Judge Grants Asbestos Pipe Company Third-Party Discovery From Trusts
EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. — A federal judge in Illinois granted expedited third-party discovery from asbestos trusts in a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case in the wake of a Delaware Supreme Court ruling allowing the trusts to implement new document retention policies.
Split 9th Circuit Gives DOJ Win In Gender-Affirming Care Subpoena Dispute
SEATTLE — Giving the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) a victory on an issue that is the focus of numerous lawsuits, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Aug. 14 issued a 2-1 ruling reversing quashal of an administrative subpoena for patient medical and communications data from a gender-affirming care provider and remanding for further proceedings; the majority concluded that the provider “has not met its heavy burden of showing that the subpoena was issued for an improper purpose,” and the dissenter said, “That the President may lawfully voice policy opposition to a practice does not mean the DOJ can exceed its statutory authority and issue pretextual subpoenas to put a company out of business.”
Judge OKs Recommendation Granting Insurer Judgment In Texas Lab Coverage Suit
SHERMAN, Texas — A federal judge in Texas on Aug. 14 rejected an objection from an infectious disease lab testing company and adopted a magistrate judge’s report and recommendation granting the lab’s insurer’s motion for judgment on the pleadings in a dispute over defense coverage for regulatory claims.
Federal Employee Urges High Court To Reject Damages Under Bivens For Injured Inmate
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling recognizing a cause of action for damages under Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics for an inmate who was injured in a prison gang fight but was not sent to a hospital, a staff nurse at a federal detention center in his Aug. 14 petitioner brief notes that the high court “has refused to extend Bivens to any new context for the past 45 years, across 13 cases,” and says his case should be the 14th “and perhaps the final installment of the Bivens saga.”
Split 4th Circuit Revives Driver’s Retaliatory Discharge Claim In Racial Bias Suit
RICHMOND, Va. — A Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel, in vacating and remanding a South Carolina federal judge’s award of summary judgment, held that an African-American man who was fired from his job as a driver for a recycling company after complaining about racial discrimination provided enough evidence to show genuine issues of material fact about his employer’s characterization of its stated reason for firing him as “belligerent and insubordinate conduct” to support a finding of pretext on a retaliation claim.
Supreme Court Denies Verizon’s Limited Rehearing Petition In FCC Forfeiture Case
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 17 denied Verizon Communications Inc.’s petition for rehearing seeking to modify the court’s disposition from affirmance to affirmance with a remand as to Verizon only following the court’s holding that the Federal Communications Commission’s forfeiture orders do not violate the Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in consolidated cases in which Verizon and AT&T Inc. asserted constitutional challenges to the FCC’s enforcement of monetary forfeitures under the Communications Act.
Judge In Baby Formula MDL Warns No More Bellwethers Without Live Testimony
CHICAGO — An Illinois federal judge issued a warning that no more bellwether trials in multidistrict litigation filed against the manufacturers of infant formula that allegedly caused preterm infants to develop necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) will be held “absent assurances that the majority of fact witnesses will appear for live, in-person testimony” after learning just days before the first trial was set to commence that most of the witnesses would be “testifying via pre-recorded deposition designations.”
After Temporary Stay Expired, High Court Denies Stay In Apple, Epic Antitrust Row
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After granting Apple Inc. an administrative stay that expired at 5 p.m. on Aug. 13, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan that same day denied Apple’s application for a stay of the proceedings in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which granted injunctive relief and issued a contempt finding against Apple over anticompetitive practices on its App Store in an antitrust dispute with Epic Games Inc.
Committee Upholds $23M Award, Orders Argentina To Pay $1.2M More In Fees And Costs
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) on Aug. 13 published an ad hoc committee’s decision denying in full the Argentine Republic’s application to annul a split tribunal’s award against it worth more than $23 million in favor of Austrian investment entities whose gaming license investment was expropriated and ordering Argentina to pay more than $1.2 million in attorney fees, expenses and arbitration costs because it raised “duplicative” arguments “which could never have been sustainable.”
Judge Stays $1.3M In Sanctions While School Appeals In Fraught Trademark Fight
ORLANDO, Fla. — A Florida federal judge agreed to stay the enforcement of more than $1.3 million in Rule 11 sanctions while attorneys that represented a plaintiff school entity and the school itself appeal the order; sanctions were entered after the plaintiff school continued to pursue nationwide trademark damages for several months in 2023 after discovery failed to produce supporting evidence and engaged in what the judge previously called “five-and-a-half years of abusive litigation” in a dispute over virtual schooling trademarks while some of the attorneys appeal the sanctions.
Fla. Panel Reverses Order Requiring FIGA To Pay Attorney Fees In Coverage Dispute
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appellate court panel reversed and remanded a lower court’s order denying a motion by the Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) to enforce a settlement agreement and granting the insureds’ motion to enforce a settlement agreement in a dispute over coverage for purported water damage, finding that the lower court erred in requiring that FIGA “pay the entire settlement amount,” which included the attorney fee portion.