United States v. Ligon

Opinion

UNPUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff-Appellee,

v. No. 99-4500

THOMAS H. LIGON, Defendant-Appellant.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, at Norfolk. Jerome B. Friedman, District Judge. (CR-97-131)

Submitted: March 28, 2000

Decided: April 17, 2000

Before WILLIAMS and MICHAEL, Circuit Judges, and HAMILTON, Senior Circuit Judge.

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Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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COUNSEL

Paul A. Driscoll, PENDER & COWARD, P.C., Virginia Beach, Vir- ginia, for Appellant. Mark A. Exley, Assistant United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee.

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Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit. See Local Rule 36(c). OPINION

PER CURIAM:

Thomas H. Ligon pled guilty to embezzling union funds in viola- tion of 29 U.S.C. § 501(c) (1994). The district court sentenced Ligon to a ten-month term of imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release and ordered restitution in the amount of $16,000. We affirmed Ligon's conviction, dismissed the appeal of his prison sentence, vacated the district court's restitution order, and remanded for the court to make explicit findings with regard to Ligon's ability to pay the amount of restitution ordered. See United States v. Ligon, No. 98-4230 (4th Cir. Dec. 15, 1998) (unpublished).

On remand, the district court considered Ligon's ability to pay and ordered Ligon to pay restitution in the amount of $5050. Ligon appeals, contending that the district court abused its discretion in ordering him to pay $5050, given his financial resources. We have reviewed the briefs, the joint appendices, and the district court's order imposing $5050 in restitution and find no abuse of discretion.* See United States v. Blake, 81 F.3d 498, 505 (4th Cir. 1996) (stating standard of review). We therefore affirm the district court's resentenc- ing order.

We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal conten- tions are adequately presented in the materials before the court and argument would not aid the decisional process.

AFFIRMED _________________________________________________________________

*The government argues on appeal that the law-of-the-case doctrine should not preclude us from revisiting our prior decision. Because we find that there was no manifest injustice in this case, the government has not established an exception to the law-of-the-case doctrine. See United States v. Aramony, 166 F.3d 655, 661 (4th Cir.) (discussing doctrine and exceptions), cert. denied, 119 S. Ct. 2022 (1999); United States v. Becerra, 155 F.3d 740, 754-56 (5th Cir. 1998) (rejecting government's attempt to show manifest injustice where government for first time on appeal after remand introduced new evidence that it had opportunity to present to prior panel).