Opinion Summaries: Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
Findlaw Opiinion Summaries June 13 - 18, 2008
ADMINISTRATIVE LAW, EVIDENCE, IMMIGRATION LAW
"Petition for review of BIA decision denying petitioner's applications for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the CAT is granted where: 1) the decision was premised on an adverse credibility finding which failed to comport in certain respects with subsequently announced rulings by the court; and 2) it could not be confidently predicted that the BIA would have reached the same decision absent these errors."
CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE
"Judgment denying habeas relief is affirmed where, despite the concern that stipulated "ends-of-justice" continuances may not be consistent with Zedner v. US 547 U.S. 489 (2006), defendant's attorney was not constitutionally ineffective in failing to anticipate Zedner and the potential for an extension of its holding to stipulated continuances under the Speedy Trial Act."
BANKRUPTCY LAW, CIVIL PROCEDURE, CORP. GOVERNANCE, CORPORATION & ENTERPRISE LAW, REMEDIES, SERVICES
In re: CBI Holding Co., Inc., No. 04-5972, 04-6300
"In bankruptcy proceedings wherein plaintiff (the court appointed disbursing agent of a Plan of Reorganization) brought claims against defendants-accountants concerning professional services rendered to corporate bankruptcy debtor, the circuit court finds that: 1) plaintiff had standing to assert debtor's claims under the "adverse interest" exception to the normal rule that a claim against a third party for defrauding a corporation with the cooperation of its management accrues to creditors rather than to the guilty corporation; 2) plaintiff had standing to bring claims as the assignee of interests which the assignor acquired as a pre-bankruptcy creditor; 3) all of the claims pressed by plaintiff were "core proceedings" which were covered by the language of 28 U.S.C. section 157(b) and integrally related to the Proof of Claim which defendant voluntarily submitted against the bankruptcy estate; and 4) defendant waived its right to a jury trial on plaintiff's claims when it submitted its Proof of Claim against the bankruptcy estate and subjected itself to the equitable powers of the bankruptcy court."
CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, SENTENCING
"A sentence imposing concurrent terms of 282 months for a Hobbs Act robbery and a career criminal firearms possession violation, plus a consecutive mandatory minimum term of 10-years for discharging a firearm, is remanded for resentencing where the consecutive minimum 10-year sentence for discharge of firearm is inapplicable to a defendant subjected to a higher 15-year minimum sentence as an armed career criminal"
CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, ETHICS & DISCIPLINARY CODE, ETHICS & PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY, EVIDENCE, IMMIGRATION LAW
"An order terminating petitioner's grant of deferred removal under the CAT is vacated and remanded where the petitioner was deprived of his right to a fair hearing by the IJ's apparent bias against him and reliance on unfounded assumptions about homosexuals"
