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California
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May 16, 2013
Cavalli Says Tory Burch Remodel Is Hurting Beverly Hills Biz
Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli on Wednesday accused his landlord of unfairly cutting into business at his Beverly Hills boutique after allowing a neighboring tenant, fellow clothier Tory Burch LLC, to launch a full-scale renovation that has driven away Cavalli's customers.
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May 16, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Marine Harvest, Actavis, Elliott Management
Marine Harvest could ratchet up its bid for rival fish farmer Cermaq past the current $1.7 billion mark if the target company agrees to make certain concessions in the deal, while activist hedge fund Elliott Management continues on its tear this proxy season with new plans to shake up yet another company.
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May 15, 2013
9th Circ. Remands Atty Fee Award In Davis Wright Fraud Case
Attorneys for investors on Wednesday won their bid for reconsideration of an award of $231,000 for their work on a class action against Davis Wright Tremaine LLP when the Ninth Circuit ruled a judge had not explained how he calculated the number.
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May 15, 2013
6 Surrender In $15M San Fran School Embezzlement Case
Six current and former San Francisco Unified School District employees on Wednesday turned themselves in on felony charges that they embezzled more than $15 million in public money into slush funds held at private nonprofit organizations that later went toward employee payments or personal spending.
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May 15, 2013
NASA Lab Vows To Fight NLRB Ruling On Scientists' Emails
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said Wednesday that it planned to appeal a National Labor Relations Board judge's ruling that it violated federal labor law when it disciplined scientists for sending mass emails from work computers criticizing a policy of required background checks.
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May 15, 2013
'Girls Gone Wild' Founder Says Marketing Co. Isn't Subsidiary
"Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis on Tuesday said the trustee overseeing the company’s bankruptcy should not be allowed to declare bankruptcy for GGW Marketing LLC in a bid to recover alleged trademark transfers because GGW Marketing is not a subsidiary of the bankrupt company.
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May 15, 2013
Hitachi, LG, Others Released From LCD Price-Fixing Suits
A California federal judge on Wednesday approved stipulated dismissals releasing Hitachi Ltd. from antitrust allegations lodged by two Sony Corp. units and LG Display, AU Optronics Corp. and others from a related suit in multidistrict litigation over alleged price-fixing of liquid crystal display panels.
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May 15, 2013
Indian Harbor Wants No Part Of San Diego Gas Leak Suits
The city of San Diego's primary insurer Indian Harbor Insurance Co. lodged a complaint against the municipality’s excess insurer in New York federal court Tuesday, arguing that it has no obligation to defend the city against a trio of underlying sewer pipe gas leak suits.
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May 15, 2013
Comcast Ruling Undermines Seating Class, Kmart Says
Kmart Corp. urged a California federal court Monday to reject a former worker's bid to certify a statewide class of cashiers who weren't provided seats while working, claiming that class treatment could lead to complex, individualized penalty calculations that conflict with the U.S. Supreme Court's March Comcast ruling.
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May 15, 2013
$1.5M Attys’ Fees Scuttle HP Printer Defect Deal In 9th Circ.
The Ninth Circuit on Wednesday scrapped the settlement of a consumer class action alleging Hewlett-Packard Co. deceptively marketed printer ink cartridges, finding the trial judge's award of $1.5 million in attorneys' fees was incorrectly calculated under the Class Action Fairness Act.
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May 15, 2013
Manatt Phelps Adds Banking Partner To Orange County Office
Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP has added a banking regulatory and transactions partner with extensive financial services industry experience, giving a strong boost to its capabilities at its Orange County, Calif., office, the firm announced Tuesday.
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May 15, 2013
Telemarketer Owes $34M For Abusive Tactics, 9th Circ. Hears
The Federal Trade Commission urged the Ninth Circuit on Wednesday to require telemarketer Publishers Business Services to pay $34.4 million in damages for its allegedly deceptive and abusive methods of hawking magazine subscriptions, instead of a reduced $191,000 judgment ordered by a lower court.
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May 15, 2013
Amici Pile Up In Calif. Dispute Over Employment Class Waivers
Interested parties including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, corporate counsel and plaintiffs lawyers groups, and a union have lodged briefs in a lawsuit in which the California Supreme Court may clarify how the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Concepcion decision affects class waivers in California employment disputes.
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May 15, 2013
Hines Scoops Up $218M Tech-Haven LA Offices From Tishman
A real estate investment trust of Hines has closed on a deal — estimated at about $218 million — to purchase from Tishman Speyer Properties LP an office complex in West Los Angeles filled by several high-profile technology companies, it announced Wednesday.
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May 15, 2013
RINO, Execs Pay $3.5M To Settle SEC Skimming Suit
Project finance company RINO International Corp. and two executives on Wednesday reached a settlement worth more than $3.5 million with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over allegations the executives spent millions skimmed off of a securities offering for luxury purchases.
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May 15, 2013
Judge Ready To Shelve Ralphs Customer's Privacy Suit
A California judge on Wednesday indicated she will toss a putative class action alleging Ralphs Grocery Co. wrongly shared personal information from applications for its customer rewards program with third parties, saying the plaintiff shoppers could not show Ralphs’ alleged misconduct had caused them financial harm.
