Vallejos v Commissioner of Registration
Throughout the rest of October and November, Lam heard arguments and delivered judgments in two further FDH residence cases, namely "Irene R. Domingo and Daniel L. Domingo v. Commissioner of Registration" (HCAL 127 and 128/2010) and "Josephine B. Gutierrez and Joseph James Gutierrez v. Commissioner of Registration" (HCAL 136 and 137/2010). Among those applicants, only Daniel Domingo was found to have satisfied the "ordinary residence" requirement entitling him to apply for permanent residence; Lam found that Domingo's wife Irene's period of ordinary residence was interrupted by a period of overstay in which she remained in Hong Kong without the authority of the Director of Immigration. He separately ruled that Josephine Gutierrez had not taken positive steps to establish Hong Kong as her only place of permanent residence, meaning that she and her son Joseph James were not entitled to apply for permanent residence either.
United States v. Dominguez Benitez
Benitez appealed his conviction and sentencing to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing that the District Court's failure to comply with all of the required Rule 11 warnings was ground for reversal. A three-judge panel of the court consisting of Circuit Judges James R. Browning, Stephen Reinhardt, and Richard C. Tallman voted 2-1 to reverse his conviction and sentence. The court's opinion was written by Judge Browning, and the dissent by Judge Tallman.