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New York
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May 25, 2012
JPMorgan Unit Faces $293M Suit Over MBS Loan Buyback Deal
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and its unit EMC Mortgage LLC were sued Friday for $293 million by a securitization trust that had financed the purchase of residential mortgage loans EMC had sold, claiming EMC violated an agreement to repurchase shoddy loans.
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May 25, 2012
Community Bank's Libor Antitrust Suit Targets BofA, Others
A Wisconsin-based community bank launched a putative class action Friday against Bank of America NA, Citibank NA and JPMorgan Chase Bank NA, alleging that their manipulation of the London Interbank Offered Rate cost community banks between $300 and $500 million annually.
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May 25, 2012
Coudert Ruling Spells Trouble For Firms With Dewey Gains
Firms picking up Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP partners should watch their step, experts warned Friday in light of a New York federal court ruling that profits former Coudert Brothers LLP partners made on continuing business belonged to the defunct law firm.
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May 25, 2012
Shareholders Drop Suit Against French Utility Giant
Plaintiffs who accused French water utility multinational Veolia Environnement SA in a New York federal court shareholder class action of overstating financial results by using improper accounting practices on Friday agreed to the voluntary dismissal of their case.
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May 25, 2012
Gupta Likely Source Of P&G Tips, Ex-Galleon Trader Says
A former Galleon Group LLC trader testified Friday in the trial of Rajat Gupta, the most prominent defendant ensnared in the government’s insider trading crackdown, that Gupta may have used his role on the board of Procter & Gamble Co. to supply the hedge fund with illegal tips.
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May 25, 2012
Highland Affiliates Want Out Of UBS' $686M CDO Suit
Two affiliates of private fund firm Highland Capital Management LP asked a New York state judge Friday to dismiss them from a $686 million fraud lawsuit by UBS AG that claims Highland and its affiliates tricked UBS into restructuring a debt securities agreement.
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May 25, 2012
Class Says JPMorgan Made Them Buy Excessive Flood Coverage
A class of homeowners sued JPMorgan Chase & Co. affiliates JPMorgan Chase Bank NA and Chase Insurance Agency Inc. in New York on Thursday, accusing them of forcing homeowners to buy more flood insurance than they needed.
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May 25, 2012
E&Y Wants 2nd Circ. To Halt Cert. Bid In Class Waiver Case
Ernst & Young LLP asked the Second Circuit on Wednesday to freeze a pending wage-and-hour class action against it as it appeals a judge's decision denying individual arbitration in the case, arguing that it would face exponentially higher legal costs if class certification were allowed to proceed.
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May 25, 2012
RG Steel Wins Arbitration Order In $125M Severstal Dispute
A New York federal judge on Friday granted RG Steel LLC's motion to compel arbitration in a dispute brought by Severstal U.S. Holdings over a purchase agreement for three affiliated steel companies after RG's price adjustments reduced the deal amount from $125 million to $1.9 million.
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May 25, 2012
SEC Advises High Court To Leave Madoff Investor Suits Alone
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday advised the U.S. Supreme Court not to review cases challenging the methods of the trustee liquidating Bernard L. Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, which would allow the trustee to start distributing roughly $9 billion to victims.
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May 25, 2012
NY Grand Jury Pins Pain Pill Abuse On Drugmakers, Doctors
A Suffolk County, N.Y., grand jury released a scathing report Thursday blaming the marketing push of drugmakers and the prescription habits of doctors for a national painkiller abuse epidemic, calling for a federal and state regulatory overhaul to combat the problem.
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May 25, 2012
AMR Judge Urges Airline, Unions To Cut A Deal
The New York bankruptcy judge overseeing American Airlines Inc. parent AMR Corp.'s bid to reject union contracts urged the parties Friday to reach a consensual solution outside of court in the weeks between now and when he's due to enter his judgment.
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May 25, 2012
NY AG Says State's Energy Future Lies Beyond Indian Point
New York's top law enforcer on Friday cast doubt on the Indian Point nuclear facility's future, saying state regulators will continue their aggressive stance on spent fuel, fire and earthquake safety and the state's best energy prospects going forward are elsewhere.
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May 25, 2012
NY Judge Won't Remand $350M Life Insurance Dispute
A New York federal judge on Friday declined to remand to state court a dispute over $350 million in life insurance policies between a religious organization and a West Indies-based trust.
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May 25, 2012
Law Firms Can't Dodge Coudert Unfinished Business Claims
A federal judge said Thursday that unfinished client matters were the property of defunct law firm Coudert Brothers LLP on the day it was dissolved, moving the estate administrator closer to recouping money from firms to which former Coudert attorneys moved.
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May 25, 2012
Repsol Lodges 2nd US Suit Over YPF Nationalization
Spanish oil giant Repsol YPF SA on Monday accused Argentina of violating securities filing rules in New York federal court, the second action the company has taken in American court over the country's decision to nationalize Repsol's local operation YPF earlier this year.
