MARCUS , Circuit Judge : In this interlocutory appeal, Appellants Eli Lilly and Company and Lilly USA, LLC (collectively, "Lilly") appeal from a district court order granting the Appellee Leslie Dudley's motion to remand this class action back to the Circuit Court of Duval County, Florida. Dudley's complaint alleged that Lilly did not make certain incentive payments due to Dudley and other similarly situated individuals who had been employed at the company. Lilly removed the case to the...
TJOFLAT , Circuit Judge : In this case, a marine engineering firm purchased an architect's and engineer's professional liability insurance policy, which insured the firm against any liability it might incur in a tort action for the negligent preparation of working drawings used to build an oceangoing passenger vessel. After the vessel was launched and in operation, a tragic accident occurred when the bulkhead door in the vessel's forward engine room malfunctioned, causing the death of the...
ON PETITION FOR REHEARING PER CURIAM : U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) moved for panel rehearing in this case, with an opinion originally filed on September 22, 2014, and published at 767 F.3d 1185 . In its petition, USCIS challenges our interpretation of a provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) in considering the district court's subject matter jurisdiction. We agree with the government's interpretation of that provision, but we remain convinced that the...
WILLIAM PRYOR , Circuit Judge : These consolidated appeals require us to decide whether the definitions of "serious drug offense" under the Armed Career Criminal Act, 18 U.S.C. 924(e)(2)(A), and "controlled substance offense" under the Sentencing Guidelines, U.S.S.G. 4B1.2(b) (Nov.2013), include crimes that do not require an element of mens rea regarding the illicit nature of the controlled substance. Both Travis Lamont Smith and Jose G. Nunez have prior convictions for Florida drug...
PER CURIAM : Aaron Camacho Perez appeals the dismissal of his complaint, challenging a determination of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS") that he was statutorily ineligible to adjust status under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966. We reverse and remand. I. BACKGROUND A. Underlying Immigration Proceedings In November 2004, Perez, a native and citizen of Venezuela and citizen of Cuba, applied for admission to the United States at Laredo, Texas, by presenting...
TJOFLAT , Circuit Judge : This case asks us to determine what a United States Marshal ("Marshal") collects when he auctions property at a public judicial sale. 28 U.S.C. 1921(c)(1) entitles the United States Marshals Service ("USMS") to a commission of 3 percent of the first $1,000 collected and 1 percent on the excess of any sum over $1,000, for seizing or levying on property (including seizures in admiralty), disposing of such property by sale, setoff, or otherwise, and receiving...
WILSON , Circuit Judge : This case involves a law student's efforts to form a contract by accepting a "million-dollar challenge" that a lawyer extended on national television while representing a client accused of murder. Since we find that the challenge did not give rise to an enforceable unilateral contract, we hold that the district court properly entered summary judgment for the lawyer and his law firm, Defendants-Appellees James Cheney Mason (Mason) and J. Cheney Mason, P.A., with...
ROSENBAUM , Circuit Judge : A "[r]ose is a rose is a rose is a rose." 1 And a motion for an entry of default judgment is a motion for an entry of default judgment is a motion for an entry of default judgment is a motion for an entry of default judgment — even if its writer calls it a motion for judgment on the pleadings. So Rule 55's standard of "good cause" for setting aside an entry of default judgment — not the higher one of "excusable neglect" applicable to missed deadlines outside the...
SCHLESINGER , District Judge : This appeal arises from a declaratory judgment action initiated by St. Paul Mercury Insurance Company, a subsidiary of The Travelers Companies, Inc. ("St. Paul"). St. Paul filed this action in response to a separate federal lawsuit brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ("FDIC"), as receiver ("FDIC-R") for Community Bank & Trust ("Bank"), against Charles M. Miller and Trent D. Fricks, former Bank officers ("Officer defendants"). In that separate...
RESTANI , Judge : Appellants were charged with various crimes arising out of a scheme involving the unauthorized use of personal identifying information to claim fraudulent tax refunds, which were deposited onto debit cards opened in the names of identity theft victims. Appellants Earnest Baldwin ("Earnest") and Earl Baldwin ("Earl") were convicted by a jury. Earnest and Earl appeal their convictions and sentences. Appellant Lineten Belizaire ("Belizaire") pleaded guilty, but appeals his...
