REPORT AND RECOMMENDED DECISION JOHN C. NIVISON, Magistrate Judge. Plaintiff Byron Shedd applied for supplemental security income benefits under Title XVI of the Social Security Act. Defendant, the Social Security Administration Acting Commissioner, found that Plaintiff has severe impairments, but that he retains the functional capacity to perform substantial gainful activity. Defendant, therefore, denied Plaintiff's request for disability benefits. The matter is before the Court on...
RECOMMENDED DECISION ON 28 U.S.C. 2254 PETITION AND MOTION FOR ORDER OF RELEASE JOHN C. NIVISION, Magistrate Judge. In this action, Petitioner Geoffrey Demond Reese seeks relief, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254, from a state court conviction for elevated aggravated assault, aggravated assault, and illegal possession of a firearm. (Petition, ECF No. 1.) The state court sentenced Petitioner to 29 years in prison. State v. Reese, 2010 ME 30, 1, 991 A.2d 806 . Petitioner has also filed a...
ORDER ON MOTION TO ALTER OR AMEND JUDGMENT GEORGE Z. SINGAL, District Judge. Presently before the Court are Plaintiffs' Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment with Incorporated Memorandum of Law (ECF No. 22) ("Motion for Reconsideration"), Plaintiffs' Motion for Leave to Supplement the Record with New Information Relevant to Plaintiffs' Rule 59(e) Motion (ECF No. 24), and Defendants' Motion to Supplement Opposition to Plaintiffs' Motion for Leave to Supplement the Record with New Information...
RECOMMENDED DECISION ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION TO DISMISS JOHN H. RICH, III, Magistrate Judge. The plaintiff, Linda Penkul, appearing pro se, asks the court to order the defendant to "acknowledge" her appointment, apparently as representative of Rosalina Penkul, her daughter; to "disclose all records pertinent to the recovery of the confiscated tax refund and acquisition of Overpayment Waiver"; to return to her an "intercepted" tax refund; and to "[d]iscontinue future benefits due to the...
MEMORANDUM DECISION 1 JOHN H. RICH, III, Magistrate Judge. This Social Security Disability ("SSD") and Supplemental Security Income ("SSI") appeal raises the question of whether the administrative law judge supportably found the plaintiff capable of performing work existing in significant numbers in the national economy. The plaintiff seeks remand on the bases that the administrative law judge erred in declining to credit her testimony fully and in making a residual functional capacity ("...
ORDER ON PLAINTIFFS' APPEAL OF THE ADMINISTRATIVE HEARING OFFICER'S DECISION JON D. LEVY, District Judge. In this action, the plaintiffs, Mr. and Mrs. Doe ("Jane's parents" or "the Does"), request that the court vacate a Due Process Hearing Officer's decision under the administrative procedures of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act ("IDEA" or "the Act"), 20 U.S.C. 1415(i)(2). For the reasons stated below, I find that the Hearing Officer's decision should be affirmed. I....
MEMORANDUM DECISION 1 JOHN H. RICH, III, Magistrate Judge. This Social Security Disability ("SSD") appeal raises the question of whether the administrative law judge supportably found the plaintiff capable of performing work existing in significant numbers in the national economy. The plaintiff seeks remand on the bases that the administrative law judge erred in declining to credit his testimony fully and in making a residual functional capacity ("RFC") determination unsupported by...
PROCEDURAL ORDER FOR ORAL ARGUMENT ON BANKRUPTCY COURT'S DENIAL OF 60(b) MOTION D. BROCK HORNBY, District Judge. The parties have brought to this court's attention that they have not waived oral argument, and the Clerk's Office shall schedule argument accordingly. I believe that the facts and legal arguments are adequately presented with respect to the request for relief under Fed. R. Civ. P. 60(b)(6), Fed. R. Bankr. P. 8019(b)(3), but I will not prevent the lawyers from addressing the court...
PROCEDURAL ORDER D. BROCK HORNBY, District Judge. The briefs in this bankruptcy appeal have been filed under seal, as have portions of the record in the underlying bankruptcy proceeding. This court is preparing to issue its decision on the appeal, and I do not think it is appropriate or in the public interest to seal any part of that decision despite the reasons for the parties agreeing to seal certain matters until this date. I am not now proposing to unseal the previously sealed documents,...
RECOMMENDED DECISION ON MOTION TO DISMISS JOHN H. RICH, III, Magistrate Judge. The defendant moves to dismiss this appeal from the denial of an application for Social Security benefits on the ground that it was filed one day after the statutory deadline for filing such appeals. Memorandum in Support of Motion to Dismiss ("Motion") (ECF No. 10-1) at 1-2. I recommend that the court deny the motion. The applicable statute provides, in relevant part: "Any individual, after any final decision of...
