Justia U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

The case concerns Carlos Williams, a former employee of the United States Postal Service (USPS), who alleged that the USPS terminated his employment for discriminatory reasons. Williams, a Black man who identifies as a Choctaw and a Moor, had worked for the USPS for 17 years and had filed numerous complaints against the USPS regarding his and other postal workers' treatment. Williams was fired in 2014 after he failed to show up at work for several months.The district court narrowed Williams' suit to focus solely on the 2014 firing and the claims alleging retaliation and discrimination based on race, gender, and national origin. After a five-day trial, the jury delivered a verdict in favor of the USPS. Williams appealed this decision.The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court's decision. The court rejected Williams' claims that his firing constituted double jeopardy (as his suspension and later firing punished him twice for the same conduct) and violated his due process rights, as these claims were neither pleaded in the original complaint nor relevant to the employment discrimination claim. Furthermore, the court found that the district court did not err in declining to recruit a third lawyer for Williams after his first two lawyers withdrew from the case. Finally, the court concluded that the district court's pretrial evidentiary rulings and trial management decisions were not erroneous. View "Williams v. DeJoy" on Justia Law

The case involves Nicholas Vichio, a warehouse supervisor at US Foods, Inc. who was terminated after the arrival of a new vice president of operations, Charles Zadlo. Vichio, who had previously received positive performance reviews, was placed on a performance improvement plan by Zadlo and subsequently terminated. Vichio filed a lawsuit under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of US Foods, concluding that Vichio failed to show that the performance issues cited were a pretext for discrimination.On appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the district court's judgment. The appellate court concluded that Vichio had presented sufficient evidence to allow a reasonable jury to infer discrimination. This evidence included the sudden negative performance reviews upon the arrival of Zadlo, the seemingly predetermined nature of Vichio's termination, the identical language in performance improvement plans for Vichio and another older employee, and the hiring of a younger employee to replace Vichio. The case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the appellate court's opinion. View "Vichio v. US Foods, Inc." on Justia Law

Fliss, Wojciak, and Barr took out a $200,000 bank loan for their jointly owned companies. Each man personally guaranteed the loan. When the borrowers defaulted, the bank obtained a state court $208,639.95 consent judgment, holding the guarantors jointly and severally liable. Wojciak then entered into an agreement with the bank, through his company, Capital I, to purchase the promissory note and judgment debt for $240,000, then entered into a settlement agreement with the bank, agreeing to pay $240,000. Wojciak's other company, Capital II wired the bank $240,000. The state court substituted Capital I for the bank as the plaintiff. Wojciak moved to enforce the judgment: Capital I commenced a supplemental proceeding and sought property turnovers. Fliss and Barr unsuccessfully argued that the debt was extinguished when the Wojciaks paid $240,000 in exchange for settlement.Fliss filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy petition. Wojciak had Capital I file a secured claim, seeking to enforce the judgment–$359,967.69 including post-judgment interest. The bankruptcy court disallowed that claim, finding that Wojciak used Capital I as his alter ego and became both the creditor and debtor, which extinguished the debt. The district court and Seventh Circuit affirmed. The bankruptcy court had subject matter jurisdiction to consider the claim objection—the Rooker-Feldman doctrine posed no obstacle. Capital I failed to demonstrate the existence of a final judgment as required by res judicata and collateral estoppel. View "Generation Capital I, LLC v. Fliss" on Justia Law

Nabozny received a letter at her Wisconsin home, offering to settle an unpaid credit-card debt. The letter summarized basic information about her debt: the creditor, the outstanding balance, the account number, and her name and address. The letter was from Optio under its operating name of Qualia, but it was printed and mailed by RevSpring, a third-party printing and mail vendor. Nabozny did not give Optio consent to share the information about her debt with RevSpring.Nabozny filed a purported class action, alleging that Optio’s communication with RevSpring violated the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. 1692, which provides that “a debt collector may not communicate, in connection with the collection of any debt, with any person other than the consumer” without the consumer’s consent. The Seventh Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Nabozny’s suit for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. Nabozny lacks standing to sue because she “suffered no concrete injury.” The court noted recent decisions in other circuits that sharing a debtor’s data with a third-party mail vendor to populate and send a form collection letter “causes no harm that our legal tradition recognizes as sufficient to support a suit in federal court under Article III of the Constitution.” View "Nabozny v. Optio Solutions LLC" on Justia Law

