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Court sets aside class-action suit by Costco women
Headline Court News |
2011/09/20 11:55
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Citing the U.S. Supreme Court's recent Walmart ruling, a federal appeals court set aside - but did not dismiss - a class-action suit by more than 700 women who accused discount retailer Costco of using an old-boys' network to bypass them for promotions.
A federal judge in San Francisco ruled in 2007 that the women had presented enough evidence of a common culture at Costco to proceed with a single nationwide suit against the company, rather than file individual claims.
The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision Friday, relying in part on the Supreme Court's ruling in June dismissing a class action against Walmart by as many as 1.5 million female employees. The high court said the women had failed to show a company-wide policy that allegedly led to gender-based disparities in pay and promotions.
Likewise, the appeals court said, the Costco plaintiffs have not yet shown that they have enough in common to justify a class action.
The court said opposing expert witnesses disagreed about a central issue - whether the company promoted women less often than men in all regions or only a few - and said U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel should have resolved the dispute before letting the case proceed. |
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Court halts Texas execution of ex-Army recruiter
Court Watch News |
2011/09/19 23:55
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A former Army recruiter who for the third time this year was hours away from his scheduled execution for the rape-slaying of a woman in Fort Worth nearly 10 years ago was granted yet another reprieve by the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Cleve Foster, 47, was set to die Tuesday evening in Huntsville.
The high court twice earlier this year stopped Foster's scheduled lethal injection. The latest court ruling came about 2½ hours before Foster could have been taken to the Texas death chamber.
Foster was meeting with one of his lawyers in a small holding cell a few feet from the death chamber when a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman delivered the news.
He thanked God and pointed to his attorney, saying this woman helped save his life, prison spokesman Jason Clark said.
He also said Foster repeated his insistence that he was innocent. |
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W.Va. lawyer nominated to federal appeals court
Headline Topics |
2011/09/09 08:54
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President Barack Obama has nominated Hamlin native Stephanie Dawn Thacker as a judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Thacker has been a partner in the Charleston law firm of Guthrie amp; Thomas since 2006.
Before that she spent seven years with the U.S. Department of Justice. Her work as a trial attorney there focused on prosecution and training in connection with child pornography and sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, obscenity and other offenses.
She also served as an assistant federal prosecutor and worked for the state attorney general's office.
The U.S. Senate must now consider Thacker's nomination to the Richmond, Va.-based court. The seat became vacant after the March death of Judge Blane Michael.
The 15-member court covers North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia. |
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Court tosses Sivak's death sentence
Headline Court News |
2011/09/09 00:37
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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed the death sentence of an Idaho man convicted of brutally slaying a former coworker because the state allowed a jailhouse informant to lie on the witness stand.
Lacey Mark Sivak was sentenced to death for the 1981 murder of Dixie Wilson at the Baird Oil gas station in Garden City. In a ruling handed down Wednesday, the appellate court said that while Sivak's murder conviction was appropriate, the outcome of his sentencing hearing might have been different if prosecutors hadn't knowingly presented the testimony of an inmate who lied on the stand.
Still, the appellate court said state attorneys may decide to hold a new sentencing hearing if they still want to seek the death penalty for Sivak's crimes. |
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