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May 25, 2012
2nd Circ. Keeps Alive UN Wall Collapse Suit Against Namibia
The Second Circuit on Friday ruled that the southern African nation of Namibia is not immune from an insurance suit brought by USAA Casualty Insurance Co. for alleged violations of New York City building code that led to third-party property damage.
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May 25, 2012
Judge Pares Chevron's RICO Suit Over $18B Pollution Ruling
A New York federal judge on Thursday further trimmed Chevron Corp.'s suit over an alleged extortion campaign that led to an $18 billion environmental judgment in Ecuadorean court, throwing out multiple claims against environmental consultant Stratus Consulting Inc. while keeping in racketeering and extortion claims.
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May 25, 2012
NY Republican Floats Tax Break For Patent Fees
A tax-cutting New York Republican has introduced state legislation that would give would-be inventors hefty credits to offset patent application, search and examination fees, saying Friday that the bill would remove an obstacle for Empire State entrepreneurs.
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May 25, 2012
Weil Reps Lehman On $1.6B Archstone Stake Buy
Bankrupt New York investment banking giant Lehman Bros. Holdings Inc. has acquired the remaining 26.5 percent stake in Colorado-based residential real estate investment trust Archstone from Barclays PLC and Bank of America Corp. for $1.6 billion, Lehman said Friday.
Expert Analysis
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Textbook Copyrights Vs. Open Educational Resources
Three of the largest publishers of academic textbooks recently sued Boundless, a distributor of free electronic versions of popular college textbooks, for copyright infringement in the Southern District of New York. Because open educational resources is such a new field, the law respecting infringement there is not well developed, and this case could have a seismic impact on the textbook industry, say Christopher Morrison and James Tuxbury of Jones Day.
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Using Federal Antitrust Law To Void Class Action Waivers
Following the Second Circuit's decision in In re American Express Merchants’ Litigation, class action arbitration waivers may be voidable if the plaintiffs can show that the enforcement of those waivers will strip them of their federal statutory rights under the Sherman Act, say Michael Christian and Demetrius Lambrinos of Zelle Hofmann Voelbel & Mason LLP.
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Limiting The Application Of The CFAA And EEA
After U.S. v. Nosal and U.S. v. Aleynikov, we can expect that prosecutors at least in the Ninth Circuit may be more conservative in their application of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, limiting CFAA prosecutions to hackers, and that courts in the Second Circuit and elsewhere may apply limits to the Economic Espionage Act as well, say Robyn Crowther and Benjamin Au of Caldwell Leslie & Proctor PC.
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The Latest FCPA Target: Private Fund Advisers
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act case against a former Morgan Stanley executive — the first FCPA case involving a private fund investment adviser — reemphasizes to investment firms the importance of establishing effective anti-corruption internal controls in protecting both the entity and individual personnel from such enforcement, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.
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Where Lies The Liability? Up To Plaintiffs To Prove
A holding by the New York Appellate Division, First Department, that breach of implied and express warranty claims against a defendant in the Reeps family's product liability lawsuit should be dismissed may be the most important in the case, because it clarifies that service providers, as opposed to product sellers, cannot be held liable under strict product liability or breach of warranty theories of liability, says William Ruskin of Epstein Becker Green PC.
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A Post-Morrison Standard For 'Domestic Transactions'
In the recent case of Absolute Activist Value Master Fund Ltd. v. Ficeto, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals for the first time addressed the ambiguity created by Morrison’s off-market transactions prong, announcing a standard for “domestic transactions” that combined the tests proposed by the Eleventh Circuit and the Southern District of New York, say attorneys with Mayer Brown LLP.
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Where Rubber Hits Road: Examples Of Alternative Fees
Creating new approaches to fee agreements is something to embrace rather than fear — and when structured and managed correctly, it can be financially advantageous. Take, for example, fixed-fee arrangements, result-based billing and portfolio billing, say Bill Rudnick and Keith Maziarek of DLA Piper.
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Extending Preservation Obligations Of 3rd Parties
In light of the recent Southern District of New York opinion in GenOn Mid-Atlantic LLC v. Stone & Webster Inc., corporations should be aware that their retained counsel’s hiring of third-party consultants may create a preservation obligation requiring the third party to issue a law hold to its personnel. This opinion adds to the trend of explaining the contours of the duty to preserve, says Ashley Cornwall of Shook Hardy & Bacon LLP.
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DOJ V. GFI Mortgage — The End Of Discretionary Pricing?
The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice recently filed suit against GFI Mortgage Bankers Inc., alleging that GFI charged African American and Hispanic borrowers higher rates and fees solely based on their race. While a revised Truth in Lending Act will reduce the odds for this kind of case by removing lender incentive to upcharge, lenders should also consider a number of best practices, says Greg Pulles of Dorsey & Whitney LLP.
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Predictive Coding — Putting The Cart Before The Horse
Many providers and pundits may focus on the Kleen Products LLC v. Packaging Corporation of America case currently pending in Illinois as proof of either judicial acceptance or rejection of predictive coding. But the need for parties to act reasonably in litigation and e-discovery trumps any debate over the use of new technologies, says Christina Zachariason of Navigant Consulting Inc.