Practice Areas
Southeast
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February 22, 2012
8th Circ. Mostly OKs Toss Of EEOC’s Trucker Sex Bias Suit
The Eighth Circuit on Wednesday upheld the dismissal of almost all of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's lawsuit on behalf female drivers at CRST Van Expedited Inc. but vacated a $4.5 million attorneys' fee award to the trucking company.
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February 22, 2012
Mining Co. Indicted Over Coal Mine Roof Collapse
A federal grand jury in Kentucky on Wednesday indicted Manalapan Mining Co. for allegedly failing to maintain safety standards in a coal mine whose roof collapsed and killed a miner last year.
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February 22, 2012
Fla. Court Overturns Engle Verdict Against Philip Morris
A Florida appeals court on Wednesday overturned a 2009 jury verdict against Philip Morris USA Inc. for a widower whose wife died of lung cancer, in the first appellate reversal of a verdict in a so-called Engle case, the tobacco giant said.
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February 22, 2012
11th Circ. Revives $69M Fraud Suit Against Medco
The Eleventh Circuit on Wednesday revived a whistleblowers' False Claims Act suit alleging Medco Health Solutions Inc. subsidiaries hid $69 million in Medicare and Medicaid overpayments, finding the relators' complaint should have survived a motion to dismiss.
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February 22, 2012
6th Circ. Revives GM Workers' ERISA Suit Against State Street
The Sixth Circuit on Wednesday reversed a lower court's dismissal of a putative class action alleging State Street Bank & Trust Co. violated federal employment law by allowing General Motors employees to invest in the company's stock even after GM's impending bankruptcy became public knowledge.
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February 22, 2012
Burr & Forman Adds Lowndes Drosdick Labor Pro In Fla.
Burr & Forman LLP said this month that it had lured over a veteran labor and employment attorney from Lowndes Drosdick Doster Kantor and Reed PA to bolster its ranks in Orlando, Fla.
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February 22, 2012
Kuwaiti Co. Claims Feds Cooked Evidence In Contract Row
The Public Warehousing Co. asked a Georgia federal court Tuesday to dismiss criminal charges that it overbilled the U.S. on a multibillion-dollar defense contract, accusing prosecutors of misconduct including pressuring officials to change their positive evaluations of the Kuwaiti contractor.
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February 22, 2012
Sony Owns ‘King Of The Road,’ Other Songs: 6th Circ.
Sony/ATV Publishing LLC owns the renewal copyrights to the hit “King of the Road” and other songs by country singer Roger Miller, the Sixth Circuit ruled Wednesday, reversing a district court win for Miller's widow and striking down a damages award of almost $1 million.
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February 22, 2012
Colony Need Not Defend Insured's Predecessor: 5th Circ.
The Fifth Circuit found Monday that Colony National Insurance Co. does not owe defense costs to lifting equipment manufacturer Manitex LLC in underlying litigation over a crane accident, finding Manitex did not assume its predecessor-in-interest's tort liability to trigger coverage.
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February 22, 2012
Toxic Fly Ash Used In Golf Course Prompts $2B Suit
Hundreds of Virginia plaintiffs are taking a $2 billion swing at regional power company Dominion, which they accused in two lawsuits filed Tuesday of exposing them to toxic fly ash that was used as fill for a golf course built in the middle of their community.
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February 22, 2012
2nd Massey Boss Charged In Fatal Mine Explosion
Federal prosecutors charged a second Massey Energy Co. mine boss Wednesday with obstructing an investigation into poor safety conditions at the infamous Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, where an explosion in 2010 killed 29 miners.
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February 21, 2012
Fla. Catholic University Sues Over Contraception Rule
A Catholic university in Florida on Tuesday sued the Obama administration, claiming the new rule requiring employers to include free contraceptive care in their health plans is unconstitutional, the latest such suit challenging the provision.
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February 21, 2012
Fund Objects To $70M Bank Settlement In Rothstein Case
CBM Capital LLC on Tuesday opposed a $70 million settlement between Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust and bankruptcy trustees over Gibraltar's alleged involvement in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme perpetrated by former attorney Scott Rothstein.
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February 21, 2012
8th Circ. Revives Best Buy Suit Over DDR Mall Leases
The Eighth Circuit on Tuesday affirmed a ruling that Developers Diversified Realty Corp. affiliates violated leases with Best Buy Stores LP by self-insuring part of their shopping centers' liability coverage, but said further litigation is needed to determine their exact liability.
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February 21, 2012
Kolon's Recusal Bid In DuPont Antitrust Case Falls Short
A Virginia federal judge refused to recuse himself Tuesday from Kolon Industries Inc.'s antitrust and trade secrets cases against DuPont Co., saying Kolon had waited too long to criticize his stint as an attorney for McGuireWoods LLP when the firm represented DuPont in a 1985 patent suit.
