DOVER, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court held Feb. 13 that insurers have adequately pleaded a breach of contract claim in their subrogation lawsuit seeking recovery from an application service provider for the amount they paid to nonprofit insureds for investigative and remediation steps arising from a ransomware attack, reversing a lower court’s grant of the provider’s motion to dismiss the insurers’ amended complaint and remanding.

NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on Feb. 13 revised a March 2023 arbitration order in a race bias and retaliation putative class case brought by three current and former National Football League (NFL) coaches and denied in full arbitration sought by the NFL and three teams based on “[t]he NFL’s unilateral control over the dispute resolution process”; the trial court ruling was filed as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in the same case by the NFL and three teams concerning the enforceability of those same arbitration agreements that require Commissioner Roger Goodell to preside over the proceedings.

SEATTLE — A case that is part of a wave of putative class actions challenging a common use of forfeited nonvested matching retirement contributions would settle for an estimated $42,724,532 under a deal a Washington federal court was asked to grant preliminary approval in a Feb. 13 motion.

LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge on Feb. 13 largely granted motions to dismiss a putative class case against milk sellers and producers for allegedly falsely advertising their products as sustainable and environmentally friendly in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), finding their specific misrepresentation claims too vague but allowing their claims that they were deceived by a milk logo with a happy cartoon cow to proceed.

NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority affirmed a district court’s summary judgment ruling in a dispute over coverage for a sewage backup in an insured home, agreeing with the lower court that no question of fact exists regarding whether the source of the sewage backup was excluded under the homeowners policy.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 13 issued a consolidated affirmance of two cases in which federal judges found jurisdiction over petitions to confirm arbitral awards collectively worth more than $252 million in favor of investors whose assets in the Crimean peninsula were found by separate tribunals to have been expropriated in 2014 by the Russian Federation in breach of a bilateral investment treaty (BIT).

PHILADELPHIA — The Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 12 affirmed a lower court’s ruling dismissing a suit filed by a publisher of 3D gun printing files and a gun rights advocacy group challenging New Jersey’s law prohibiting the distribution of those files to state residents who are not licensed gun manufacturers, finding in part that the publisher and advocacy group lack standing absent allegations that they were prevented from making “a 3D printed firearm” and that the complaint was deficient in alleging harm.

RICHMOND, Va. —A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge did not abuse his discretion in denying a request by asbestos claimants to lift the automatic stay so the claimants could proceed with their state court lawsuits against CertainTeed spinoff and Chapter 11 debtor DBMP LLC, a divided Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in affirming.