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NEW ORLEANS — Distinguishing a sister circuit’s ruling that upheld an award of benefits under the same Employee Retirement Income Security Act severance plan following de novo review, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an unpublished opinion agreed with the lower court that the abuse-of-discretion standard applies and substantial evidence supported denial of benefits under the plan’s “good reason” clause.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 denied review of a petition filed by a group of individuals who objected to the $600 million class action settlement in the Ohio train derailment lawsuit and appealed a lower court’s requirements pertaining to an appeal bond in that litigation. The petitioners had argued that “the notion an appeal bond must be separately appealed, and cannot be challenged by motion within the appeal to which it relates, represents a split of authority among circuits.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 2 denied review in the appeal brought by the states of Maryland and South Carolina, which had argued that the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals wrongly reversed lower courts’ orders remanding their respective injury lawsuits against the 3M Co. related to exposure to the firefighting agent known as aqueous film forming foam (AFFF).
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of individuals who objected to the $600 million class action settlement in the Ohio train derailment lawsuit and appealed the district court’s requirements related to an appeal bond have filed a petition for review in the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that “the notion an appeal bond must be separately appealed, and cannot be challenged by motion within the appeal to which it relates, represents a split of authority among circuits.” The petitioners also argue that the issue involves a “misuse” of the Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States government on Feb. 25 filed a motion to participate in oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court when it considers arguments from a bioequivalent pharmaceutical maker that a patent holder’s complaint failed to state a claim for induced infringement because the “skinny label” generic version of the patent carved out the patented cardiovascular use of the drug; the government’s motion was filed a day after it filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the petitioner entity.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Finding a lack of evidence that airlines barred an airline passenger from flying because of a disability that prevented him from wearing a mask rather than in attempt to comply with the federal transportation mask mandate during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Kentucky federal court granted the airlines’ motion for judgment on the pleadings in the passenger’s lawsuit alleging violations of the Rehabilitation Act and the California Unruh Act.
DOVER, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court on Feb. 25 refused to hear an interlocutory appeal filed by two law firms representing certain plaintiffs in a consolidated state court case alleging that a long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, leaving stand a case management order intended to help streamline the hundreds of cases expected to be filed in the state.
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 25 denied an insured’s invitation to reconsider its rejection of pro se insureds’ “frivolous” appeal of a lower federal court’s dismissal of their lawsuit seeking coverage for flood and property damages caused by hurricanes Zeta and Ida.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel said in a Feb. 25 opinion that it agreed with the U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) that Tesla Inc. failed to show that certain claims in another company’s patent on a system of charging electric vehicles were unpatentable as obvious.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The railroad company that hauled asbestos-tainted vermiculite from the world’s largest vermiculite mine in Libby, Mont., to destinations around the country under federal law is protected from strict liability claims by the “common carrier” exception to such liability, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled Feb. 24 in reversing an $8 million combined judgment for the estates of two mesothelioma victims and directing the trial court to enter judgment for the railroad company on remand.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Without providing an explanation, the North Carolina Supreme Court on Feb. 24 issued orders dismissing a petition for a writ of supersedeas and motion for a temporary stay filed by former insurance mogul Greg Lindberg, now proceeding pro se, seeking a stay of trial court orders, including an order requiring him and his companies to pay $526 million in damages regarding conversion of assets in insurers’ breach of contract suit against him.