Biography
RETIRED MEMBER IN GOOD STANDING
The Virginia State Bar (1985)
The District of Columbia Bar (1982)
The Alabama State Bar (1971) (special membership status)
REPORTED CASES FOR CLEVELAND THORNTON
Federal Circuit Court Decisions.
1. Geoplex Corp. v. CACI, Inc., 911 F.2d 722 (4th Cir, 1990)(Unpublished Opinion)
Anti-Trust and business tort action involving conspiracy by CACI and certain individuals to put Geoplex Corporation out of business.
2. Dahn v. District of Columbia, 865 F.2d 1257 (4th Cir, 1988)
Action for wrongful death by the plaintiff against the District of Columbia, where an escaped convict from a halfway house murdered the plaintiff’s wife while she worked as a cashier at a gasoline station in Virginia.
3. Sierra Club v. Hassell, 636 F.2d 1095 (5th Cir. 1981).a
Plaintiff sued to stop the construction of a bridge from the mainland to Dauphin Island, Alabama. The bridge had been destroyed by Hurricane Frederick. The Department of Transportation was rebuilding the bridge using disaster relief money. Plaintiff claimed that because the bridge was much larger and did not have a draw bridge that the destroyed bridge had, Dauphin Island, which is an occupied barrier island, would be destroyed. DOT countered that the bridge had to be built to 1980 standards, not the 1930 standards of the destroyed bridge and that the claimed environmental harm would not occur. In addition, DOT claimed that existing local environmental laws would prevent any harm the existence of the rebuilt bridge might cause.
4. Brantley v. Union Bank & Trust Company, 498 F.2d 365 (5th Cir. 1974).
Suit to declare unconstitutional the self-help repossession statute under Alabama’s Uniform Commercial Code.
5. U.S. v. Varner, 467 F.2d 659 (5th Cir. 1972).
Mandamus action against a U.S. District Court Judge.
Federal District Court Decisions
6. TFOR LLC v. Virtustream, Inc. (E.D. Va., 2017)
Suit to recover invention plaintiff claimed was misappropriated and for other relief. Case settled. The plaintiff recovered his invention and obtained a worldwide patent.
7. Independent U.S. Tanker Owners Committee v. Dole, 620 F. Supp. 1289 (D.D.C. 1985).
Suit by independent owners and operators of ocean going vessels challenging a rule by Secretary of Transportation that would allow subsidized vessels to enter the domestic shipping market if subsidies were repaid.
8. Sea-Land Service, Inc. v. Dole, 596 F. Supp. 1143 (D.D.C. 1984)
Suit to declare order of Secretary of Transportation that allowed American Presidential Lines to carry cargo between Dutch Harbor, Alaska, and Vancouver, British Columbia, arbitrary and capricious and an abuse of discretion.
9. U.S. v. State of Conn., 566 F. Supp. 571 (D. Conn, 1983).
Suit by United States for an injunction barring Connecticut from enforcing a statute that prohibited trailers on Connecticut highways. Injunction granted. Tandem trailers were authorized by Surface Transportation Act and Congress exercised its legitimate authority under the commerce clause.
10. National Tank Truck Carriers v. Lewis, 550 F. Supp. 113 (D.D.C. 1982).
Suit to invalidate rule requiring certain amounts of insurance on tank trucks that carry gasoline. The complaint was dismissed for the lack of standing of the plaintiff.
11. Sierra Club v. Hassell, 503 F. Supp. 552 (S.D. Ala. 1980).
See the description under Circuit Court opinion, above.
12. U.S. v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 455 F. Supp. 1072 (D.D. C. 1978)
One of several cases involving the recall of the Firestone 500 tires, until that time, the largest recall of safety defective automobile parts in U.S. history. This resulted in a change of statute by Congress. Firestone’s actions during recall were studied at Harvard Business School.
13. Pollard v. United States, 69 F.R.D. 646 (M.D. Ala, 1976)
Suit against the government for carrying on a secret experiment of untreated syphilis on black persons in Alabama. The Federal Government, through the U.S. Health Services, and Tuskegee Institute, conducted an experiment on black men to determine the course of syphilis that was latent and left untreated. The black men were uneducated and from a poor and rural part of Alabama. The true nature of the study was kept from these men. The study started about 1930 and ended only when a story of the study was published in the New York Times in 1972. A book has been written and a movie made of this study.
14. Snowden v. Birmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority, 407 F. Supp. 394 (N.D. Ala., 1975)
Suit under certain statutes that govern the Urban Mass Transportation Administration and under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act to make new buses purchased by Transit Authority accessible to persons in wheel chairs.
15. Pollard v. U.S., 384 F. Supp. 204 (M.D. Ala, 1974).
See the description above.
17. Baker v. Keeble, 362 F. Supp. 355 (M.D. Ala, 1973).
Suit to declare Alabama’s self-help repossession statute under UCC unconstitutional.
16. Yates v. Sears Roebuck & Co., 362 F. Supp. 520 (M. D. Ala., 1973).
Suit to declare Alabama’s self-help repossession statute under UCC unconstitutional.
17. Wyatt v. Stickney, 344 F. Supp. 373 (M.D. Ala., 1972).
Suit by patients at Alabama’s mental health hospital who were confined against their will to require the state to provide appropriate treatment for their mental illness or to release them. The first case to declare that there is a constitutional right to treatment. This was a landmark case in this area.
19. Wyatt v. Stickney, 344 F. Supp. 387 (M.D. Ala.. 1972)
See the description, above.
State Court Decisions
20. Lapesarde v. State, 54 Ala. App. 654, 312 So.2d 60 (Ala. Cr. App., 1975)
Mandamus action to require State to give defendant preliminary hearing before indictment.
22. Ross v. State, 54 Ala. App. 730, 312 So. 2d 61 (Ala. Cr. App., 1975).
Appeal of criminal conviction.
Administrative Cases.
21. Atlas Van Lines, Inc. – Pooling, 127 MCC 799 (ICC 1983).
Proceeding involving question of whether certain pooling arrangements between a carrier principal and exclusively noncarrier-agent are subject to ICC jurisdiction. Represented DOT in the presentation of its policy views.
22. Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company, Debtor (Williams Gibbons, Trustee) – Abandonment – Entire System, 363 I.C.C. 150 (1980).
Proceeding to decide whether the Rock Island and Pacific Railroad Company Trustee should be permitted to abandon all lines and discontinue all operations. Represented the views of the Department of Transportation.
Other Publications
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Access to Over-the-Road Buses for Persons With Disabilities, OTA-SET-547 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, May 1993). (Contract with OTA for legal background on legal issues involved in the study).
Mark D. Rasch & Cleveland Thornton, E-Commerce and the Law, Sequoia Professional Development Corporation, (2001).
Cleveland Thornton, The Year 2000 Problem, Sequoia Professional Development Corporation, (1999)
Debunking the Myths of ATRI’s “Nuclear Verdict” Report
A Factual Response to Exaggeration, Inaccuracy and Misinformation Contained in the American Trucking Research Institute’s Report Understanding the Impact of Nuclear Verdictson the Trucking Industry “ (Truck Safety Coalition, 2021 (Contributing Author)