NEW ORLEANS — Vacating a panel decision that included a partial dissent, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 28 granted a petition for en banc rehearing that the appellant said concerns “[w]hether a request for compensatory money damages to remedy an alleged breach of fiduciary duties is an equitable, not legal, remedy”; the case challenges the behavior of the third-party administrator (TPA) of health plans.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Unanimously reversing a Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court on April 29 held that pregnancy center operator First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc.has standing to challenge a subpoena from New Jersey’s attorney general in federal court because “First Choice has established a present injury to its First Amendment associational rights.”

ST. LOUIS — The Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on April 27 determined that the Minnesota Supreme Court should determine the novel legal issue of “whether, under Minnesota law, Amazon is strictly liable for a defective product it offered, stored, and shipped, even though someone else was the seller,” noting that the Minnesota high court “has not decided a significant chain-of-commerce strict-liability case involving a retailer since pre-internet times” and that the panel “would be wading into murky waters” if it tried to guess what the Minnesota high court would decide.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s ruling in a dispute over coverage for environmental contamination remediation costs after determining that an annual aggregate limit provision in an umbrella liability insurer’s policies is ambiguous and must be construed in favor of coverage for the insured.

PHILADELPHIA — A Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on April 27 granted a rehearing petition filed by asbestos claimants and amended its opinion affirming a New Jersey federal bankruptcy judge’s denial of a bid by the claimants to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of defunct talc supplier Whittaker, Clark & Daniels Inc., though the outcome of the Official Committee of Talc Claimants’ appeal remains the same:  the dismissal denial is affirmed.

CINCINNATI — Following rehearing en banc, a Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals majority reversed a district court’s class certification order in an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith suit after determining that the insured cannot pursue claims on a classwide basis against an auto insurer for allegedly undervaluing insured vehicles deemed a total loss by the insurer because individual questions exist regarding the value of each class member’s auto damaged in an auto accident.

MIAMI — Ticketholders for a 2024 soccer match have reached a class settlement of up to $14 million to end claims that some of them were denied entry and others were denied access to their seats after thousands of fans without tickets rushed the Florida stadium; final approval of the agreement was issued by a federal judge in Florida.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Attorneys presented oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 27 debating the question of whether the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) preempts label-based state failure-to-warn claims in situations where the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has not required a warning.  The question arose in litigation related the herbicide Roundup.