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Jurisdiction – Torture Victim Protection Act – Extraterritorial effect
Where a defendant has moved for reconsideration of the denial of his motion to dismiss claims brought against him under the Torture Victim Protection Act, the reconsideration request should be denied because (1) the TVPA contains a clear affirmative indication of extraterritorial effect and (2) Congress was within its constitutional authority in enacting the TVPA.
Immigration – H-1B visa fee
Where plaintiffs have challenged the validity of a presidential proclamation instituting a $100,000 payment requirement for employers submitting petitions for new H-1B visas, the plaintiffs should be awarded summary judgment because a policy implementing the terms of the proclamation (1) imposes a tax on H-1B petitions without the requisite delegation by Congress and (2) is arbitrary and capriciou[...]
Search and seizure – Inventory search
Where a defendant has moved to suppress evidence derived from the search of a vehicle that FBI agents impounded following his arrest, that motion should be denied because the agents’ decisions to impound the vehicle and then conduct an inventory search were objectively reasonable.
Patent and trademark – Preliminary injunction – Lanham Act
Where a plaintiff has moved for a preliminary injunction, that motion should be allowed because the plaintiff has shown that it is likely to succeed on the merits of its trademark infringement claim.
Insurance – LTD benefits – ERISA
Where a plaintiff seeking reinstatement of her long-term disability benefits has brought an action pursuant to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, summary judgment should be awarded to the defendant insurance company because it had substantial evidence to support its decision to deny the plaintiff’s claims.
Taxation – Late payment – Financial hardship
Where the commissioner of revenue refused to abate penalties and interest assessed to an appellant for late payment of income taxes, the appellant’s claim of financial hardship did not constitute reasonable cause, so the denial of the abatement request should be upheld.
Workers’ compensation – Documentation – Counsel fees
Where an administrative judge awarded an employee temporary total incapacity benefits plus §30 medical benefits, that decision should be affirmed despite the self-insurer’s argument that the employee failed to file his claim with documentation satisfying statutory and regulatory requirements.
Retirement – Purchase of service – Similarity requirement
Where the State Board of Retirement denied a petitioner’s request to purchase service for the contract position of visiting instructor at Bridgewater State University from 2003 to 2015, that decision should be affirmed because the petitioner’s prior contract position is not “substantially similar” to her subsequent job as an academic advisor for the University of Massachusetts Boston.
Retirement – Purchase of service – Teacher
Where the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System denied a petitioner’s application to purchase service for her prior work at a non-public school for students with autism, the petitioner has not sustained her burden of proving that she “taught pupils” at that school for purposes of G.L.c. 32, §4(1)(p).
Retirement – Death benefit – Accidental disability
Where a widow whose husband had been retired on accidental disability was denied a death benefit by the Boston Retirement System, that decision should be upheld because PTSD was not the natural and proximate cause of death.
Retirement – Stipend – Teacher
Where the Massachusetts Teachers’ Retirement System determined that a stipend a petitioner received for serving as English department head during the 2022-2023 school year was not “regular compensation” under G.L.c. 32, §1, that determination should be upheld because the stipend was not listed in a collective bargaining agreement between the school district and the Wachusett Regional Educat[...]
Zoning – Affordable housing – Safe harbor
Where the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities (EOHLC) determined that the Falmouth Zoning Board had not established a safe harbor under 760 CMR 56.03(1) with respect to a developer’s application for a comprehensive permit, the developer’s motion for summary decision should be granted because the town was not certified as in compliance with its Housing Production Plan (HPP) as o[...]
