ST. PAUL, Minn. — The Minnesota Court of Appeals on Oct. 14 affirmed a lower court’s summary judgment ruling in favor of a medical professional liability insurer in a plastic surgeon insured’s breach of contract and bad faith lawsuit seeking coverage for a transgender woman’s claims that he discriminated against her based on her sexual orientation when he refused to perform breast augmentation surgery, finding that no coverage was triggered because it is clear that the underlying claims were based on an alleged gender-identity discrimination and not on a medical incident.

NEW YORK — The Raymond Sackler family says in a statement filed Oct. 14 in a New York federal bankruptcy court that it takes no position on the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors (UCC) motion for standing to pursue estate claims because it argues that the proposed claims “are utterly meritless regardless of who brings them,” citing rulings from various courts that found that state public nuisance laws don’t apply to the manufacturing of opioids.

SAN DIEGO — A federal judge in California on Oct. 11 granted in part and denied in part a lender’s motion to dismiss claims brought against it for financial elder abuse and violation of California’s unfair competition law (UCL) by a borrower who claims that during the coronavirus pandemic, the lender obstructed her efforts to modify her loan or obtain a reverse mortgage, leading her to potential foreclosure.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A Florida hotel and resort will pay $100,000 to end a complaint by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging violations of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) when it terminated a worker shortly after she requested leave to recover and grieve following a stillbirth during the fifth month of her pregnancy, according to a consent decree approved by a federal judge on Oct. 11.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. government on Oct. 11 asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to participate as an amicus curiae in oral arguments when the high court considers whether courts under the Lanham Act “can include an order for the defendant to disgorge the distinct profits of legally separate non-party corporate affiliates” and whether the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals improperly upheld a $43 million disgorgement award against the defendant.

PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania federal judge on Oct. 11 denied a disability insurer’s motion for summary judgment on an insured’s breach of contract and bad faith claims after determining that questions of fact exist as to whether the insured remained disabled from performing the duties of his own occupation and whether the insurer acted in bad faith in handling the insured’s claim.

PHILADELPHIA — A jury in Pennsylvania state court has awarded a couple $78 million against Monsanto Co. for injuries related to exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup.  In a statement responding to the verdict, which was officially posted to the docket on Oct. 11, Bayer Corp., Monsanto’s parent company, said the verdict “conflicts with the overwhelming weight of scientific evidence” and contended that the claim in the case is preempted by the ruling of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Schaffner v. Monsanto, warranting review by the U.S. Supreme Court.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio — Two of the third-party defendants being sued by Norfolk Southern Corp. over the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, that released toxic chemicals into the air and soil have filed a brief in support of a motion for summary judgment on two claims against them, arguing that “Norfolk Southern — and Norfolk Southern alone — is responsible for the derailment it caused and the consequences of its erroneous vent-and-burn decision.”