Author: Nerd Bot

**Trustee Sells Family Assets to Himself, Court Slams Door** In a bitter family feud, New Jersey’s Appellate Division upheld a trial court’s crushing judgment against Keith Friberg, who as trustee of his late mother’s irrevocable Friberg Family 2016 Trust sold trust properties—including a Florida home to himself for $10—and pocketed $856,592 in New Jersey sale…

**Tax Court Crushes Real Estate Broker’s Crypto-Like Tax Dodge** New Jersey Tax Court ruled January 14, 2026, that a real estate broker’s commissions—reported as independent contractor business income—must be reclassified as employee wages, upholding a $7,288 tax bill against the Estate of Michael Monihan. The decision slams the door on using real estate licensing agreements…

**Banker Denied Unemployment Over Boss Beef – No Crypto Link** Pennsylvania court slams door on ex-banker’s unemployment claim, ruling her quit over manager clashes doesn’t qualify as “necessitous and compelling.” Renita Perseo bailed from Firstrust Savings Bank without HR complaints or transfer requests, dooming her benefits bid. This unreported decision reinforces strict rules on voluntary…

**PA Court Backs Cops on DUI Stops, No Crypto Link** Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court just upheld a driver’s license suspension in a routine DUI refusal case, affirming that cops need only “reasonable grounds” – not ironclad proof – to demand blood tests under the Implied Consent Law. Nathan Sanderson lost his appeal after flunking field sobriety…

**Pennsylvania Court Slams Door on Late Unemployment Appeal** A Pennsylvania court just crushed a woman’s bid for unemployment benefits, upholding the dismissal of her appeal filed seven months past deadline. Lisa Yozwiak missed the 21-day window to challenge her disqualification notice from August 2023, and judges ruled ignorance of separate appeal rules doesn’t excuse it….

**Court Quashes Property Owner’s Desperate Tax Sale Gambit** Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court just slammed the door on Lawrence Owens’ bid to halt a city tax sale of his nuisance-plagued property, quashing his appeal as procedurally defective. This ruling underscores how local governments can bulldoze repeat offenders’ procedural tricks, potentially chilling similar challenges nationwide. For crypto holders…

Tennessee Judge Slams DCS: Parental Rights Fight Heats Up Over Drug Rehab Failures In a fiery dissent from Tennessee’s Court of Appeals, Judge Andy D. Bennett blasts the Department of Children’s Services (DCS) for half-hearted efforts to reunify a drug-using family, urging remand instead of terminating parental rights to baby Juanita M. Mother pled guilty…

Tennessee Appeals Court Upholds Meth-Exposed Child’s Parental Rights Termination A Tennessee appeals court affirmed the stripping of parental rights from a mother and father whose toddler tested positive for methamphetamine, citing persistent drug use, severe child abuse via exposure, and failure to prove custody readiness. This ruling, despite parents completing some rehab steps, underscores state…

Texas High Court Torpedoes Sloppy Default Judgment on Service Flub The Texas Supreme Court just obliterated a $170,000 default judgment against Alabama mover Shamrock Enterprises because plaintiff Top Notch Movers botched substituted service via the Secretary of State. Service hit a wrong address—not the statutorily mandated “most recent address on file”—dooming the no-answer ruling despite…

**Texas High Court Torpedoes “Gotcha” Default Judgments** Texas Supreme Court just vacated a default judgment against an Alabama mover because the plaintiff half-assed service of process, ignoring known addresses, emails, and phones after certified mail bounced back undelivered. This isn’t just procedural nitpicking—it’s a constitutional gut-punch demanding real notice before stripping someone’s rights, with Chief…

### Kazakh Tycoon’s RICO Bid Crushed Over Foreign Injury A Kazakh businessman’s desperate U.S. lawsuit alleging torture and racketeering to seize his $450M energy empire was shot down by the Second Circuit, shielding Kazakhstan’s spy agency and accomplices. The ruling clarifies RICO’s ironclad domestic-injury barrier, slamming the door on foreign fraud schemes chasing U.S. treble…

**Drug Smuggler Walks Free on Technicality** The Second Circuit just tossed a jury’s drug conviction of airport mechanic Paul Belloisi, ruling prosecutors failed to prove he knew cocaine—not just some contraband—was stashed in a plane’s avionics bay at JFK. Belloisi admitted sneaking into the compartment for something shady, but the court demanded ironclad evidence he…