Justia Professional Malpractice & Ethics Opinion Summaries

In 1992, six-year-old Angelo Garcia, Jr. was kidnapped and murdered after two masked intruders broke into the apartment of his parents, Arturo Rodriguez and Diana Garcia. Diana was sexually assaulted during the incident. The case went cold until 2007 when DNA evidence linked Obel Cruz-Garcia to the crime. Cruz-Garcia was convicted of capital murder in 2013 and sentenced to death. His conviction and sentence were affirmed on direct appeal, and his state habeas applications were denied.The United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas denied Cruz-Garcia’s federal habeas petition. Cruz-Garcia then sought a certificate of appealability (COA) from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, raising three issues: jurors’ use of the Bible during deliberations, ineffective assistance of counsel, and the exclusion of DNA evidence affecting his ability to present a complete defense.The Fifth Circuit denied the COA. The court found that the jurors’ reference to the Bible did not constitute an improper external influence, as it did not relate directly to the facts of the case. The court also determined that Cruz-Garcia’s ineffective assistance of counsel claims lacked merit, as his counsel’s performance was within the wide range of professionally competent assistance. Lastly, the court held that the trial court’s exclusion of certain DNA evidence did not violate Cruz-Garcia’s right to present a complete defense, as he was allowed to introduce other evidence regarding the DNA’s reliability.The Fifth Circuit concluded that Cruz-Garcia failed to make a substantial showing of the denial of a constitutional right and denied his motion for a COA. View "Cruz-Garcia v. Guerrero" on Justia Law

After the BP Stock Fund lost significant value, the affected investors filed suit alleging that the plan fiduciaries breached their duties of prudence and loyalty by allowing the Plans to acquire and hold overvalued BP stock; breached their duty to provide adequate investment information to plan participants; and breached their duty to monitor those responsible for managing the BP Stock Fund. The district court held that the stockholders had failed to overcome the Moench v. Robertson presumption and dismissed their claims. The stockholders appealed, and while their appeal was pending in this court, the Supreme Court issued Fifth Third Bancorp v. Dudenhoeffer, holding that there was no such “presumption of prudence” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), 29 U.S.C. 1001 et seq. On remand, the district court held that the stockholders had plausibly alleged that defendants had inside information; and the stockholders had plausibly alleged two alternative actions that defendants could have taken that met the Fifth Third standard: freezing, limiting, or restricting company stock purchases; and disclosing unfavorable information to the public. The district court granted the motion to amend with respect to pleading these alternative actions. It then certified defendants’ motion for interlocutory appeal. The court concluded, however, that the district court here erred when it altered the language of Fifth Third to reach its holding. Under the Supreme Court’s formulation, the plaintiff bears the significant burden of proposing an alternative course of action so clearly beneficial that a prudent fiduciary could not conclude that it would be more likely to harm the fund than to help it. In this case, the stockholders have failed to do so. Because the stockholders' amended complaint is insufficient and the district court erred in granting their motion to amend, the court reversed and remanded. View "Whitley v. BP, P.L.C." on Justia Law

Plaintiffs filed a putative class action against Allen Standford's lawyers, Thomas Sjoblom, and the law firms where he worked, arguing that they aided and abetted Stanford’s fraud and conspired to thwart the SEC’s investigation of Stanford’s Ponzi scheme. The district court subsequently denied defendants' motion to dismiss the complaint as barred by the attorney immunity under Texas law. The court held that, under Texas law, attorney immunity is a true immunity of suit, such that denial of a motion to dismiss based on attorney immunity is appealable under the collateral order doctrine. The court reversed the district court’s order denying defendants’ motions to dismiss based on attorney immunity now that the Texas Supreme Court has clarified that there is no “fraud exception” to attorney immunity. Accordingly, the court rendered judgment that the case is dismissed with prejudice. View "Troice v. Proskauer Rose, L.L.P." on Justia Law