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Pennsylvania
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June 19, 2013
Ex-Workers Sue Pa. University For Age Discrimination
With the blessing of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a group of former employees at a Pittsburgh university filed suit against the school in federal court on Wednesday alleging they were forced out of their jobs on the basis of their age.
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June 19, 2013
Watered-Down Pension Reform Bill Advances In Pa.
The Pennsylvania Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday advanced pension-reform legislation that creates defined contribution plans for new state employees but backs away from earlier efforts to change the future benefits of existing employees.
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June 19, 2013
Judge Gives Final OK To $35M GSK Flonase Settlement
A Pennsylvania federal judge Wednesday gave final approval to a $35 million settlement ending a class action alleging GlaxoSmithKline PLC used improper means to block its rivals from bringing generic versions of its allergy medication Flonase to market.
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June 19, 2013
NCAA Assails Pa. Law Governing Penn State Sanctions
The NCAA on Wednesday asked a Pennsylvania court to toss a suit seeking to prevent $60 million in sanctions levied on Penn State University from leaving the state, attacking the legitimacy of a law aimed at keeping the funds at home.
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June 19, 2013
New Water Regs Toothless On Oil, Gas Discharges, Pa. Told
Revisions to Pennsylvania’s water quality regulations don’t adequately address the discharge of oil and gas drilling wastewater into the state’s waterways, Democratic lawmakers and environmental groups told a state regulatory review board in a letter Tuesday.
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June 19, 2013
FDIC's $219M Suit Blames Advanta Execs For Bank's Collapse
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. launched suit Monday in Pennsylvania federal court to recover $219 million from two top executives of the failed Advanta Bank Corp. who allegedly crippled the bank and alienated customers by increasing credit card interest rates to unprecedented levels.
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June 19, 2013
Deals Rumor Mill: Vodafone, KKR, SunGard
Vodafone could level a $10 billion buyout bid at Germany's No. 1 cable provider as it tries to skirt around a bid war with rival Liberty, while KKR is hungry for a slice of one of Saudi Arabia's most popular fast-food chains.
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June 19, 2013
Pa. Senate OKs Allegheny Port Authority Restructuring Bill
The Pennsylvania Senate on Tuesday gave approval to a bill restructuring the Port Authority of Allegheny County, stripping the county executive of the sole power to appoint members to the authority’s board and spreading it among a wider group of stakeholders and legislators.
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June 19, 2013
Ex-Penn State Execs Lose 2nd Atty Privilege Appeal
The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Tuesday squashed a second appeal by two former Pennsylvania State University administrators who said a grand jury presentment relied on privileged attorney-client information and was defective, as they face charges for conspiring to cover up Jerry Sandusky's child abuse.
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June 18, 2013
Coal Group's Brief Muddies Conservation Fund Suit, Feds Say
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday that a Pennsylvania coal industry group’s amicus brief in support of a mining company’s attempt to recover fees it had paid into a conservation program since declared unenforceable raised new arguments and should be ignored by the court.
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June 18, 2013
Judge Nixes Bid To Halt $400M Kinder Morgan Pipeline
A federal judge on Monday rejected a Native American tribe's bid to halt Kinder Morgan Inc.'s construction of a portion of the $400 million natural gas pipeline expansion in Pennsylvania and New Jersey over alleged desecration of sacred land, calling the tribe's injunction request speculative and legally deficient.
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June 18, 2013
Pa. McDonald's Hit With Class Action Over Debit Card Wages
A Pennsylvania woman hit a McDonald’s franchisee with a putative class action in state court on Thursday, alleging that the employer violated state laws by paying employees solely via debit cards.
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June 18, 2013
Split Pa. Justices Bar Indirect Annuity Beneficiary Change
With an even 3-3 split, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Monday affirmed a decision finding that holders of annuity contracts can only designate new beneficiaries through means expressly laid out by their benefit providers and may not do so through a will or any other means.
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June 18, 2013
Temple U. Can't Block Fired Worker's Return, Pa. Judge Rules
A Pennsylvania state judge last week shot down a suit by Temple University Hospital seeking to overturn an arbitrator's decision allowing a worker who was fired for sexual harassment to return to her job.
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June 18, 2013
Cozen Can't Forgive Pol's Campaign Debt: Pa. Appeals Court
The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court on Tuesday again rejected attempts by Cozen O’Connor to retire nearly $500,000 worth of debt accrued by U.S. Rep. Bob Brady, D-Pa., during his unsuccessful Philadelphia mayoral bid, ruling that forgiving the debt would violate contribution limits under city election law.
