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California
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May 24, 2013
Anti-Whaling Protesters Are Pirates, 9th Circ. Affirms
The Ninth Circuit on Friday affirmed its February ruling that anti-whaling activist Paul Watson and his group are pirates under international law and that Japanese researchers who hunt whales in the Antarctic Ocean deserve an injunction blocking the activists’ piracy.
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May 24, 2013
Law360 Names 10 FCPA Powerhouse Firms
Many savvy law firms boast their expertise in Foreign Corrupt Practices Act matters, but an elite group of 10 firms have emerged as true leaders in the fast-growing field, earning them a spot on Law360’s inaugural list of FCPA Powerhouses.
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May 24, 2013
'Porn Troll' Slapped With New Fee; Atty Pleads Poverty
In the latest blow to so-called porn copyright troll Prenda Law, a California federal judge Friday slapped the firm with more than $9,000 in fees — the day after one of its former attorneys attempted to escape a more than $80,000 fine imposed by another California federal judge.
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May 24, 2013
AIG's National Union Dodges Some Empire Land Defense Costs
An American International Group Inc. affiliate doesn't have to pay $20 million more in defense costs to bankrupt land developer Empire Land LLC principals because of policy exclusions for related wrongful acts, a California federal judge ruled Thursday.
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May 24, 2013
American Apparel Can't Arbitrate Claim CEO Choked Employee
American Apparel Inc. on Friday lost a bid to force into arbitration a suit alleging CEO Dov Charney choked a former store manager and tried to rub dirt in his face, when a California judge ruled that the arbitration agreement the plaintiff signed was invalid.
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May 24, 2013
DePuy Loses Bid To Toss $8.3M Hip Implant Verdict
A California judge on Friday denied Johnson & Johnson subsidiary DePuy Inc.'s bid to toss an $8.3 million jury award won by a retired prison guard who alleged he was injured by its ASR XL metal hip, ruling sufficient evidence existed to prove the product was defectively designed.
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May 24, 2013
Capsule Seller Can't Duck Suit Over Testosterone Claims
A California federal judge on Thursday rejected Windmill Health Products LLC's bid to dismiss a putative class action accusing it of falsely advertising that its Iso-Test capsules boost testosterone, finding the company failed to show the suit was preempted by the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
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May 24, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Valeant, Google, Suntory
Valeant Pharmaceuticals stands poised to pick up eye care company Bausch & Lomb in a $9 billion megabuy, while Google could start a high-profile bid war with Facebook over the satellite-mapping startup that already drew a $1 billion bid from the social networking giant.
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May 23, 2013
$2B Hospital Project Again Clears San Fran Panel
After nearly a year of legal and political stumbling over the environmental review of California Pacific Medical Center’s $2 billion hospital expansion plan, the project on Thursday won back expired approvals from the San Francisco planning commission.
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May 23, 2013
Time Warner Accused Of Stiffing Workers On OT
A former Time Warner Cable Inc. call center employee filed a putative class action against the telecommunications giant Tuesday in California court, claiming the company has failed to pay employees proper overtime rates and wages they were owed upon termination.
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May 23, 2013
$4M Deal In Hair Product Formaldehyde Suit Nears Approval
A California judge on Thursday indicated he will approve a $4.3 million settlement of a consumer class action alleging the maker of the popular hair-straightening product Brazilian Blowout failed to disclose it emits formaldehyde gas, saying the parties had resolved his concerns about the proposed deal.
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May 23, 2013
Nokia Says HTC Smartphones Infringe 3 Patents
Nokia Corp. hit HTC Corp. with a patent infringement suit in California federal court Thursday, accusing the Taiwan-based mobile phone and tablet manufacturer and its American subsidiary of infringing three Nokia patents through its sale of numerous smartphones.
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May 23, 2013
9th Circ. Relieves Broke Law School Grad Of Student Debt
The Ninth Circuit ruled Thursday that a broke law school graduate who amassed $85,000 in student debt wasn't obligated to repay the loans because he couldn't find a job that would pay him enough to satisfy loan payments exceeding $800 per month.
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May 23, 2013
Yahoo Wins Short-Term Stay In Messenger IP Suit
A California federal judge agreed Thursday to temporarily stay Pragmatus AV's case accusing Yahoo Inc.'s Messenger of infringing two communications technology patents in order to give a Delaware court time to rule on Yahoo's motion to transfer a nearly identical case to the Golden State.
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May 23, 2013
Trustee Says 'Girls Gone Wild' Founder Can't Stop Ch. 11
The trustee overseeing the California "Girls Gone Wild" bankruptcy derided efforts by founder Joe Francis to halt the bankruptcy of a subsidiary involved in the purportedly fraudulent overseas transfer of company trademarks on Thursday, saying his emergency motion was filed an hour and a half too late.
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May 23, 2013
Millennium Labs Drops Claims Over Kickback Suit Coverage
A California federal judge Tuesday approved a joint dismissal of Millennium Laboratories Inc.'s claims that two insurers wrongfully refused to pay for the company's defense in separate disputes with competitors that allegedly used kickbacks and confidential information to steal Millennium's customers.
