BOSTON — A Massachusetts federal jury on Aug. 4 awarded a man and his wife $88 million in the first bellwether case from the multidistrict litigation involving Covidien hernia mesh to go to trial, finding that the manufacturer failed to warn him about the danger of the mesh and made false statements about its safety.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals vacated and remanded a lower court ruling dismissing claims for violation of the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act) in parents’ suit alleging that the COVID-19 vaccine caused the death of their 14-year-old daughter, finding that the PREP Act claims could not be dismissed by a single judge because motions to dismiss willful misconduct claims are statutorily required to be heard by a three-judge court.

CHICAGO — Finding that no decision in the Wisconsin Supreme Court has addressed whether a plaintiff, “lured by false price comparison advertising into purchasing a product that is worth the purchase price, suffers a pecuniary loss,” a Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel certified a woman’s putative class claims against Kohl’s Corp. and a related entity to the state high court and stayed her appeal of a Wisconsin federal judge’s decision to dismiss her complaint for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

CHARLESTON, S.C. — A federal judge in South Carolina on Aug. 3 denied an emergency motion for a stay pending appeal filed by President Donald J. Trump and several federal officials, agencies and departments over a ruling that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s guidance terminating the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant (ECJ) program was unlawful, holding that the federal defendants “have not made a strong showing that they will succeed on the merits” and cannot show irreparable injury.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Considering a patent dispute between Pfizer Inc. and other biopharmaceutical companies for the second time, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel affirmed a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) finding that Pfizer’s proposed substitute claims for a patent describing pneumococcal vaccine technology would be unpatentable as obvious.

NEWARK, N.J. — The plaintiffs in an Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action that is now centered on allegations of self-dealing and prohibited transactions have asked a New Jersey federal court to grant preliminary approval of a settlement with ADP TotalSource Group Inc. and related parties that would include a $48 million common fund and nonmonetary relief.

NEW YORK — Law firms that routinely accept leadership responsibilities in multidistrict litigations filed an amicus curiae brief in support of Keller Postman LLC and Ashley C. Keller, telling the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that it should reverse sanctions leveled against the firm and its senior partner, who serves as plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel in the acetaminophen autism spectrum disorder-attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ASD-ADHD) multidistrict litigation, for failing to comply with a protective order.

WILMINGTON, Del. — Repeat litigants in asbestos litigation have not identified a sufficiently specific or anticipated claim under which a court can require asbestos bankruptcy trusts to preserve claims data under an equitable bill of discovery, the Delaware Supreme Court said in reversing and remanding for dismissal of the action.