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PASADENA, Calif. — Affirming dismissal of a suit against a health insurer in a Nov. 24 unpublished memorandum disposition, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said that because the claims of the drug and alcohol treatment provider both reference “and have an impermissible connection with” a plan governed by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the claims “are therefore preempted by ERISA.”
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 24 affirmed a district court’s ruling issuing a permanent injunction barring certain individuals from future participation in multilevel marketing programs related to their participation in marketing internet-based travel services in violation of the FTC Act and imposing a sanction of $7,306,873.14 for violating a permanent injunction related to an earlier suit, finding that the sanction was appropriate and that the permanent injunction was “not overly broad.”
WHEELING, W.Va. — A federal judge in West Virginia on Nov. 24 sanctioned attorneys $10,000 for contempt for their conduct in a class action over alleged illegal phone calls that solicited clients for mass tort cases relating to toxic waterexposure at Camp Lejeune. The judge ruled that the attorneys in question provided an “insufficient” explanation for their conduct once they were ordered to show why they should not be held in contempt for their failure to comply with the court’s order approving the class notice plan.
SAN DIEGO — An appeals panel in California on Nov. 24 affirmed a $28 million combined verdict against Monsanto for a man who developed cancer from exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, ruling that the plaintiff’s claims were not preempted by the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and that the punitive damages award did not violate Monsanto’s due process rights.
NEW YORK — In a summary order saying that the complaint “fails plausibly to allege breach of fiduciary duty against any of the Defendants,” the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 21 affirmed dismissal of a putative class Employee Retirement Income Security Act case in which a participant in a defined-benefit multiemployer pension plan challenged an allegedly high-risk investment strategy.
LOS ANGELES — A California federal judge granted a putative class plaintiff’s motion to remand his suit accusing Costco Wholesale Corp. of deceptively inflating prices for items on its online store after finding that Costco failed to show that the suit was properly removed based on the amount in controversy, opining that Costco’s arguments regarding that amount were “speculative” and not based on the plaintiff’s pleadings.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A California federal judge on Nov. 21 granted PayPal Inc.’s motion to dismiss a putative class action brought against it by influencers and content creators active on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram who accused it of violating California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by using a discount-finding browser extension, “Honey,” to redirect profits from their market affiliate links to itself, finding that they lack standing for failure to allege an injury traceable to PayPal.
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 21 affirmed a lower court’s award of $168,454,749 in compensatory and exemplary damages but vacated and remanded a permanent injunction in a dispute over the alleged misappropriation of trade secrets to develop a software platform by a technology consulting company, finding that requiring the technology consulting company to pay costs related to the software development while preventing it from using the software resulted in an overlap of the remedies which the lower court needs to address on remand.
ATLANTA — Reversing and remanding a ruling against a long-term disability (LTD) claimant, a split 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 21 ruled that it was unreasonable for the insurer to interpret a preexisting conditions exclusion in a way that the majority said means that “treatment for a headache during the lookback period converts any disease or condition that causes headaches into a preexisting condition.”
CHICAGO — The Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 21 denied petitions for rehearing filed by both parties in a False Claims Act case in which the Seventh Circuit affirmed a final judgment of $193 million for reporting falsely deflated drug prices to the government.
LOS ANGELES — The trustee in the Chapter 11 Subchapter V asbestos talc case of family-run cosmetics company Ben Nye Co. Inc. says a California federal bankruptcy court should enter a final decree closing the proceeding after a Bankruptcy Appellate Panel (BAP) affirmed confirmation of the company’s plan of reorganization.