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Appellate
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May 22, 2024
Inventor To Take $102M IP Malpractice Row To Ga. High Court
A neurosurgeon pursuing a nearly $102 million legal malpractice case against FisherBroyles LLP and a legal services contractor over a missed patent filing deadline said Wednesday that he is planning to take the dispute to the highest court in the Peach State.
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May 22, 2024
Ga. Lender Asks Panel To Free It From Unsolicited Check Case
A Georgia lending institution asked the Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday to reverse a trial court's decision not to free it from a lawsuit alleging it violated the Georgia Fair Business Practices Act by sending out an unsolicited live check that was stolen and cashed by an unknown party.
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May 22, 2024
Record Co. Worker Can't Appeal Before Nirvana Logo Trial
A former record company employee who claims he created Nirvana's "smiley face" logo can't immediately appeal a ruling denying his ownership claim or delay trial in the band's copyright suit against designer Marc Jacobs International LLC over the logo, a California federal judge has ruled.
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May 22, 2024
9th Circ. Denies States' Bid To Weigh In On Asylum Limits
A split Ninth Circuit on Wednesday denied several states' motion to intervene in the Biden administration's bid to settle a lawsuit challenging a rule limiting asylum, saying the states lack interests warranting their involvement in settlement negotiations.
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May 22, 2024
Justices' CFPB Alliance May Save SEC Courts, Not Chevron
A four-justice concurrence to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision upholding the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's unique funding scheme last week carries implications for other cases pending before the court that challenge the so-called administrative state, or the permanent cadre of regulatory agencies and career government enforcers who hold sway over vast swaths of American economic life.
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May 22, 2024
1st Circ. Affirms UBS Win In Puerto Rico Pension Fight
The First Circuit said public pensioners in Puerto Rico can't advance their claims that UBS Financial Services illegally underwrote $3 billion in bonds, ruling that the island's financial restructuring plan transferred the right to those claims to a special committee.
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May 22, 2024
Energy Contractor Can't Get Quick Appeal In 401(k) Suit
A Texas federal judge refused to allow an energy contractor to immediately appeal a decision declining to dismiss a proposed class action accusing it of stacking its retirement plan with underperforming funds, saying allowing the Fifth Circuit to weigh in now would only slow down the litigation.
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May 22, 2024
Ill. Justices Weigh Zurich's Right To Recover $3M Flood Loss
The Illinois Supreme Court weighed Wednesday whether Zurich American Insurance Co. can recoup $3 million from a subcontractor for water damage repair costs the insurer paid to a general contractor despite Zurich filing suit on behalf of a different insured.
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May 22, 2024
Justices Urged To Undo 'Nonsensical' Double Patenting Ruling
Cellect LLC asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the "nonsensical" invalidation of its patents through so-called obviousness-type double patenting, alleging the Federal Circuit "punished" it for delays in the patent prosecution process that were outside of its control.
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May 22, 2024
Ga. Hospital Says Own Bylaws Are Not Grounds For Suit
Counsel for a major Georgia hospital urged a state appellate court Wednesday to shut down a lawsuit from a doctor who said the medical center poached his patients, arguing that the hospital gets to "enjoy broad authority" about whom its doctors treat.
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May 22, 2024
Developer Had No Duty To Verify Flood Model, Court Hears
A Houston-area developer indicated before a state appeals court Wednesday that the consequences of entering a judgment in favor of more than 400 homeowners whose properties flooded during Hurricane Harvey would be catastrophic, as their claims boil down to the developer's alleged failure to double-check modeling conducted by an outside consultant.
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May 22, 2024
New Bill Calls For High Court To Explain Emergency Rulings
A coalition of Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill Wednesday that would require the U.S. Supreme Court to provide vote tallies and explanations for decisions in most cases on its elusive emergency docket.
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May 22, 2024
GOP State Leaders Tell Justices Mexico Can't Sue Gunmakers
Republican attorneys general of 26 states plus the Arizona Legislature have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a First Circuit decision that revived a lawsuit filed by the Mexican government seeking to hold the firearms industry responsible for drug cartel violence due to weapons trafficked across the border.
