Justia U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The Ninth Circuit granted the petition for review of the BIA's decision reversing the IJ's grant of deferral of removal under the Convention Against Torture (CAT). In this case, Michoacán state police arrested and brutally tortured petitioner until she confessed to the kidnapping and murder of a five-year old boy. After her charges were dismissed, she fled to the United States.The panel held that the BIA erred by reviewing the IJ's decision de novo, rather than for clear error, and concluded that the record compelled the determination that petitioner met her burden of proof to establish that it is more likely than not that she will suffer future torture if removed to Mexico. The panel explained that, reviewed under the proper standard, the IJ's factual findings were not erroneous where the IJ found that the Michoacán state police tortured petitioner, and the revived arrest warrant guaranteed she would be placed back in custody of the Michoacán state police, who previously tortured her, precluding relocation. Furthermore, the state police officers specifically threatened to torture petitioner again if she reported their misconduct—which she did. Finally, the IJ considered the country condition reports showing an increased threat of torture for indigenous women. The panel remanded for the BIA to grant deferral of removal pursuant to the CAT. View "Soto-Soto v. Garland" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel's decision affirming the bankruptcy court's rejection of debtor's attempt to exempt two assets from her estate. The panel clarified that a bankruptcy court's prior rejection of claimed exemptions carries preclusive weight, even after Law v. Siegel, 571 U.S. 415 (2014). The panel explained that Law does not bar courts from denying exemptions on the judicially created doctrines of issue and claim preclusion where, as here, the debtor is not statutorily entitled to the exemptions.The panel also held that the bankruptcy court properly deemed debtor's claims precluded. In this case, debtor's initial and amended exemptions are legally identical where her amended schedule sought to exempt the same assets as her earlier one; the bankruptcy court's initial, unappealed orders denying debtor's exemptions were final orders establishing the parties' rights as to the assets in question; and debtor was obviously a party to the proceeding in which her claims had originally been rejected. The panel noted that, regardless of whether the claims remained contingent or had been reduced to a settlement post-petition, debtor's interest in them remained the same. View "Albert v. Golden" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit vacated defendant's sentence for sexually exploiting a minor and remanded for resentencing. The panel concluded that, because there is no evidence that defendant exercised control over the child's mother, the district court abused its discretion in applying the leadership enhancement under USSG 3B1.1(c). The panel also concluded that the district court erred in applying a guardian enhancement under USSG 2G2.1(b)(5) where defendant was not the child's parent and was never entrusted with parent-like authority. The panel could not say that the district court would come to the same conclusions given the proper scope of the enhancements and thus the sentence must be vacated and remanded. View "United States v. Harris" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit filed (1) an order granting respondent's petition for panel rehearing and denying as moot her petition for rehearing en banc, (2) a superseding opinion affirming the district court's denial of petitioner's habeas corpus petition challenging his California conviction for first-degree murder, and (3) a partial dissent/concurrence.The panel concluded that the prosecutor's repeated statements to the jury during final argument that the presumption of innocence no longer applied were misstatements of clearly established law as articulated by the Supreme Court. However, the panel deferred to the state court's finding, applying the Darden standard, that there was not a reasonable probability of a different outcome had the prosecutor not misstated the law. The panel also concluded that the state court did not err under Dunn v. United States, 442 U.S. 100 (1979), in upholding the jury's arguably inconsistent verdict. Accordingly, the panel affirmed the district court's denial of relief. View "Ford v. Peery" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's dismissal, based on the doctrine of equitable estoppel, of an Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) action in which the Trustee of the Anaplex Corporation Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) sought equitable and declaratory relief against the holder of a promissory note from Anaplex.The panel joined the Fourth Circuit in barring the defensive use of equitable estoppel when estopping the plaintiff would contradict an ERISA plan's express terms. The panel deferred to ERISA's focus on what a plan provides, consistent with US Airways, Inc. v. McCutchen, 569 U.S. 88, 100 (2013). The panel explained that equitable estoppel has no place at any stage in this litigation, and the district court erred in dismissing the case based on it.The panel held that, in addition to satisfying the traditional equitable estoppel requirements, a party bringing a federal equitable estoppel claim in the ERISA context must also allege: (1) extraordinary circumstances; (2) that the provisions of the plan at issue were ambiguous such that reasonable persons could disagree as to their meaning or effect; and (3) that the representations made about the plan were an interpretation of the plan, not an amendment or modification of the plan. Furthermore, a party cannot maintain a federal equitable estoppel claim against a trust fund where recovery on the claim would contradict written plan provisions. In this case, allowing the holder to assert her equitable estoppel claim against the trustee would contradict the clear