Exhausted. The Second Circuit remanded a habeas corpus case to the District Court to consider whether threats made against the convict plaintiff by prison employees made the administrative grievance procedures unavailable to him or whether they estop the Bureau of Prisons from asserting the defense of failure to exhaust administrative remedies.

The decision in Marcias v. Zenk can be found here.

Certified Question. The Second Circuit has certified a question to the New York State Court of Appeals in Rivkin v. Century 21 Teran Realty. The certified question is:

Did any of the real estate brokers breach a fiduciary duty to the plaintiff, a potential buyer, by failing to disclose, in any form, the brokers' representation of a competing buyer for the property that the plaintiff sought to buy.

The decision can be found here.

Still Removable. The Second Circuit has held that an immigrant who has been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, which renders him removable under immigration law, may not evade removal from the United States by having the criminal court in which he was convicted amend the judgment to provide that he was convicted of a crime that would not render him removable.

The decision in Saleh v. Gonzalez can be found here.

Interesting article. Appellate advocates might want to check out the article "A View From the Cheap Seats: The Ten Top Tips for Appellate Lawyers From Law Clerks." It's from the Appellate Advocate, a publication of the Texas State Bar Appellate Section, but it's relevant to those located in the Second Circuit as well.

No Jurisdiction. The Second Circuit has held that it did not have appellate jurisdiction to hear an appeal from an order remanding a case to state court after the District Court had joined a party whose presence destroyed subject-matter jurisdiction. The Court also held that the collateral order doctrine did not allow the Court to review the District Court's joinder order.

The decision in Price v. J&H Marsh & McLennon, Inc. can be found here.

New Rule. A new rule on Disposition by Summary Orders has been enacted by the Second Circuit. The text of the rule can be found here.

Probate Exception. The Second Circuit has reinterpreted the probate exception, which provided that federal courts should not, in general, decide cases dealing with probate issues. The Court has held that a federal court should decline subject-matter jurisdiction only if a plaintiff seeks (1) to acheive to administer an estate, probate a will, or do any other purely probate matter or (2) to reach a res in the custody of a state court in federal court

The decision in Lefkowitz v. Bank of New York can be found here.