LATEST SUMMARIES

ADMIRALTY, CONTRACTS, INSURANCE LAW
• New Hampshire Ins. Co. v. C'Est Moi, Inc.

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, HABEAS CORPUS
• Harrison v. Ollison

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, SENTENCING
• US v. Gianelli
• US v. Davenport

LATEST SUMMARIES

ADMIRALTY, CONTRACTS, INSURANCE LAW
New Hampshire Ins. Co. v. C'Est Moi, Inc., No. 06-55031
In an action to rescind an insurance policy arising after defendant-insured's yacht sank, summary judgment for the insurer is affirmed where: 1) the parties didn't attempt to contract out of uberrimae fidei, or the federal maritime doctrine imposing a duty of utmost good faith in the context of marine insurance contracts; 2) the insured misrepresented material facts in an insurance policy application; and 3) thus, insurer was entitled to rescind the policy. Read more...

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, HABEAS CORPUS
Harrison v. Ollison, No. 06-55470
Dismissal of petitioner's 28 U.S.C. section 2241 habeas petition for lack of jurisdiction is affirmed where petitioner did not establish that his petition was a legitimate section 2241 petition brought pursuant to the escape hatch of section 2255, and thus the circuit court lacked jurisdiction under section 2241 to hear the appeal. Read more...

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, SENTENCING
US v. Gianelli, No. 07-10233
An order reinstating a 2001 "Order Imposing Payment Plan" on defendant, aimed at collecting the remaining amount of restitution owed from his sentence for mail fraud, is affirmed where defendant waived the right to appeal the amount of the restitution order by failing to timely file a direct appeal. Because the Victim Witness Protection Act (VWPA) does not express the intent that the federal government will be bound by state statutes of limitations in the enforcement of restitution judgments, and because neither that Act nor any other federal statute limits the time for enforcement of restitution judgments under the VWPA, the government may enforce against defendant the VWPA restitution judgment at any time. Read more...

CRIMINAL LAW & PROCEDURE, SENTENCING
US v. Davenport, No. 06-30596
The offense of possessing child pornography is a lesser included offense of the receipt of child pornography. Judgment sentencing defendant for receiving and possessing child pornography is vacated and remanded where his simultaneous conviction for both receipt and possession of child pornography violates the Fifth Amendment's prohibition on double jeopardy. Read more...