WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Following the Florida Supreme Court’s determination, in answer to a certified question, that an appeals court erred in its interpretation of Florida Statutes Section 768.72(1) when it refused to allow petitioners to amend their counterclaims to seek punitive damages against a neighbor, his insurer and the insurer’s counsel in a lawsuit arising from “hate mail” letters, the appeals court panel on remand affirmed without discussion the trial court’s order permitting amendment of the counterclaims to seek punitive damages against the neighbor but reversed the lower court’s order allowing amendment of counterclaims against the insurer and the insurer’s counsel.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Ahead of the Oct. 9 U.S. Supreme Court conference for which their certiorari petition has been distributed, participants in “top hat” deferred compensation and retirement plans filed a response to the government’s amicus curiae brief that said “this case’s idiosyncratic factual context makes it an unsuitable vehicle for clarifying the propriety of surcharge relief” under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act even though the government viewed the challenged decision as erroneous.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Kingdom of Spain on Oct. 7 filed an appellant brief with the District of Columbia Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in consolidated appeals in which it is challenging the confirmation of six arbitral awards against it, writing that D.C. Circuit precedent regarding its agreement to arbitrate disputes under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) with European Union investors is wrong and urging the court to overrule that precedent.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Oct. 7 sued President Donald J. Trump, the White House Office, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), asserting that in order to pay for political ads, OMB diverted $20 million in commemorative funds appropriated to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA).

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel on Oct. 7 rejected a petition for panel rehearing from the Board of Regents of the University of Texas System (UT), leaving in place the panel’s July ruling that a technology company was entitled to a judgment as a matter of law (JMOL) in its favor in a dispute over a patent describing a biodegradable fiber implant.  The ruling reversed a Delaware federal jury’s findings in favor of the patent holder because a prior art patent disclosed every asserted claim of the patent at issue.

SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal and denial of reconsideration in an employee’s suit against the city of Pasadena, Calif., and specified city officials, alleging harm for the city’s policy requiring unvaccinated employees to complete weekly COVID testing and wear masks in shared spaces, finding that the appellees are immune under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Oct. 7 in a dispute between the U.S. Air Force and a Guam-based nonprofit over the Air Force’s continued open detonation of hazardous waste munitions at Tarague Beach in Guam, with the parties arguing first about whether the Air Force’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) permit renewal application for the work is a final agency action subject to review under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and second about whether the RCRA displaces the more general environmental review requirement of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

PEORIA, Ill. — A federal judge in Illinois granted the Illinois Agricultural Association’s (IAA) motion for a preliminary injunction in its second trademark infringement case against a media group focusing on content for rural listeners, finding that IAA is likely to succeed on its claims that the media group infringed its “RFD” trademarks.