NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 18 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling that granted an insurer’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the insurer mishandled an insurance claim related to the conduct of the insured and its board members, further concluding that the lower court properly denied the plaintiff’s motion to remand.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court awarded attorney fees to an Ohio man whose public records request seeking emails related to a dispute over a primary ballot were initially denied; however, the high court in a per curiam opinion determined that the requester failed to show that the $690 hourly rate for his two attorneys in the case where the high court ordered the release of two emails was justified.

SAN DIEGO — There is no evidence that San Diego concealed knowledge about employees’ potential exposure to asbestos from renovation work or that the employees faced conditions outside the normal employment relationship, a California appellate court said in an unpublished opinion affirming summary judgment in favor of San Diego and one of its officers on Feb. 17.

BOSTON — Pursuant to leave granted by a Massachusetts federal judge, physicians’ professional groups and others seeking to challenge changes made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its vaccine recommendations and other agency actions on Feb. 17 filed a fourth amended complaint, adding to the agency actions challenged in previous complaints the recent reduction of the CDC’s recommended childhood vaccinations from 17 to 11 in alignment with the recommended vaccine schedule of Denmark.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 17 affirmed a Minnesota federal judge’s denial of defendant-appellants’ requests for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) or for a new trial on damages; the panel emphasized that its role on appeal was to determine whether the jury had substantial evidence to support its findings, not to reweigh that evidence.

ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court on Feb. 17 answered questions certified to it from federal court and held that a third party can be found to have procured a life insurance policy when viewing the “totality of the relevant circumstances” in a trust’s suit seeking to collect death benefits on a $6 million life insurance policy the insurer claims was a stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) policy that was procured by a third party in violation of Georgia law.

NEW YORK — Wrapping up a decade-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities (RAs) that resulted in a $332 million class settlement, a New York federal judge on Feb. 17 granted awards from the common fund as requested in amounts including $96.28 million for attorney fees and $10,000 for a service award.

NEW YORK — A securities fraud defendant’s communications with Anthropic PBC’s Claude about his case are not protected by attorney-client privilege or the attorney work product doctrine, a federal judge in New York said Feb. 17.