An insurance agent isn’t liable for underinsuring a Lawrence, Kan., apartment owner because the owner should have realized the coverage limits were insufficient, the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday. A building in the Boardwalk Apartments was destroyed ...

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A federal appeals court upheld a trial judge’s decision to impose a 10-year, rather than 30-year, sentence for the sale of crack cocaine. The vote was 10-1, but the court was far from unified. The decision, issued Monday by the ...

Tagged with: 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Kendrix D. Feemster U.S. Sentencing Guidelines

After a federal judge declared the city of Valley Park’s illegal immigration ordinance valid last year, the plaintiffs who challenged the ordinance took an unorthodox argument to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals: They said they lacked standing to ...

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The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the constitutionality of a law allowing for the civil commitment of a “sexually dangerous person.” The decision directly conflicts with a previous 4th Circuit ruling, which said Section 4248 of The ...

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Wyeth and Pfizer Inc. should pay more than $27 million in punitive damages to an Arkansas woman over the drugmakers’ mishandling of menopause drugs linked to her breast cancer, a lawyer told an appeals court. A federal judge in Arkansas ...

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A federal appellate court upheld the dismissal of a civil rights lawsuit filed by a group of black shoppers who say Dillard’s employees subjected them to racial discrimination and hostility. A six-judge majority of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of ...

Tagged with: 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Anthony Rothert Dillard's Elizabeth Carver racial discrimination section 1981 William Rotts

After nearly 16 years in prison, Frank Harvey Jr. is making up for lost time and rebuilding relationships with his family and his friends. Convicted of a conspiracy to distribute one kilogram of crack cocaine, Harvey began serving what was to have been a 17½-year sentence in 1993. He was released in April 2008 after U.S. District Judge Donald Stohr, of the Eastern District of Missouri, reduced Harvey's sentence to 14 years. Harvey had already served 15 years and eight months, so he was credited for time served and released immediately.

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Three federal appellate judges told a district court judge to allow three Licking, Mo., inmates to pursue their right to read porn. The inmates wanted to read Rockstar, Penthouse, Penthouse-Forum and American Curves magazines, but prison officials said they were too hot to handle. Specifically, the magazines promoted violence and portrayed explicit and sadistic sex acts as well as sex acts that violate state and federal law. But the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the inmates sufficiently stated a claim to challenge the regulations as they apply to the magazines they want to read.

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The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to review an appeal brought by a man who claims his speedy trial rights were violated. The federal Speedy Trial Act gives criminal defendants the right to have a trial within 70 days of ...

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An insurance company had good reasons to refuse to pay the claims of Cedar Hill Hardware and Construction Supply, which was seeking $1.74 million in losses due to fire and $6 million in refusal-to-pay penalties and attorney fees. On Friday, ...

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A federal appeals court reversed the conviction for an Iowa meatpacking plant’s union representative convicted last year of shielding illegal aliens. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a jury instruction at Braulio Pereyra-Gabino’s trial allowed the jury ...

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