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Top News
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September 14, 2012
Citi, SEC Lash Back At Rakoff Over Rejected $285M MBS Deal
Both Citigroup Inc. and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday fired back at a federal judge who had rejected a $285 million mortgage-backed security settlement between the two, telling the Second Circuit the judge is backpedaling from the true implications of his ruling.
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September 14, 2012
Top NLRB Lawyer Breached Rules In Wal-Mart Probe: Report
The acting general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board violated government ethics rules by taking part in an investigation of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s social media policy while holding stock in the retail giant, the agency’s inspector general reported Thursday.
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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
Calif. Court Upholds Ex-Sequenom Exec's Defamation Claim
A California appeals court on Thursday upheld defamation, invasion of privacy, unfair business practices and breach of contract claims that a former Sequenom Inc. executive brought against the life sciences company, finding that he demonstrated a probability of prevailing on those claims.
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September 14, 2012
6th Circ. Says FDIC Can't Recover $765M In AmFin Dispute
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was dashed in its effort to recover $765 million from AmFin Financial Corp. when the Sixth Circuit on Friday affirmed a ruling that the bankrupt company did not commit to providing capital to prop up its commercial banking unit.
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September 14, 2012
GOP Reps. Pass 'No More Solyndras' Bill To Nix Energy Loans
The Republican-dominated House on Friday approved the "No More Solyndras Act," a bill that would pull the plug on the U.S. Department of Energy's much-maligned programs that have provided more than $30 billion in loans to dozens of renewable energy projects, some of which have gone bankrupt.
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September 14, 2012
Bain, Others Must Show Harm To Shield Docs In Antitrust Case
A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday told Bain Capital Partners LLC, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other private equity firms they had to provide better reasons to keep confidential details in an antitrust suit over alleged price-fixing of leveraged buyouts from going public.
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September 14, 2012
RSUI Off Hook For $65M Forest Lab Drug Info Settlement
RSUI Indemnity Co. doesn't have to help Forest Laboratories Inc. pay for a $65 million securities class action settlement over the safety information on the drugmaker's Celexa and Lexapro antidepressants because other insurers didn't exhaust their policies first, a New York state judge ruled Friday.
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September 14, 2012
Louisiana Citizens To Spend $60M To End Katrina, Rita Suits
Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corp.'s board of directors agreed Thursday to settle for an estimated $60 million the two remaining class actions over its handling of insurance claims in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
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September 14, 2012
Kuehne & Nagel Pays $28M To End Cargo Price-Fixing Claims
Kuehne & Nagel International AG on Friday agreed to pay $28 million to settle antitrust claims in a proposed class action that the company conspired with a slew of other companies to fix prices in the international freight forwarding industry.
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September 14, 2012
ITC Judge Rejects Samsung's Bid To Ban IPhone Imports
A U.S. International Trade Commission judge on Friday shot down Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s bid to bar imports of Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad, ruling Apple had not infringed four Samsung mobile communications patents.
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September 14, 2012
GAO Says Picard Not Biased When Assessing Madoff Claims
Irving Picard, the trustee unwinding Ponzi schemer Bernard L. Madoff's trading firm, hasn't treated individual investors differently from institutions when making decisions about accepting or rejecting claims, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released Thursday.
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September 14, 2012
Exxon Defeats EEOC Age Bias Suit Over Retirement Policy
A Texas federal judge on Thursday tossed an age bias suit against Exxon Mobil Corp. over its former policy of forcing pilots to retire at age 60, saying the oil giant had shown the age requirement had been a valid consideration for the safety of the job.
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September 14, 2012
Jury Awards L'Oreal Unit $12M In Skin Brush Patent Case
A federal jury in Seattle awarded L'Oreal USA Inc. subsidiary Pacific Bioscience Laboratories Inc. $11.6 million Wednesday in a patent case accusing Nutra Luxe MD LLC of selling knockoff versions of PBL's anti-acne Clarisonic skin cleansing brush.
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September 14, 2012
NYSE Will Pay $5M To End SEC's Data Access Claims
The New York Stock Exchange agreed Friday to pay $5 million to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it gave some customers early access to trading information, marking the first time the agency has drawn a financial penalty from an exchange.
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September 13, 2012
Argentine Bribery Whistleblower Seeks $100M From Siemens
A former Argentine government investigator who says he was brutally beaten for trying to blow the whistle on a Siemens AG bribery scheme related to a $1 billion government contract sued the German company Wednesday for $100 million in damages.
