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

MRT filed suit against Microsoft, alleging patent infringement stemming from MRT's development of a technology to protect electronic files from content piracy. The Ninth Circuit held that claim preclusion barred the claims in this suit that accrued at the time of MRT's patent-infringement action, because these claims arose from the same events—Microsoft's alleged misappropriation of MRT's software—as the prior patent infringement claims. Furthermore, they merely offer different legal theories for why Microsoft's alleged conduct was wrongful. Accordingly, the panel affirmed the dismissal of these claims.However, the panel held that, under Howard v. City of Coos Bay, 871 F.3d 1032 (9th Cir. 2017), claim preclusion did not bar MRT from asserting copyright infringement claims that accrued after it filed its patent-infringement suit: namely, claims arising from the sale of Microsoft products after MRT filed its patent-infringement suit. Therefore, the panel reversed the district court's dismissal of these copyright infringement claims and remanded for further proceedings. View "Media Rights Technologies, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp." on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit joined the Eleventh Circuit in holding that a district court may order restitution for all losses resulting from a fraudulent scheme, even those caused by conduct occurring outside the statute of limitations. The panel affirmed the district court's order requiring defendant to pay in restitution the full amount of Medicare's losses from convictions arising from a fraudulent healthcare scheme. The panel held that the evidence was sufficient to support the district court's restitution order; the district court properly included losses relating to the overall fraudulent scheme in the restitution amount; and the district court did not plainly err by ordering restitution for the entire amount of damages caused by the fraudulent scheme as alleged in the indictment. View "United States v. Anieze-Smith" on Justia Law

The Ninth Circuit vacated the district court's dismissal of a complaint brought by a putative class of plaintiffs against an international business that had developed a sophisticated three-tier franchising model. The panel held that Dynamex Ops. W. Inc. v. Superior Court, 416 P.3d 1 (Cal. 2018), which adopted the ABC test for determining whether workers are independent contractors or employees under California wage order laws, applies retroactively and that none of Jan-Pro's other efforts to avoid reaching the merits were viable. Therefore, the case was remanded for the district court to consider the case on the merits in light of Dynamex. View "Vazquez v. Jan-Pro Franchising International, Inc." on Justia Law

A 50% shareholder of an involuntary debtor may not seek damages under 11 U.S.C. 303(i). The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's decision affirming the bankruptcy court's denial of a request for statutory damages made by a 50% shareholder, holding that it did not have standing under section 301(i) because it was not the debtor. In this case, relevant House and Senate Reports suggest that only the debtor has standing to seek section 303(i) damages; appellate courts in this circuit have twice considered whether a non-debtor can seek damages under section 303(i), and twice those courts have decided it cannot; and reading section 303(i) to permit only the debtor to seek damages is consistent with its purpose and the policy interests underlying it. View "Vibe Micro, Inc. v. SIG Capital, LLC" on Justia Law

Hearsay does not include statements offered against a party, made by that party's employee on a matter within the scope of the employee's employment, so long as the statement was made while the employee was still employed by that party. The Ninth Circuit held that the district court erred by granting summary judgment to Frontier regarding plaintiff's failure-to-promote claim, because the district court excluded such a statement proffered by plaintiff on hearsay grounds. However, the panel held that the district court properly granted summary judgment to Frontier on plaintiff's termination claim because he failed to produce evidence raising a genuine issue of material fact regarding the claim. Accordingly, the panel affirmed in part and reversed in part. View "Weil v. Citizens Telecom Services Co." on Justia Law

Defendant appealed his conviction and sentence for seven counts of health care fraud. The Ninth Circuit affirmed defendant's conviction, holding that the prosecutor's statement—that the office staff completing the intake form copied defendant's history and physical—was not improper. Therefore, the district court did not err in overruling defendant's objection to the prosecutor's statement. The panel also held that the district court satisfied Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 32's required factual findings on the loss calculation; sufficient evidence supported the district court's finding that defendant intended the loss amounts underlying his sentencing enhancements; and the district court did not plainly err by applying an enhancement under USSG 3C1.3 for committing a crime while on supervised release. However, the district court violated the ex-post facto clause by sentencing defendant under the 2016 Sentencing Guidelines Manual on the six counts arising from conduct that occurred before the Guidelines Manual revision. Accordingly, the court vacated the sentence in part and remanded for further proceedings. View "United States v. Wijegoonaratna" on Justia Law