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February 21, 2012
Phosphate Co. Mosaic Settles Fla. Mine Expansion Dispute
The Mosaic Co. has reached a settlement agreement with environmental groups including The Sierra Club that will allow the Minnesota agricultural phosphate producer to continue mining at an extension of the South Fort Meade mine in central Florida, the company said Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
EPA's Fla. Water Standards Partially Struck Down
A Florida federal judge on Saturday invalidated the criteria the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency uses for acceptable nutrient levels in streams, but upheld the agency's standards for lakes and springs, and partially upheld criteria that protect lakes from nutrient pollution from upstream waters.
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February 21, 2012
Deepwater Rig Worker Settles Injury Claims Against BP, Others
A Deepwater Horizon worker aboard the vessel during the April 2010 Macondo well explosion said Monday that she had settled her injury claims against companies targeted in ensuing multidistrict litigation, including BP PLC, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton Energy Services Inc.
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February 21, 2012
Garmin Scores Win In Triangle GPS Patent Row
A Virginia federal judge has ruled that two kinds of Garmin International Inc. GPS navigation devices do not infringe five navigation technology patents held by Triangle Software LLC, Garmin announced Tuesday.
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February 21, 2012
Dental Center Co. Seeks Sale To Root Out Fraud Claims
Dental center manager Church Street Health Management LLC told a Tennessee federal judge Tuesday that it would seek to sell its assets to a stalking horse bidder, one day after fallout from Medicaid fraud claims forced the company into bankruptcy.
Expert Analysis
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Case Study: Bunk V. Birkart
The recent decision in the Eastern District of Virginia in Bunk v. Birkart Globistics demonstrates the pitfalls for relators and for the government itself in actively pursuing False Claims Act claims in the absence of provable damages, say attorneys with Vinson & Elkins LLP.
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Law School, Meet Litigation PR ...
The single most important thing law schools can do to manage their reputations in the face of litigation is apply the lessons learned from Wall Street during the recent financial crisis and strive for transparency in all communications. One need only look to Goldman Sachs’ woes or the struggles of Jon Corzine’s MF Global as examples of the catastrophic results of a campaign based on anything but complete honesty, says Spencer Baretz of Hellerman Baretz Communications.
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Revised Removal Statutes — Possibilities, Pitfalls: Part 2
The Federal Courts Jurisdiction and Venue Clarification Act of 2011 has brought about substantial clarification in the federal removal, jurisdiction and venue statutes. But the act still leaves substantial ambiguity in place when it comes to the scope of these statutes, say Colin Wrabley and Douglas Allen of Reed Smith LLP.
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Case Study: Fisher V. Halliburton
The Fifth Circuit's recent opinion in Fisher v. Halliburton represents a good result for employers and employees alike, furthering the dual purposes of the Defense Base Act — prompt relief for employees, with limited and predictable liability for employers, says Ryan Berry of Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC.
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Quite An 'Occurrence': Rehearing Steadfast V. AES
The Virginia Supreme Court has agreed to rehear a coverage dispute involving the defense of climate-change lawsuits, though it previously had held that historic emissions of greenhouse gases were not a covered “occurrence.” The rehearing is unusual and the case is considered an important bellwether as the first of its kind, says John Nevius of Anderson Kill & Olick PC.
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Immunity For Potentially Toxic Trailers
The Fifth Circuit has consistently held that the government is entitled to raise any and all defenses that would potentially be available to a private citizen or entity under state law, and it continued to do so in granting the government immunity against putative class actions alleging that trailers provided to hurricane-impacted citizens contained hazardous levels of formaldehyde, says Sean Wajert of Dechert LLP.
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Benefit Corps. — A New Structure For The New Economy
The formation and operation of benefit corporations are now authorized in seven states and legislation to authorize the formation of benefit corporations has been introduced in several others. The formal establishment of this new corporate structure is necessary in order to give companies legal protection to consider nonfinancial factors when making decisions, says Jonathan Storper of Hanson Bridgett LLP.
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Is Ch. 9 The Next Chapter In The Municipal Saga?
Boise County, Idaho, demonstrates one of the reasons that Chapter 9 is not a panacea for every kind of financial problem burdening U.S. municipalities. Unfortunately, an increasing number of municipalities are passing the test that Boise County failed, say Joseph Witalec and Mark Douglas of Jones Day.
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No Wonder: Denying A D&O Claim As Excluded Loss
In U.S. Bank Nat'l Ass'n v. Federal Ins. Co., litigation stemming from Hostess Brands Inc.'s first bankruptcy filing, the Eighth Circuit handed down a decision that offers instruction to insurance and bankruptcy practitioners alike, providing further refinement in the debate on the effect an agreement not to sue has when the covered loss is an amount the insured is “legally obligated to pay,” says William Webster of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.
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A Little 'Guidance': All You Need For Preemption?
Regulated entities, courts and federal agencies have struggled with the question of whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's reliance on guidance documents, employed in place of formal rulemaking, can be used to preempt state law claims when such claims conflict with agency guidance, but do not explicitly conflict with formally adopted regulations or laws, say David Graham and Anthony de Sam Lazaro of Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly LLP.