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June 19, 2013
Ex-Penn State Admins Lose Second Atty Privilege Appeal
The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Tuesday squashed a second appeal by two former Pennsylvania State University administrators who said a grand jury presentment relied on privileged attorney-client information and was defective, as they face charges for conspiring to cover up Jerry Sandusky's child abuse.
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June 19, 2013
Prius Owners Urge High Court To Reject Arbitration Appeal
Owners of Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius hybrids are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the company's bid to push their class action over alleged braking system defects into arbitration, saying they never entered into an arbitration agreement with the automaker.
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June 19, 2013
Mayer Brown Settles Claims It Aided $1.5B Refco Fraud
Mayer Brown LLP has agreed to pay an undisclosed amount to Refco Inc.’s bankruptcy trustee to settle claims the law firm aided a $1.5 billion fraud scheme that produced a flurry of criminal convictions, the parties said Tuesday in a Second Circuit filing.
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June 18, 2013
Specialty Products Wants $1B Asbestos Appeal In 3rd Circ.
Specialty Products Holding Corp. sought permission Tuesday to go directly to the Third Circuit with its appeal of a Delaware bankruptcy court's decision pegging its asbestos-related liability at $1.1 billion, saying a quick resolution of the issue has implications for its case and others.
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June 18, 2013
5 Arguments To Look For In Pay-For-Delay Cases
When the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that pay-for-delay deals may violate antitrust law, it largely left it up to the lower courts to figure out how to make the traditional rule-of-reason analysis work for the pharmaceutical patent settlements. Here are a few arguments to look out for as trial courts struggle to weigh the pros and cons of the controversial agreements.
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June 18, 2013
Women Still Have Legal Glass Ceilings To Shatter: Ginsburg
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told a group of judges and lawyers Tuesday that she has a direct response to those who wonder when the high court will have enough women on the bench: "When there are nine."
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June 18, 2013
Union Carbide Loses Bid To Reverse Calif. Asbestos Ruling
A California appeals court affirmed Tuesday that Union Carbide Corp. is liable for a deceased construction worker's mesothelioma, even though he suffered from a form of the disease typically associated with a type of asbestos not found in the company's product.
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June 18, 2013
2nd Circ. OKs Hedge Fund Execs' Bail In Insider Trading Case
The Second Circuit on Tuesday granted bail requests from Anthony Chiasson and Todd Newman, two hedge fund executives who allegedly inside traded in Dell Inc., ruling that they can remain free while they appeal their convictions.
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June 18, 2013
NJ Law Lets Gov. Call Special Elections, AG Tells High Court
New Jersey's attorney general on Tuesday urged the state's Supreme Court to block a challenge to Gov. Chris Christie's planned special election, saying the opposition relied on erroneous interpretations of election statutes and speculative worst-case-scenarios for which the state has contingency plans.
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June 18, 2013
Union Carbide Pushes 2nd Circ. To Kill Bhopal Suit
Union Carbide Corp. should not be found liable for pollution allegedly caused by an Indian subsidiary, its lawyers told the Second Circuit Tuesday, asking the appeals court to kill a lawsuit brought by residents of Bhopal, India.
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June 18, 2013
AIG Need Not Cover Developer's $14M Blunder, 9th Circ. Says
The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday freed an American International Group Inc. excess insurer from covering the bulk of a $14 million arbitration award against a real estate developer over botched construction of a bar in downtown Los Angeles.
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June 18, 2013
DC Circ. Affirms Ban On Polar Bear Trophy Imports
The D.C. Circuit ruled Tuesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was well within its rights to block the importation of polar bear trophies after listing the bear as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.
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June 18, 2013
Texas Appeals Court Revives Suit Over Gas Delivery Deal
A Texas appeals court on Tuesday revived an energy developer’s suit against Kachina Pipeline Co. Inc., ruling that the pipeline operator improperly tried to extend a contract to supply natural gas while withholding unauthorized marketing costs.
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June 18, 2013
7th Circ. Nixes Ex-Navistar Workers’ Suit Over Nonunion Hires
A group of former Navistar Inc. workers lost their bid Tuesday to revive a suit alleging the engine manufacturer fired them in favor of nonunion subcontractors, when the Seventh Circuit ruled their required companion claims against their union were insufficient.
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June 18, 2013
Online Travel Cos. Ask Top Fla. Court To Pass On Bed Tax Row
A group of online travel companies on Monday urged the Florida Supreme Court to not take up an appeal by Florida counties of a ruling in favor of the online booking sites over how to apply the state's bed tax.
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June 18, 2013
Novo Diabetes Drug Patent Is Obvious, Fed. Circ. Rules
The Federal Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a lower court's ruling that a patent covering Novo Nordisk A/S' diabetes treatment Prandin is invalid as obvious, handing a victory to generics makers Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. and Paddock Laboratories Inc.
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June 18, 2013
9th Circ. Awards US $20M In 'Girls Gone Wild' Tax Row
The Ninth Circuit on Tuesday ruled that Rothwell Ltd. must surrender $20 million from a securities account to the Internal Revenue Service because it is the account's caretaker for “Girls Gone Wild” founder Joe Francis, who owes the U.S. government millions of dollars in unpaid taxes.
