MEMORANDUM OPINION RUDOLPH CONTRERAS , District Judge . I. INTRODUCTION Plaintiff, appearing pro se, filed a cryptically worded Complaint, ECF No. 1, against the United States, several employees of the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS"), and three private individuals. The complaint against the private individuals has been dismissed for lack of personal jurisdiction, see Order, ECF No. 18, and what remains has been construed as a suit against the United States for a tax refund under 26...
MEMORANDUM OPINION DABNEY L. FRIEDRICH , District Judge . Norair Engineering Corporation is a general and mechanical contractor. The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority ("DC Water") provides drinking water and wastewater services and routinely grants construction contracts to support these services. DC Water rejected Norair's bid for one such contract. Norair challenges that decision as irrational and unlawful under the District of Columbia Administrative Procedure Act (D.C....
MEMORANDUM OPINION AMY BERMAN JACKSON , District Judge . Plaintiff Sara Ghadami, an American citizen, initiated lawful processes to bring her parents to the United States in 2016. Plaintiff's mother now lives in this country with her three children, but her father is still waiting for an answer. On February 15, 2019, Sara and her father Ali Akbar Ghadamy filed a complaint in this Court against the United States Department of Homeland Security ("DHS"); the Citizenship and Immigration...
MEMORANDUM OPINION TANYA S. CHUTKAN , District Judge . Plaintiffs Luxexpress-II Ltd., Luxexpress 2016 Corporation, Alamo Group Inc., Mykola Ivanenko, and Larysa Ivanenko, have sued the government of Ukraine, thirty Ukrainian individuals, and twenty John Doe Defendants, alleging that they unlawfully expropriated and destroyed Plaintiffs' property in Kyiv, Ukraine. (ECF No. 41 ("2d Am. Compl.") 1.) The government of Ukraine moves, pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1) and...
MEMORANDUM OPINION COLLEEN KOLLAR-KOTELLY , District Judge . Pending before this Court is pro se Defendant Kimberly Yvette Hall's [260] Motion for Expungement (Def.'s Mot.") requesting an expungement of her criminal records. The United States filed its [263] Opposition to the Defendant's Motion for Expungement ("Govt.'s Opp'n"); and Defendant had until March 13, 2020 to file a reply, but she did not do so. Defendant Kimberly Yvette Hall ("Defendant" or "Ms. Hall") has requested the...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR DISMISSAL Re Document No.: 9. RUDOLPH CONTRERAS , District Judge . Plaintiff alleges a vast conspiracy involving defendant, Standard Chartered Bank, and officials within Ghana's and the United States' court systems. See Compl. 10-46, ECF No. 1. The defendant moved to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and lack of personal jurisdiction. Def. Mot. Dismiss at 2, ECF No. 9. The Court will grant the motion because the Plaintiff...
MEMORANDUM & ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR REMAND AND DENYING MOTIONS FOR CONTEMPT Re Document Nos.: 23, 27, 29. RUDOLPH CONTRERAS , District Judge . I. Factual and Procedural Background Plaintiff Akwasi Boakye Osei, is a Ghana-born businessman who currently resides in the United States. Osei claims there is a "grand scheme" or conspiracy between Standard Chartered Bank, Ghana officials, and the state and federal Courts to deprive him of his business and persecute him and his family. Compl....
MEMORANDUM OPINION Thomas F. Hogan , Senior United States District Judge . Plaintiff Mallinckrodt ARD LLC filed this lawsuit challenging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' (CMS's) conclusion that Mallinckrodt is using the wrong base date Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) to calculate federally mandated rebates it must pay for the H.P. Acthar Gel pharmaceutical drug under the statutory Medicaid Drug Rebate Program. Defendants Seema Verma, Administrator of CMS, and Alex M. Azar...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AND ORDER ELLEN S. HUVELLE , District Judge . Before the Court is the District of Columbia Housing Authority's Motion to Quash Subpoena and Subpoena Duces Tecum and [for an] Award of Fees and Costs, ECF No. 315, and plaintiffs' Cross-Motion to Enforce, ECF No. 319. For the reasons stated herein, the motion to quash is denied and the cross-motion to enforce is granted. The subpoena at issue seeks deposition testimony from a Rule 30(b)(6) designee from the District of...
