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SAN DIEGO — There is no evidence that San Diego concealed knowledge about employees’ potential exposure to asbestos from renovation work or that the employees faced conditions outside the normal employment relationship, a California appellate court said in an unpublished opinion affirming summary judgment in favor of San Diego and one of its officers on Feb. 17.
BOSTON — Pursuant to leave granted by a Massachusetts federal judge, physicians’ professional groups and others seeking to challenge changes made by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in its vaccine recommendations and other agency actions on Feb. 17 filed a fourth amended complaint, adding to the agency actions challenged in previous complaints the recent reduction of the CDC’s recommended childhood vaccinations from 17 to 11 in alignment with the recommended vaccine schedule of Denmark.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 17 affirmed a Minnesota federal judge’s denial of defendant-appellants’ requests for judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) or for a new trial on damages; the panel emphasized that its role on appeal was to determine whether the jury had substantial evidence to support its findings, not to reweigh that evidence.
ATLANTA — The Georgia Supreme Court on Feb. 17 answered questions certified to it from federal court and held that a third party can be found to have procured a life insurance policy when viewing the “totality of the relevant circumstances” in a trust’s suit seeking to collect death benefits on a $6 million life insurance policy the insurer claims was a stranger-originated life insurance (STOLI) policy that was procured by a third party in violation of Georgia law.
NEW YORK — Wrapping up a decade-old Employee Retirement Income Security Act lawsuit over residual annuities (RAs) that resulted in a $332 million class settlement, a New York federal judge on Feb. 17 granted awards from the common fund as requested in amounts including $96.28 million for attorney fees and $10,000 for a service award.
NEW YORK — A securities fraud defendant’s communications with Anthropic PBC’s Claude about his case are not protected by attorney-client privilege or the attorney work product doctrine, a federal judge in New York said Feb. 17.
ST. LOUIS — Attorneys representing a putative class of plaintiffs who have sued Monsanto Co. in Missouri state court alleging that exposure to glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, causes cancer on Feb. 17 moved for preliminary approval of a $7.25 billion nationwide settlement with Bayer Corp., Monsanto’s parent company, which would resolve the claims.
RALEIGH, N.C. — Without providing an explanation, the North Carolina Supreme Court on Feb. 13 denied a motion for a temporary stay of a civil contempt order requiring former insurance mogul Greg Lindberg to pay $65,775,544 and his company to pay $56,901,099 for violating a temporary restraining order (TRO) regarding conversion of assets in insurers’ breach of contract suit against Lindberg, who once owned them, and his company.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 13 affirmed a Texas federal jury’s finding that a defendant-appellant electronics manufacturer willfully infringed two claims of another entity’s patent on direct current to direct current (DC-DC) converters; the panel said substantial evidence supported both the jury’s finding and subsequent enhanced damages and attorney fees.
DOVER, Del. — The Delaware Supreme Court held Feb. 13 that insurers have adequately pleaded a breach of contract claim in their subrogation lawsuit seeking recovery from an application service provider for the amount they paid to nonprofit insureds for investigative and remediation steps arising from a ransomware attack, reversing a lower court’s grant of the provider’s motion to dismiss the insurers’ amended complaint and remanding.
NEW YORK — A federal judge in New York on Feb. 13 revised a March 2023 arbitration order in a race bias and retaliation putative class case brought by three current and former National Football League (NFL) coaches and denied in full arbitration sought by the NFL and three teams based on “[t]he NFL’s unilateral control over the dispute resolution process”; the trial court ruling was filed as the U.S. Supreme Court considers a petition for a writ of certiorari filed in the same case by the NFL and three teams concerning the enforceability of those same arbitration agreements that require Commissioner Roger Goodell to preside over the proceedings.