Venequip, a Venezuelan heavy-equipment supplier, sold and serviced products made by Illinois-based Caterpillar. Venequip’s dealership was governed by sales and service agreements with CAT Sàrl, Caterpillar’s Swiss subsidiary. In 2019 CAT Sàrl terminated the dealership. The contracts contain clauses that direct all disputes to Swiss courts for resolution under Swiss law. In 2021 Venequip brought contract claims against CAT Sàrl in Geneva, Switzerland. Venequip filed applications across the United States seeking discovery from Caterpillar and its employees, dealers, and customers under 28 U.S.C. 1782(a), which authorizes (but does not require) district courts to order any person who resides or is found in the district to give testimony or produce documents “for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal.” Venequip’s Northern District of Illinois application sought wide-ranging discovery from Caterpillar.Ruling on Venequip’s application, the district judge addressed four factors identified by the Supreme Court (Intel) that generally concern the applicant’s need for discovery, the intrusiveness of the request, and comity considerations, and added the parties’ contractual choice of forum and law and Caterpillar’s agreement to provide discovery in the Swiss court, then denied the application. The Seventh Circuit affirmed. The appeal was not mooted by intervening developments in the Swiss court. The judge appropriately weighed the Intel factors and other permissible considerations. View "Venequip, S.A. v. Caterpillar Inc." on Justia Law

Current and former policyholders filed a class action lawsuit in Illinois against Country Mutual and 46 of its current and former officers and directors. Every member of the proposed class is an Illinois citizen under the Class Action Fairness Act, CAFA, 28 U.S.C. 1332(d)(2), as are Country Mutual and 45 of the individuals. The 46th defendant, Bateman, is a citizen of Massachusetts. The plaintiffs alleged that the firm accumulated and retained excess surplus of over $3.5 billion from premium revenues exceeding the cost of claims and thereby failed to supply those policies at cost. They claimed breach of contract, violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, unjust enrichment, and breach of fiduciary duty.Based on putative class size, the amount in controversy, and the minimal diversity created by Bateman, Country Mutual removed this case to federal district court, 28 U.S.C. 1332(d); 1453(b). The Seventh Circuit remanded to state court. Under CAFA’s internal affairs exception, each claim sounds in allegations of corporate mismanagement that cannot be adjudicated without immersion into the boundaries of the discretion afforded by Illinois law to officers and directors of a mutual insurance company to set capital levels and make related decisions about surplus distributions to policyholder members. The case is also within CAFA’s home-state controversy exception, 28 U.S.C. 1332(d)(4)(B), as Bateman, who creates minimal diversity, is not a “primary defendant.” View "Sudholt v. Country Mutual Insurance Co." on Justia Law

Cothron works at an Illinois White Castle restaurant where she must scan her fingerprint to access the computer system. With each scan, her fingerprint is collected and transmitted to a third-party vendor for authentication. Cothron alleges that White Castle did not obtain her written consent before implementing the fingerprint-scanning system, violating the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, 740 ILCS 14/1, arguing that every unauthorized fingerprint scan amounted to a separate violation of the statute, so a new claim accrued with each scan. On interlocutory appeal, the Seventh Circuit certified a question to the Illinois Supreme Court, which responded that claims accrue each time a private entity scans a person’s biometric identifier and each time a private entity transmits such a scan to a third party, respectively, not only upon the first scan and first transmission.The Seventh Circuit then lifted a stay and affirmed the denial of White Castle’s motion for judgment on the pleadings. The court rejected White Castle’s request to expand the interlocutory appeal to include new questions concerning the scope of a possible damages award and Due Process and Excessive Fines Clause claims. The order before the court concerned only the timeliness of Cothron’s suit. View "Latrina Cothron v. White Castle System, Inc." on Justia Law

