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WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court today granted a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a terminated employee of a Georgia district attorney’s office seeking review of whether the dismissal of her federal claims that she was terminated because of her pregnancy was proper when the affirmative defense her employer used as the basis of its summary judgment motion was not filed as part of its answer to her amended complaint in violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A North Carolina federal bankruptcy judge did not misapply or misinterpret federal law or Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals precedent in denying two asbestos claimants’ motion to dismiss the Chapter 11 case of Georgia-Pacific spinoff Bestwall LLC, a federal judge in the state held March 27 in denying the claimants’ request to certify the decision for direct appeal.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court will let stand a decision by the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals that the addition of the Gardasil vaccine to the Vaccine Injury Table was constitutional and that women must first file claims in the Vaccine Act compensation program before suing in a district court, according to a March 30 docket entry.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Applying a recently established framework governing the economic substance doctrine and disclosure requirements in microcaptive insurance cases, a U.S. Tax Court judge held that a purported captive arrangement failed both prongs of the economic substance test and sustained a 40% accuracy-related penalty for a nondisclosed noneconomic substance transaction.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 denied a petition for a writ of certiorari by a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan recipient seeking review of a Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel decision that affirmed a Louisiana federal court ruling upholding the refusal by the Small Business Administration (SBA) to forgive a portion of a loan that had been based on payments the loan recipient made to its independent contractors the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Saying in part that it seeks “to alleviate certain regulatory burdens and litigation risk,” the Employee Benefits Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) on March 30 released a proposed rule titled “Fiduciary Duties In Selecting Designated Investment Alternatives.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court on March 30 refused to hear Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s appeal of a federal appellate court decision that rejected the state’s claim to sovereign immunity that it asserted when pipeline companies sued it for terminating an easement that is required to operate an oil and gas pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac.
BOSTON — The widow of a smoker who died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and esophageal cancer filed a first amended complaint in Massachusetts federal court against two tobacco companies and two retail companies after previously stipulating to dismissal of another tobacco company, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for wrongful death and unfair and deceptive trade practices.
WICHITA FALLS, Texas — A Texas federal judge on March 26 dismissed a suit filed by X Corp. against advertisers, alleging that they violated antitrust laws in boycotting the social media platform Twitter “abruptly and in lockstep, . . . by discontinuing entirely or substantially reducing their previously substantial advertising purchases,” finding that X Corp. failed to state an antitrust claim.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held on March 26 that a biopharmaceutical company cannot circumvent missing a 30-day deadline to seek a mandatory stay of a declaratory judgment patent suit it brought under statutes governing the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) by dismissing and then refiling its complaint.
DALLAS — The insurer and the insured in a federal lawsuit alleging bad faith, breach of contract and other claims in a dispute over whether damage to the roofs of two Texas buildings was caused by a 2021 hailstorm agreed in a March 26 notice “to have a magistrate judge conduct a settlement conference or mediation” for the case, taking up a judge’s offer that was included in an opinion denying a motion for summary judgment and motions to exclude and strike expert opinions and testimony.