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ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Beasley, Allen, Crow, Methvin, Portis & Miles PC’s knowing collaboration on talc litigation with a former Johnson & Johnson attorney who worked on the same litigation warrants disqualifying the firm from New Jersey’s asbestos-talc multicounty litigation, a state appeals court held in a Feb. 6 opinion reversing a trial court.
ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Noting that the adage “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” does not apply to lawsuits, the Appellate Court of Maryland affirmed both the Maryland Insurance Administration’s (MIA) finding that the appellant was collaterally estopped from relitigating his insurers’ duty to defend him against an underlying land dispute filed against him and his wife by their neighbors and a lower court’s ruling to strike his second amended complaint when he attempted to add civil claims to his petition for judicial review of the MIA’s conclusion.
PHILADELPHIA — Concluding that for the purposes of Paycheck Protection Act (PPP) loan forgiveness, payments by a business to independent contractors should not be included in the calculation of the business’s payroll costs, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel unanimously reversed a ruling by a Pennsylvania federal court that the Small Business Administration (SBA) acted arbitrarily and capriciously in denying forgiveness for a portion of a business’s PPP loan.
RICHMOND, Va. — Under Armour Inc. has asked the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider its reversal of a Maryland federal court’s grant of the petitioner’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in its directors and officers liability insurers’ lawsuit seeking a declaration that they owe no coverage for underlying investigations brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice, shareholder demand letters and a securities class action, contending that “rehearing is exceptionally important because of the strong public policy interest in settlement.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Texas federal judge’s entry of summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of Walmart Inc., writing in a nonprecedential Feb. 5 opinion that the plaintiff-appellant technology company could not show that the asserted patent claims were not invalid as abstract.
NEW ORLEANS — A jury before a Louisiana federal judge on Feb. 5 held that an insurer acted in bad faith in its handling of the church insured’s claim arising from Hurricane Ida property damage, concluding that the insurer owes the insured $2,818,230.66 in additional coverage for its claim, $371,265 for the insurer’s bad faith and $371,265 for the insurer’s failure to timely pay.
SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court’s order dismissing shareholders’ putative class action alleging that Funko Inc. and certain of its executives violated federal securities laws by issuing misleading statements about the company’s inventory, storage and technology, finding that the plaintiffs pleaded with sufficient particularity factual allegations regarding the falsity of statements concerning existing technology and inventory management.
NEW YORK — Reversing a determination that the named plaintiff in the dispute over using a half-century-old mortality table to calculate joint and survivor annuities (JSAs) has standing “to seek monetary payments on behalf of the” pension plan, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 5 otherwise affirmed the lower court’s ruling in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act case on interlocutory appeal.
PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of shareholders’ suit alleging a company violated the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Best Price Rule by not purchasing their tendered shares, finding the rule is silent about whether a tender offeror may enforce restrictions on the transfer of tendered shares.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A California federal judge rightly granted summary judgment to a NASA subcontractor in a patent infringement suit, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held Feb. 4, because any alleged infringement the company performed on a helicopter sent to Mars is immunized by the subcontractor’s work for the U.S. government.
NEW ORLEANS — In the latest of multiple rulings in which the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has reversed course from its prior precedent and proceeded to bar arbitration of Louisiana hurricane insurance disputes following new Louisiana Supreme Court precedent, a panel on Feb. 4 issued a per curiam unpublished opinion affirming the vacatur of a previous order compelling arbitration of insurance and bad faith claims arising out of hurricane damage to a hotel.