In re McAleer resulted in a per curiam order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court because Justice Baer did not participate in the matter, leaving a 3-3 split on the main substantive issue at stake. Before reaching the main merits issue at stake, the six justices unanimously ruled that the Superior Court had immediate appellate jurisdiction … Read more
In O’Hanlon v. Uber Technologies, Inc., the Third Circuit reviewed a District Court’s order denying Uber’s motion to compel arbitration. Uber argued that the Third Circuit could not reach the merits of the motion without first determining that Plaintiffs had standing to bring their underlying ADA claim—pursuant to either the independent obligation to ensure the … Read more
In Ashdale v. Guidi Homes, Inc., the appellants appealed from the trial court’s order, which granted in part and denied in part their motion for summary judgment. The appellees filed an application to quash the appeal. The Pennsylvania Superior Court quashed the appeal. The Court cited Calabretta v. Guidi Homes, Inc., 241 A.3d 436 (Pa. … Read more
In 1976, Appellant pleaded guilty to third-degree murder. He absconded to Kentucky when he was paroled. Two years later, he was convicted of rape and related offenses in Kentucky. These sex crimes carried a lifetime reporting requirement under Kentucky law. After he served the full sentence for the crimes in Kentucky, he was transferred to … Read more
In United States v. Alexander, Appellant filed an interlocutory appeal from the District Court’s order denying various pretrial motions to dismiss the original and superseding indictments against her on the ground that a victim of one of the charged crimes served on the grand jury that returned the original indictment. (Subsequent to learning about the … Read more
Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Comm’n v. Sec. PA Dep’t Labor and Indus. was a dispute about an interstate compact between PA and NJ that created the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission. The Commission obtained a declaratory judgment that prohibited the Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry from regulating aspects of … Read more
In Commonwealth v. Smith, the defendant was convicted of robbery and related offenses. After the Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the convictions, he sought allocatur. Before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on the petition, the defendant filed a PCRA petition. The PCRA court acknowledged that the filing was premature but chose to accept it as of … Read more
In Commonwealth v. Caviness, the Pennsylvania Superior Court issued a predictable ruling in the face of a rather novel petition seeking the return of property. The defendant was charged with various crimes. And as part of the investigation, law enforcement seized laptops, tablets and other devices that families tend to have around the house. The … Read more
In Calabretta v. Guidi Homes, Inc., the Superior Court quashed a home-builder’s appeal that challenged the trial court’s order denying (in part) the home builder’s motion for summary judgment. The home builder claimed that the suit was barred by the statute of repose, which typically protects home builders from suits more than 12 years after … Read more
In Hernandez-Morales v. Att’y Gen., the 3rd Circuit held that Hernandez-Morales was “dressing up” discretionary rulings made by an immigration judge as well as the Board of Immigration Appeals as constitutional claims in order to merit review. However, the 3rd Circuit did not bite and held that it did not have jurisdiction to review the … Read more