Justices ask lower court to reconsider class action case
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court is asking a lower court to take another look at a class action lawsuit brought by nearly 300 cable technicians that alleges their company encouraged workers to underreport overtime hours.
The justices said Monday that a federal appeals court should reconsider its decision allowing the lawsuit to proceed against cable installation firm FTS USA and its parent company, UniTek USA.
The companies argue that the district court should not have calculated damages for hundreds of workers by averaging the experiences of only 17 workers who testified.
A federal judge awarded the technicians $3.8 million after a jury found the company at fault. A federal appeals court said that award was too high, but rejected arguments that a single class action lawsuit was improper.
Court won't hear challenge to internet sales tax
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court won't hear a challenge to a Colorado law that requires out-of-state internet retailers to tell customers how much they owe in state sales taxes.
The justices on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that said the law doesn't discriminate against interstate commerce, as online retailers had claimed.
An industry trade group representing retailers challenged the law as unconstitutional because it applies only to companies outside the state. A federal appeals court rejected that challenge.
Colorado's law doesn't require internet retailers to collect taxes, but requires them to tell customers what taxes are owed and report purchases to the state government. A 1992 Supreme Court decision bans states from forcing out-of-state retailers to collect taxes if they don't have a physical presence in the state.
Appeal from AIG executives turned away
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court won't hear an appeal from two former American International Group executives seeking to avoid civil fraud claims on charges they hid hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from investors.
The justices on Monday let stand a lower court ruling that said former chief executive officer Maurice Greenberg and former chief financial officer Howard Smith must stand trial.
New York state has accused the former executives of manipulating AIG's accounting records to hide hundreds of millions of dollars in losses from investors.
The state seeks an order banning Greenberg from working in the securities industry or as an executive for any public company. It also is seeking $53 million, including bonuses Greenberg received during the period he is alleged to have manipulated the company's finances.
Greenberg was seen at Trump Tower in New York on Monday. He did not stop to speak with the press.
Court leaves $1B NFL concussion settlement in place
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Monday rejected challenges to the estimated $1 billion plan by the NFL to settle thousands of concussion lawsuits filed by former players, clearing the way for payouts to begin to those who have been diagnosed with brain injuries linked to repeated concussions.
The settlement covers more than 20,000 retired NFL players for the next 65 years. The league estimates that 6,000 former players, or nearly three in 10, could develop Alzheimer's disease or moderate dementia.
"This decision means that, finally, retired NFL players will receive much-needed care and support for the serious neurocognitive injuries they are facing," said Christopher Seeger, a lawyer for the retired players.
"These courageous men and their families, who in the face of great adversity took on the NFL, have made history. Despite the difficult health situations retired players face today, and that many more will unfortunately face in the future, they can take comfort in the fact that this settlement's significant and immediate benefits will finally become available to them and last for decades to come."
The player lawsuits accused the NFL of hiding what it knew about the link between concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the degenerative brain disease found in dozens of former players after their deaths. The deal avoids the need for a trial and means the NFL may never have to disclose what it knew and when about the risks and treatment of repeated concussions.
In a statement, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league was pleased with the decision.
"We look forward to working with class counsel and Judge (Anita) Brody to implement the settlement and provide the important benefits that our retired players and their families have been waiting to receive," McCarthy said.
The settlement awards up to $5 million for those with Lou Gehrig's disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS; $4 million for past CTE deaths; and $3.5 million for advanced Alzheimer's disease. The average payouts would be closer to $190,000.
Critics complained that the settlement approved by Brody, a senior U.S. district judge in Philadelphia, does not cover future CTE cases. The lead negotiators said they instead set aside compensation for treatment for some CTE symptoms. That does not include the depression, aggression and mood swings reported by some former players who experienced repeated concussions.
As part of the settlement, the NFL admitted no fault. Although a league official during congressional testimony acknowledged a link between football and CTE, an appeals court said that admission was not grounds to overturn the settlement.
"This settlement will provide significant and immediate relief to retired players living with the lasting scars of a NFL career," 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Thomas L. Ambro wrote for the unanimous three-judge panel in April. "We must hesitate before rejecting that bargain based on an unsupported hope that sending the parties back to the negotiating table would lead to a better deal."