Midvale created an “instant quote” feature on their websites. Anyone who supplied basic identifying information could receive a quote for auto insurance. Each site would auto-fill some information, including the number of the applicant’s driver’s license. Anyone could enter a stranger’s name and home address, which caused the form to disclose the number of the stranger’s driver’s license. Midvale discontinued the autofill feature after observing unusual activity suggesting misuse, and notified people whose information had been disclosed improperly. Three people who received Midvale’s notice filed a purported class action under the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, 18 U.S.C. 2721–25.The district court held that the plaintiffs lacked standing, having failed to show a concrete injury traceable to the disclosure. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, noting that whether the Act applies at all is questionable. Its principal rule is directed to state officials rather than private actors. A driver’s-license number is not potentially embarrassing or an intrusion on seclusion. It is a neutral fact derived from public records, a fact legitimately known to many private actors and freely revealed to banks, insurers, hotels, and others. Plaintiffs have not plausibly alleged that Midvale’s disclosure of their numbers caused them any injury, and the disclosure of a number in common use by both public and private actors does not correspond to any tort. View "Baysal v. Midvale Indemnity Co." on Justia Law

In 2015, the Forro children attended St. Augustine, a self-identified Catholic school in Hartford, Wisconsin. Wisconsin provides transportation benefits for parents who send their children to private sectarian schools, Wis.Stat. 121.54. The school district and the state superintendent of public instruction denied the Forros' request because transportation was being provided to St. Gabriel, another Catholic school in the area. The law stipulates that only one school from a single organizational entity in each “attendance area” may qualify for benefits. While both claim an affiliation with Catholicism, the two schools are not affiliated with one another in other significant ways. St. Augustine and the Forros sued. Several years of litigation ensued, including a trip to the U.S. Supreme Court, two published Seventh Circuit opinions, and a Supreme Court of Wisconsin opinion, after which the Seventh Circuit concluded that the denial of transportation benefits violated Wisconsin law because it rested on an improper methodology for determining affiliation between two schools of similar faith.After noting that certain state law claims had been waived and that the federal constitutional issues did not require resolution, the Seventh Circuit affirmed that a declaratory judgment remains in effect against the Superintendent and the School District. The district court may decide what attorneys’ fees the plaintiffs should be awarded, if any, given that they have prevailed only in obtaining declaratory relief under state law. View "St. Augustine School v. Underly" on Justia Law

One week after Schmees started working for HC1.COM, the company eliminated her position and terminated her employment. Schmees sued, alleging that HC1 fraudulently induced her to join the company. HC1 moved to dismiss Schmees’s first amended complaint. Three months after the parties had briefed the motion, Schmees sought leave to amend her complaint to add new factual allegations buttressing the same claims. The district court denied HC1’s motion to dismiss Schmees’s fraud claims, then denied as moot the motion for leave to amend. The court gave Schmees a month to renew the motion; she opted not to seek a further amendment. In response to HC1’s subsequent motion for summary judgment, Schmees attempted to supplement her complaint with a new fraud claim via her briefing. The district court granted HC1 summary judgment, finding the new fraud claim beyond the scope of the complaint, and declining to treat her response brief as a de facto amendment to the complaint.The Seventh Circuit affirmed. The district court did not abuse its discretion. After concluding that Schmees had sufficiently stated her fraud claims, adding new facts supporting those claims was unnecessary. The court invited Schmees to seek leave again, but she did not. At summary judgment, it was too late for Schmees to add a new claim beyond the scope of the complaint. View "Schmees v. HC1.com, Inc." on Justia Law