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LOS ANGELES — A California appellate panel on May 16 affirmed a trial court’s denial of an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) motion filed by the owner of an animal care nonprofit seeking to strike allegations by a deceased homeless man’s daughter who accuses the owner of stealing her father’s dog and later euthanizing it in violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL), writing that the conduct at issue was not protected speech activity.
NEW YORK — The Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 16 affirmed a lower federal court’s finding that a commercial general liability insurer failed to establish facts supporting its quest to pierce a construction company insured’s corporate veil in connection with its breach of contract lawsuit seeking to hold the insured’s owners and officers liable for the alleged $1,247,950.03 in policy premiums, taxes and fees that the insured failed to pay.
CINCINNATI — Ruling against a claimant who said in her opening brief that “this appears to be the first ‘Long COVID’ disability case to come before the Court,” the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on May 15 affirmed a judgment upholding denial of her claim for long-term disability (LTD) benefits, concluding that the insurer’s “decision was neither procedurally nor substantively unreasonable.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The constitutionality of nationwide or universal injunctions was debated before the U.S. Supreme Court in May 15 oral arguments concerning three consolidated applications by the federal government seeking a partial stay of the injunctions halting enforcement of President Donald J. Trump’s Jan. 20 birthright citizenship executive order (EO).
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia U.S. Court of Appeals on May 14 denied a petition for a writ of mandamus filed by U.S. DOGE Service (DOGE or USDS) after a nonprofit’s discovery motion seeking information relevant to whether DOGE has substantial authority independent of President Donald J. Trump was partially granted.
HOUSTON — A Texas federal district court should decide the threshold question of whether any of the talc sold by BMI Oldco Inc. actually contained asbestos, before the talc mining company’s Chapter 11 case can go any further, the U.S. bankruptcy judge overseeing the case said in a May 14 report and recommendation issued sua sponte.
SEATTLE — A Washington federal magistrate judge granted summary judgment to the organizer of the Def Con cybersecurity and hacking conference, Def Con Communications Inc., and its founder, Jeff Moss, in a suit accusing them of defamation related to transparency statements announcing a ban from the conference of a company for alleged violations of the conference code of conduct by its founder, finding that the misconduct implications in the statements “are true and were true at the time of publication, and that truth is a complete defense to a defamation action.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee federal judge on May 14 granted an unopposed motion for preliminary approval to the settlement of class claims over a health care provider’s 2023 data security incident, giving an initial thumbs up to an agreement that would provide for payments of up to $5,000 for each claimant in a settlement class he said “is likely to include millions of people.”
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York issued a preliminary injunction order on May 14 in a class case by immigrant detainees currently being held in the Southern District of New York pending their removal from the United States due to a presidential proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act (AEA); the order enjoins enforcement of the proclamation, bars the transfer of the named petitioners under the AEA and directs that class counsel be provided information about the class members.
FORT WORTH, Texas — A Texas federal judge on May 13 made public his ruling that granted summary judgment to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and to Eli Lilly and Co. in a dispute filed by companies representing the interests of drug compounders over whether the agency properly determined that the shortage of tirzepatide, a drug for diabetes and weight loss, had ended when it removed the drug from the agency’s drug shortage list.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Immigrants facing removal from the United States after the federal government invoked the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) tell the U.S. Supreme Court in a May 14 response to a supplemental memorandum that without “class relief, there will be nothing prevent the government from giving AEA notices to dozens or hundreds more people going forward and then removing them to El Salvador if they do not manage to state their intention to file a habeas petition within 12 hours notice, or file a pro se petition within 24 hours after that.”