Players' lawyers who negotiated the deal with the NFL, and stand to split $112 million in fees, say the settlement will help families get needed financial awards or medical testing that might take years if the case went to trial.
"Compensation for players who are coping with these (neurocognitive or neuromuscular) symptoms now is surely preferable to waiting until they die to pay their estates for a CTE diagnosis," Ambro wrote.
Brody approved the deal last year after twice sending it back to lawyers over concerns the fund might run out. Individual players could receive up to $5 million in the case of severe brain trauma, which could put NFL payouts over 65 years, including interest and lawyer fees, at more than $1 billion.
Reach of bank fraud law upheld
By Sam Hananel
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the broad reach of a federal law prohibiting bank fraud, a ruling that gives the government more leeway to prosecute financial crimes.
The unanimous ruling came in the case of a California man who illegally siphoned about $307,000 out of a Taiwanese businessman's Bank of America bank account.
Lawrence Shaw argued that he wasn't guilty of bank fraud because he only intended to cheat the bank customer, not the bank itself. But Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the court, said the bank has an interest in preserving the money in its customers' accounts.
"A scheme fraudulently to obtain funds from a bank depositor's account is also a scheme fraudulently to obtain property from a financial institution," Breyer said.
Breyer said the law applied to Shaw's actions because Shaw knew the bank held the customer's deposits and he misled the bank to steal the money. It did not matter that the bank itself suffered no financial loss, he said.
The case resolves a split on the issue among lower courts. The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court to decide whether the jury instructions in Shaw's case were correct.
The Obama administration had defended the law, saying it is modeled on mail and wire fraud statutes that are not limited to crimes where the goal is to cause financial losses.
The case is Shaw v. United States, 15-5991.
Justices reject death row appeals
By Mark Sherman
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court on Monday turned away appeals from death row inmates in four states that raised different questions about the fairness of capital punishment.
Justice Stephen Breyer, commenting on two of those cases, repeated his call for the court to take up the constitutionality of the death penalty. Breyer said defendants who face death sentences are not society's worst criminals but are "chosen at random, on the basis, perhaps of geography, perhaps of the views of the individual prosecutors, or still worse on the basis of race."
The four appeals rejected Monday were from:
- James Tyler of Louisiana, whose lawyer conceded his guilt in the hope of drawing a life sentence, even though Tyler repeatedly objected to the strategy.
- Sammie Stokes of South Carolina, whose lawyer had previously prosecuted him for assaulting his ex-wife and never informed the judge about the earlier case.
- Romell Broom of Ohio, who survived a botched execution in 2009.
- Henry Sireci of Florida, who was first sentenced to death 40 years ago.
Breyer addressed Broom's and Sireci's cases on Monday, and made reference to an Alabama man who was executed last week even though the jury in his case had voted 7-5 to recommend a sentence of life in prison. The trial judge imposed a death sentence, lower courts upheld it and the justices divided 4 to 4 on whether to issue a last-minute stay - one vote less than was necessary to halt the execution.
Breyer said the cases are among those the high court has rejected that called for review of executions "taking place in what I would consider especially cruel and unusual circumstances." The justice invoked language from the Constitution that prohibits "cruel and unusual punishments."
Living under a death sentence for decades could itself be unconstitutional, Breyer said. When Sireci was first convicted in 1976 of stabbing a car salesman to death, more than half of today's U.S. population had not yet been born, he said. And 40 years is longer than the average life span at the time when the Constitution was written, he said.
In Broom's case, prison medical personnel tried for over two hours to a find a vein in which to inject drugs used in the execution, he said. The state now wants to try again. "Given its first failure, does its second attempt amount to a 'cruel and unusual' punishment?" he wrote. Justice Elena Kagan also voted to hear Broom's appeal.
Breyer first spelled out his reservations about the death penalty last year in a case from Oklahoma, joined by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Executions and new death sentences have been declining in recent years. Twenty inmates in five states have been executed in 2016, the lowest number since 1991, when 14 people were put to death. No more executions are scheduled this year.
Published: Wed, Dec 14, 2016
