OPINION STRANCH , Circuit Judge . Five multi-employer fringe benefit funds (the Funds) of the Plumbers, Pipe Fitters & Mechanical Equipment Service, Local Union 392 (the Union), filed suit to collect delinquent employee fringe benefit contributions from B & B Mechanical Services, Inc. (B & B), an Ohio commercial plumbing contractor. The Funds were established for the benefit of contractors' employees who perform work under a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiated between the...
OPINION McKEAGUE , Circuit Judge . Jose Adolfo Zaldana Menijar petitions for review of an order of the Board of Immigration Appeals affirming the Immigration Judge's denial of his applications for withholding of removal and protection under the Convention Against Torture. Zaldana contends that the Board and Immigration Judge erred in finding that Zaldana: (1) failed to establish a "particular social group" within the meaning of the Immigration and Nationality Act; (2) failed to establish a...
OPINION SUTTON , Circuit Judge . When Michigan police officers arrested Samantha Bachynski on suspicion of murder, she invoked her right to remain silent and asked for an attorney. During later interactions between the officers and Bachynski, she changed her mind, eventually pointing to a detective and saying: "I want to talk to you." She then waived her Miranda rights three times and confessed three times to a slew of crimes, including murder. A jury convicted her, and the state courts...
OPINION BELL , District Judge . Did Defendants who failed to bring a debt collection action as a counterclaim to a Fair Debt Collection Practices Act lawsuit waive their ability to collect on the debt in the future That is the question presented in the latest round of litigation between Plaintiffs-Appellants Brian and Cynthia Bauman and Defendants-Appellees Bank of America, N.A., Hudson City Savings Bank, and Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc. The district court answered no....
OPINION BOGGS , Circuit Judge . Marlon Scarber appeals the district court's judgment dismissing as untimely his petition for a writ of habeas corpus. He argues that the statute of limitations provided in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) was tolled for two three-week periods when he could have filed motions for reconsideration of adverse Michigan Supreme Court orders. We hold that the statute ran during those periods when Scarber had the opportunity to, but did...
OPINION SUTTON , Circuit Judge . Karen Hawver claims that the Center for Family Health in Jackson, Michigan, a federally qualified health center, caused her mother's death by providing negligent medical care. The Federal Tort Claims Act provides the exclusive remedy for claims against federally qualified health centers such as Family Health. See 42 U.S.C. 233. By the time Hawver filed this lawsuit, the two-year statute of limitations applicable to claims under the Act had run. See 28...
OPINION CLAY , Circuit Judge . Defendant Donald Priddy ("Defendant") appeals his sentence of 180 months of imprisonment imposed by the district court following his plea of guilty to two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 922(g). The district court imposed this sentence after it determined that Defendant had four predicate violent felonies for purposes of the Armed Career Criminal Act ("ACCA"), which requires a mandatory-minimum sentence of 180...
OPINION KETHLEDGE , Circuit Judge . The City of Troy (Michigan) Police Department placed Todd Michael, a patrol officer, on unpaid leave in 2010. The City did so for two reasons: first, Michael had engaged in a two-year pattern of aberrant behavior from 2007-09; and second, after Michael underwent brain surgery in 2009, two doctors concluded in detailed reports that Michael could not safely perform the functions of a patrol officer. Michael thereafter sued the City under the Americans with...
OPINION JULIA SMITH GIBBONS , Circuit Judge . Stephanie Yates experienced a stroke while using the ORTHO EVRA birth control patch, and she now seeks to hold the designers and manufacturers of the patch liable. Yates appeals the district court's award of summary judgment to defendants on all five of her claims. For the reasons set forth in this opinion, we affirm the district court's judgment. I. A. Yates brought suit against Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Alza Corporation,...
ORDER ALICE M. BATCHELDER , Circuit Judge . This appeal is the latest episode in the Appellants' (whom we refer to collectively as "the Party") long struggle to end what they contend is a pattern of unequal treatment under Ohio's election laws. The district court recently granted partial summary judgment in favor of Appellees John Husted, Ohio's Secretary of State, and the State of Ohio (collectively "Ohio"). That order concluded in relevant part that the Ohio statutes at issue did not...
