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NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc filed by the National Football League (NFL) and three teams after a panel ruled in August that rulings denying arbitration of a coach’s race bias claims against the Denver Broncos and NFL based on his employment agreement with the New England Patriots and denying reconsideration were proper.
NEW YORK — A panel of the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that a lower court erred when it did not credit investors’ allegations from confidential witnesses and Spanish criminal proceedings in dismissing the investors’ action against a Spanish-headquartered engineering and construction company, its underwriters and several of the company’s officers for allegedly manipulating financial records to conceal its liquidity crisis; the panel said the plaintiffs’ allegations were detailed and independently corroborated.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida trial judge improperly “supplanted the jury’s role as factfinder” when he reweighed photographic evidence and granted an insurer’s motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict (JNOV) after a jury considered expert testimony and evidence to find that Hurricane Irma created a hole in a home’s roof, a state appeals court ruled Oct. 8.
PHILADELPHIA — A federal judge in Pennsylvania on Oct. 8 gave final approval to a settlement in a securities fraud class action related to the construction of a hydraulic fracturing pipeline, ruling that the deal, which provides a cash payment of $15 million to the plaintiffs, is “in all respects, fair, reasonable, and adequate.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 8 requested responses to a petition challenging a South Carolina justice’s appointment of a receiver over the insurance assets of a solvent Canadian company as a sanction for its failure to participate in discovery in an asbestos action.
SAN DIEGO — A California appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s judgment in favor of a homeowners insurer in its declaratory relief lawsuit disputing coverage for an underlying judgment against its insured, concluding that the insured’s conduct was not the result of an “accident” and, therefore, the underlying damages did not arise from a covered “occurrence” under the policy.
SAN FRANCISCO — A district court erred in dismissing product liability claims brought by former members of the U.S. military who allege that they were injured after ingesting military-prescribed mefloquine products, an anti-malarial medication, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in an Oct. 7 unpublished opinion, finding that the political question doctrine does not apply.
OAKLAND, Calif. — Days after granting the plaintiffs’ third motion for class certification in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act suit over alleged underpayment for out-of-network behavioral health treatment, a California federal judge issued a tentative order on Oct. 7 for a law firm representing the plaintiffs to pay $50,000 for disclosures to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) that she found constituted “a knowing and intentional breach of” a stipulated protective order in the case.
ABERDEEN, Miss. — A Mississippi federal judge on Oct. 7 dismissed without prejudice a copyright infringement suit alleging that a company that maintains Facebook fan pages for U.S. professional and college sports violated the intellectual property rights of a Mississippi State University internet fansite, finding that the court lacks personal jurisdiction over the suit because the fansite failed to show that the fan page company is “subject to personal jurisdiction” in Mississippi.
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 7 held that, absent an independent injury, an insured cannot file tort claims against an insurer under Texas’ Unfair Settlement Practices Act after receiving an appraisal award and statutory interest, affirming a lower federal court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the insurer in a coverage dispute over wind and hail damage.
DETROIT — Calling a lower court’s order “erroneous,” a Michigan appellate court reversed and remanded the order granting summary disposition in favor of Allstate in an auto accident personal injury protection (PIP) coverage dispute with medical providers, finding that the lower court erred in its judgment because the record did not show that the injured woman seeking PIP benefits “made fraudulent statements during the application process.”