7th Cir. Opinions
On Tuesday the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals released five new opinions. Hess v. Reg-Ellen Machine, No. 043408p:
ROVNER, Circuit Judge. Reg-Ellen Machine Tool Corporation (“Reg-Ellen”) administers an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (“ESOP”) for its employees that is governed by the Employee Retirement and Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. Sections 1001 et seq. Plan participants John and James Hess, brothers and former employees of Reg-Ellen, each brought suit in federal district court against Reg-Ellen and the Reg-Ellen ESOP, claiming that the plan administrator had wrongfully denied their requests to move their retirement funds from Reg-Ellen stock into diversified investments. See 29 U.S.C. Section 1132(a)(1)(B) (authorizing suits by participants in plans covered by ERISA to enforce rights under terms of plan). John Hess also sued to enforce his alleged right under the Illinois Business Corporation Act to inspect Reg-Ellen’s books and records. See 805 ILCS 5/7.75 (requiring corporations to allow shareholders to examine corporate books and records for a proper purpose). On the parties’ cross motions for summary judgment, the district court granted summary judgment to the defendants, and the Hesses appeal. For the reasons stated below, we affirm.
Johnson v. Cherry, No. 043562p:
ROVNER, Circuit Judge. When a motion was filed on behalf of plaintiff Paula Johnson seeking leave for Johnson’s former attorney, appellant Barbara J. Clinite, to withdraw and for her new counsel to file his appearance, Clinite moved to strike the motion, averring that her signature on the motion had been forged. Following a hearing called to investigate the forgery allegation, the district court found that Clinite had, in fact, signed the motion. Based in part on that finding, the court on its own motion imposed monetary sanctions on Clinite. Clinite appeals, contending that the finding is clearly erroneous. Although we agree with Clinite that the record hints rather strongly that she did not sign the substitution motion, we need not resolve that question. Rather, because the court imposed sanctions on Clinite without first notifying her that it was contemplating that step and giving her an adequate opportunity to respond, we vacate the sanctions order and remand for reconsideration. The court also ordered Clinite to turn over her case file to Johnson’s new counsel, notwithstanding the fact that Johnson has not yet compensated Clinite for her time and expenses nor provided security for that obligation. Clinite contends that in this respect the order disregarded her common-law retaining lien. We direct the court to revisit this issue on remand as well.
Westefer v. Snyder, No. 033318p:
RIPPLE, Circuit Judge. The plaintiffs, prisoners incarcerated at Tamms Correctional Center (“Tamms”) in Illinois, brought this Section 1983 action against officers and employees of the Illinois Department of Corrections (collectively, (“IDOC”). The prisoners alleged that their transfers to Tamms violated their rights to due process of law and freedom of association and against ex post facto punishment. The district court dismissed these counts for failure to state a claim. Another count, alleging that the transfer constituted retaliation for the exercise of First Amendment rights, survived this initial scrutiny. The parties then conducted discovery on this remaining count. Following discovery, the district court granted summary judgment to IDOC. The prisoners appeal the decision of the district court with respect to all of these claims. After oral argument, we ordered the parties to file supplemental briefs addressing the administrative process by which an inmate, already incarcerated at Tamms, can challenge his assignment to that facility. After the Supreme Court decided Wilkinson v. Austin, 125 S. Ct. 2384 (2005), the parties filed supplemental briefs addressing the applicability of that decision to this case. For the reasons set forth in the following opinion, we affirm the judgment of the district court with respect to the freedom of association and ex post facto claims. With respect to the retaliation and due process claims, we reverse the judgment of the district court and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Burt v. Uchtman, No. 041293p:
COFFEY, Circuit Judge. Ronald Burt was sentenced to death for the murders of H. Steven Roy and Kevin Muto. His sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment when the Governor of Illinois granted clemency to all death row inmates. Burt was tried before a jury, but near the end of the state’s case-in-chief he abruptly changed his plea to guilty without any concessions from the government and against the strenuous advice of his attorneys. During the more than 14 months between his arrest and guilty plea, Burt was taking a number of powerful psychotropic medications prescribed for him by prison doctors. Burt was examined by a psychologist eight months before his trial began, and the doctor, while noting several psychological impairments, deemed him fit to stand trial. The psychologist, however, did not consult Burt’s medication records and his report mentions only in passing that Burt was even on medication. Neither defense counsel nor the trial court ever requested a further evaluation to determine if Burt was competent at the time he pleaded guilty. Burt’s direct appeal, state post-conviction petition, and petition for habeas corpus in the district court, 28 U.S.C. Section 2254, were all unsuccessful. We granted Burt a certificate of appealability on two issues: (1) whether he was denied due process when the trial court failed to order a hearing into his fitness to plead guilty, and (2) whether he was denied effective assistance of counsel when his attorneys failed to request a renewed examination of his fitness. For the reasons set forth below, we conclude that the Illinois Supreme Court unreasonably applied clearly established federal law on both issues. Accordingly, we reverse the district court’s denial of Burt’s petition and remand with instructions to grant the writ of habeas corpus unless Illinois informs the district court within a reasonable time to be determined by the district court that it intends to retry Burt.
