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SAN FRANCISCO — A federal magistrate judge erred in finding that part of a Social Security claimant’s attorney fees request was categorically excluded under the Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA), a Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled, in light of the magistrate’s finding that the denial of her benefits request by the Social Security Administration (SSA) was not “substantially justified.”
OAKLAND, Calif. — A California federal judge has denied a motion in which Elon Musk and related defendants sought dismissal of one of six Employee Retirement Income Security Act claims asserted against them by four former Twitter Inc. officers or executives who are seeking severance benefits, equitable relief and statutory penalties.
DENVER — The Colorado Supreme Court ruled that an expert witness is not required under the state’s rules of evidence or case law to be formally offered and accepted as an expert for the testimony to be admissible, reversing a court of appeals ruling that overturned a murder conviction.
PASADENA, Calif. — After partly reviving an Employee Retirement Income Security Act pension benefits class action after a bench trial in an unpublished memorandum disposition, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals denied a petition for panel or en banc rehearing that was supported by an amicus curiae brief.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. — A Connecticut federal court jury has awarded Cigna Health and Life Insurance Co. $7,256,100.60 in damages in a suit alleging that Florida drug testing labs were unjustly enriched by submitting to Cigna claims for reimbursement for medically unnecessary urine drug testing, resulting in purported overpayments to the labs of more than $20 million.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, which is the default standard for civil cases, should be applied to all 34 exemptions under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the attorney representing a food distributor and the company’s CEO argued Nov. 5 before the U.S. Supreme Court.
NEW ORLEANS — The Fifth Circuit U.S Court of Appeals on Nov. 4 affirmed a lower federal court’s ruling against an excess homeowners insurer in lawsuit brought by the parents of a Louisiana State University (LSU) freshman who died in 2017 of alcohol poisoning following a fraternity hazing incident, finding that the lower federal court did not err by denying the insurer’s motion for summary judgment on the applicability of its policy exclusions.
ATLANTA — A Department of Veterans Affairs worker failed to show that she was entitled to equitable tolling of the 15-day deadline to file a formal administrative complaint with the VA, the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in a race bias and retaliation case, affirming dismissal but finding that the case cited by the trial court did not control as the issues were different.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A group of individuals and businesses on Nov. 4 sued oil and gas producers in New Mexico federal court seeking damages for engaging in a “conspiracy to coordinate, and ultimately constrain, domestic shale oil production, which has had the effect of fixing, raising, and maintaining the price of crude oil, and thereby the price paid by end-users of oil-derivative products, including but not limited to gasoline,” in violation of the Sherman Act and numerous state antitrust and unfair competition laws.
RICHMOND, Va. — Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has determined that the primary insurer of Chapter 11 asbestos debtors Kaiser Gypsum Co. Inc. and Hanson Permanente Cement Inc. has standing to object to the debtors’ reorganization plan, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals should uphold the insurer’s merits arguments and reverse confirmation of the plan, the insurer says in its Nov. 4 supplemental reply brief on remand from the high court.
NEW YORK — A 2014 hit single from English pop star Ed Sheeran did not infringe on the copyright related to a 1973 song from Marvin Gaye, the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held, affirming a New York federal judge’s finding of noninfringement.