United States Seventh Circuit - Opinion Summaries

PETERSON v. WAL-MART STORES, INC.

Civil Procedure, Injury & Tort Law
Hresil v. Sears, 403 N.E.2d 678, does not provide a ten-minute safe harbor for heavily trafficked stores to find and clean up spills creating an...

FYFE v. CITY FORT WAYNE, INDIANA

Labor & Employment Law
Plaintiff's Equal Pay Act claim, under 29 USC 206(d), alleging that a colleague was permitted to work overtime but that he was wrongfully denied that...

CHOWDHURY v. RENO

Constitutional Law, Immigration Law
Where petitioner never received a meaningful opportunity to be heard in deportation proceedings, and the Board of Immigration knew that petitioner...

BETTS v. LITSCHER

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law & Procedure
Unless the court is satisfied that a defendant who is constitutionally entitled to the assistance of counsel on direct appeal would be making a...

HERBSTEIN V. BRUETMAN

Civil Procedure
District court's order that defendant surrender his passport to ensure that he remain available for legal proceedings was a conclusive order, wholly...

AVILES v. CORNELL FORGE CO.

Labor & Employment Law
Calling the police to report that a disgruntled employee is waiting outside the workplace and may be armed is not an adverse action as a matter of law...

CHAPMAN v. KELTNER

Civil Rights, Constitutional Law
Where doctor's "prescribed treatment" was not that plaintiff avoid stairs altogether, but that she take them "one at a time," law enforcement officers...

MEIN v. CARUS CORP.

ERISA
Settlement payments to plaintiff in the form of severance pay are excludable from compensation under ERISA.

HOTALING v. CHUBB SOVEREIGN LIFE

Insurance Law
Evidence of an insurance company's customary practices is sufficient to prove that a premium-due notice was "addressed and mailed" to a policyholder...

WILKOW v. FORBES, INC.

Injury & Tort Law
Defendant's published article alleging that plaintiff "pleaded poverty" and could not repay a bank loan, resulting in a bankruptcy petition, was not...