Mealey Publications™
TOP STORIES
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict was not required to preserve a challenge to a workers’ compensation exclusivity defense in an asbestos case, and the court’s reliance on precedent to reach a contrary conclusion warrants reconsideration or transfer to the Missouri Supreme Court, a woman whose case has already been to the state’s top court once argues.
SEATTLE — A commercial automobile insurer on April 2 voluntarily dismissed DoorDash Inc. from the insurer’s lawsuit asking a Washington federal court to declare that it has no duty to defend or indemnify for an underlying wrongful death action alleging that its insured fatally shot a man while he was driving his vehicle as a paid delivery driver, noting that DoorDash has stipulated that it is not a covered entity under the Allstate policy.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s denial of a petition for a writ of certiorari and lifting of a stay, a federal judge in South Carolina denied the state’s motion to remand to state court its case against 3M Co. related to alleged contamination from per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the firefighting agent aqueous film forming foam (AFFF). Applying instructions in a March 2025 Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruling, the judge said 3M has plausibly alleged a colorable federal defense and acted under a federal officer based on its production of a specific kind of AFFF for the U.S. government.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As oral argument approaches in a U.S. Supreme Court case where the petitioner was convicted of armed robbery through cell phone location evidence obtained through a geofence warrant that he argues was unconstitutional, the U.S. government filed a merits brief contending in part that the petitioner’s “dramatic expansion of the Fourth Amendment would stifle developments in . . . evolving areas of law and handicap the investigation of major crimes,” and amici curiae including local government organizations made similar arguments.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Investors have filed a petition for a writ of certiorari asking the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether an accountant is liable under Section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 for a company’s financial statements; the investors had brought a case against a fuel-cell server manufacturer’s outside accountant, alleging the accountant was liable under the statute.
DETROIT — A federal judge in Michigan has granted the U.S. government permission to file an interlocutory appeal to the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals of the lower court’s denial of the government’s motion to dismiss the Flint water crisisFederal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) lawsuit pursuant to the discretionary function exception (DFE) related to sovereign immunity. The judge also gave the government permission to appeal a separate ruling denying its bid to dismiss the case under the FTCA’s private liability requirement related to what is called the Good Samaritan doctrine, saying that immediate appellate court review is appropriate.
SAN FRANCISCO — An artificial intelligence agent directed to shop at the Amazon.com store isn’t illegally accessing a computer or acting any differently than when an individual uses a web browser to visit the same site, Perplexity AI Inc. told the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in an April 1 opening brief in its challenge to a ruling enjoining the Perplexity AI agent Comet from accessing password-protected areas of the Amazon.com store.
ALBANY, N.Y. — Following a bench trial in the Employee Retirement Income Security Act class action challenging a 2011 refinancing that employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) participants alleged improperly benefited the company’s co-presidents, a Georgia federal judge entered judgment for the defendants on the grounds that “the fraud concealment exception does not apply,” so all the claims were untimely.
CHICAGO — An Illinois appellate court affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of an insurer’s suit seeking a declaration that it did not owe coverage beyond the $25,000 policy limits to its insured, who was involved in an auto accident, ruling that the lower court was correct in finding that the insurer’s alleged bad faith liability regarding past conduct, which relates to a separate bad faith suit, “was more properly considered in the bad faith action.”
WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas federal judge rightly granted summary judgment of noninfringement in favor of defendant-appellee entities accused of infringing a patent describing air purifying technology because the patent applicant explicitly narrowed the scope of patent claims during prosecution history to exclude the type of reflective surfaces present in the accused devices, a Federal Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel ruled April 1.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A Florida appeals court panel on April 1 reversed a lower court’s dismissal of a condominium association’s breach of contract lawsuit against an insurer seeking coverage for its property damage that was caused by Hurricane Irma, remanding for the lower court to consider on first instance the insurer’s argument that Florida Statutes Section 95.11(2)(e) operates as a statute of repose and bars the insured’s lawsuit notwithstanding the claims that the insurer intentionally delayed making a coverage determination to postpone the insured’s ability to file suit within the five-year limitations period.