Ingrid Felderhof appeals the district court's denial of her motion, filed pursuant to FED. R. CIV. P. 60(b), to vacate the default judgment entered against her. For the following reasons, we affirm in part, vacate in part, and remand... I... During 1997, John Felderhof and his wife, Ingrid Felderhof, were under investigation by the Canadian government and the United States' Securities and... ... ... Exchange Commission regarding the development of gold mining prospects by Bre-X Minerals, Ltd....  

Ronald King appeals his jury trial conviction for one count of conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute and one count of conspiracy to launder money. He also appeals the sentence imposed. We affirm... I... The Government charged King with conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute five or more kilograms of cocaine, 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1), 846, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, 18 U.S.C. § 1956(a), (h). The Government also sought forfeiture of...  

This case returns to this court for the second time for review of the Tax Court's judgment that taxpayers Robert W. Lisle and his wife Donna M. Lisle1 failed to declare and pay income tax on approximately $1,280,000 in revenue... ... ... earned as a result of Robert Lisle's relationship with a series of real estate deals and related transactions. See Estate of Robert W. Lisle v. Comm'r, 341 F.3d 364 (5th Cir. 2003)(Lisle I). In this appeal, like the first, the Tax Court found that Robert W....  

In this interlocutory appeal filed pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(1), Southern Scrap Material Co., L.L.C. ("Southern Scrap"), contends that the... ... ... district court erred by entering an order partially lifting and/or modifying the injunction it had previously issued in this limitation of liability action to allow the United States of America (the "United States") to pursue a claim against Southern Scrap outside of the context of the Limitation of Liability Act of 1851...  

After a bench trial in a declaratory judgment action, the district court found that a railroad had no coverage under an insurance policy for a former employee's claims of injury. We affirm that decision... BACKGROUND... The railroad that is the defendant in this suit is Georgia & Florida RailNet, Inc. ("GFR"). It purchased a policy from the plaintiff, Columbia Casualty Company. Columbia brought this declaratory judgment action to determine its obligation to GFR for claims brought by a...  

We sua sponte recall the mandate, withdraw the prior panel opinion, Mapes v. Bishop, No. 06-30559, 2007 WL 1733069, (5th Cir. June 15, 2007), in its entirety, and substitute the following:... Norman Mapes appeals the dismissal of two consolidated civil rights actions brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in which he alleged that police officers, the police chief, the City of Baton Rouge ("City"), and employees of the parish attorney's and prosecuting attorney's offices violated his...  

Defendant-Appellant Jose Luis Zavala was convicted after trial of two counts of possession with intent to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine, and two counts of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute over five kilograms of cocaine. 21 U.S.C. §§ 841, 846; 18 U.S.C. § 2. The district court sentenced Zavala to 235 months of imprisonment, five years of supervised release, and a $5,000 fine. The district court entered judgment on February 28, 2007, and Zavala filed a...  

This case involves a dispute between two primary insurers, Royal Surplus Lines Insurance Company ("Royal") and Evanston Insurance Company ("Evanston"), and an excess insurer, North American Specialty Insurance Company ("North American"),1 and arises out of a tort suit against a nursing home. North American appeals the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of Royal and Evanston. For the reasons set forth below, we AFFIRM... ... ... I. BACKGROUND... Velma...  

Walter Bonin appeals a judgment committing him to the custody of the Attorney General pursuant to 18 U.S.C. § 4246(d). Because the determination contravened the requisite statutory procedure, we vacate and remand... On a warrant and criminal complaint from the Middle District of Tennessee, Bonin was arrested in Louisiana for making threats to country music singer George Strait. Bonin appeared in the Western District of Louisiana, pursuant... ... ... to 18 U.S.C. § 4241(d), and the...  

In this appeal, we are called upon to decide whether Texas law concerning construction trust funds and materialman's liens prevents a bankruptcy trustee from avoiding three prepetition transfers of funds as a preferential transfers under 11 U.S.C. § 547(b). Because the creditor in this case would have received the same amount in a hypothetical Chapter 7 proceeding as a result of Texas construction trust fund law as it did in the allegedly preferential transfers, we affirm the district...  

