U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 2006

The court reversed the denial of benefits for the period before September 7, 1998, because the ALJ inadequately explained the adverse credibility finding, failed to account for the claimant’s son’s lay testimony, and consequently relied on an inadequate vocational-expert hypothetical.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a Rule 54(b) final judgment requiring AmerisourceBergen to pay Dialysist West approximately $2.2 million for genuine non-Epogen pharmaceuticals, holding that Ariz. Rev. Stat.

The Ninth Circuit held that the ALJ’s failure to explain the rejection of competent lay testimony favorable to Stout was not harmless because a reasonable ALJ crediting that testimony could have reached a different disability determination.

The Ninth Circuit denied Zehatye’s petition for review, holding that substantial evidence supported the agency’s conclusion that she had not established past persecution or an objectively well-founded fear of future persecution on account of her religion.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the order unsealing most records filed in a civil action alleging police corruption. It held that records attached to dispositive motions are presumptively accessible unless the party seeking secrecy shows compelling reasons, while records attached to non-dispositive motions may remain…

The Ninth Circuit affirmed remand of the workers’ mass action because CAFA did not shift the burden of establishing removal jurisdiction from the removing defendant, and Dow did not show that any plaintiff satisfied the individual amount-in-controversy requirement.

The Ninth Circuit held that the evidence could allow a jury to find that the County’s inadequate training and failure to adopt general medical-care policies amounted to deliberate indifference and caused the death of a jail inmate.

The court reversed summary judgment on Jett’s Eighth Amendment claims because the evidence, viewed in his favor, could support findings that the prison medical staff and administrators knew of his need for orthopedic treatment and were deliberately indifferent to it.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's affirmance of the termination of a minor child's Supplemental Security Income benefits following a continuing-disability review that found medical improvement.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court in all respects. Resolving a question of first impression in the circuit, it held that an LLC, like a partnership, is a citizen of every state of which its owners/members are citizens; because no member of Columbia's two LLC partners was an Alaska citizen, complete…