PHILADELPHIA — Ruling that survivors of former nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 failed to show that New Jersey’s governor and public health commissioner were on notice that their actions in handling the pandemic with respect to nursing homes would violate the residents’ statutory or constitutional rights, a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Jan. 23 affirmed a New Jersey federal court’s dismissal of the survivors’ lawsuit on the basis of qualified immunity.

PHILADELPHIA — A district court properly entered summary judgment in favor of an auto insurer because the insurer met its burden of showing that the addition of a named driver exclusion was valid and enforceable under Pennsylvania law and the insured failed to show that the auto insurer’s denial of coverage based on the exclusion was unreasonable, the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said Jan. 23.

HARTFORD, Conn. — A recently discovered case further supports the conclusion that workers’ compensation benefits for mesothelioma can be offset by “any damages,” including settlements from an asbestos tort action, the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) tells the state’s top court in a Jan. 23 citation of supplemental authority.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — After denying petitions for certiorari in December in two lawsuits over purported sharing of consumers’ personal viewing information (PVI) under the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA), the U.S. Supreme Court on Jan. 26 granted certiorari in another VPPA case in which there are similar data-sharing allegations to decide what constitutes a “customer” of a video tape service provider (VTSP) under the nearly 40-year-old statute.

CHICAGO — A permit or regulation that authorizes emissions has no relevance as to whether a pollution exclusion should be applied as a bar to coverage for bodily injury claims related to chemical discharges from an insured facility, the Illinois Supreme Court said Jan. 23 in answering a certified question from the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Chinese citizen on Jan. 23 filed a brief opposing a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in the U.S. Supreme Court by a Chinese national who resides in California and is seeking review of a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling affirming the confirmation of a more than $55 million Chengdu Arbitration Commission (CAC) three-arbitrator tribunal’s award, writing in the brief that one arbitrator’s “inattention” doesn’t violate U.S. public policy.

RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled that a South Carolina federal court “abused its discretion” when it issued injunctions to 13 community groups and six cities preventing the federal government from freezing or terminating dozens of environmental and agricultural grants that were eliminated through three presidential executive orders in early 2025.

TRENTON, N.J. — In a more than 650-page report and recommendation, a special master in the Johnson & Johnson ovarian cancer asbestos-talc multidistrict litigation said plaintiffs’ experts could testify regarding causation and migration of talc fibers into the upper reproductive tract after perineal application, affirming a ruling originally issued in 2020.