Panel Affirms Order Denying Anti-SLAPP Motion To Strike In Insurance Fraud Dispute
LOS ANGELES — A California appeals court affirmed a lower court order denying a motion to strike by chiropractors and their practices in insurers’ suit accusing them of submitting more than 500 allegedly fraudulent claims in violation of the state’s unfair competition law, finding that the defendants failed to show that the state’s anti-SLAPP statute is applicable to their alleged activities of submitting fraudulent bills.
11th Circuit Partly Vacates Ruling In Coverage Dispute Over Rain Events
ATLANTA — Under Georgia law, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that an insurer’s conduct waived its right to apply the insurance policy’s $2.5 million flood deductible after previously applying the $100,000 water damage deductible to its insureds’ claim for three rain events that damaged a construction project but that there is a genuine dispute regarding whether the insurer waived the flood deductible for two other rain events, affirming in part and vacating in part a lower federal court’s partial summary judgment ruling.
DHS To High Court: Courts’ Review Of 3rd-Country Removals Limited
WASHINGTON, D.C. — No federal court has jurisdiction to review “‘questions of law and fact’” that arise from the removal of noncitizens “except through a petition for review of a final removal order,” the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other parties argue in a petitioner brief filed Oct. 23 in the U.S. Supreme Court in an appeal challenging a February ruling by a federal court in Massachusetts that declared the DHS’s March 2025 third-country removals policy “unlawful.”
Panel Upholds Ruling In Favor Of Property Insurer In Fire Damage Suit
PASADENA, Calif. — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of a property insurer on an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith claims, agreeing with the lower court that the claims cannot proceed because the insured failed to cooperate with the insurer’s requests during the investigation of the insured’s fire damage claim.
Texas Insureds Failed To Timely File Coverage Suit, 5th Circuit Affirms
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Oct. 22 affirmed a lower federal court’s grant of partial summary judgment in favor of an insurer in a coverage dispute alleging that the insurer wrongfully denied or underpaid the insureds’ 2021 and 2022 claims for water damage arising from frozen pipes, agreeing with the lower court that the insureds failed to timely file their lawsuit pursuant to their policy’s statute of limitations.
5th Circuit Vacates Injunction Barring Enforcement Of New Mississippi DEI Law
NEW ORLEANS — A Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 22 vacated a preliminary injunction in a putative class lawsuit barring enforcement of a new Mississippi law, House Bill 1193, that prevents government-run schools and post-secondary institutions from requiring diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) activities and ordered that the case must be reassigned on remand to a different judge, calling the trial court proceedings “a botch job.”
Magistrate Grants Motion To Compel Discovery In FCA Suit Alleging Medicare Fraud
NEW ORLEANS — A Louisiana federal magistrate judge on Oct. 22 granted a relator’s renewed motion to compel discovery for events that occurred after her employment ended in a suit alleging violations of the False Claims Act (FCA) and similar state law related to medical providers’ purported submission of false claims for payment to government insurers for wound care services, finding in part that the relator’s access to the “relevant information and the parties’ resources” weighs in favor of granting her motion.
5th Circuit Affirms Apartment Complex Hail Damage Coverage Suit Is Time-Barred
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment to the insurer of an apartment complex whose owner filed suit over a storm damage claim, finding that the owner’s breach of contract and statutory claims were time-barred because the insurer unequivocally denied coverage, and subsequent reinspection and communications did not restart the limitations periods.
Revised $3.03M Settlement Gets Final Approval In Data Sharing Class Action
PHOENIX — An Arizona federal judge granted final approval to a $3.03 million privacy class action settlement with LifeStance Health Group Inc., including more than $1 million in attorney fees, after previously denying preliminary approval of an earlier agreement over concerns about inadequate settlement valuation, disproportionate attorney fees and potential collusion.
5th Circuit Rejects Jewish Man’s Racial Bias Suit Against Christian Franchise
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals issued a mandate on Oct. 21 of a majority’s judgment and opinion affirming a Texas federal judge’s grant of summary judgment to a faith-based auto repair business that franchises only to Christians in a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by a Jewish man who was denied a franchise, rejecting the man’s “novel argument” that “discrimination against Jews is ipso facto racial discrimination” under 42 U.S. Code Section 1981.
N.M. Judge Imposes Penalty Of $25B Against Meta For Violating Unfair Practices Act
SANTA FE, N.M. — After a jury decided on liability in a suit brought by the New Mexico attorney general against Meta Platforms Inc., a state court judge on Oct. 21 assessed a $25 billion penalty against Meta, which operates the social media platform Facebook, finding 43,899,720 willful violations of the New Mexico Unfair Practices Act by deceptive trade practices and five willful violations by unconscionable trade practices related to Facebook’s privacy setting that did not give users meaningful control over their data.