terms of the ESOP. The panel remanded. View "Wong v. Flynn-Kerper" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed, based on federal preemption, the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's state law claims alleging that Trader Joe's federally regulated retained water labels on poultry products were misleading. The panel explained that the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act regulates the retained water data collection process and label production for covered poultry products.In this case, plaintiff argued that she used a data collection protocol that produced different percentages of retained water than those displayed on Trader Joe's poultry labels, and thus Trader Joe's labels are misleading in violation of state law. The panel concluded that plaintiff's claims are preempted by federal law regulating poultry labeling and retained water measurement protocols under 21 U.S.C. 467e. The panel explained that state law claims seek to impose the requirements of plaintiff's retained water protocol in addition to Trader Joe's required Food Safety and Inspection Service protocol, and plaintiff's counsel confirmed at oral argument that she cannot assert that her data collection protocol is the same as that used by Trader Joe's. Accordingly, the district court did not err in dismissing plaintiff's claims with prejudice. View "Webb v. Trader Joe's Co." on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit certified to the Nevada Supreme Court the following question: Whether, under Nevada law, an HOA's misrepresentation that its superpriority lien would not extinguish a first deed of trust, made both in the mortgage protection clause in its CC&Rs and in statements by its agent in contemporaneous arbitration proceedings, constitute slight evidence of fraud, unfairness, or oppression affecting the foreclosure sale that would justify setting it aside.The panel also asked the Nevada Supreme Court to consider the related issue of what evidence a first deed of trust holder must show to establish a causal relationship between a misrepresentation that constitutes unfairness under Nationstar Mortg., LLC v. Saticoy Bay LLC Series 2227 Shadow Canyon, 133 Nev. 740 (2017), and a low sales price. View "U.S. Bank, NA v. Southern Highlands Community Ass'n" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit affirmed defendant's 15-month sentence imposed for violating the terms of his supervised release. Defendant argued that the sentence violates his Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights because it extends his incarceration beyond the maximum term of imprisonment for his underlying conviction, without findings of fact proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.The panel explained that defendant's argument is based on the plurality opinion in United States v. Haymond, 139 S.Ct. 2369 (2019), and Justice Breyer's controlling concurring opinion did not adopt the plurality's position. Therefore, the panel concluded that Haymond did not overrule or undermine the panel's prior opinion in United States v. Purvis, 940 F.2d 1276 (9th Cir. 1991), which held a term of supervised release may extend beyond the statutory maximum for the underlying substantive offense. Nor does defendant hold that the right to jury findings proved beyond a reasonable doubt recognized in Apprendi v. New Jersey, 530 U.S. 466 (2000), extends to a revocation of supervised release hearing. Furthermore, when district courts revoke supervised release, the new sentences they impose are treated, for constitutional purposes, "as part of the penalty for the initial offense," Johnson v. United States, 529 U.S. 694, 700 (2000). The panel explained that neither this circuit nor any of its sister circuits has adopted or endorsed defendant's argument that the terms of imprisonment and the terms of reimprisonment must be aggregated and may not exceed the maximum term of the statute of conviction. View "United States v. Henderson" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the Service in an action challenging the Service's decision reversing its previous decision that the Pacific walrus qualified for listing as an endangered or threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The panel found that the Service did not sufficiently explain why it changed its prior position. The panel concluded that the essential flaw in the 2017 Decision is its failure to offer more than a cursory explanation of why the findings underlying its 2011 Decision no longer apply. The panel explained that if, as is the case here, the agency's "new policy rests upon factual findings that contradict those which underlay its prior policy," a sufficiently detailed justification is required. In this case, the panel found insufficient the Service's briefs regarding localized prey depletion, a study showing that female walruses can travel longer distances than expected to forage, stampede-related mortalities, habitat loss generally, and subsistence harvest. View "Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit granted a petition for review of the BIA's decision affirming the IJ's denial of sua sponte reopening petitioner's immigration proceedings based on the departure bar provision in 8 C.F.R. 1003.23(b)(1). Petitioner argued that an IJ should not be prevented from reopening a noncitizen's case on the IJ's own motion based solely on the noncitizen's departure during or after prior proceedings.The panel joined the Tenth Circuit and held that the departure bar does not apply in the context of sua sponte reopening. That is, an IJ's discretion to reopen a case on his or her own motion is not limited by the fact that a noncitizen has previously been removed or has departed from the United States. Therefore, the BIA erred in determining that the departure bar prevented the IJ from reopening petitioner's immigration proceedings sua sponte. The panel remanded to the BIA to consider whether the alternative bases the IJ offered for denying sua sponte reopening were permissible. View "Balerio Rubalcaba v. Garland" on Justia Law