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NEW ORLEANS — In a decision that included a partial dissent, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 18 affirmed holdings contrary to the positions of health plans’ third-party administrator (TPA), ruling that the threshold question of arbitrability had not been “clearly and unmistakably delegated to an arbitrator” and that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims for money damages are equitable rather than legal.
NEW YORK — A New York federal judge rightly dismissed China-based defendants from an intellectual property suit brought by the company behind the children’s viral song “Baby Shark,” a Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled Dec. 18; the panel agreed with the judge on a matter of first impression for the appeals court that email service to entities in China is not permissible under the Hague Service Convention.
RICHMOND, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on Dec. 18 enjoined the state of Virginia from enforcing provisions of a new state e-cigarette registry law that would allow it to issue civil penalties or bar the sale of vape products not on its registry pending the outcome of an appeal in the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of a similar North Carolina law but granted in part the state’s motion to dismiss two vape manufacturers’ challenge to the registry.
SAN FRANCISCO — The Federal Trade Commission and Maplebear Inc. d/b/a Instacart on Dec. 18 filed a joint motion in California federal court for entry of a stipulated order regarding an agreement in which Instacart pays $60 million to the FTC to resolve allegations that it misrepresented free delivery of items purchased online through the Instacart Marketplace, falsely advertised a satisfaction guarantee and implemented paid memberships without consumers’ “express informed consent.”
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A Virginia federal judge on Dec. 18 granted preliminary approval to a settlement on behalf of a nationwide class that accused Capital One Financial Corp. of violating consumer protection laws including California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by using a browser extension to misappropriate online influencers’ commissions from affiliate marketing links, with Capital One denying wrongdoing and the plaintiffs’ attorneys seeking nearly $4 million in fees.
WILMINGTON, Del. — Parents of two teens whose deaths were purportedly related to sextortion on the social media platform Instagram filed a wrongful death suit against Instagram LLC and its owner, Meta Platforms Inc., in Delaware state court, asserting that their teenage sons died after Meta “provided unfettered access” to “predators” on Instagram pretending to be young girls who enticed their sons into sending “compromising pictures” and then threatened to send those pictures to friends and family if the teens did not pay with money or gift cards.
NEW ORLEANS — Concluding that favorable factual findings are “a moral victory . . . insufficient to justify an award of attorney’s fees” and that the claimant here ultimately obtained no legal relief, the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Dec. 18 reversed an award of more than $1.25 million to a former National Football League player who sued for a higher level of disability benefits than he was awarded, prevailed after a bench trial and then saw that favorable ruling reversed in a previous appeal.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 18 dismissed for lack of jurisdiction a challenge to an Idaho federal judge’s decisions denying semiconductor manufacturing appellant entities’ motions to dismiss and imposing an $8 million bond under a state law targeting bad faith patent infringement, finding that the decisions were not appealable interlocutory orders.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Securities and Exchange Commission urged the U.S. Supreme Court on Dec. 17 to grant an individual’s petition for a writ of certiorari to determine whether the SEC is required to show that investors suffered pecuniary harm when asking for a disgorgement award, saying that “the question presented is recurring and important; and this case is a suitable vehicle for resolving the conflict.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A partly split Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Dec. 17 reversed a Delaware federal judge’s ruling that a defendant-appellant car seat manufacturer infringed a patent describing a convertible car seat product and ordered a new trial on willful infringement because the judge abused discretion in excluding an email chain that allegedly contained evidence of willful infringement.
NEWARK, N.J. — A bad faith claim alleged against a general liability insurer cannot proceed because the claim is duplicative of the breach of contract claim and the insured failed to meet its burden of showing that the insurer “lacked a fairly debatable reason” for denying the insured’s claim for environmental contamination cleanup costs, a New Jersey federal judge said Dec. 17 in granting the insurer’s motion to dismiss the bad faith claim.