OPINION KETHLEDGE , Circuit Judge . More than 20 years ago, Bobby Sheppard shot and killed a Cincinnati store owner, Dennis Willhide, execution-style, as Willhide lay helpless on the floor in front of him. A jury convicted Sheppard of murder, and the state trial court sentenced him to death. Since then Sheppard has challenged his conviction and sentence on direct appeal in the Ohio Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court; filed two petitions for post-conviction relief in state court,...
OPINION ALICE M. BATCHELDER , Circuit Judge . Aviation Industry Corporation of China ("AVIC") brings this interlocutory appeal of the district court's denial of its motion to dismiss asserting immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). Because we conclude that AVIC's challenge to federal jurisdiction under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) is a factual challenge rather than a facial one, we hold that the district court erred by treating it as a facial challenge and...
OPINION CLAY , Circuit Judge . Plaintiffs Linda Grubbs and the companies she owns, Tri-Serve, Ltd.; TriServe # 1, LLC; and Capital Concepts, Inc., appeal the order of the district court dismissing Plaintiffs' claims under the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. 1125, and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. 1962, for failure to state a claim, and dismissing all remaining state law claims over which the district court had pendent jurisdiction. For the reasons...
OPINION ROSE , District Judge . This is a qui tam action brought by Dr. Christian Kreipke ("Kreipke"), a former Assistant Professor at Wayne State University ("WSU") in Detroit, Michigan, for alleged violations of the False Claims Act ("FCA"), 31 U.S.C. 3729, et seq., and defamation under Michigan law. Kreipke alleges that WSU engaged in a fraudulent scheme to inflate the amount of funding that it received from the federal government for research grants and that he was fired in...
OPINION SUTTON , Circuit Judge . In June 2012, Eric Wheeler filed a lawsuit alleging that two police officers violated his constitutional rights during a 2009 arrest. A district court dismissed his complaint, and we affirmed. Now Wheeler brings a new lawsuit stemming from the 2009 arrest—namely a challenge to a bench warrant arrest in April 2012 for failing to appear on one of the two charges that arose from the 2009 arrest—raising similar constitutional challenges. Similar allegations...
COOK , Circuit Judge . Plaintiff James Barber, the biological father and legal guardian of J.B., a minor, sued Defendant James Miller, a social worker, alleging 1983 claims related to Miller's in-school interviews of J.B. on suspicion of child neglect. These interviews led to a court order placing J.B. in protective custody. Barber also challenged the constitutionality of a Michigan statute authorizing such in-school interviews. The district court dismissed the claims against Miller on...
OPINION SUTTON , Circuit Judge . The Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act does not take kindly to repeat requests for habeas relief. It mandates that, if an inmate has already lost one such request, he may not file a "second or successive" petition without satisfying several stringent requirements. What happens, however, if the inmate wins a state-court collateral challenge, obtaining some relief ( e.g., a new trial or a new sentence) but not a release from custody Does the "...
OPINION SUTTON , Circuit Judge . This dispute began in 2009 when a first-grader in the Nashville public schools complained to a teacher that her genitals hurt. The teacher sent the child to a school nurse who visually inspected the girl. Perhaps understandably, that did not make the girl's mother happy, particularly since the nurse did not seek her consent before the examination. Less understandably, the examination led to a half-dozen years of litigation. The mother filed a money-damages...
OPINION SILER , Circuit Judge . Deputy Sheriff Dustin Patrick appeals the district court's denial of his motion for summary judgment based on qualified immunity in this civil rights case brought by Leonard Foster, the administrator of the Estate of Armetta L. Foster and the representative of Armetta's children. For the reasons stated below, we AFFIRM the decision of the district court. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND In May 2011, Deputy Patrick of the Bradley County Sheriff's Office...
OPINION SILER , Circuit Judge . A jury convicted John Lechner of two counts each of transporting explosives without a permit and improper storage of explosives, and one count each of possessing explosives while under indictment and making a materially false statement to government officials. Lechner appeals his convictions. He raises several arguments regarding the constitutionality and proper interpretation of the explosives statutes under which he was convicted and avers that his false...