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May 22, 2024
Mo. Court Upholds Dentist's Malpractice Trial Win
A patient who sued a St. Louis-area dentist over alleged injuries she suffered during removal of her wisdom teeth can't upend a jury verdict in favor of the surgeon, a Missouri appeals court ruled, saying the trial court was right to deny efforts to impeach a witness on nonessential issues.
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May 22, 2024
WeChat Users Must Arbitrate Privacy Row, Calif. Panel Says
California appellate justices said Monday that WeChat users must arbitrate their proposed class action accusing Tencent of using politically motivated practices to censor their communications, saying plaintiffs can't argue they never agreed to terms of service with the arbitration provision while also basing their complaint on those same terms of service.
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May 22, 2024
NC Panel Revives Retention Claim In Faulty Back Surgery Suit
A North Carolina appeals court has revived a family's negligent retention claim against a clinic over a doctor who was ousted from the profession for unnecessary and faulty surgeries, finding the claim does not fall under the state's four-year statute of repose for medical malpractice claims.
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May 22, 2024
NJ Panel Revives Town IT Chief's Whistleblower Suit
A New Jersey trial court wrongly granted summary judgment to the Borough of Ridgefield in a whistleblower suit claiming wrongful termination, an appeals panel ruled Wednesday, saying the lower court too readily accepted the municipality's argument that the firing was for economic reasons.
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May 22, 2024
Pa. Justices To Say If Building Co-Owner Is 'Indispensable'
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania will take up an appeal over whether the co-owner of a rental property who doesn't handle its operation is nonetheless an "indispensable party" whose omission was fatal to a tenant's slip-and-fall lawsuit.
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May 22, 2024
NY Judicial Nominee Defends Record Amid GOP Criticism
A judicial nominee for a New York federal court stood by her ruling allowing an inmate convicted of sex offenses to transfer from a male to female prison, amid concerns from Republicans that led to some dramatics Wednesday in a congressional hearing room.
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May 22, 2024
EPA Urges Justices To Keep Ozone Fight In DC Circ.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to keep seven consolidated challenges to the EPA's decision disapproving Utah's and Oklahoma's air quality plans in the D.C. Circuit.
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May 22, 2024
Del. Supreme Court Affirms AMC Shareholder Settlement
Delaware's Supreme Court declared Wednesday that there shall be no sequel to the drama from common stockholders of AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. who objected to a class settlement of litigation in the state's Chancery Court.
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May 22, 2024
Calif. Court Rejects Arbitration Pact Stacked Against Workers
The arbitration pact an eyeglass retailer provided to a former employee was procedurally and substantively unconscionable and therefore unenforceable, a California state appeals court ruled, affirming a trial court's decision in a worker's wage and hour suit.
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May 22, 2024
BofA Deserves Tax Refunds On Merger Interest, 4th Circ. Told
The IRS should not have been allowed to keep the interest paid on 23 years' worth of tax underpayments by seven companies that merged into Bank of America, the company told the Fourth Circuit, arguing that the underpayments should be offset by overpayments under merger law.
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May 21, 2024
Questions Abound As Fed. Circ. Scraps Design Patent Tests
By discarding established tests for proving that design patents are invalid as obvious Tuesday, the full Federal Circuit has opened the door for new invalidity arguments and created uncertainty by not providing much guidance on how courts should evaluate them, attorneys said.
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May 21, 2024
Texas Panel Says Mallory Ruling Has No Home There
A Texas appellate court has upheld a ruling preventing a Dallas car repair services company from litigating a trade secrets case there against a Michigan rival over allegedly hiring away a former executive, holding that the U.S. Supreme Court's Mallory decision last year doesn't do much in Texas.
Expert Analysis
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Patent Damages Jury Verdicts Aren't Always End Of The Story
Recent outcomes demonstrate that patent damages jury verdicts are often challenged and are overturned approximately one-third of the time, and successful verdict challenges typically occur at the appellate level and concern patent validity and infringement, say James Donohue and Marie Sanyal at Charles River.
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Justices' Title VII Ruling Requires Greater Employer Vigilance
The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Muldrow v. St. Louis ruling expands the types of employment decisions that can be challenged under Title VII, so employers will need to carefully review decisions that affect a term, condition or privilege of employment, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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End Of Acquitted Conduct Sentencing Can Spark More Reform
The U.S. Sentencing Commission’s recent end to factoring acquitted conduct into federal sentences could signal the start of a more constitutionally sound advisory scheme, but Congress and the Supreme Court must first authorize the commission to resolve two constitutional errors baked into its guidelines, say Mark Allenbaugh at SentencingStats.com and Alan Ellis at the Law Offices of Alan Ellis.
