News
Top Headlines
[08/20]
Sen. Stevens loses bid to move trial to Alaska
[08/20]
First payments in Vioxx deal to begin Aug. 28
[08/20]
Drug lord's extradition to US approved
[08/20]
Judge: Company must give experimental drug to teen
[08/20]
Iraq official: US, Iraq finish draft security deal
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Real Estate
[08/15]
General Shopping Brasil Posts 74.3% Increase in Gross Revenue in 2Q08 and 67.6% in 1H08. Adjusted EBITDA Rises 96.0% in 2Q08
[08/15]
Cyrela Announces 56% of the Sales Speed of 2Q08 Launches and 60% Growth in 1H08 EBITDA
[08/15]
Trump to buy McMahon's home, let him live there
[08/14]
Florida's Existing Home, Condo Sales Improve in 2Q 2008 Compared to 1Q 2008
[08/14]
Xinyuan Real Estate to Report Second Quarter 2008 Financial Results on September 2, 2008
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Labor
[08/15]
Debate coaches lose cool, one pulls down his pants
[07/30]
Doorman who won $5M, said he'd stay at job gets ax
[08/05]
Agriprocessors cited for child labor violations
[08/04]
Rural volunteer fire depts. struggle to recruit
[08/01]
State workers lose jobs amid Calif. budget crisis
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Litigation
[08/15]
6 get Legionnaires' disease in upstate NY; 1 dies
[08/15]
Jury rejects assault suit against Osteen's wife
[08/15]
Court says copyrights apply even for free software
[08/15]
Jackson Browne sues McCain, RNC over song in ad
[08/15]
Trump to buy McMahon's home, let him live there
More...
Business
[08/20]
NY restaurant uses 1933 prices; Steaks: 90 cents
[08/13]
Ohio man buys new truck with thousands of coins
[08/01]
Clothing store opens bar in middle of sales floor
[08/19]
Dividend checks to be distributed early in Alaska
[08/13]
Feds nix new bus company licenses after crash
More...
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Case Summaries
Labor & Employment Law
[08/20]
Hurlic v. S. California Gas Co.
In a suit against defendant-company and its pension plan alleging that company's amendment of the plan violated both ERISA and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA), dismissal of the lawsuit is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded where: 1) pension plans utilizing a so-called cash balance formula (cash balance plans) do not violate an anti-age discrimination provision of ERISA; 2) cash balance plans do not violate one of ERISA's "anti-backloading" provisions; 3) ERISA preempts plaintiffs' state law FEHA claim; but 4) plaintiffs' complaint adequately alleged that defendants violated ERISA's notice requirement.
[08/19]
Vaughn v. Epworth Villa
In an action alleging that plaintiff was retaliated against by defendant for participating in the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) process, dismissal of the claim is affirmed where: 1) although plaintiff engaged in a "protected activity" when she submitted unredacted medical records to the EEOC; 2) however, defendant provided a legitimate and facially non-retaliatory reason for its decision to terminate her based on the violation of the organization's policies and procedures regarding confidentiality when without authorization, specifically because she provided unredacted medical records to the EEOC; 3) plaintiff failed to establish that the reason was pretextual; and 4) she did not produce direct evidence of retaliation.
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Landlord Tenant
[07/24]
MAC East, LLC, v. Shoney's, Inc.
In a diversity case involving a commercial real estate lease and a proposal by an assignee of that lease to sublease the real estate to a third party, grant of summary judgment for plaintiff-corporation as to liability on its tortious interference claim is reversed where: 1) defendant corporation was an "essential entity to the purported injured relations"; 2) both plaintiff and defendant were parties to the Assignment Agreement, and thus were "parties to a comprehensive interwoven set of contract or relations"; and 3) defendant cannot be a stranger to the sublease when consummation of the sublease would leave it obligated on the covenants on the ground lease, effectively forming a business relationship between it and proposed subleasee. A question regarding whether a commercial reasonableness standard tempers defendant's "sole discretion" to withhold consent to a proposed sublease is certified to the state supreme court.
[06/03]
Baychester Shopping Ctr., Inc. v. San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization & Arbitration Bd.
San Francisco Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Board's decision finding plaintiff-shopping center liable for rent overpayments charged to a tenant is affirmed over a claim that plaintiff could not be held liable for unlawful rent increases imposed by a former landlord.
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Property Law & Real Estate
[08/19]
In Re: Holland
A dispute in a bankruptcy case over which state's law should determine whether real property owned by debtor should be exempted from the bankruptcy estate is dismissed for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction where the district court's order ruling that Florida law applied and remanding to bankruptcy court, without deciding whether Florida law granted an exemption, was not a final order subject to appeal.
[08/18]
Jerman v. Carlisle, McNellie, Rini, Kramer & Ulrich LPA
The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act's (FDCPA) bona fide error defense applies to mistakes of law, and is not limited to procedural or clerical errors. In an action claiming law firm and one of its attorneys violated the FDCPA when they used allegedly deceptive forms to notify her of a foreclosure on her home, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) although defendants violated the FDCPA by instructing plaintiff that she had to dispute the debt in writing; nevertheless, 2) defendants qualified for the FDCPA bona fide error defense.
