SAN FRANCISCO — Issuing a June 2 en banc ruling featuring a partial concurrence, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a discovery sanction that struck a man’s claim to $1,106,775 that was seized from a vehicle he was driving and remanded for further proceedings, concluding that “the district court was operating in a difficult area that lacked extensive case law from this court” but under the circumstances it was an abuse of discretion to end the civil forfeiture case for allegedly insufficient responses to special interrogatories concerning standing.

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A federal judge in California held that an umbrella insurer has a duty to defend the Roman Catholic Bishop of Orange against more than 200 underlying sexual abuse lawsuits brought under the California Child Victims Act, rejecting the insurer’s argument that the insolvency of the insured’s primary insurer does not obligate it to drop down in place of the primary insurer.

FORT MYERS, Fla. — After a jury returned a verdict finding that a life insurer was entitled to rescind a $1.4 million policy on an insured physician who has been missing at sea since Aug. 10, 2022, a Florida federal judge on June 1 granted in part the insurer’s bill of costs, reducing the bill for duplicate fees and for subpoenas that were not served.

ATLANTA — Joint hearings on the admissibility of expert witnesses in cases alleging that Depo-Provera, a long-lasting injectable contraceptive, caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, that are pending in state courts and a federal multidistrict litigation in Florida will proceed after the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 1 denied a petition for writ of mandamus filed by claimants with cases pending in a Delaware state court.

CHICAGO — Resolving consolidated appeals in a withdrawal liability case where “tens of millions of dollars” are at stake by upholding a mixed ruling, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court’s judgment “across the board,” concluding that a multiemployer pension plan had authority to expel a local bargaining unit but the plan’s counterclaim for declaratory judgment as to when the contribution obligation for that unit ended is not yet ripe because a mandatory exhaustion requirement applies and the issue must be arbitrated.

HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii issued an opinion and order granting final approval of a $100 million derivative settlement in a case brought by investors on behalf of Hawaiian Electric Industries Inc. stemming from the August 2023 wildfires that broke out on Maui.

SAN DIEGO — A California federal judge on June 1 denied three food companies’ motion to dismiss a putative class action against them for allegedly violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) and other laws by marketing their products with nutrient content claims that are prohibited on products for children under the age of 2 based on Food and Drug Administration regulations as adopted into state law, but dismissed the plaintiffs’ claim for declaratory relief.

LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court panel held that a lower court erred in granting summary judgment in favor of an excess insurer in the Los Angeles Unified School District’s lawsuit seeking coverage for underlying allegations that it negligently employed and supervised a teacher who sexually abused students over many years, reversing the lower court’s judgment and remanding for further proceedings.