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as a courtesy to the reader. They are not part of the opinion of the court.
113118P.pdf 11/07/2012 Dawson Farms v. Risk Management Agency U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 11-3118 U.S. District Court for the District of North Dakota - Fargo [PUBLISHED] [Melloy, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Bye, Circuit Judge]
Civil case - Federal Crop Insurance. Deputy Director applied the correct legal standard and considered the record for the proper purpose of reviewing the hearing officer's decision for substantial evidence; agency decision was supported by substantial evidence. Judge Bye, dissenting. 113463P.pdf 11/07/2012 United States v. John Anthony Spencer U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 11-3463 U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - St. Paul [PUBLISHED] [Colloton, Author, with Murphy and Bright, Circuit Judges]
Criminal case - Criminal law and sentencing. District court did not err in permitting defendant's income-tax preparer, an attorney, to testify regarding the return as there was no evidence that an attorney-client relationship had been formed; no error in permitting expert testimony as to what the misrepresentations in defendant's loan application would mean to an underwriter; sentence was not substantively unreasonable; restitution order affirmed. Judge Bright, dissenting. 113867P.pdf 11/07/2012 West American Insurance Co v. RLI Insurance Company U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 11-3867 and No: 11-3869 U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri - Kansas City [PUBLISHED] [Loken, Author, with Wollman and Beam, Circuit Judges]
Civil case - Insurance. District court did not err in applying choice-of- law principles to determine that Kansas law applied to the dispute; Kansas courts would allow defendant's counterclaim alleging West had wrongfully rejected multiple settlement offers by underlying claimants prior to the arbitration of their state law claims to proceed, and the district court erred in granting West summary judgment on defendant's counterclaim; dismissal of West's claims against defendant ASCK affirmed. 121115U.pdf 11/07/2012 Yenny Servellon v. Eric H. Holder, Jr. U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-1115 Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals [UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Murphy, Arnold and Smith, Circuit Judges]
Petition for Review - Immigration. Decision to deny asylum was supported by substantial evidence and is affirmed without comment. 121371U.pdf 11/07/2012 United States v. Aaron Young U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-1371 U.S. District Court for the District of South Dakota - Pierre [UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Riley, Chief Judge, and Arnold and Gruender, Circuit Judges]
Criminal case - Sentencing. Above-Guidelines sentence was not substantively unreasonable given the circumstances of the crime and the defendant's criminal record. 121538P.pdf 11/07/2012 Rita Yanovna Brikova v. Eric H. Holder, Jr. U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-1538 Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals [PUBLISHED] [Gruender, Author, with Riley, Chief Judge, and Colloton, Circuit Judge]
Petition for Review - Immigration. Argument that the difference in treatment between federal and state court defendants under the Federal First Offender Act denied petitioner's equal protection rights must be rejected as there are rational reasons for differing treatment for aliens with state-expunged convictions and aliens with FFOA-expunged convictions; since petitioner's challenges to denial of her applications for asylum, withholding of removal and CAT relief all rest on factual determinations rather than questions of law or constitutional claims, the court was without jurisdiction to review those decisions. 121609P.pdf 11/07/2012 Daniel Flores v. Eric H. Holder, Jr. U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-1609 Petition for Review of an Order of the Board of Immigration Appeals [PUBLISHED] [Melloy, Author, with Benton, Circuit Judge and Baker, District Judge]
Petition for Review - Immigration. It was not clear from the record why the BIA upheld the IJ's finding that petitioner had not suffered past persecution, and the matter must be remanded to the BIA for clarification; remand is also necessary because if the BIA is upholding the IJ's apparent adoption of a blanket rule that past persecution of family members can never be the basis for a past persecution claim, this is an incorrect statement of the law of the circuit; alternatively, if the BIA based its finding that petitioner's claims of past persecution based on past harm to his family were not on account of a protected ground, the BIA engaged in improper factfinding; the BIA also engaged in an independent factual analysis regarding the issue of whether petitioner was eligible for cancellation of removal and the issue is remanded for further review under the proper scope of review. 121696U.pdf 11/07/2012 Charles Sisson v. CIR U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-1696 Appeal from the United States Tax Court [UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Bye, Gruender and Benton, Circuit Judges]
Federal Tax. Motion to dismiss appeal as untimely denied; Tax Court erred in refusing to file the taxpayers' timely motion to vacate or revise an order even if the caption on the motion was not technically correct as the pleading made clear the case and order involved and the rule under which the motion was filed; remanded for further proceedings. 121775U.pdf 11/07/2012 Gabriel Cassell v. The County of Ramsey U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-1775 U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis [UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Loken, Bowman and Colloton, Circuit Judges]
Civil case - Civil rights. Dismissal of Section 1983 action affirmed without comment. 121851U.pdf 11/07/2012 Christopher White v. Judge Jay Finch U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-1851 U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas - Fayetteville [UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Loken, Bowman and Colloton, Circuit Judges]
Civil case - Civil Rights. Dismissal affirmed without comment. 121878P.pdf 11/07/2012 Odell Crawford v. State of Minnesota U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-1878 U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis [PUBLISHED] [Murphy, Author, with Bye and Shepherd, Circuit Judges]
Prisoner case - Habeas. Crawford's petition was a second or successive habeas and the district court did not err in determining it lacked jurisdiction to consider the petition in the absence of preauthorization for its filing; application for preauthorization is denied. 123008U.pdf 11/07/2012 Kevin Pomerenke v. Cheryl Bird U.S. Court of Appeals Case No: 12-3008 U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota - Minneapolis [UNPUBLISHED] [Per Curiam - Before Murphy, Smith and Benton, Circuit Judges]
Civil case. District court did not err in dismissing plaintiff's Fair Debt Collection Practices Act claims; however, at this early state of the proceedings, the court cannot find support for the district court's determination, based on 11 U.S.C. Secs. 523 and 507(a)(8) that plaintiff's allegations related to the Bankruptcy Act failed to state a claim, and that claim is remanded for further proceedings.
