Commercial Contracts

  • May 02, 2024

    Split Conn. Supreme Court Says No To 'Ratio' Utility Bills

    In a rare 4-3 opinion, the Connecticut Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a corporate landlord cannot use a ratio utility billing system to divide monthly costs among units not equipped with precise individual meters, stressing a legislative policy of protecting tenants from fluctuating fees beyond their immediate control.

  • May 02, 2024

    Split 10th Circ. Spikes $17.3M Atty Fee Over Class Notice

    A split Tenth Circuit panel has vacated for a second time a $17.3 million attorney fee award for reaching a $52 million class action settlement over gas well royalty payments, with the majority writing that the lower court erred by not requiring a new class notice regarding the revised fee bid.

  • May 02, 2024

    Eckert Seamans Sues For Inclusive Zoning Fight Fees

    Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott says a group representing Pittsburgh-area developers still owes nearly $76,000 in legal fees for the firm's work on a federal suit challenging an "inclusive zoning" ordinance, according to a complaint filed in Pennsylvania state court Thursday.

  • May 02, 2024

    Calif. Hospitals Say BCBS Unit Left Them With $3.8M Bill

    A pair of California health systems say that Pittsburgh-based Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield isn't honoring its obligations to pay them under a national Blue Cross insurance program, leaving their hospitals holding the bag for up to $3.8 million worth of treatment, according to two lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania state court.

  • May 02, 2024

    11th Circ. 'Emphatically' Upholds JCPenney's Sanctions Win

    The Eleventh Circuit has affirmed a $63,000 sanction against an Alabama shopping mall amid its lease dispute with JCPenney, finding that the mall acted in bad faith by not notifying the court of a lack of diversity jurisdiction, eventually sinking the case — only after JCPenney won partial summary judgment and a later mediation failed.

  • May 02, 2024

    NC Dems Propose Axing At-Will Work In Workers Rights Bill

    North Carolina Democrats have proposed broad legislation to bolster protections for employees in the Tar Heel State — from abolishing at-will employment to repealing the ban on collective bargaining for public employees and shoring up safeguards for contract workers.

  • May 01, 2024

    Forex Fraudsters Hid Losses From Investors, Jury Hears

    Federal prosecutors told a Colorado jury Wednesday that two men helping run a foreign exchange investment company sold investors on a supposedly successful trading algorithm that ended up being nothing more than a multimillion-dollar fraud.

  • May 01, 2024

    Bipartisan Reps. Introduce Bill To Trace Battery Supply Chains

    Environmental advocacy groups including the Sierra Club, Earthworks and SAFE have thrown their support behind a new bill to promote traceability in battery supply chains, a measure aimed at weeding bad labor and environmental practices out of the supply chain.

  • May 01, 2024

    Colorado Asks Judge To Review New Kroger Spinoffs At Trial

    Kroger can't throw a new divestiture plan on the table two months before discovery closes and then ask the court to consider it when deciding whether to hand down a preliminary injunction blocking its $25 billion union with Albertsons from moving forward, the state of Colorado says.

  • May 01, 2024

    Chamber Must Name Cos. It Reps In Noncompete Suit, FTC Says

    The Federal Trade Commission has asked a Texas federal judge to limit the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to representing only named members in its challenge to the agency's pending noncompetes ban, arguing the trade group can't hide behind the First Amendment to represent "millions of undisclosed members."

  • May 01, 2024

    T-Mobile Gets Tax Reimbursement Suit Tossed For Good

    T-Mobile has convinced a New Jersey federal court to toss for good a suit brought by a middleman seeking to collect tax reimbursements the mobile behemoth had supposedly promised a landlord after it didn't fix the deficiencies in its suit the third go round.

  • May 01, 2024

    Judge Finds Engineering Co. Had No Duty In Goya Death Case

    A Texas federal judge has thrown out claims against Zachry Engineering Inc. in a suit by the family of a Goya Foods Inc. worker who died when his forklift hit a pipe and caused him to be sprayed with nearly boiling beans, saying the engineering company had no say in the height of the pipe and was not responsible for making sure it wasn't a hazard.

  • May 01, 2024

    Colonial Pipeline Says Contractor Bungled $22M Ga. Project

    A contractor hired to build a $22.4 million fuel terminal for Colonial Pipeline Co. in Georgia owes the company at least $600,000 because of missed deadlines, shoddy workmanship and failing to pay its subcontractors, a new suit alleges.