Ten children in the Arizona foster care system filed a class action against the directors of the Arizona Department of Child Safety and the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System, alleging that Arizona's state-wide policies and practices deprived them of required medical services, among other things, and thus subjected them to a substantial risk of harm. After the district court certified a class of all children who are or will be in the Department of Child Safety's custody, along with two subclasses, the agencies appealed.The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's certification of the General Class and held that the district court did not err or abuse its discretion in its rulings on standing, commonality, typicality, and uniform injunctive relief. The panel also affirmed the district court's certification of the Non-Kinship Subclass, but vacated the Medicaid Subclass. The panel held that the district court abused its discretion by certifying the Medicaid Subclass based on an apparent misconception of the legal framework for such a claim. Accordingly, the panel remanded for further proceedings. View "B.K. v. Snyder" on Justia Law

After ONDA challenged the BLM's Recreation Plan, which involved the route network for motorized vehicles in the Steens Mountain Area, the Interior Board of Land Appeals approved the related Travel Plan under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976 (FLPMA), and the Steens Mountain Cooperative Management and Protection Act of 2000 (Steens Act). Harney County then intervened to defend the Board's approval of the Travel Plan and cross-claimed against the BLM, challenging the Recreation Plan. The district court upheld both the Recreation Plan and the Travel Plan.The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part, holding that the BLM satisfied its obligation to consult the Steens Mountain Advisory Council before issuing the Recreation Plan, so its action was not arbitrary and capricious in that respect; the BLM acted arbitrarily and capriciously by changing its definition of "roads and trails" without providing a reasoned explanation for the change; the Board acted arbitrarily and capriciously by affirming the BLM's issuance of the Travel Plan; and the BLM acted arbitrarily and capriciously in issuing the Recreation Plan. Finally, the court vacated the cost award to the BLM and remanded. View "Oregon Natural Desert Assoc.v. Rose" on Justia Law

When a federal court sitting in diversity confirms an arbitration award, the preclusion law of the state where that court sits determines the preclusive effect of the award. Plaintiff previously arbitrated breach of contract and related claims against ZTE USA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of defendant ZTE Corp. ZTE Corp. was not a party to the arbitration. After the arbitrator denied plaintiff's claims, the district court confirmed the award under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed.In this case, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiff's claim against ZTE Corp., and held that the arbitration award and its confirmation by the district court together barred plaintiff from pursuing its current claims against ZTE Corp under the doctrine of claim preclusion. The panel explained that, because a district court in Florida confirmed the award, Florida law applied. Under Florida law, the court held that claim preclusion barred plaintiff's claims because it sought the same remedy it had previously sought in arbitration. Furthermore, ZTE Corp. is in privity with ZTE USA, and the parties were suing in the same capacity as in the arbitration. View "NTCH-WA, Inc. V. ZTE Corp." on Justia Law

On remand from the Supreme Court, the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to a police officer in a 42 U.S.C. 1983 action alleging an excessive force claim. In this case, the officer grabbed plaintiff and took him to the ground during an investigation of a reported domestic violence incident.The panel held that it unable to find a case so precisely on point with this one as to satisfy the Supreme Court's demand for specificity. The closest case the panel found was in Hansen v. Black, 885 F.2d 642 (9th Cir. 1989), where officers, while investigating a gas station robbery and going to the plaintiff's house to see if her son was involved in the robbery, used excessive force in handcuffing plaintiff after she refused to comply with an officer's order. However, the panel distinguished this case from Hansen, because officers were investigating an incident that occurred inside defendant's home, and he had not been ruled out as a possible suspect. Therefore, the panel held that the officer was entitled to qualified immunity. View "Emmons v. City of Escondido" on Justia Law