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May 23, 2013
SanDisk, PNY Ordered To Work Out Discovery Issues
A California federal judge Thursday told SanDisk Corp. and PNY Technologies Inc. to hash out their discovery issues themselves, after PNY accused SanDisk of improperly delaying the discovery schedule in a suit accusing SanDisk of threatening litigation to force rivals into anti-competitive patent licensing agreements.
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May 23, 2013
Superman Heirs Urge 9th Circ. To Reverse DC Comics Win
The heirs of Superman co-creator Joseph Shuster did not agree to release their statutory right to reclaim Superman copyrights in a 1992 deal with DC Comics, the heirs told the Ninth Circuit on Thursday in a bid to overturn a victory for the publisher in their long-running copyright fight.
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May 23, 2013
Miss USA Official Wants Sex Tape Interview Suit Shut Down
A Miss USA beauty pageant official urged a California appellate court Thursday to toss a breach of contract suit, arguing that a trial court erroneously greenlighted claims that she broke a secret agreement by talking to TMZ about a beauty queen's sex tape.
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May 23, 2013
9th Circ. Upsets Union's Win Against Idaho Right-To-Work Law
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday overturned a labor union's successful challenge to Idaho's recent expansion of its right-to-work law, ruling the district court needed to determine whether the state's attorney general had authority to enforce the statutes before the case could proceed.
Expert Analysis
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Temporary Regulatory Takings Do Exist In Calif.
Property owners rarely succeed with regulatory takings claims — but securing a victory on liability and a damages award for a temporary regulatory taking, well, that is more in the realm of unicorns and the Loch Ness Monster. That all changed recently when the California Court of Appeal issued its decision in Lockaway Storage v. County of Alameda, say attorneys with Nossaman LLP.
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Calif.'s Subcontractor Defense Regime: Order Or Chaos?
With the enactment of Civil Code Section 2782.05, the California Legislature has created a new regime to govern a subcontractor's duty to defend a general contractor or construction manager on most nonresidential projects. While this new regime appears intended to benefit construction participants, its lack of guidance will likely result in disagreements and litigation among the participants, say attorneys with Jones Day.
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Righthaven V. Hoehn: Bad News For Copyright Trolls
In its recent decision in Righthaven LLC v. Hoehn, the Ninth Circuit made clear that courts must look beyond labels in agreements and evaluate the substance of the rights actually assigned in order to determine whether an assignee has standing to pursue a claim for copyright infringement, say Benjamin Marks and Elisabeth Sperle of Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP.
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An Opportunity To Limit Prop 65 Abuse
The long-awaited proposed reforms to California's Proposition 65 are welcome and needed as they would greatly reduce the number of frivolous Prop. 65 lawsuits and alleviate the defense costs for manufacturers, says Mark Johnson of Alston & Bird LLP.
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Rise Of The Machines — Predictive Coding Goes Mainstream
The pros of using predictive coding far outweigh the cons. Given the heavy pressure on law firms and in-house counsel to reduce discovery costs, as well as the Justice Department's recent stance on the subject, it appears predictive coding will continue to emerge from the obscure world of legal technology to the mainstream of legal practice, say Michael Moscato and Myles Bartley of Curtis Mallet-Prevost Colt & Mosle LLP.
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Libor Litigation Must Overcome Significant Obstacles
When U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed a consolidated, multidistrict batch of antitrust and racketeering suits in Manhattan earlier this spring, she suggested plaintiffs seeking to recover from banking giants at the heart of the interest rate-fixing scandal might have better luck with securities fraud claims. But those plaintiffs will need to be lucky indeed. Two recent developments show that obstacles are inherent and, perhaps, insurmountable, say attorneys with Choate Hall & Stewart LLP.
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Calif. Moves Forward To Prevent Human Trafficking
In an effort to combat the $32 billion human trafficking industry, California law now requires certain businesses to post public notices regarding slavery and human trafficking. By doing so, the recently passed bill has effectively made these establishments aware that they may already be unwitting participants in the human trafficking industry, say attorneys with Gordon & Rees LLP.
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Calif. To Draw The Lines In Disparagement Liability
The California Supreme Court's upcoming decision in Hartford Casualty Insurance Co. v. Swift Distribution Inc. will resolve a hot debate about the scope of implied disparagement liability under California law, likely determining whether insurers must defend lawsuits involving allegations of intellectual property infringement, unfair competition and false advertising, says Tyler Gerking of Farella Braun & Martel LLP.
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What Sponsors Must Know About Litigation On Church Plans
Recently, two firms have filed class actions against three Catholic Church-affiliated health care facilities, claiming that their pension plans should be subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. These cases could have a profound effect on all church plan sponsors, regardless of whether they have previously obtained favorable church plan rulings, say attorneys with Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP.
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Another Challenge To Calif. Cap-And-Trade Law
The California Air Resources Board has again been sued over its implementation of the Global Warming Solutions Act in Morning Star Packing Co., et al. v. CARB, which resembles an earlier action brought by the California Chamber of Commerce. Petitioners of both cases face the difficult challenge of convincing the court to derail a massive regulatory scheme that is now well underway, say attorneys with Marten Law PLLC.