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May 15, 2013
Bergstein Says Aramid Schemed With Friend To Extort Millions
California film investor David Bergstein on Tuesday hit Aramid Entertainment Fund Ltd. with a suit accusing executive David Molner of scheming with a troubled New Jersey businessman to extort millions from Bergstein and shift blame for $60 million stolen and misappropriated from Aramid to the investor.
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May 15, 2013
$203M Overdraft Fee Ruling Against Wells Fargo Reinstated
A California federal judge on Tuesday reinstated a $203 million class action penalty against Wells Fargo Bank NA for processing debits in a manner that maximized overdraft fees, finding that the bank's marketing materials violated fraud provisions of the state's consumer protection law.
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May 15, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Sinopec, Siemens, Activision
Sinopec is ready to gain big through its engineering unit's anticipated $1.9 billion initial public offering, while Activision has hit a brick wall in talks with parent company Vivendi SA over the terms of a major share buyback that could be worth as much as $10 billion.
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May 15, 2013
Google's Privacy Policy Violates Calif. Law, Watchdog Says
Consumer Watchdog on Wednesday lashed out at Google Inc., calling its privacy policy fundamentally deceptive and accusing the search engine giant of violating California's Online Privacy Protection Act.
Expert Analysis
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9th Circ. Clears The Air For Mine Owners
In the recent case, Center for Biological Diversity v. Salazar, the Ninth Circuit ruled that mining plans of operations do not expire after temporary closures. This decision marks notable, favorable precedent for the mining industry and project proponents and helps settle expectations for mining plans of operations, says Tyler Welti of Perkins Coie LLP.
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Novel Approach To Opposing Class Certification Rejected
Current and former student-athletes are one step closer to forcing the National Collegiate Athletic Association and its member institutions to share their profits with them now that the Northern District of California ruled they can proceed to class certification. Lawyers should take note that the judge made it clear that the defendants' motion to strike the certification motion was not the correct avenue to take, say attorneys with Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP.
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Calif.'s Road To Fracking Regulation Will Be Bumpy
For the foreseeable future in California, fracking regulation will continue to move forward on three parallel paths: through the courts, legislature and agencies. Unfortunately, however, none of these paths are likely to provide the industry with clear rules regarding fracking activities in the next year, say attorneys with Bingham McCutchen LLP.
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Riverisland Erodes Calif. 'Parol Evidence Rule'
Lenders and counsel will likely devise a number of provisions making it difficult for borrowers to be believed in court if they come up with claims of fraud contrary to the terms of written contracts they have signed. The lesson from the California Supreme Court decision in Riverisland Cold Storage Inc. v. Fresno-Madera Production Credit Association, however, is that doing so at the contract drafting and execution stage is more important than ever, says Perry Mocciaro of Cox Castle & Nicholson LLP.
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CEQA Reform: The Aggrieved Instigator
Today, the California Environmental Quality Act is often at the center of the long-standing tension between environmental and business interests, and this granddaddy of environmental impact assessment requirement is a roadblock to development and economic growth, say attorneys with Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP.
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A Victory For State-Action Doctrine Critics
On Feb. 19, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court visited a corner of the antitrust map that it last glimpsed during the Reagan administration — the state-action doctrine. The ruling in FTC v. Phoebe Putney Health System Inc. will almost certainly be hailed as a major victory for critics of the state-action doctrine, say attorneys with Paul Hastings LLP.
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Coming Soon To SCOTUS: Technicalities Of Saying 'I Do'
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to accept two cases addressing same-sex marriage, Windsor v. United States and Hollingsworth v. Perry, has raised questions about the potential consequences for employers, insurers, health care providers and others. The most significant impact of these decisions may be on employee benefits governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, say attorneys with Faegre Baker Daniels LLP.
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A Breakdown Of Safer Consumer Products Act
Although the California Department of Toxic Substances Control has not finalized the regulations pursuant to the Safer Consumer Products Act, manufacturers are already budgeting millions of dollars for compliance expenditures. While manufacturers now face the burden of compliance, consumers should sit tight and patiently wait for the DTSC's final regulatory response before making product choice decisions, says Kimberly Bick of Irell & Manella LLP.
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10th Circ. Widens Split On APR In Individual Ch. 11
Uncertainty surrounding the absolute priority rule in individual Chapter 11 cases places creditors and debtors in difficult situations when negotiating workouts and settlements in the insolvencies and Chapter 11 cases of not just individuals, but also those involving entities. Divergent court opinions — most recently, the Tenth Circuit opinion in In re Stephens — make the issue ripe for Supreme Court review, says Richard Robinson of Reed Smith LLP.
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Proof Is On The Policyholders
Importantly, in Plant Insulation Co. v. Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., the California Superior Court placed on the policyholder the burden of proving that an asbestos-related bodily injury is not within the completed operations hazard or products hazard — reinforcing that the burden is on the policyholder to prove coverage, say attorneys with Steptoe & Johnson LLP.