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ST. LOUIS, Mo.— The Eighth U.S. Court of Appeals on Nov. 6 dismissed an insurer’s appeal of a lower federal court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of an insured in a coverage dispute arising from a dog bite, finding that the lower court’s order is not final and the appeal must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A Texas appellate court panel on Nov. 6 affirmed a lower court’s ruling in favor of a hydraulic fracturing operator in an oil and gas dispute, saying that it was “not persuaded” by a mineral rights company’s understanding of the contract the parties entered into. The panel said that the evidence “conclusively establishes that the parties expressly agreed to fix the drilling unit of each well” to a particular tract of land such that the joint operating agreement (JOA) had not been breached.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In an order issued Nov. 6, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel denied Motorola Solutions Inc.’s petition for a writ of mandamus, holding that Motorola could not seek review of the now-former acting director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s decision to rescind her Biden-administration predecessor’s memorandum on discretionary denials or to issue such a denial for Motorola’s requests for inter partes review in a patent dispute over law enforcement cameras.
PHILADELPHIA — The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed a lower court order denying enforcement of a settlement agreement between a company that provided its software to a company with which it entered into an equal partnership, finding that because the company providing the software failed to include the software’s historical data to which the receiving company was entitled, the lower court did not err in denying the petition to enforce the settlement agreement.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Fourth District Florida Court of Appeal panel on Nov. 6 issued a per curiam affirmance of a $475,000 punitive damages verdict awarded to a smoker’s estate, which a tobacco company had argued on appeal should be subject to reversal or remittitur because it is 11 times greater than the compensatory damages awarded.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Supreme Court divided by party lines on Nov. 6 stayed a trial court’s preliminary injunction that had halted the enforcement of a January executive order (EO) that removed the option to designate “X” on passports for those individuals who do not identify as female or male or who wish to keep a specified gender off their passports.
PITTSBURGH — The owner and operator of a Pennsylvania expandable polystyrene manufacturing facility will pay more than $5 million in civil penalties and other payments and implement a series of measures to curtail the discharge of millions of tiny pellets known as “nurdles” into the Ohio River to settle a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit filed by two environmental nonprofits in federal district court.
SPOKANE, Wash.— The operator of a lead-zinc smelter in British Columbia allegedly responsible for disposing millions of tons of toxic slag and liquid effluent into the Columbia River says the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should reconsider a ruling that revived claims made by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation “for over a half billion dollars” for cultural resource damages under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act.
LAKE CHARLES, La. — A Louisiana appellate court on Nov. 5 reversed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling dismissing a bank’s claims against GEICO and granted GEICO’s peremptory exception of no right of action, dismissing the bank’s claims against GEICO with prejudice in the bank’s suit against GEICO seeking to recover damages related to property being stolen from an insured boat, finding that the bank as loss payee lacks a right of action against GEICO.
CINCINNATI — A Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Nov. 5 dismissed the appeal of a group of individuals who objected to the $600 million class action settlement in the Ohio train derailment lawsuit, ruling that the objectors failed to pay the $850,000 appeal bond in a timely manner and holding that they offered no valid justification for failing to pay the appeal bond.
NEW YORK — The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Nov. 5 entered the satisfaction of a judgment worth more than $59 million reflecting a federal judge’s confirmation of a London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) award against the guarantor of a Ghanian high-speed internet network company for defaulting on a loan issued to it by a South African partnership.