2nd Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of Securities Fraud Suit For Lack Of Scienter
NEW YORK — A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed the dismissal of investors’ putative securities fraud class action against a virtual health care service provider and certain of its executives regarding alleged misstatements they made after the company’s $18.5 billion merger with another health care company, finding that the investors had not adequately alleged scienter.
Split 3rd Circuit Affirms Fees For Failed IP Claims, Trade Secret Fudge Recipe Win
PHILADELPHIA — A partially split Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 29 affirmed both attorney fees against plaintiff entities over their unsuccessful copyright and trademark claims in a dispute over fudge and affirmed their jury victory on trade secret claims, holding that there was enough evidence in the record for a jury to find that a fudge recipe derived economic value from remaining secret.
Majority Vacates Ruling In Insurer’s Favor In Hailstorm Coverage Dispute
ST. LOUIS — A majority of the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of a commercial property insurer in an insured’s breach of contract and declaratory judgment lawsuit seeking coverage for hail damage to the roofs of its elementary and high schools, finding that the lower court erred in holding that the policy’s cosmetic damage exclusion barred coverage.
11th Circuit Affirms Exclusion Of General Causation Experts In Toxic Exposure Cases
ATLANTA — The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals agreed with a lower court in finding that general causation experts in related environmental contamination cases did not reliably apply their methodologies in concluding that toxic waste caused various neurological conditions and affirmed the experts’ exclusion and the summary judgment in two cases that were consolidated on appeal.
Depo-Provera MDL Judge Grants Motion For New Pilot Cases After Some Cases Settle
PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Florida federal judge overseeing the Depo-Provera multidistrict litigation, a group of cases alleging that a long-lasting injectable contraceptive caused women to develop intracranial meningiomas, a type of brain tumor, on July 29 granted the manufacturers' motion to substitute three replacement pilot cases after the five original pilot plaintiffs became eligible to participate in a recently announced settlement.
Nash Asbestos Bankruptcy Parties Debate Stay Of Prejudgment Remedy Ruling
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The trustee of the Nash Engineering Co. asbestos-related bankruptcy on July 23 opposed a motion to stay a court’s ruling awarding him $57.4 million as a prejudgment remedy, telling a federal judge in Connecticut that the defendants are simply attempting to evade responsibility that is well explained in the decision.
7th Circuit Affirms Judgment Dismissing 1st Bellwether Case In Baby Formula MDL
CHICAGO — A woman who alleges that her infant daughter developed necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) after consuming cow’s milk-based-infant formula (CMBF) manufactured by Abbott Laboratories Inc. before passing away did not show that an alternative warning label would have prevented her child’s death, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held in affirming a grant of summary judgment for the manufacturer in the first bellwether case in multidistrict litigation pending in Illinois.
Stay Extended In Potomac River Raw Sewage CWA Suit Amid Settlement Negotiations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A District of Columbia federal judge granted a joint motion on July 28 filed by the United States and the public utility that owns and operates a sanitary sewer pipeline that collapsed and reportedly discharged millions of gallons of raw, untreated sewage into the Potomac River to extend a stay of a lawsuit filed over the pipeline collapse pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permitting program as the parties continue engaging in “productive settlement negotiations.”
N.C. Judge: CGL Insurers Owe No Coverage For Global Settlement Of Opioid Suit
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — A North Carolina judge held that commercial general liability insurers have no duty to compensate Harris Teeter Supermarkets Inc. and Harris Teeter LLC for their alleged share of liability under a global settlement agreement resolving hundreds of lawsuits seeking damages allegedly caused by the distribution and dispensing of opioid drugs by The Kroger Co. and its affiliates and subsidiaries, concluding that Harris Teeter is not “legally obligated to pay” any of the damages under the settlement and, therefore, no coverage is owed.
Judge: Warnings Expert May Testify In Insulin Pen Suit Against Novo Nordisk
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal judge ruled that Novo Nordisk Inc. failed to show that testimony from a warnings expert retained by a hospital system that was sued in a class action brought by patients who may have been exposed to blood-borne illnesses was inadmissible under Federal Rule of Evidence 702.
D.C. Circuit Affirms Dismissal Of COVID App Maker Antitrust Dispute With Apple
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A panel of the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of an antitrust dispute with Apple Inc. over Apple’s alleged rejection of an app maker’s revamped app to reflect COVID “hot spots,” finding that the proffered complaint fails to “plausibly allege a relevant product market” under the Sherman Act.