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PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Feb. 10 denied a company and its affiliated dermatology practices’ motion for judgment on the pleadings or dismissal in a relator’s suit asserting violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) and similar state laws for the practices’ alleged fraudulent billing to receive higher reimbursements from government health insurers, finding that the FCA’s qui tam provisions “did not usurp the executive branch’s control of its enforcement priorities” and the relators’ suit “does not violate the Appointments, Vesting, and Take Care Clauses” of Article II of the U.S. Constitution.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge on Feb. 10 awarded a class $4,596,287.50 of the $7,907,760.60 it requested for attorney fees following a bench trial in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations and the purported proxy voting activism of nonparty investment management firms; he also denied a request for a $15,000 service award and clarified aspects of the injunctive relief ordered in the Sept. 30 final judgment denying monetary damages.
HARTFORD, Conn. — The Connecticut Supreme Court ruled Feb. 10 that state law requires employees to be paid for time spent undergoing mandatory security checks and that no de minimis exception exists, addressing two questions certified by the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in a putative class suit against Amazon entities.
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 9 affirmed a lower court’s decision that found that a Louisiana law governing the distribution to contract pharmacies of medication covered under the Section 340B drug price program of the Public Health Service Act is not preempted by federal law and is not unconstitutional.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Feb. 9 published a tribunal’s order denying two American entities’ request for suspension of their arbitration against the United Mexican States for harming their interest in debt securities worth more than $219 million in violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), rejecting their argument that the Mexican president is willing to negotiate because Mexico opposed the suspension.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — While a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel vacated some of a Massachusetts federal judge’s claim constructions in a patent infringement dispute concerning artificial blood-pumping systems for cardiac patients, the panel held in a Feb. 9 opinion that other correct claim constructions supported the judge’s entry of summary judgment of noninfringement.
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel largely affirmed the dismissal of a sprawling pro se complaint brought by the subject of a documentary titled “The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker,” agreeing with a California federal judge’s finding that the man’s copyright claims failed but also finding that he narrowly established a defamation claim against one defendant-appellee for potentially fabricated claims made in the documentary.
BOSTON — The First Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed in part a New Hampshire federal court’s ruling dismissing for lack of personal jurisdiction a former police officer and his wife’s negligence suit against a company that operates an online marketplace for firearms, finding “no basis for disturbing the District Court's purposeful-availment ruling insofar as it does not relate to” additional evidence provided by the couple.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge on Feb. 9 dismissed a commercial lines liability insurer’s suit seeking a declaration that no coverage is owed for an underlying suit filed against an insured and stemming from mold exposure because the insurer failed to show that the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000, the federal jurisdictional minimum amount necessary to establish diversity jurisdiction.
NEW ORLEANS — In a per curiam order denying panel rehearing issued without explanation, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals let stand its reversal of an award of more than $1.25 million in attorney fees to a former National Football League player who sued for a higher level of disability benefits than he was awarded, prevailed after a bench trial and then saw that favorable ruling reversed in a previous appeal.
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana appeals panel held that a commercial general liability insurance policy’s assault and battery exclusion unambiguously bars coverage for a wrongful death lawsuit arising from a fatal shooting that occurred at an apartment that was owned by the insured, affirming a lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the insurer.