ATLANTA — Reversing a Florida federal judge’s dismissal, an 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held that an entity associated with the late Mexican surrealist artist Frida Kahlo established personal jurisdiction for Lanham Act and other claims against the artist’s grandniece because she is alleged to have sent cease-and-desist letters with false claims of trademark ownership into Florida on her own behalf.

DOVER, Del. — An insurer failed to show that an interlocutory appeal of a Delaware judge’s ruling that a pollution exclusion applies only to traditional environmental pollution claims is warranted, a panel of the Delaware Supreme Court said April 20 in affirming the lower court’s denial of the insurer’s motion to certify the lower court’s ruling for interlocutory appeal.

WASHINGTON, D.C. —The U.S. Supreme Court on April 20 heard oral arguments in a case asking it to determine whether the Securities and Exchange Commission may seek equitable disgorgement under federal securities laws without showing that investors suffered pecuniary harm; the SEC and an individual it brought a civil enforcement action against debated the definition and purpose of disgorgement, as well as the proper interpretation of Liu v. SEC.

ORLANDO, Fla. — An insurer’s suit seeking a declaration that it has no duty to indemnify its insured for an underlying suit seeking damages as a result of mold exposure must be dismissed because a determination of the insurer’s duty to indemnify cannot be made until after the underlying suit is resolved, a Florida federal judge said April 20 in granting the insured condominium association’s motion to dismiss.

JACKSON, Miss. — A Mississippi trial court was within its discretion when it excluded testimony from an expert in a medical malpractice suit and granted summary judgment to the doctor, a split Mississippi Supreme Court said in reversing a state appellate court ruling that said the expert’s testimony was admissible.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 17 vacated and remanded a lower court order granting summary judgment to a health system and a supervisor in a qui tam suit filed by a physician and a manager who alleged violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) and related state law for fraudulent billing to Medicaid, finding that though the lower court determined that expressing concerns about purported fraudulent billing was a protected activity under the FCA, the court erred in holding that the physician did not establish a dispute regarding the retaliation against him because of the protected activity.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Supreme Court on April 20 declined to review a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruling affirming the judgment of a New York federal court that found that state officials had qualified immunity from claims stemming from the deaths of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19 after a state directive prevented nursing homes from denying admission to patients having or suspected of having COVID-19.

BURLINGTON, Vt. — A federal judge in Vermont has denied Monsanto Co.’s motion for summary judgment dismissing the Burlington School District’s (BSD) lawsuit alleging the company is liable for contaminating Burlington High School (BHS) with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), ruling that “Monsanto knew that PCBs were toxic and that they caused harm to humans and animals.”