PER CURIAM : In this ballot access case, we consider whether the district court erred in granting summary judgment to the Alabama Secretary of State on the Plaintiffs' claim, pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983, that Alabama's ballot access statute violates their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights. After reviewing the record and having the benefit of oral argument, we affirm the district court's judgment. I. BACKGROUND Alabama law provides that political parties must qualify to appear on the...
WILLIAM PRYOR , Circuit Judge : This appeal requires us to decide whether a district court erred when it denied a Florida prisoner's petition for a writ of habeas corpus without holding an evidentiary hearing. After a Florida court convicted Carlos Velazco of attempted second degree murder, Velazco unsuccessfully argued in a state postconviction proceeding that his trial counsel had been ineffective in offering the testimony of two witnesses. When Velazco filed a federal petition and...
WILLIAM PRYOR , Circuit Judge : Marion Wilson, Jr., a Georgia prisoner sentenced to death for the murder of Donovan Corey Parks, appeals the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. Wilson argues that he was deprived of a fair trial because his counsel provided ineffective assistance during the penalty phase of his trial. In state postconviction proceedings, Wilson argued that his trial counsel were constitutionally ineffective because they failed to discover and introduce...
WILLIAM PRYOR , Circuit Judge : This appeal requires us to decide two questions: (1) whether a lender can satisfy a statutory obligation to give a borrower clear and conspicuous notice of a right to rescind a loan, see Truth in Lending Act, 15 U.S.C. 1635, when the lender instructs the borrower to sign simultaneously both the loan and a postdated waiver of the borrower's right to rescind; and (2) if it rescinds the loan, whether the district court must award the borrower statutory...
ORDER ON REHEARING EN BANC BY THE COURT: A petition for rehearing having been filed and a member of this Court in active service having requested a poll on whether this case should be reheard by the Court sitting en banc, and a majority of the judges in active service on this Court having voted against granting a rehearing en banc, it is ORDERED that this case will not be reheard en banc. MARTIN, Circuit Judge, dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc: I respectfully dissent from the...
PER CURIAM : This appeal requires us to decide whether the district court had subject-matter jurisdiction over a wage dispute. Juan Reinoso and the other appellants worked on the construction of Marlins Park. The workers allege that AGC Consulting Civil Engineers and General Contractors, Inc., and other contractors violated their rights under the Fair Labor Standards Act, 29 U.S.C. 207, in two ways: (1) the contractors allegedly paid the workers their regular hourly rate for some overtime...
MARCUS , Circuit Judge : A Florida statute mandates suspicionless drug testing of all applicants seeking Temporary Assistance for Needy Families ("TANF") benefits. See Fla. Stat. 414.0652. Luis Lebron sued the Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families (the "State"), claiming that the statute violates the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures, applied against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. After we affirmed the entry of...
BLACK , Circuit Judge : I. BACKGROUND The "employer mandate" provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) require certain employers to offer their employees health insurance that meets statutorily-specified minimum requirements. The ACA imposes reporting obligations on those employers and provides for the assessment of a tax penalty if an employer fails to provide adequate insurance. Between early 2013 and the end of June 2013, Kawa Orthodontics, LLP (Kawa) expended...
HINKLE, District Judge: This case presents the question whether a defendant may moot a class action through an unaccepted Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 68 offer of complete relief to the named plaintiffs — but not to class members — before the named plaintiffs move to certify the class. In the circumstances of this case, the answer is no. We join the majority of circuits that have addressed the issue. I. The Proceedings in the District Court Six named plaintiffs filed this proposed...
HULL , Circuit Judge : In this case, we must determine whether plaintiff Don Witt's lawsuit seeking to recover disability benefits allegedly due from May 1997 to the present is barred by the applicable statute of limitations and, if so, whether the defendants waived that statute-of-limitations defense. After careful review of the record and the briefs, and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendants. I. BACKGROUND...