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September 13, 2012
Capital One To Pay $10M To Settle Suit Over APR Hikes
Capital One Bank USA NA on Thursday agreed to pay $10 million to a proposed class of credit card holders to resolve claims that it promoted its credit card services as offering low fixed annual percentage rates and then later abruptly increased them.
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September 13, 2012
Ex-Sigma Exec Denies Antitrust Tactics In Pipe Fitting Case
A former Sigma Corp. executive at a Federal Trade Commission price-fixing trial Thursday denied having anti-competitive sentiments toward a Sigma competitor when it reached a deal with McWane Inc. to sell domestic iron products, despite internal company memos focused on undercutting the rival.
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September 13, 2012
NFL Pushes For Calif. Venue In Brain Injury Insurance Row
The National Football League went on the offensive Wednesday to keep its coverage battle over football players' brain injury suits in California, telling a New York court that Alterra America Insurance Co. had no standing to add nearly 30 insurers to its complaint a week after the NFL targeted them in California.
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September 13, 2012
Wash. High Court Says Anti-Gay Bias Law Isn't Retroactive
The Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the state's 2006 expansion of its anti-discrimination law to include sexual orientation cannot be applied retroactively, but that preamendment incidents can support claims for a hostile work environment that continued after the change took effect.
Expert Analysis
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Old-Fashioned Conspiracy In Cutting-Edge Technology
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the U.S. Department of Justice will continue to pursue litigation against Apple Inc., Macmillan Publishers Ltd. and Penguin Group Inc. for alleged price-fixing of e-books. The irony of this litigation is that it would appear that all the involved defendants were able to keep pace with technology, but not the simple evolution of corporate governance and compliance expectations, says Debra Rade of Rade Law LLC.
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Iran, Sanctions And Oil — A Global Update
Europe's July 1 oil embargo as well as U.S. and European financial sanctions prompted by Iran's nuclear program have seen Tehran's oil sales drop to most Western destinations, and drawn promises from some Asian buyers that they will cut purchases, says Nigel Kushner of Whale Rock Legal Ltd.
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Sackett: Implications For Pre-Enforcement Review
The U.S. Supreme Court's opinion language in Sackett v. the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will invite future constitutional challenges to Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act §106 unilateral orders, and could set precedent for successful Administrative Procedures Act challenges to EPA orders under other environmental statutes, say John Eldridge and Megan Bibb of Haynes and Boone LLP.
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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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A 1st For Fracking: EPA's Air Emissions Regulations
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a final rule regulating the emission of volatile organic compounds and certain other pollutants emitted by hydraulic fracturing, marking the first time that the EPA will regulate air emissions from fracking operations. The rule is likely a harbinger of further greenhouse gas regulation of the upstream and midstream oil and gas industries, say attorneys with Latham & Watkins LLP.
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Brinker: How Break Policies Affect Class Certification
While most commentaries have highlighted the California Supreme Court's decision in the Brinker Restaurant Corp. case for its implications upon class action suits, there is an overlooked implication — the effect of Brinker’s written rest break policy upon the court’s decision to uphold the rest break subclass certification, says Kerri Ruzicka of Murphy Pearson Bradley & Feeney PC.
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REO To Rental: A New Paradigm For The US Housing Sector
The prospect for an extended period of high levels of home loan delinquencies, foreclosure proceedings and real estate owned is causing regulators, mortgage lenders and investors to re-examine traditional approaches to handling REO. This is generating increased interest in an interim strategy of a transition from single family REO to rental uses of such properties, say attorneys with Dechert LLP.
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Addressing Pollution Exclusion In Va.
The Supreme Court of Virginia has held that pollution exclusion endorsements in first-party property policies barred coverage for the insured's product losses caused by contamination resulting from a manufacturing mishap. The decision squarely rejects a key argument often made by policyholders that pollution exclusions should be limited to outdoor, hazardous waste contamination claims, say Laura Foggan, Jeremiah Galus and Samuel Gedge of Wiley Rein LLP.
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Sussing Out Regulations A And D Of The JOBS Act
Regulation A Plus and amended Rule 506 have the potential to make capital formation considerably easier for private companies. But in each case, much depends on new rules to be adopted by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in the coming months, says Jonathan Guest of McCarter & English LLP.
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Helpful Health Care Guidance From Iowa Supreme Court
The Iowa Supreme Court recently issued two opinions that advance our understanding of important concepts, including a public hospital’s obligation to release internal audit reports pursuant to open records requests, and the standard of care applicable to a hospital board of directors in fulfilling its credentialing function, say William Miller and Alissa Smith of Dorsey & Whitney LLP.