RECOMMENDED DECISION JOHN C. NIVISON, Magistrate Judge. In this action, Plaintiffs Michelle and Mark Kaplan allege retaliatory discharge and other related claims related to their employment with Defendant Blue Hill Memorial Hospital. The matter is before the Court on Defendant's Motion to Dismiss (ECF No. 4). 1 In response to Defendant's Motion, Plaintiffs filed an Amended Complaint by which amendment Plaintiffs withdrew certain claims, and asserted additional facts in support of their...
MEMORANDUM DECISION ON SCHEDULING JOHN H. RICH, III, Magistrate Judge. In accordance with the terms of my Report of Hearing and Order re: Scheduling (ECF No. 22), the parties have submitted memoranda, docketed as cross-motions, addressing the issues upon which the defendants seek limited, phased discovery in order to bring an early motion for summary judgment and the plaintiffs' request for specific and immediate class-related discovery that they contend is necessary for them to address...
ORDER ON ALL PENDING MOTIONS GEORGE Z. SINGAL, District Judge. 1. Application To Proceed In Forma Pauperis Before the Court are Plaintiff Alla Iosifovna Shuper's Applications to Proceed In Forma Pauperis (ECF Nos. 5, 14 & 18). The Court hereby GRANTS Plaintiff leave to proceed in forma pauperis in this action. 2. Motions For Reconsideration Also before the Court are the Motion for Reconsideration (ECF No. 4) and the Motion to Amend the Motion for Reconsideration (ECF No. 6). Both...
RECOMMENDED DECISION ON 28 U.S.C. 2254 MOTION JOHN C. NIVISON, Magistrate Judge. In this action, Petitioner Joseph Dorazio seeks relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C. 2254. In particular, Petitioner contends that he received ineffective assistance of counsel during a state court hearing at which he (1) admitted a probation violation, and (2) pled guilty to burglary of a motor vehicle. (Petition, ECF No. 1 at 7.) He alleges that his counsel did not, despite his request, seek a mental health...
ORDER ON PLAINTIFF'S MOTION FOR ATTORNEYS' FEES JON D. LEVY, District Judge. The plaintiff, SD, has moved pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d) and the pertinent provision of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act ("IDEA"), 20 U.S.C.A. 1415(i)(3)(B)(i)(I) (2014), for an award of reasonable attorneys' fees and expenses which were incurred in an administrative due process hearing and in subsequent litigation in this court. The administrative hearing and the litigation...
ORDER ON REIMBURSEMENT REMEDY JON D. LEVY, District Judge. This matter is before the court on the parties' respective memoranda of law (ECF Nos. 30 and 31) concerning the amount of a compensatory education award granted in the court's September 19 Order ("the September 19 Order") (ECF No. 29). In the September 19 Order, I concluded that the Portland Public Schools ("Portland") failed to provide HV, the minor son of SD, with a free, appropriate public education for his sixth grade year (2011-...
ORDER OF TRANSFER GEORGE Z. SINGAL, District Judge. On November 19, 2014, the Court issued a Procedural Order requesting the parties to appear at oral argument on December 10, 2014 and to be prepared to explain why this Court should not transfer this case to the Northern District of Illinois. ( See Procedural Order (ECF No. 20) at 1.) The Court also permitted the parties to submit supplemental briefing on this issue prior to oral argument. ( See id. ) Having reviewed the parties' submissions...
ORDER OF TRANSFER GEORGE Z. SINGAL, District Judge. On November 19, 2014, the Court issued a Procedural Order requesting the parties to appear at oral argument on December 10, 2014 and to be prepared to explain why this Court should not transfer this case to the Northern District of Illinois. ( See Procedural Order (ECF No. 20) at 1.) The Court also permitted the parties to submit supplemental briefing on this issue prior to oral argument. ( See id. ) Having reviewed the parties' submissions...
ORDER ON DEFENDANT'S MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT JON D. LEVY, District Judge. I. INTRODUCTION This case involves a complaint brought by Markie Farnham against Walmart Stores East, L.P. under the Maine Human Rights Act ("MHRA"), 5 M.R.S. 4551 et. seq., which Walmart removed to this Court. ECF No. 1; ECF No. 1-1. Farnham's complaint advances two theories of disability discrimination against Walmart: specifically, that after she suffered a workplace injury, Walmart failed to reasonably...
ORDER GRANTING PLAINTIFF'S MOTION IN LIMINE JON D. LEVY, District Judge. I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND This case involves a complaint for disability discrimination brought by Markie Farnham ("Farnham") against Walmart Stores East, L.P. ("Walmart") under the Maine Human Rights Act ("MHRA"), 5 M.R.S. 4551 et seq. ECF No. 1; ECF No. 1-1. Farnham was a licensed pharmacy technician employed at the Walmart store in Calais, Maine from 2003 to 2012. ECF No. 43 at 1. She has moved in limine seeking...