OPINION ROSEMARY M. COLLYER , United States District Judge . By tradition and law, the United States has welcomed foreign workers with specialized training to work temporarily in this country as needed by U.S. employers. The workers in specialty occupations do not come as immigrants; they are given visas for three years to work here. Because non-immigrant H-1B visas are intentionally for a short term, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), in accord with the law, simplified and...
MEMORANDUM OPINION TREVOR N. McFADDEN , U.S.D.J. When do federal agencies get a mulligan Is one year later too late to take a second shot Can they completely change their minds And, if so, what kind of explanation justifies their reversal When the Department of the Interior ("Interior") reinstated Twin Metals Minnesota's mining leases in Minnesota's Superior National Forest one year after canceling those leases, local businesses and conservation groups objected. The leases had...
MEMORANDUM OPINION JAMES E. BOASBERG , United States District Judge . Like many others, this case substantially turns on the distinction between an employee and an independent contractor. Plaintiff Wendy Medina worked for Defendants Kevorkian Cleaning Company, Inc. and Chris Kevorkian — the Company's President and Secretary — during two separate stints in 2015 and 2016. She alleges in this suit that throughout these two periods, the Company paid her at below the minimum wage and denied...
MEMORANDUM OPINION TANYA S. CHUTKAN , United States District Judge . Plaintiff Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation ("YKHC") brings this mandamus and Administrative Procedure Act ("APA") suit against Defendants United States of America, Ryan Zinke, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior ("DOI"), and Heather Wilson, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Air Force ("Air Force"). YKHC seeks to compel compliance with Public Law 102-497, which requires Defendants to convey a parcel...
MEMORANDUM OPINION JAMES E. BOASBERG , District Judge . This case is but another chapter in the seemingly intractable feud between Plaintiff Eugene Hudson and his union, Defendant American Federation of Government Employees. A long-time official at the Union, Hudson became the first black person elected to serve as National Secretary-Treasurer for AFGE in 2012. He won another three-year term in 2015. Despite his triumphs, Hudson had a tumultuous relationship with several Union leaders,...
OPINION AND ORDER CHRISTOPHER R. COOPER , United States District Judge . Defendant Amistad Veney moves to suppress the loaded pistol that police recovered from him during his arrest last September. Mr. Veney contends that the gun was fruit of an illegal seizure and thus subject to suppression. Specifically, Veney argues that he was detained without reasonable suspicion when, after he made clear that he did not wish to engage with one of the police officers, that officer stated: "No. I...
MEMORANDUM OPINION AMY BERMAN JACKSON , District Judge . Plaintiff, a District of Columbia resident appearing pro se, has sued a property management company ("Aldon") based in Bethesda, Maryland, under the court's diversity jurisdiction. Plaintiff complains about the unsatisfactory conditions of the apartment where he used to live and the behavior of his former neighbors. Defendant has moved to dismiss under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) on the grounds of res judicata and...
MEMORANDUM OPINION GRANTING DEFENDANT'S RENEWED MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT; DENYING PLAINTIFF'S CROSS-MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT RUDOLPH CONTRERAS , United States District Judge . I. INTRODUCTION This FOIA suit arises from a series of events that began nearly twenty years ago. Over a three-week period in fall of 2001, five individuals were killed and seventeen others were infected by the anthrax spores contained in letters mailed to U.S. senators in Washington, D.C., and news media...
MEMORANDUM OPINION CHRISTOPHER R. COOPER , District Judge . It has been nearly 45 years since the Church Committee exposed the Central Intelligence Agency's ("CIA") participation in plots to assassinate several foreign leaders in the 1960s and since President Ford responded by issuing the first of a series of executive orders prohibiting the U.S. government from engaging in assassination. Yet, curiosity in that chapter of the CIA's history—and speculation that it might not have closed—...
MEMORANDUM OPINION BERYL A. HOWELL , Chief Judge . In this country of plenty, the federal and state governments work together to ensure that low-income Americans and their families do not go hungry. The largest federal food assistance program that serves as the cornerstone of this joint federal-state effort to reduce hunger — and hunger's adverse effects on health, educational achievement, and housing security — is the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as...
MEMORANDUM OPINION TIMOTHY J. KELLY , District Judge . Plaintiffs seek to recover for the alleged wrongful death of their adult son who was killed by a train after he laid down on the Metro tracks. They contend that his death was caused by Defendants' negligent conduct. Defendants move to dismiss for failure to state a claim, arguing that recovery is barred for two reasons: first, because the decedent committed suicide, and second, because he became a trespasser when he climbed down onto...
