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Southeast
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September 17, 2012
EPL Pays $550M For Hilcorp's Shallow-Water Gulf Oil Fields
Louisiana energy company EPL Oil & Gas Inc. has agreed buy some of Hilcorp Energy Co.'s shallow water oil and gas assets in the Gulf of Mexico for $550 million, nearly doubling its proven energy reserves, EPL said Monday.
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September 17, 2012
Cleanup Co. Seeks Indemnity From BP For Oil Spill Suits
United States Environmental Services LLC on Friday sued two BP PLC units in Louisiana federal court, saying BP was dodging its contractual obligation to defend USES against damage and worker illness claims arising from its role as manager of a post-Deepwater Horizon cleanup program.
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September 17, 2012
No Proof CDC Leaked Atty’s Name In TB Scare, 11th Circ. Says
The Eleventh Circuit on Friday refused to breathe new life into Privacy Act allegations from a Georgia attorney who in 2007 touched off a worldwide health scare when traveling around Europe while infected with tuberculosis, saying there’s no proof federal employees leaked his identity.
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September 17, 2012
Judge Tosses FCA Suit Over Purdue's OxyContin
A West Virginia federal judge on Friday put the kibosh on a qui tam lawsuit accusing Purdue Pharma LP of falsely marketing its painkiller OxyContin, ruling that the Fourth Circuit's dismissal of an identical suit by the relator's husband barred the case.
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September 14, 2012
11th Circ. Buries Record Label's Nelly Furtado IP Suit
The Eleventh Circuit refused Friday to revive a Finnish record label's lawsuit that claimed one of its recordings was illegally copied in a Nelly Furtado song, although it faulted a lower court's assumption that Internet publication means simultaneous, worldwide distribution of a work.
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September 14, 2012
Tobacco Cos. Ask High Court To Hear Engle Due Process Claims
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Liggett Group LLC have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a $20 million judgment they say shows their due process rights are being trampled in Engle progeny cases — but only after the Florida high court rules in a related pending case.
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September 14, 2012
Rothstein Pal Gets 3 Years For Campaign Fund Fraud
A Florida federal judge on Friday sentenced a former partner of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's defunct law firm to three years in prison for illegally funneling campaign money to John McCain's 2008 presidential election campaign.
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September 14, 2012
Liberty Mutual Shakes $1.4M FEMA Fire Settlement
A federal judge on Thursday ruled Liberty Mutual Fire Insurance Co. can recoup $1.4 million it paid to settle a lawsuit over a deadly fire that broke out in a FEMA trailer after Hurricane Katrina because it wasn’t obligated to cover the company involved.
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September 13, 2012
Funeral Casket Antitrust Case Kept Alive By 5th Circ.
The Fifth Circuit on Thursday mostly affirmed the dismissal of a proposed antitrust class action accusing major casket manufacturers and funeral home chains of conspiring to boycott smaller competitors and overcharge grieving families, but allowed for continued litigation that revives claims of liability and damages.
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September 13, 2012
8th Circ. Backs HHS, CMS In $3M Medicaid Tax Dispute
The Eighth Circuit on Wednesday affirmed that two federal agencies had correctly adjusted Medicare reimbursements made to Kindred Hospitals East LLC by $3 million, saying the hospital operator had wrongly claimed a Medicaid tax offset.
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September 12, 2012
Appraisal Awards Support Bad Faith Claims, Fla. Court Says
A Florida appeals court has dealt a major blow to insurers arguing that policyholders must win a breach of contract claim before they can bring bad faith actions, ruling last week that insureds that score a favorable appraisal award in a property damage dispute can pursue bad faith litigation.
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September 12, 2012
Bingham McCutchen To Open $22.5M Ky. Administrative Hub
Boston-based Bingham McCutchen LLP has become the latest firm to centralize its administrative work in one office, as it announced plans Wednesday to open a $22.5 million, global business operations office in Lexington, Ky.
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September 12, 2012
Insurers Beat Car Dealer Demands For Consumer Suit Coverage
Graphic Arts Mutual Insurance Co. and Utica Mutual Insurance Co. are not obligated to cover a South Carolina auto dealership embroiled in a consumer fraud suit, a federal judge held Monday, backing the New York-based insurers in their battle with Caldwell Chevrolet Inc.
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September 12, 2012
Insurance Scheme Used Unfair Inspections To Hike Rates: Suit
A Florida homeowner lodged a suit in federal court Tuesday against insurance services contractor Mueller Services Inc., accusing the company of using faulty inspections to give Citizens Property Insurance Corp. justification for raising premiums in violation of a Florida law providing discounts to homeowners with proper wind protection.
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September 12, 2012
Cracker Barrel Can't Get Coverage For Bias Suit, 6th Circ. Says
The Sixth Circuit ruled Monday that Cincinnati Insurance Co. had no duty to cover Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc. in a class action filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, saying the claim fell outside the policy period.
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September 12, 2012
Martha Stewart, Emeril Accused Of Selling Knockoff Cutlery
Martha Stewart and Emeril Lagasse were sued for trademark infringement Tuesday by a German trade association that claims the celebrity chefs duped Home Shopping Network viewers into buying shoddy cutlery that is erroneously marketed as being made in Solingen, Germany.