David Duhon pleaded guilty to one court of possessing child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5). The district court applied a substantial downward variance from the Sentencing Guidelines ("Guidelines") and sentenced him to sixty months of probation. The Government appealed Duhon's non-Guideline sentence. In light of the recent United States Supreme Court opinion in Gall v. United States, 128 S. Ct. 596 (2007), we AFFIRM... I... After Duhon was arrested for...  

Former employees of Pennzoil, David Crowell and Paul Siegel, were terminated when the company changed control. Under Letters of Agreement referring to their retirement and savings plan, they received a cash payment when the company merged with Shell. They filed separate suits, urging that Defendants underpaid them and that state law applied. The district courts found that the agreement was governed by ERISA and consolidated the cases, granting summary judgment to Defendants. Plaintiffs...  

Defendant-Appellant Jane Reasor pled guilty to 28 counts of using the forged security of one organization to deceive another organization, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 513(a); three counts of mail fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1341; one count of bank fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1344; and one count of making a false statement on a credit application, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1014. She was initially sentenced to concurrent terms of 42 months of imprisonment....  

Khristian Oliver ("Oliver") seeks habeas corpus relief from his sentence of death for the murder of Joe Collins ("Collins"). Oliver argues that the jury violated his rights under the Sixth and Eighth Amendments by considering passages from the Bible during the sentencing phase of its deliberations. Although the jury improperly consulted the Bible, the state court found that the Bible did not influence the jury's decision. As Oliver has not presented clear and convincing evidence...  

This case comes to us as a Rule 23(f) interlocutory appeal from an order certifying a class of plaintiffs who allege violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act ("TCPA"), 47 U.S.C. § 227, specifically unsolicited advertisements sent from one fax machine to another. Two questions are before the court. The first question, raised for the first time on appeal, is whether the district court had subject-matter jurisdiction over this case. We hold that the district court had...  

Eight plaintiffs, employees of Kansas City Southern Railway Company, sued the railway in district court, alleging race discrimination. They amended their complaint several times, eventually withdrawing their attempt to bring a class action and dropping several of their claims. The first trial resulted in a hung jury. After the second trial, a jury found for Plaintiffs and awarded Plaintiffs punitive damages but no compensatory damages. Plaintiffs filed for attorneys' fees and costs to recover...  

The United States appeals the dismissal of an indictment charging false statements in naturalization proceedings. The basis for this dismissal was the district court's findings that the government engaged in deceptive conduct and outrageous tactics during these naturalization proceedings. The United States also appeals the suppression of statements made by the defendant on the basis of incompetent translation in the naturalization interview at which the statements were made. For the reasons...  

Raul Garza pleaded guilty of transporting an unlawful alien. He appeals the enhancement of his sentence according to U.S.S.G. § 2L1.1(b)(6) (2006) for creating a "substantial risk of death or serious bodily injury to another person." We vacate and remand for re-sentencing... ... ... I... In late April 2007, Captain L. Valadez, a Jim Wells County Sheriff's Deputy, stopped Garza's red pickup truck because of an obstructed license plate. Valadez observed a person in the front...  

Juan Carlos Fuentes-Oyervides pled guilty to an attempt to enter the United States illegally. He was sentenced to 37 months in prison and three years of supervised release. Fuentes-Oyervides appeals his sentence, arguing that it was improperly enhanced. We affirm... This conviction was under 8 U.S.C. § 1326. Under the Sentencing Guidelines, the offense level for unlawfully entering the United States is increased by twelve levels if the defendant was previously deported after being...  

Appellant Michael Wardlaw, Louisiana State prisoner # 190808, appeals from the district court's order dismissing his petition for a writ of habeas corpus as untimely under the one-year statute of limitations set forth in the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, 28 U.S.C. § 2254 ("AEDPA"). Although Wardlaw raises several arguments in his brief, including an argument that the limitations period should be equitably tolled, we granted a certificate of appealability...