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NY Tax Talk: Primary Function Is Key Analysis For Sales Tax
Two sales tax cases recently decided by New York's Appellate Division illustrate why both taxpayers and the state's Department of Revenue subscribe to the primary function test, a logical way to determine whether business transactions are subject to sales tax, say Elizabeth Cha and Jeremy Gove at Eversheds Sutherland.
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Notable Q1 Updates In Insurance Class Actions
Mark Johnson and Mathew Drocton at BakerHostetler discuss notable insurance class action decisions from the first quarter of the year ranging from salvage vehicle titling to rate discrimination based on premium-setting software.
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Why High Court May Have Rejected IP Obviousness Appeal
Attorneys at Womble Bond analyze possible reasons the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Vanda Pharmaceuticals' request to review the Federal Circuit’s reasonable expectation of success standard for determining obviousness, including that the court was unpersuaded by the company's argument that Amgen v. Sanofi places a bind on drug developers.
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Opinion
Time To Fix NYC's Broken Property Assessment System
A New York appellate court's decision to revive Tax Equity Now New York v. City of New York may force the city to revamp its outdated and unfair real estate tax assessment system, which could be fixed with a couple of simple changes, says Seth Feldman at Romer Debbas.
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Ill. Justices' Ruling Answers Corporate Defamation Questions
The Illinois Supreme Court's recent unanimous decision in Project44 v. FourKites provides needed certainty and direction for lower courts considering defamation cases involving communications to corporate officers from third parties outside the corporation, which could result in fewer unwarranted motions to dismiss in trial courts and nonmeritorious appeals, says Phillip Zisook at Schoenberg Finkel.
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As Arbitrator Bias Claims Rise, Disclosure Standards Evolve
The growth in post-award challenges based on arbitrators' alleged conflicts of interest has led to the release of new guidance and new case law on the topic — both supporting the view that professional familiarity alone does not translate to a lack of impartiality, say attorneys at Skadden.
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6th Circ. Bias Ruling Shows Job Evaluations Are Key Defense
In Wehrly v. Allstate, the Sixth Circuit recently declined to revive a terminated employee’s federal and state religious discrimination and retaliation claims, illustrating that an employer’s strongest defense in such cases is a documented employment evaluation history that justifies an adverse action, says Michael Luchsinger at Segal Mccambridge.
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Social Media Free Speech Issues Are Trending At High Court
The U.S. Supreme Court's recent decision examining what constitutes state action on social media can be viewed in conjunction with oral arguments in two other cases to indicate that the court sees a need for more clarity regarding how social media usage implicates the First Amendment, say attorneys at Kean Miller.
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The Fed. Circ. In April: Hurdles Remain For Generics
The Federal Circuit’s recent Salix v. Norwich ruling — where Salix's brand-name drug's patents were invalidated — is a reminder to patent practitioners that invalidating a competitor's patents may not guarantee abbreviated new drug application approval, say Sean Murray and Jeremiah Helm at Knobbe Martens.
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Bankruptcy Ruling Shifts Lease Rejection Claim Calculation
A New York federal court’s recent ruling in In re: Cortlandt provides guidance on how to calculate a landlord's damages claim when a bankruptcy debtor rejects a lease, changing from an approach that considers the remaining rent due under the lease to one that considers the remaining time, say Bethany Simmons and Noah Weingarten at Loeb & Loeb.
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Don't Use The Same Template For Every Client Alert
As the old marketing adage goes, consistency is key, but law firm style guides need consistency that contemplates variety when it comes to client alert formats, allowing attorneys to tailor alerts to best fit the audience and subject matter, says Jessica Kaplan at Legally Penned.
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10b-5 Litigation Questions Follow Justices' Macquarie Ruling
Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Macquarie v. Moab that pure omissions are not actionable under U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Rule 10b–5(b), creating a slightly higher bar for plaintiffs and setting the stage for further litigation over several issues, say Steve Quinlivan and Sean Colligan at Stinson.