Law Reports

By Mary Anne Pazanowski A nurse who claimed she was fired for testifying against a Maine hospital in a medical malpractice action produced sufficient evidence to allow a jury to decide whether the hospital’s alleged legitimate reason for terminating her was pretextual, the state’s highest court ruled March 21 (Trott v. H.D. Goodall Hosp. , Me., No. Yor-12-213, 3/21/13). [...]

By Stephanie M. Acree Hostess Brands Inc. announced March 20 that it has received court of approval of various asset sales that comprise the majority of the debtor’s snack cake and bread businesses and total approximately $800 million in proceeds (In re Hostess Brands Inc., Bankr. S.D.N.Y., No. 12-22052 (RDD), orders entered 3/20/13). Hostess had previously announced the selection [...]

By Tamlin H. Bason A group of retired professional football players sought court approval of a settlement agreement addressing the players’ right of publicity claims against the National Football League, according to a motion filed on March 18 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. (Dryer v. National Football League, D. Minn., No. 09-02182, motion [...]

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia March 19 again dismissed a class securities suit against the Washington Post (WPO) and two of its officials over alleged problems at its Kaplan education unit (Plumbers Local #200 Pension Fund v. Washington Post Co., D.D.C., No. 10-01835(BJR), 3/19/13). Judge Barbara Rothstein found that the lead plaintiff failed to [...]

By Pat Ware Members of Congress assured large water utilities March 19 that lawmakers are unlikely to remove the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds that finance infrastructure projects. “Tax-exempt bonds are very high on the value list and low on the wasteful spending list,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), a member of the Senate Environment and Public [...]

By Tony Dutra A district court may find post-verdict continuing infringement of a patent to be willful, justifying enhancement of a damages award, according to a March 13 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (SynQor Inc. v. Artesyn Technologies Inc., Fed. Cir., No. 2011-1191, 3/13/13). The court affirmed a lower court’s judgments [...]

By Stephanie M. Acree A plaintiff lacked standing to challenge the sale of a debtor’s Nissan dealership because the plaintiff was not one of the bidders at the auction, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled Feb. 22 (Kentucky Automotive Center of Grayson LLC v. Nissan North America Inc., E.D. Ky., No. 0:12-cv-00048 [...]

A female high-school basketball coach in Michigan failed to show she experienced unlawful retaliation after she won a previous sex discrimination lawsuit against the school district, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled March 19 (Fuhr v. Hazel Park Sch. Dist., 6th Cir., No. 11-2288, 3/19/13). In March 2004, the Sixth Circuit upheld a jury’s [...]

An emergency rule (Emerg. Regs. Section 12CER13-02) regarding the research and development tax credit was issued by the Florida Department of Revenue to explain the credit’s calculation and application procedure. For tax years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2012, a research and development tax credit is available to any target industry business that is [...]

Two San Diego attorneys were among 14 individuals and entities charged March 15 by the Securities and Exchange Commission over their alleged roles in an international pump-and-dump scheme involving two publicly traded U.S. entities (SEC v. Carillo Huettel LLP, S.D.N.Y., No. 13 cv. 1735, 3/15/13). The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of [...]

By Diane Davis The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit March 5 held that a debtor’s Mercedes sedan may fall within California’s “wildcard” or “grubstake” exemption and, if an exempt motor vehicle is a tool of the debtor’s trade, and is secured by a nonpossessory, nonpurchase-money lien, then the debtor can avoid the lien [...]

By Ari Natter The Department of Energy may soon begin to lay off or furlough more than 28,000 contract employees in 10 states, according to letters obtained by BNA that were sent to governors warning them of how a nearly $1.9 billion reduction in its budget will affect their states. The letters, which were sent the week of [...]

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan declined March 13 to dismiss a Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action against two men who allegedly sold fraudulent demand notes tied to a defunct real estate venture (SEC v. Mulholland, E.D. Mich., No. 12-14663, 3/13/13). Applying the four factors enunciated in Reves v. Ernst & Young, 494 U.S. [...]

By Lydia Beyoud Employers who may have a shared responsibility payment under tax code Section 4980H for not offering health care to full-time employees under the Affordable Care Act can expect to hear from the Internal Revenue Service about payments due beginning in 2015, but only if IRS has strong evidence to support its assessment, an [...]

An inter partes reexamination ruling that certain patent claims were invalid must be vacated because parallel court proceedings ended without a successful validity challenge to the end of the appeals process, according to a March 7 nonprecedential opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (Function Media L.L.C. v. Kappos, Fed. Cir., No. [...]

By Tamlin H. Bason A manufacturer of an exercise trampoline failed to demonstrate that its asserted trade dress had acquired secondary meaning, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled March 8, dismissing a manufacturer’s trade dress complaint for a second time (Urban Group Exercise Consultants Ltd. v. Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., S.D.N.Y., [...]

By Jay-Anne B. Casuga The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit March 11 upheld a jury verdict in favor of a Syrian Muslim electrician for Chrysler Group LLC in Missouri who alleged he was fired in retaliation for filing a discrimination charge against the company (Al-Birekdar v. Chrysler Grp. LLC, 8th Cir., No. 08-3780, 3/11/13). A jury [...]

By Bernard J. Pazanowski Courts calculating the cramdown rate in Chapter 11 bankruptcy cases can simply add the prime rate and a risk adjustment amount between 1 and 3 percent, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held March 1 (Wells Fargo Bank N.A. v. Texas Grand Prairie Hotel Realty LLC, 5th Cir., No. 11-11109, [...]

By Che Odom The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board released expanded versions of two inspection reports March 7 that detail previously nonpublic criticisms that the board had of audit quality controls at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. The criticism concerns audits performed in 2008 and 2009 and the firm’s apparent difficulty with auditing estimates and fair value and maintaining professional skepticism and supervising [...]

House Republicans March 5 questioned the Securities and Exchange Commission’s plans to consider requiring disclosure of corporate political spending, saying the agency should conserve its resources for mandatory rulemaking. “The Commission appears to be allocating its limited resources on a discretionary project wholly unrelated to its mandate to ‘protect investors, maintain fair, orderly, and efficient markets and [...]