  • May 01, 2024

    Ex-Execs End Fight Over Syska Hennessy Stock Buyback Deal

    A former associate vice president and a managing director at engineering firm Syska Hennessy have ended their lawsuit alleging that the company made up a story about the pair soliciting employees to get out of buying back company stock.

  • May 01, 2024

    Crescent Petroleum Wins OK Of $2.75B Award

    Iran's state-owned oil company cannot escape having to pay an arbitral award now worth more than $2.75 billion owed to Crescent Petroleum after spending some two years ignoring the Emirati oil company's enforcement lawsuit in Washington, D.C., a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

  • May 01, 2024

    Chipotle Granted Win in Customer Change-Shorting Row

    A Pennsylvania federal judge gave Chipotle Mexican Grill an early win Wednesday in a lawsuit by customers alleging they were stiffed out of change during a coin shortage, finding that because the customers agreed to not receive coin change during their transactions, they can't reasonably argue the fast food giant did anything wrong.

  • May 01, 2024

    3rd Circ. Flags Bayer's Knowledge Of Tainted Fungal Spray

    A proposed class of consumers who bought tainted Bayer antifungal sprays said they should have standing to sue because they didn't get the "benefit of the bargain" — and a Third Circuit panel questioned Wednesday if Bayer's separate suit blaming a supplier made the consumers' case for them.

  • May 01, 2024

    Eateries Note 'Fatal' Concession By Insurer In NC COVID Row

    Cincinnati Insurance Co. made a "fatal" concession when it argued that "physical loss" merely requires "some sort of dispossession," a group of 16 restaurants told the North Carolina Supreme Court, urging it to reinstate their COVID-19 coverage win that got reversed on appeal. 

  • May 01, 2024

    6th Circ. May Unbuckle Supplier From Seat Belt Parts Contract

    One Sixth Circuit judge seemed prepared Wednesday to free a supplier from a court order to continue fulfilling a seat belt system manufacturer's orders, indicating that he didn't think the terms of the companies' contract obligated them to each other long-term.   

  • May 01, 2024

    Judge Enjoins Baseball Bat Cos. In Fla. Trademark Fight

    A pair of companies owned by ex-MLB player Yoenis Céspedes have won a preliminary injunction against several businesses in an intellectual property dispute in Florida federal court over baseball bats, saying the former New York Mets outfielder's companies are likely to succeed on a trademark claim.

  • May 01, 2024

    Colo. Toll Lane Venture Says Aecom Can't Get Penalty Interest

    A Colorado joint venture that formed to construct a state toll lanes project has told a federal judge that he erroneously awarded a design firm penalty interest on a $5.2 million judgment, arguing in a motion that the firm doesn't qualify as a subcontractor under Colorado law.

  • May 01, 2024

    Georgia Co. Says City Must Pay $5M For Road Project Delays

    A Georgia paving company that sued the city of Smyrna for $5 million in damages after it allegedly pushed a multimillion-dollar road construction project past its completion deadline urged the Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday to overturn a trial court ruling that freed the city from its claims.

  • May 01, 2024

    Conn. Attorney Scores Default $85K Win In Legal Bill Feud

    A federal judge has ordered two Colorado companies, one of which claimed to be working on a cryptocurrency exchange, to pay a default judgment of $85,456 after failing to answer a Connecticut firm's claims that they failed to pay nearly $107,000 in legal fees.

  • May 01, 2024

    Former Calif. Law Student's ADA Suit Gets Tossed

    A California federal judge has thrown out a long-running suit by a former student at the John F. Kennedy College of Law's Northern California campus, who accused the university of failing to provide the pro se litigant with reasonable accommodations, finding the student received more help than he requested.

  • April 30, 2024

    5th Circ. Nixes Software Co.'s $1.6B Win In IBM Contract Row

    The Fifth Circuit on Tuesday reversed a Texas federal court's $1.6 billion ruling against IBM, finding that Houston-based software company BMC lost out to IBM "fair and square" when IBM fulfilled a request by their mutual client AT&T to replace BMC's software in AT&T's mainframe with IBM's.

