District Court, N.D. Ohio — appointed by Jimmy Carter
Bray v. Andrews
District Court, N.D. Ohio · 2009-08-13 · cited 1×
The case involved Sabrina Bray's federal habeas corpus petition challenging her state conviction for complicity to commit murder with a firearm specification, after she had been indicted only for murder. Bray claimed ineffective assistance of counsel under the Sixth Amendment because her attorney failed to advise her that she could be convicted of complicity even without a murder conviction, did not request a bill of particulars, and did not properly counsel her on the state's plea offer, leading her to reject it and proceed to trial where she was acquitted of murder but convicted of complicity. The district court found that Bray had not procedurally defaulted the claim and that her counsel's errors deprived her of the ability to make an informed decision about the plea. The court conditionally granted the petition, ordering a new plea hearing in state court within sixty days with the opportunity to consider the original or a comparable offer, subject to review for any presumption of vindictiveness if a higher sentence is proposed.
criminal lawprocedurecivil rights
Gauntner v. Doyle
District Court, N.D. Ohio · 2008-04-29 · cited 3×
The case involved homeowners who sued an attorney for alleged violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act after receiving a demand letter seeking payment of a debt owed to a contractor client. The court converted the defendant's motion to dismiss to a motion for summary judgment and granted it, dismissing the claims with prejudice. The decision was based on the conclusion that the attorney was not a debt collector subject to the FDCPA because debt collection made up only a small percentage of his practice and was not a regular part of his business.
business & regulatoryprocedure
01 Communique Laboratory, Inc. v. Citrix Systems, Inc.
District Court, N.D. Ohio · 2008-03-20
This case concerns a patent infringement dispute in which plaintiff 01 Communique Laboratory alleged that defendant Citrix's GoToMyPC software infringed its '479 patent for remote computer access. During discovery, the court ordered Citrix to produce its source code on a dedicated server with specific access restrictions. Citrix uploaded most but not all of the requested code, prompting Communique to move for contempt. The court found the order contained a latent ambiguity regarding the scope of production required and that Citrix's omission resulted from extreme negligence rather than deliberate noncompliance, so it declined to hold Citrix in contempt. However, invoking its inherent authority, the court awarded Communique reasonable attorneys' fees and expert costs incurred due to the negligence.
procedurebusiness & regulatory
Negron v. United States
District Court, N.D. Ohio · 2007-06-04
The case involved the estates of two lottery winners who received annual payments from the Ohio Super Lotto; after their deaths, the estates valued the remaining non-assignable annuity payments based on a lump-sum distribution from the state lottery and sought refunds of additional estate taxes assessed by the IRS. The IRS had used the annuity valuation tables under IRC section 7520 to determine higher values, resulting in increased tax liabilities that the estates paid before filing refund claims. The court denied the government's motion for summary judgment and granted the plaintiff's motion in part, finding that the non-transferability of the annuities made the table-based valuations unrealistic and unreasonable. The decision rested on the principle that restricted marketability affects fair market value, though the court noted that further evidence was needed on an alternative valuation method before resolving the full refund claims.
taxes
Parker Hannifin Corp. v. Steadfast Insurance
District Court, N.D. Ohio · 2006-08-09 · cited 8×
This case is an insurance contract dispute between Parker Hannifin Corporation and Steadfast Insurance Company regarding the insurer's obligations to cover damages from defective gaskets in Zenith television sets that caused fires. Parker settled recall and related claims with Zenith for amounts exceeding its $2 million self-insured retention and sought reimbursement plus a declaration that all such claims arose from a single occurrence under the policy. The court granted Parker's motion for partial summary judgment and denied Steadfast's, awarding Parker $1 million plus prejudgment interest, on the grounds that Ohio law treated the damages as arising from one occurrence, the settlement sums were seriously assumed as potentially provable, and no cited policy exclusions applied.
business & regulatorytorts & liability
O'NEILL v. Coughlan
District Court, N.D. Ohio · 2006-06-16 · cited 3×
The case involved Ohio Court of Appeals Judge William O'Neill, a candidate for the Ohio Supreme Court, who challenged three canons of the Ohio Code of Judicial Conduct as violating his First Amendment free speech rights in his campaign materials and website. After O'Neill filed suit in federal court seeking an injunction, the court granted a preliminary injunction. Defendant Jonathan Coughlan, the Disciplinary Counsel, later moved to vacate the injunction, arguing that the court should have abstained under Younger v. Harris due to ongoing state disciplinary proceedings. The court denied the motion, holding that Coughlan had waived the abstention argument by choosing to address the constitutional merits of the claims rather than raising abstention earlier.
free speechelectionsprocedurecivil rights