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June 18, 2013
2nd Circ. Says Insurer Owes Olin $14M In Pollution Coverage
The Second Circuit on Tuesday upheld a ruling that Olin Corp.’s former insurer must pay $13.8 million to cover class actions over groundwater contamination near a California plant, finding the policies covered claims for homes that were constructed after the policies expired.
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June 18, 2013
Law Firm's Arbitration Clause Doesn't Cover Age Bias Claims
A New Jersey appellate panel Tuesday agreed to bifurcate certain claims against a law firm accused of discriminating against an older attorney, sending claims of alleged breach of contract to arbitration while leaving the discrimination claims to be tried in court.
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June 18, 2013
KBR Tells Fed. Circ. CFC Erred In Denying $12.5M Cost Award
KBR Inc. on Monday urged the Federal Circuit to reverse a ruling which denied it the full $12.5 million in costs it allegedly incurred in connection with an Iraq War food service contract, arguing the trial court didn’t apply a proper reasonableness standard to evaluating costs.
Expert Analysis
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Evaluating Pay-For-Delay Deals After FTC V. Actavis
Following the U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision in Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis, anticipation of potentially extensive litigation under a full-blown rule-of-reason approach may affect the characteristics of reverse payment settlements and whether the parties choose to settle at all, say Rahul Guha, Sally Woodhouse, Carlos Brain and Anna Taub of Cornerstone Research, and William Cavanaugh of Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP.
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What We Learned From High Court's Driver Privacy Ruling
The U.S. Supreme Court's June 17 decision in Maracich v. Spears will be significant for lawyers who use motor vehicle records in investigating their cases. It also offers some insights into the justices’ approaches to statutory interpretation and their views on large damages awards, says Eric Miller of Perkins Coie LLP.
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The Grapes Of Wrath Crack High Court Precedent
In the unanimous opinion of Horne v. Department of Agriculture, the U.S. Supreme Court recently held that California raisin handlers could assert a takings claim as an affirmative defense to an enforcement action filed by the United States. The decision is noteworthy as it potentially represents a crack in prior Supreme Court precedent through which a swarm of regulatory takings claims may flood, say attorneys with Nossaman LLP.
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4th Circ. Could Guide Courts On Constitutional FCA Fines
At oral argument in Bunk v. Gosselin World Wide Moving, a Fourth Circuit panel focused on what number should be analyzed to evaluate the constitutionality of a fine under the False Claims Act and what is the right remedy if a court determines that a fine is constitutionally excessive. The decision will have the potential to greatly affect the amount that FCA defendants who successfully raise constitutional objections will have to pay, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.
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High Court Brings Economics Back To Pay-For-Delay Analysis
In its much-anticipated decision in Federal Trade Commission v. Actavis Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court rejected both the “scope of the patent” approach to analysis of pay-for-delay deals and the FTC’s proposed presumption of illegality, putting the question squarely back where it belongs — on rigorous analysis of the economic effects of the settlement agreement at issue, say Sumanth Addanki, Alan Daskin and Christine Meyer of NERA Economic Consulting.
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How Flexible Flyer Slipped Past The WARN Act
Interestingly, though the Fifth Circuit in In re Flexible Flyer based its analysis on the WARN Act's "unforeseen business circumstance" exception, the factors that the court considered had more to do with the company's "good faith, well-grounded hope and reasonable expectations." This suggests that, at least from the Fifth Circuit's perspective, the WARN Act is also meant to encourage companies to take reasonable actions to preserve the company and jobs, say Amy Vanderwal and George Klidonas of Baker & Hostetler LLP.
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Medhi Ali V. Federal Insurance Isn't So Devastating
Commentators are chalking up the Second Circuit's decision in Medhi Ali v. Federal Insurance Co. as a major victory for insurers, claiming that policyholders lost a key precedent used to argue that an excess insurer must “drop down” to cover losses below its attachment point. But not so fast — there are several reasons why the ruling isn't as devastating as some claim, says Erica Villanueva, Farella Braun & Martel LLP
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Another Usury Exemption For California Lenders
When Californians first passed an initiative precluding the charging of “usurious” interest in 1918, they could hardly have imagined the ever-more sophisticated schemes and exceptions allowing lenders to charge interest exponentially higher than the stated maximum rate of 10 percent. In Bock v. California Capital Loan Inc., a California Court of Appeal recently introduced yet another exception to a seemingly simple prohibition, say Brian Lauter and Mark Madnick of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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CLS Bank Ruling Won't Have Much Impact On Practitioners
The Federal Circuit's recent decision in CLS Bank Int’l v. Alice Corp. does not help clear things up on the issue of subject matter eligibility, but it doesn't obfuscate things any further either. While this opinion clearly highlights the need for further guidance from either Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court, little has changed for those seeking to obtain patent protection on computer implemented methods, say Guy Gosnell and Jim Carroll of Alston & Bird LLP.
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Analysis In 1st AIA Ruling Should Have Gone Deeper
The Patent Trial and Appeal Board should be applauded for its timeliness and its willingness to make some clear statements in its first written decision in a covered business method review under the America Invents Act, SAP America Inc. v. Versata Development Group Inc. But this was a missed opportunity to clarify Section 101 validity issues, says Susan Pan of Sughrue Mion PLLC.