Expert Analysis

  • 6 AI Cases And What They Mean For Copyright Law

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    Artificial intelligence cases filed last year, some decided and others pending, demonstrate how the appellate courts that set binding precedent look at the intersection between copyright and AI, so legal frameworks must adapt and provide clarity in order to foster innovation, protect creators, and ensure fair and equitable outcomes, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • The Space Law And Policy Outlook For 2024

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    Expect significant movement in space law, regulation and policy in 2024, as Congress, the administration and independent federal agencies like the Federal Communications Commission address the increasingly congested, contested and competitive nature of space and the space industry, say Paul Stimers and Leighton Brown at Holland & Knight.

  • Charting The Course For Digital Assets In 2024

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    Although 2023 was a tough year for the digital asset industry, upcoming court decisions, legislation and regulatory action will bring clarity, allowing the industry to expand and evolve, and the government will decide what innovation it will allow without challenge, says Joshua Smeltzer at Gray Reed.

  • Antitrust Enforcement Initiatives To Watch In 2024

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    The U.S. Department of Justice is likely to prioritize information-sharing prosecutions in 2024, following last year's withdrawal of safe harbors, as well as labor market enforcement after trial losses forced a pullback in 2023, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • Law Firm Strategies For Successfully Navigating 2024 Trends

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    Though law firms face the dual challenge of external and internal pressures as they enter 2024, firms willing to pivot will be able to stand out by adapting to stakeholder needs and reimagining their infrastructure, says Shireen Hilal at Maior Consultants.

  • The Most-Read Legal Industry Law360 Guest Articles Of 2023

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    A range of legal industry topics drew readers' attention in Law360's Expert Analysis section this year, from associate retention strategies to ethical billing practices.

  • HHS Advisory Highlights Free Product Inducement Risks

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    A recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advisory opinion highlights concerns that valuable free products and other inducements may influence patients and providers to choose one manufacturer’s product over another, notwithstanding that such free healthcare products may be a benefit, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Attorneys' Busiest Times Can Be Business Opportunities

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    Attorneys who resolve to grow their revenue and client base in 2024 should be careful not to abandon their goals when they get too busy with client work, because these periods of zero bandwidth can actually be a catalyst for future growth, says Amy Drysdale at Alchemy Consulting.

  • In The World Of Legal Ethics, 10 Trends To Note From 2023

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    Lucian Pera at Adams and Reese and Trisha Rich at Holland & Knight identify the top legal ethics trends from 2023 — including issues related to hot documents, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity — that lawyers should be aware of to put their best foot forward.

  • Del. Dispatch: The 2023 Corporate Cases You Need To Know

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    Corporate and mergers and acquisitions litigation has continued at a fevered pace this year, with the Delaware courts addressing numerous novel issues with important practical implications, including officer exculpation and buyer aiding-and-abetting liability, say attorneys at Fried Frank.

  • Contract Disputes Recap: Termination and Accrual

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    Edward Arnold and Bret Marfut at Seyfarth Shaw examine three recent decisions that illustrate why contractors should consider, during the bidding process, impediments to their ability to meet contract requirements, and the need to track the accrual dates of individual claims that may arise during performance to avoid being time-barred.

  • The Year In FRAND: What To Know Heading Into 2024

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    In 2023, there were eight significant developments concerning the fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory patent licensing regime that undergirds technical standardization, say Tom Millikan and Kevin Zeck at Perkins Coie.

  • How Attorneys Can Be More Efficient This Holiday Season

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    Attorneys should consider a few key tips to speed up their work during the holidays so they can join the festivities — from streamlining the document review process to creating similar folder structures, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • What DOD Commercial Product Rule Means For Contractors

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    A recent amendment to the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, along with forthcoming changes to the definition of what constitutes a subcontract, will offer some relief for commercial products and services contractors, but the U.S. Department of Defense should do more to reduce regulatory burdens, say Daniel Ramish and Jonathan Shaffer at Haynes Boone.

  • How Int'l Student-Athlete Law Would Change The NIL Game

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    Recently proposed legislation to allow international student-athletes the opportunity to profit from their name, image and likeness without violating their F-1 nonimmigrant student visa status represents a pivotal step in NIL policy, and universities must assess and adapt their approaches to accommodate unique immigration concerns, say attorneys at Phelps Dunbar.

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