- 11 - On appeal, the test case petitioners represented by Izen argued that the trial of the test cases had been tainted by the Thompson and Cravens settlements. The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed, vacating the decisions in the remaining test cases and remanding them to this Court with directions “to conduct an evidentiary hearing to determine the full extent of the admitted wrong done by the government trial lawyers.” DuFresne v. Commissioner, 26 F.3d at 107. The Court of Appeals, citing Arizona v. Fulminante, 499 U.S. 279, 309 (1991), directed the Court to consider “whether the extent of misconduct rises to the level of a structural defect voiding the judgment as fundamentally unfair, or whether, despite the government’s misconduct, the judgment can be upheld as harmless error.” Id. Further, the Court of Appeals directed this Court to consider on the merits all motions of intervention filed by affected parties. See id. For purposes of the evidentiary hearing mandated by the Court of Appeals in DuFresne, and to give effect to the direction of the Court of Appeals regarding intervention, this Court ordered that the cases of 10 nontest case petitioners, one docket 7(...continued) attorneys, encompassing both the original project settlement offer (7-percent reductions) and other settlements obtained by DeCastro and by Chicoine and Hallett (on the order of 20-percent reductions).Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011