Law Reports

Adrienne Kitchen Moeller | Bloomberg Law Shareholder access to proxies and the ability to get director nominees on company ballots became a hot-button issue after the 2008 credit crisis with the public call for corporate governance reforms. This article reviews the steps taken by the U.S. Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to [...]

e360 Insight, Inc. v. Spamhaus Project, Nos. 10-3538, -39, 2011 BL 226933 (7th Cir. Sept. 2, 2011) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a district court’s decision to strike the trial testimony of, and impose discovery sanctions against, a bulk e-mail marketing company that sued an organization that it claimed destroyed [...]

Kate Hooker | Bloomberg Law Kennedy v. St. Joseph’s Ministries, Inc., No. 10-1792, 2011 BL 234720 (4th Cir. Sept. 14, 2011) A district court’s decision that religious harassment and retaliatory discharge claims filed by a Catholic nursing home employee were not barred by the “religious organization exemption” to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act [...]

Michael F. Bahler | Bloomberg Law Ellis v. Costco Wholesale Corp., No. 07-15838, 2011 BL 237414 (9th Cir. Sept. 16, 2011) The U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit overturned the grant of class certification in a nationwide case against Costco Wholesale Corp., alleging that the warehouse club chain discriminates against its female employees [...]

Naresh Sritharan | Bloomberg Law Following recent patent reform,1 several aspects of U.S. patent prosecution and litigation have been significantly altered. One change that immediately impacts patent litigation concerns the false marking statute.2 The amendments to the Patent Act should drastically curtail the number of new false marking suits filed. Now is an appropriate time [...]

Michael L. Calder | Bloomberg Law Fresh Express, Inc. v. Beazley Syndicate 2623/623 at Lloyd’s, No. H035246, 2011 BL 231596 (Cal. Ct. App. Sept. 8, 2011) A California appellate court held that an outbreak of E. coli linked to bagged fresh spinach was not an “Insured Event” under the terms of a “Malicious Contamination, Accidental [...]

Peter O’Hara | Bloomberg Law Interim Policy on Electronic Disclosure Under 29 C.F.R. § 2550.404a-5, Technical Release 2011-03 (Sept. 13, 2011) In October 2010, the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a final rule regarding the fiduciary requirements for disclosure in participant-directed individual account plans. The final rule, found in 29 C.F.R. § 2550.404a-5, requires participant-directed [...]

Jennifer Gaeta | Bloomberg Law L.A. Triumph, Inc. v. Ciccone, No. 10-CV-06195 (C.D. Cal. Aug. 31, 2011) The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California denied defendants MG Icon, LLC and Macy’s Retail Holdings, Inc.’s motion for summary judgment in a dispute with plaintiff L.A. Triumph, Inc. over the MATERIAL GIRL trademark for [...]

<div class="middle-column-text subpageMiddle articleBody" In re Inwood Heights Housing Development Fund Corp., Case No. 11-13322, 2011 BL 219634 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. Aug. 25, 2011) The United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York granted a motion filed by several New York City agencies seeking to vacate for “cause” the automatic stay in effect [...]

American International Group, Inc. Amended and Restated Executive Severance Plan v. Guterman, No. 10-CV-9390, 2011 BL 233831 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 13, 2011) In a declaratory judgment action, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York held that the American International Group, Inc. (AIG) Compensation and Management Resources Committee (Committee), administrator of AIG’s Amended [...]

In re Longview Aluminum, LLC, No. 10-2780, 2011 BL 227017 (7th Cir. Sept. 2, 2011) The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed a bankruptcy court’s ruling avoiding certain transfers to a member of a limited liability company as a preferential transfer under 11 U.S.C. § 547(b)(4)(B). Rejecting the member’s assertion that [...]

Corsair Special Situations Fund, LP v. Engineered Framing Systems, Inc., No. 09–CV–01201, 2011 BL 212342 (D. Md. Aug. 17, 2011) The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland denied a defendant’s motion to quash a subpoena of her wireless text messages and phone records, including billing information and numbers dialed, holding that she had [...]

Sarah Jane Leake | Bloomberg Law The Kay Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision Making – Department for Business, Innovation & Skills Call for Evidence, 15 September 2011; The Kay Review of UK Equity Markets and Long-Term Decision Making – Speech by Professor Kay, 15 September 2011 Earlier this year,1 the Secretary of [...]

Kate Hooker | Bloomberg Law Krinsk v. SunTrust Banks, Inc., No. 10-11912, 2011 BL 229079 (11th Cir. Sept. 7, 2011) On September 7, 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Eleventh Circuit ruled, as a matter of first impression, that a defendant’s waiver of its contractual right to arbitrate may be rescinded upon the [...]

Jessica McKinney | Bloomberg Law Swatch Group Mgmt. Services Ltd. v. Bloomberg L.P., No. 11-CV-01006, 2011 BL 231387 (S.D.N.Y. Aug. 30, 2011) The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York denied Bloomberg L.P.’s motion to dismiss a copyright infringement action brought by The Swatch Group Management Services Ltd. stemming from Bloomberg’s unauthorized [...]

Yamuna Bhaskaran | Bloomberg Law In re Vitamin C Antitrust Litigation, No. 06-md-01738, 2011 BL 228801 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 6, 2011) Defendants were members of the Vitamin C Subcommittee (Subcommittee) of the Chinese government’s Chamber of Commerce of Medicines and Health Products Importers and Exporters (Chamber). By 2002, defendants controlled over 80 percent of the vitamin [...]

Alexandra Kay | Bloomberg Law In re Vitamin C Antitrust Litig., No. 06-MD-1738, 2011 BL 228801 (E.D.N.Y. Sept. 6, 2011) Chinese manufacturers of vitamin C must face price-fixing claims in the United States, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York recently held. According to plaintiffs, direct commercial buyers of vitamin C, [...]

Sarah Jane Leake | Bloomberg Law What are we paying for? Exploring executive pay and performance – High Pay Commission Discussion Paper, 5 September 2011 The concept “pay for performance” has dominated corporate governance culture over recent years. However, while corporate governance reforms have tried to align directors’ and shareholders’ interests by linking pay to [...]

Raphael Rosenblatt | Bloomberg Law Financial Stability Board, Joint Comment Letter (Sept. 2, 2011) In a letter jointly submitted by the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA), The Clearing House Association, The Financial Services Roundtable, the American Bankers Association, the Institute of International Bankers, and the Institute of International Affairs (collectively, Associations)—some of the major trade [...]

Betsy Goldman | Bloomberg Law Liberty University, Inc. v. Geithner, No. 10-2347, 2011 BL 230276 (4th Cir. Sept. 8, 2011) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit dismissed a constitutional challenge to the health care overhaul brought by Liberty University, Inc., a private Christian University, and certain individuals, holding that the Anti-Injunction Act [...]