February 2016 Federal Civil Practice Newsletter

Plaintiff filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the State of Wisconsin’s exemption under the National Voter Registration Act provision that requires entities to make available records pertaining to the accuracy and currency of official lists of eligible voters. Wisconsin is one of a few state that are exempt because it permits same-day polling-place registration. Because of the exemption, Wisconsin made the requested records available under state records law and charged a maximum fee for copying and redacted voters’ birth information. The district court dismissed the case and the Seventh Circuit affirmed. (EASTERBROOK, concurring and BRENNAN, specially concurring)

The Seventh Circuit considered whether a defendant in a class action lawsuit waived its right to compel arbitration of disputes with putative class members. The district court had found waiver because the defendant acted inconsistently with a desire to arbitrate prior to the certification of the class. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding that the district court did not commit clear error and that the district court properly considered pre-certification conduct in reaching its conclusion. (JACKSON-AKIWUMI and MALDONADO, concurring)

Plaintiff filed a lawsuit against defendants for fraud, breach of warranty, and products liability for alleged defects to a city-owned convention center’s exterior walls. After filing the initial lawsuit, plaintiff added a subcontractor as an additional defendant and, eight months after adding the subcontractor, plaintiff informed the district court it wanted to arbitrate its dispute with the subcontractor. The district court denied plaintiff's motion for arbitration and plaintiff appealed. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding that the district court did not commit clear error in concluding that the plaintiff waived whatever right it possessed to arbitrate its dispute with the subcontractor when it filed the lawsuit without asserting that right. (ST. EVE and PRYOR, concurring)

Plaintiff filed a lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that corrections officers deprived him of his Fourteenth Amendment rights when they failed to provide him with medial attention during the Covid-19 pandemic. The district court granted summary judgment for the defendants by finding that plaintiff failed to exhaust his administrative remedies. The Seventh Circuit reversed and remanded, finding that plaintiff had raised a genuine dispute of material fact as to whether the grievance appeals process was available to him. (ROVNER and KOLAR, concurring)

In a lawsuit where the parties were engaged in a joint venture and where plaintiff alleged that the defendants misappropriated trade secrets and breached their fiduciary duty, the Seventh Circuit considered whether the district court erred when it denied defendant’s motion to compel arbitration. Because the plaintiff did not sign the joint venture agreement that contained the arbitration clause, defendants argued that the doctrine of direct benefits estoppel applied. The Seventh Circuit affirmed, finding that plaintiff could not be bound to the contract’s arbitration clause because he was not a party to the contract and because there was no detrimental reliance as is required to establish equitable estoppel. (RIPPLE and LEE, concurring)