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June 18, 2013
Pa. Justices Clarify Reimbursement Rule For Fuel-Tank Fees
Indemnification fees paid into a state fund used to compensate property owners for the removal of underground fuel storage tanks must be current for the entire site before a reimbursement claim can be processed, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
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June 17, 2013
Senate Confirms US District Judges For Pa., NM
In a voice vote on Monday, the U.S. Senate confirmed candidates to fill two U.S. district court vacancies, giving the final nod to Magistrate Judge Luis Felipe Restrepo in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and U.S. Attorney Kenneth Gonzalez in the District of New Mexico.
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June 17, 2013
WR Grace Bankruptcy Plan Favors Company, 3rd Circ. Told
In arguments before the Third Circuit on Monday, entities including the Canadian government and several major lenders said a bankruptcy reorganization plan approved for W.R. Grace & Co. left them undercompensated for their claims while favoring asbestos plaintiffs who sued the company directly.
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June 17, 2013
Graco Hit With Antitrust Class Action Over Rival Buys
Graco Inc. was hit with a proposed class action Monday in Pennsylvania federal court by a California insulation company that alleges Graco bought two rivals in the spray foam equipment market in an anti-competitive plot to acquire most of the market and increase prices.
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June 17, 2013
Jury Awards $8.1M To Grant Street In Auction Patent Row
A Pennsylvania federal jury on Monday found that Realauction.com LLC willfully infringed on a patent held by online auctioneer Grant Street Group Inc. for an 11-month period and awarded Grant Street Group $8.1 million in damages.
Expert Analysis
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Mediators, Expand Your Tool Kit In Complex Litigation
The resolution of class actions or multidistrict litigation cases can present a number of challenges that call for the utmost in the mediator's skill and understanding. Though there is no typical complex litigation case, a mediator needs to recognize the special levels of complexity in these cases, such as litigating against "repeat players" and handling "follow-on" cases, says James Rosenbaum of JAMS.
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Majestic May Prompt 3rd Circ. 'Property Of Estate' Review
The Third Circuit has overturned a bankruptcy court order that allowed the debtor, Majestic Star Casino LLC, to avoid taxes imposed upon it by operation of law when the casino operator’s nondebtor parent revoked its own “S” corporation status. This decision articulates important principles that could lead to a reconsideration of the scope of the concept of “property of the estate” in other contexts as well, say Steven Wilamowsky and Jeffery Black of Bingham McCutchen LLP.
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Pa. Stance On Dunham Rule Confounds Pa. Mining Industry
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Butler v. Charles Powers Estate confirms that Pennsylvania’s so-called Dunham Rule is alive and well, which means that thousands of titles to Marcellus shale gas will not be impacted by any change in the law. In doing so, however, the court also has created a serious problem regarding other minerals, say attorneys with Saul Ewing LLP.
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And Now A Word From The Panel ...
At its May 30 hearing in Louisville, Ky, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will address arguments concerning whether to create MDL proceedings for three different food industry consumer fraud cases, which involve overlapping class actions filed in various jurisdictions throughout the country. Of particular interest in these cases is the approach adopted by the food manufacturer defendants with respect to MDL centralization, says Alan Rothman of Kaye Scholer LLP.
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The Ethical Neutral: What Must Be Disclosed In Mediation
In light of the popularity of mediation, uniform disclosure and conflict-of-interest rules along the lines of the Uniform Mediation Act should be adopted by all the federal courts and all states. This would make it much easier for the parties, counsel and the mediator to know the applicable rules and to comply with them, says Bruce Friedman of ADR Services Inc.
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When Rights Of Publicity Trump 1st Amendment
An important practice tip that flows from the Third Circuit's opinion in Ryan Hart v. Electronic Arts Inc. is that talismanic invocation of the First Amendment does not resolve the legal problem of balancing that amendment with competing rights such as the right of publicity, says Ronald Katz of Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP.
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Harrisburg Demonstrates Danger Of Public Statements
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has long made clear that when information about a municipal issuer is reasonably expected to reach investors and the trading markets, those disclosures are subject to anti-fraud laws. But the recent Harrisburg, Pa., enforcement represents the first time the SEC has charged a municipality for misleading statements made outside of its securities disclosure documents, say attorneys with Day Pitney 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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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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Calif. Chemical Safety Rules Push Constitutional Envelope
Impatience with the pace of Toxic Substances Control Act reform at the federal level is understandable, but substituting individual state action for a perceived lack of federal action may be the classic example of a cure which is worse than the disease. Many think California’s Safer Consumer Product Regulations now prove that, says Ward Benshoof of Alston & Bird LLP.