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Banking Law
[08/19]
Joyce v. Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc.
In a suit by shareholders of a telecommunications company alleging that defendant, while advising the company during its acquisition by another company, failed to advise plaintiffs on minimizing their exposure to financial losses, grant of a motion to dismiss is affirmed in part and vacated and remanded in part where: 1) plaintiffs were bringing a direct action on their own behalf, not a derivative one on behalf of the corporation, and to that extent had standing; but 2) plaintiffs' constructive fraud claim required them to allege that defendant owed them a fiduciary duty, but no such duty never arose.
[08/18]
Golden W. Refining Co. v. SunTrust Bank
In an action brought by plaintiff to draw on a letter of credit issued to it by defendant-bank's predecessor, judgment for plaintiff is affirmed over claims that the district court erred by: 1) holding that the letter of credit was not "perpetual" under Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) section 5-106(d) and thereby had not automatically expired before plaintiff made a draw against it; 2) by rejecting defendant's waiver argument; and 3) by concluding that plaintiff's specific performance and breach of contract claims were not precluded by the exclusive remedies available under Article 5 of the UCC.
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Copyright
[08/13]
Jacobsen v. Katzer
In a suit alleging that defendants infringed upon plaintiff's copyright in open-source computer code by violating the copyright license's distribution and modification provisions, denial of a preliminary injunction is vacated and remanded where: 1) the limitations contained in the provisions were conditions for granting the license, and violation of the limitations would constitute copyright infringement, not mere breach of contract; and 2) remand was necessary to determine whether a presumption of irreparable harm applied.
[08/13]
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. v. Steinbeck
In an action under the Copyright Act, summary judgment for defendants, on the grounds that a notice purporting to terminate a 1938 agreement granting licenses for publications of certain Steinbeck works was valid, is reversed where: 1) a subsequent agreement entered into in 1994 terminated and superseded the 1938 agreement; 2) the notice of termination was therefore invalid; and 3) the 1994 agreement remains in effect.
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Trademark
[08/20]
Koninklijke Philips Elecs., N.V. v. KXD Tech., Inc.
In an action alleging that defendants had infringed plaintiff-Philips's registered trademark and had knowingly offered counterfeited Philips goods for sale in the United States, an appeal from an order imposing monetary sanctions on defendants for civil contempt is dismissed for lack of appellate jurisdiction.
[08/18]
Am. Needle, Inc. v. Nat'l Football League
In an antitrust case alleging that the NFL's exclusive headwear licensing agreement with Reebok International violated sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) a motion under Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(f) to allow additional discovery was properly denied where plaintiff did not identify the evidence it sought to discover; 2) NFL teams are a "single entity" for purposes of licensing their intellectual property; and 3) as a single entity, the teams were free to license their intellectual property on an exclusive basis.
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Patent
[08/20]
In Re: Omeprazole Patent Litig.
In a multidistrict litigation against a number of generic drug manufacturers for infringement of plaintiffs' two patents covering formulations of omeprazole, the active ingredient in Prilosec, a drug designed to treat acid-related gastrointestinal disorders, judgments of infringement are affirmed where: 1) the infringement claim did not become moot upon expiration of the patents; 2) the record supported findings that defendants' respective formulations infringed the patents; 3) clinical studies conducted by plaintiff were experimental rather than public uses, but would not negate the public-use bar to patentability if the invention had been reduced to practice before the experimental use; 4) the record supported findings that the patented formulation was not ready for patenting until after the studies were completed; and 5) anticipation and obviousness defenses were properly rejected.
[08/19]
Cooper Techs. Co. v. Dudas
A determination by the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) of which applications constitute "original applications" for which inter partes reexamination is available under the American Inventors Protection Act (AIPA) is affirmed where: 1) the PTO's determination was entitled to Chevron deference; and 2) in the absence of clear Congressional intent as to the meaning of "original application," the PTO's interpretation of the term was a reasonable construction.
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Trade Secrets
[07/29]
In re: Carco Elec.
In a dispute between competing bidders in the acquisition of debtor's production facilities during bankruptcy proceedings, an appeal from a protective order limiting the disclosure of the bidders' respective trade secrets during discovery is dismissed for lack of appellate jurisdiction where the order was neither final nor appealable under the limited scope of the collateral order doctrine.
[05/15]
Topps Co., Inc. v. Cadbury Stani S.A.I.C.
In an action alleging breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets involving a chewing gum licensing agreement, summary judgment for defendant is reversed and remanded where: 1) the licensing agreement was ambiguous as to defendant's entitlement to continual usage of trade secrets after the agreement's terminate date; and 2) extrinsic evidence did not weigh overwhelmingly in defendant's favor to permit a resolution of the agreement's ambiguity by summary judgment.
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