United States Fifth Circuit - January 2002 Opinion Summaries

DEMETTE v. FALCON DRILLING COMPANY, INC.

Workers' Compensation
The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act applies to an oil rig jacked-up over the outer continental shelf, and thus the Longshore and Harbor Workers'...

MILLER v. DIAMOND SHAMROCK CO.

Government Contracts, Injury & Tort Law
Where the government approved precise specifications for Agent Orange to be produced by the defendant contractor, the Agent Orange conformed to those...

LAIN v. UNUM LIFE INS. CO. OF AMERICA

ERISA, Labor & Employment Law
On an ERISA plan administrator's appeal from awards of disability benefits and attorney's fees to an insured, where there was overwhelming medical...

DEGRUISE v. SPRINT CORP.

Health Law, Labor & Employment Law
A company meets its notification duty under COBRA, 29 U.S.C. Sections 1161-1168, by sending a letter to an individual-s last known address by...

FLEETWOOD ENTER., INC. v. GASKAMP

Contracts, Dispute Resolution & Arbitration
Children who were neither signatories to, nor third-party beneficiaries of, a contract executed by their parents may not be bound by an arbitration...

US v. ERWIN

Criminal Law & Procedure
In reviewing a defendant-s motion for a new trial based on newly discovered evidence, the district court erred in finding that the three-year...

MORRIS v. DILLARD DEP'T STORES, INC .

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure
Neither a private merchant, nor an off-duty police officer hired by the merchant as a private security guard who arrested an individual suspected of...

HESS v. COCKRELL

Criminal Law & Procedure, Habeas Corpus
By arguing a change in decisional law justified the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus, defendant failed to demonstrate the requisite "extraordinary...

SWOPE v. COLUMBIAN CHEMICALS CO.

Civil Procedure, Injury & Tort Law
Whether an employer should have known of the latent dangerous characteristics of machinery it purchased from a manufacturer to be operated by its...

HESS v. COCKRELL

Civil Procedure, Habeas Corpus
By arguing a change in decisional law justified the issuance of a writ of habeas corpus, defendant failed to demonstrate the requisite "extraordinary...