review is less deferential when the challenged ruling below was unexplained.

Joining Vanaskie were Krause and Nygaard. Arguing counsel were Charles Hartwell of Dethlefs Pykosh (the firm’s name is misspelled in the caption) for the bank and former Stapleton clerk William Burgess of Kirkland & Ellis as court-appointed amicus for the debtor. The court expressed its gratitude to amicus for “valuable assistance.”