Mealey Publications™
TOP STORIES
SAN FRANCISCO — A split Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 8 vacated and remanded a lower court order dismissing a suit alleging that Israeli-based NSO Group Technologies Limited and Q Cyber Technologies Limited used their software product, Pegasus, to hack into journalists’ smartphones, finding that the lower court abused its discretion in dismissing the suit on forum non conveniens grounds.
DENVER — Affirming dismissal of a case filed under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the 10th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 8 rejected a bid to make a long-term disability (LTD) insurer pay attorney fees for an administrative appeal that got benefits reinstated.
RICHMOND, Va. — A panel of the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals found that a commercial general liability insurer owned no coverage to a general contractor for the costs incurred in repairing faulty stucco, but said the trial court erred in dismissing as moot the contractor’s breach of contract and bad faith claims because the court didn’t assess whether the costs associated with the property damage were covered under the policy.
ST. LOUIS — A panel in the Eighth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on July 8 affirmed an Iowa federal judge’s dismissal of a chicken restaurant company’s action seeking a declaratory judgment of noninfringement of another restaurant’s trademarks, agreeing that the District Court lacked jurisdiction because the complaint was filed to assert federal defenses to already pending state actions.
YAKIMA, Wash. — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s decision to add Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) restrictions on mifepristone, one of the two drugs prescribed for medication abortions, was not arbitrary or capricious, a Washington federal judge found on July 8, rejecting a request by a coalition of states to grant summary judgment and remand the matter to the FDA for further consideration.
CINCINNATI — A panel in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a Tennessee federal judge’s decision to dismiss a complaint from the granddaughter of the writer of American songbook standards like “Que Sera, Sera” and “Silver Bells” challenging her mother’s terminations of the copyrights for the songs.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A divided U.S. Supreme Court on July 8 stayed pending disposition of an appeal and of a petition for a writ of certiorari (if one is filed) a trial court’s preliminary injunction issued in a case challenging an executive order (EO) and memorandum implementing the EO that resulted in widespread layoffs of federal workers; the unsigned majority opinion stated that the federal “[g]overnment is likely to succeed on its argument that the Executive Order and Memorandum are lawful.”
DENVER — A Colorado federal judge on July 7 imposed a pair of $3,000 sanctions against two defense attorneys after one of them submitted a “puzzlingly defiant” explanation for submission of a court document with 30 defective citations likely created by artificial intelligence. Earlier a jury in the case awarded a man $444,500 on claims that My Pillow LLC founder Mike Lindell defamed him by accusing him of rigging the 2020 presidential election.
OAKLAND, Calif. — The manufacturer of noninvasive prenatal tests will pay up to $8.25 million in a class action settlement to resolve claims that its tests returned false positive test results for some rare genetic conditions despite advertising its products as reliable and accurate, according to a motion for preliminary approval of class action settlement filed in a California federal court.
NEW YORK — After a jury delivered a verdict in favor of the U.S. government in a federal False Claims Act (FCA) suit alleging that CVS Health Corp. (CVSHC) and its subsidiary, Omnicare Inc., submitted fraudulent claims for payment to the government, a New York federal judge on July 7 imposed penalties of $542 million on Omnicare, finding that the penalties requested by the government do not exceed “the Eighth Amendment's guardrails.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on July 7 affirmed a Massachusetts federal judge’s grant of summary judgment of noninfringement on some patent counts and a jury’s verdict of noninfringement on others, agreeing that Egenera Inc. failed to show that Cisco Systems Inc. infringed a patent on a server management system.