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AUSTIN, Texas — The Third District Texas Court of Appealsreversed and remanded an amended final judgment that granted summary judgment in favor of the owner of a totaled Audi for nearly $240,000 plus interest for the value of his car, damages and attorney fees and costs in his suit against his insurer alleging breach of contract and state law claims, finding that the owner failed to conclusively prove the claims as a matter of law and failed to establish the policy terms and independent damage.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) bars judicial review of the Homeland Security secretary’s designation of temporary protected status (TPS), as well as the termination of such designation, the secretary and other federal government agencies and officials argue in a petitioner brief filed March 30 in the U.S. Supreme Court.
HOUSTON — An additional insured is not entitled to coverage for business interruption losses caused by quarantine orders issued in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic because the commercial property policy’s pollution and contamination exclusion bars coverage, the 14th Texas Court of Appeals said March 31 in affirming a trial court’s ruling in favor of the insurer on breach of contract and extracontractual claims.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on March 30 in a dispute between the owners and operators of a West Hollywood luxury hotel and an employee terminated during the COVID-19 pandemic over whether a federal court that had original jurisdiction over a case and stayed it for arbitration maintains jurisdiction to confirm or vacate the arbitration award under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) without an independent jurisdictional basis.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a terminated employee of a Georgia district attorney’s office seeking review of whether the dismissal of her federal claims that she was terminated because of her pregnancy was proper when the affirmative defense her employer used as the basis of its summary judgment motion was not filed as part of its answer to her amended complaint in violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge did not misapply or misinterpret federal law or Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals precedent in denying two asbestos claimants’ motion to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC, a federal judge in the state held March 27 in denying the claimants’ request to certify the decision for direct appeal.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court will let stand a decision by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the addition of the Gardasil vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table was constitutional and that women must first file claims in the Vaccine Act compensation program before suing in a district court, according to a March 30 docket entry.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Applying a recently established framework governing the economic substance doctrine and disclosure requirements in microcaptive insurance cases, a U.S. Tax Court judge held that a purported captive arrangement failed both prongs of the economic substance test and sustained a 40% accuracy-related penalty for a nondisclosed noneconomic substance transaction.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari by a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan recipient seeking review of a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel decision that affirmed a Louisiana federal court ruling upholding the refusal by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to forgive a portion of a loan that had been based on payments the loan recipient made to its independent contractors the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying in part that it seeks “to alleviate certain regulatory burdens and litigation risk,” the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on March 30 released a proposed rule titled “Fiduciary Duties In Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 refused to hear Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appeal of a federal appellate court decision that rejected the state’s claim to sovereign immunity that it asserted when pipeline companies sued it for terminating an easement that is required to operate an oil and gas pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac.