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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A Florida appellate court on Nov. 19 affirmed a lower court ruling granting judgment on the pleadings for an insurer in a putative class action over the alleged failure by Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which describes itself on its website as Florida’s “insurer of last resort,” to pay statutory interest with a settlement payment, finding that the insured failed to assert a breach of the settlement agreement (Michael Kaiser v. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, No. 1D2024-0884, Fla. App., 1st Dist., 2025 Fla. App. LEXIS 8740).
BOSTON — A panel of the First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 19 reversed and remanded to Maine federal court the state’s lawsuit against the 3M Co. Inc. alleging injury from water contamination caused by the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF), ruling that 3M is entitled to federal jurisdiction because it has a “colorable” federal contractor defense.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — An Oregon federal magistrate judge properly granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of defendant railcar manufacturers in a dispute over patents related to railroad gondola cars because the accused cars lacked a required “floor panel extension” as defined by the patents, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Nov. 19.
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied a property owner and construction company’s petition for panel rehearing of the split panel’s holding that the construction company’s insurer does not owe coverage for an underlying suit over damage caused by improperly constructed retaining walls because the policy’s impaired property exclusion bars coverage and the “sudden and accidental injury” exception to the exclusion does not apply.
RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 18 agreed with a Virginia federal judge’s finding that a contractor is not owed reimbursement from excess insurers for expenses it sustained while repairing damage to walls at a school it was building for the U.S. Marine Corps caused by a subcontractor; the panel found no reversable error in the judge’s dismissal or subsequent ruling.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said on Nov. 18 that a generic drug maker “has overcome the doubly high burden of persuading us to overturn a jury verdict of no invalidity” in a dispute over a patent relating to a medication for eyelash growth, reversing a Colorado federal jury’s infringement finding and $39 million in damages.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge on Nov. 18 entered judgment in favor of Meta Platforms Inc. (formerly Facebook Inc.) regarding allegations by the Federal Trade Commission that Meta monopolized the personal social networking (PSN) market by buying rivals WhatsApp and Instagram, finding that the FTC failed to show Meta has monopoly power in the relevant market.
NEW ORLEANS — A divided Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel reversed and remanded a lower court’s ruling and held that residents who sued Jackson, Miss., for allegedly contaminating the local drinking water supply with lead have valid due process claims against the city.
FRANKFORT, Ky. — A Kentucky appeals court panel affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of a liability insurer in its lawsuit disputing indemnity coverage for underlying negligent retention and negligent supervision claims that were brought against its insured, holding that the appellants failed to demonstrate that coverage was triggered by an “occurrence” under the policy and that the policy's “expected or intended” exclusion precluded coverage.
KONA, Hawaii — A smoker’s estate on Nov. 17 filed a motion in Hawaii state court to vacate a jury’s general damages award in his favor and for a new trial solely on general damages, after the court entered final judgment reducing the jury’s verdict of $350,000 in compensatory damages to $0 based on comparative fault and prior settlements by co-defendants.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A federal judge in the District of Columbia in a Nov. 17 opinion noted doubt about “the lawfulness of” the federal government’s centralized database of Americans’ personal data but denied a motion for a stay filed by several nonprofits and individuals based on the failure to demonstrate irreparable injury as the database changes have already been made.