AppellateRSS

  • June 15, 2009

    High Court Will Consider Class Arbitration Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case over whether the plaintiff in an antitrust case against a group of shipping companies has a right to pursue class arbitration under a contract that is silent about that right, an issue that could affect arbitration in all areas of the law.

  • June 15, 2009

    High Court To Hear Shell Dispute With Station Owners

    The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to weigh in on a legal wrangle between Shell Oil Products Co. LLC and eight gas station owners in Massachusetts who have accused the oil and gas firm of improperly changing and terminating their franchise agreements.

  • June 15, 2009

    Supreme Court Won't Hear FCC Franchise Rule Appeal

    The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear a challenge to a Federal Communications Commission rule that prohibits local franchising authorities from refusing to award competitive cable franchises.

  • June 16, 2009

    9th Circ. Tosses FLSA Class Action Against T-Mobile

    A federal appeals court has ruled that a proposed Fair Labor Standards Act class action against T-Mobile USA Inc. can't go forward because the named plaintiffs settled their own claims, even though the settlement purportedly reserved their right to seek relief for the proposed class.

  • June 15, 2009

    High Court To Hear Student Debt Discharge Challenge

    The U.S. Supreme Court will attempt to resolve a split within the federal appellate circuit over whether Chapter 13 petitioners can discharge student-loan debt without proving repayment, a question federal student loan agencies fear could create a bankruptcy law quagmire.

  • June 15, 2009

    High Court Seeks SG's Opinion In Ch. 13 Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court has asked the solicitor general to weigh in on a dispute over how bankruptcy courts should decide how much money Chapter 13 debtors must pay unsecured creditors each month after reorganizing their debt.

  • June 15, 2009

    High Court Rules Valdez Ship Tax Is Unconstitutional

    An Alaskan city has unconstitutionally hampered free trade by taxing oil tankers that pass through its port to refuel en route to West Coast refineries, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

  • June 15, 2009

    Exxon Owes $508M, Interest For Oil Spill: 9th Circ.

    A federal appeals court has ordered Exxon Mobil Corp. to pay $507.5 million in punitive damages, plus interest accruing since 1996, to Alaska natives, fishermen and other plaintiffs who were harmed by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

  • June 15, 2009

    BofA Bundled Insurance Case Heads Back To Ga.

    A federal appeals court has rejected Bank of America Corp.'s challenge to an order remanding to Georgia state court an insurance fraud class action accusing the company of selling credit insurance coverage to customers who were not eligible to benefit from it.

  • June 12, 2009

    Court Nixes Class Cert In Mich. Sex Bias Suit

    Reversing a lower court decision, the Michigan Court of Appeals has ruled that discrimination claims brought by nearly 600 men against the state's Department of Human Services cannot proceed as a class action.

  • June 12, 2009

    10th Circ. Lets Order Stand In Cooper Tire Crash Case

    A federal appeals court has declined to order a lower court to reverse a discovery order in a product liability case against Cooper Tire & Rubber Co. stemming from a September 2005 Utah highway crash that killed nine people and injured two more.

  • June 15, 2009

    DC Circ. Lets FERC Wholesale Rates Order Stand

    In a dispute over how electricity rates can be set by energy wholesalers, a federal appeals court has refused a bid by Westar Energy Inc. to review a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order stating that where energy is sold, as opposed to where it ends up, is the key factor in rate-setting.

  • June 15, 2009

    Work Illness Claims May Not Be Time-Barred: 5th Circ.

    Finding that the Jones Act statute of limitations does not necessarily time-bar a former employee of Diamond Offshore Drilling Inc. from suing the company after being diagnosed with an occupational disease, a federal appeals court has reversed and remanded the case to the district court.

  • June 12, 2009

    Ohio Court Says GMAC Not Liable In Odometer Case

    The Ohio Supreme Court has ruled that a state statute governing odometer reporting is not a strict liability law, meaning GMAC Financial Services cannot be liable for odometer tampering because the auto and mortgage lender wasn't aware of it.

  • June 12, 2009

    9th Circ. Tells MGA To Hand Bratz Marks To Mattel

    A U.S. appellate court has rejected MGA Entertainment Inc.'s motion to stay a judge's order to transfer to Mattel Inc. the trademarks for its Bratz dolls while the company fights a $100 million jury verdict against it in a high-profile copyright fight.

  • June 12, 2009

    8th Circ. Reverses Ruling On Sale Of Farmland Plant

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled that a bankruptcy court had the jurisdiction to dismiss a complaint seeking billions of dollars filed by an unsuccessful bidder for a fertilizer plant once owned by bankrupt farmer-owned cooperative Farmland Industries Inc.

  • June 15, 2009

    4th Circ. Revives Suit Against Atty Over Snuff Deal

    A federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit accusing the former plaintiffs’ counsel in a consumer class action against U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. of abandoning his clients’ interests and surreptitiously altering a settlement for his own benefit.

  • June 12, 2009

    Family Out Of Time In JC Penney ADEA Suit: 1st Circ.

    On interlocutory appeal from an age discrimination lawsuit against J.C. Penney Puerto Rico Inc., a federal appeals court has ruled that the derivative tort claims alleged by family members of the plaintiff are time-barred with the exception of those of the son, a minor.

  • June 11, 2009

    11th Circ. Finds For Roche In Accutane Suicide Suit

    Roche Laboratories Inc. has scored another victory in litigation over Accutane, after a federal appeals court upheld a district judge’s ruling in favor of the pharmaceutical company in a suit launched by a mother who claimed the acne drug caused her son's suicide.

  • June 11, 2009

    Court Strips Green Groups Of Attorneys' Fee Winnings

    A federal appeals court panel has overturned an award of attorneys' fees to Citizens for Better Forestry and 11 other environmental groups, saying they could not be considered prevailing parties in their case against the U.S. Department of Agriculture because they never received a formal declaratory judgment or other relief.