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September 12, 2012
Advance Auto Wrongly Bases Hires On Consumer Reports: Suit
Advance Auto Parts Inc. on Tuesday was hit with a proposed class action alleging it violates the Fair Credit Reporting Act by improperly using information in consumer reports to make decisions about hiring, firing and other employment issues for prospective and existing employees.
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September 11, 2012
Arbitration Pacts Don't Make Class Waivers Legal, Unions Say
Banning workers from concerted legal activity runs afoul of labor law even if a company tries to camouflage that prohibition by putting it into an arbitration pact, the AFL-CIO said Tuesday, urging the Fifth Circuit to uphold the National Labor Relations Board's controversial D.R. Horton Inc. decision.
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September 11, 2012
GenCorp On Hook For Plant's Cleanup Costs, 6th Circ. Says
The Sixth Circuit ruled Tuesday that GenCorp Inc. is liable for some environmental cleanup costs incurred by Textileather Corp. at a former vinyl manufacturing facility in Ohio, saying a purchase contract between the companies established GenCorp's liability.
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September 11, 2012
Penalties Against Music Downloader Not Too Hefty: 8th Circ.
The Eighth Circuit on Tuesday upheld the constitutionality of a $222,000 damages award against a woman accused of illegally downloading 24 songs owned by major record labels including Capitol Records Inc. and Sony BMG Music Entertainment, and barred her from further distributing the music.
Expert Analysis
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IP In Bankruptcy — Insights From 6th, 7th Circs.
Recently, the Sixth Circuit and Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals each issued decisions on important intellectual property issues in bankruptcy: Dominic's Restaurant of Dayton Inc. v. Mantia and Sunbeam Products Inc. v. Chicago Am. Mfg. LLC, respectively, say Hugh McCullough and Brad Duncan of Davis Wright Tremaine LLP.
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FCA's First-To-File Rule — Mass. Weighs In
In U.S. ex rel. Heineman-Guta v. Guidant Corp., a Massachusetts federal court recently found that a relator’s complaint was barred by the False Claims Act’s first-to-file requirement and dismissed the relator’s complaint, intensifying a developing divide among courts about the breadth of the FCA’s first-to-file rule, say attorneys with Ropes & Gray LLP.
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Examining Data Systems & Solutions' FCPA Settlement
To resolve two Foreign Corrupt Practices Act-related charges, Data Systems & Solutions LLC paid a criminal penalty of $8.82 million and entered into a two-year deferred prosecution agreement. There are several noteworthy aspects of the settlement, says Jacqueline Ferrand of Miller & Chevalier.
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The Latest In Jefferson County
The Bankruptcy Court in the Jefferson County, Ala., Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy case recently issued a decision in The Bank of New York Mellon v. Jefferson County, siding with creditors by limiting the county's use of revenues generated by its sewer system. As a consequence, the court has advanced the legal argument that, in Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcies, bankruptcy courts should respect and protect a pledge of net special revenues, say attorneys with Fulbright & Jaworski LLP.
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The Legacy Of Zota: Attorneys' Fees And Fla. Insurers
An amendment to Florida’s surplus lines law, the “Zota fix,” has largely succeeded in stabilizing Florida’ surplus lines market. It has also expressly created a new exposure for surplus lines insurers: liability for an insured’s attorneys fees and costs, say John Dearie and John David Dickenson of Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP.
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Are Your Waivers Worth The Paper They Are Printed On?
Decisions by bankruptcy courts in the Second, Third, Fifth and Eleventh circuits have favored enforcement of subordination agreements that go beyond mere subordination of payment rights. Meanwhile, bankruptcy courts in the First, Fourth and Seventh circuits have reached a contrary conclusion. Creditors who are parties to subordination agreements that contain waivers of bankruptcy rights should approach bankruptcy with the unsettled state of the law in mind, says Eric Daucher of Chadbourne & Parke LLP.
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Giving Robinson-Patman New Life In The 6th Circ.
While federal courts have treated the Robinson-Patman price discrimination law negatively in recent years, the Sixth Circuit's opinion in Williams v. Duke Energy strongly suggests that businesses need to continue to include Robinson-Patman Act issues in their business risk assessments of pricing strategies, say attorneys with Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky and Popeo PC.
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If You Miss, Better Miss Well: In Re Clark
In “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” Tuco tells Blondie, “If you miss, you had better miss very well.” So it is with In re Clark, where the Fifth Circuit ruled that a reporter has constitutional standing to challenge a confidentiality order in a criminal case that restricts the speech of trial participants, but denied all relief in the case, says Joseph Larsen of Sedgwick LLP.
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A New Prosecutorial Model For Health Care Fraud
A likely unnoticed June 13, 2012, durable medical equipment and forfeiture indictment in Nashville signals the first of what could become a new model of future federal health care fraud prosecution, says Scott Newton of Baker Donelson Bearman Caldwell & Berkowitz PC.
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State-Action Protection For State Licensing Boards?
The North Carolina State Board of Dental Examiners is seeking review of the Federal Trade Commission's finding that the board was not entitled to protection from antitrust scrutiny under the state-action doctrine. The case could have wide-ranging implications for the future of antitrust enforcement, in cases that arguably implicate state conduct, say Ryan Marth and Scott Kranz of Robins Kaplan Miller & Ciresi LLP.