Boston Beer Hit With $175.5M Verdict In Aluminum Can Case

By Hailey Konnath

An Illinois federal jury has returned a $175.5 million verdict against a Boston Beer affiliate in a case alleging that the company didn't purchase the agreed-upon amount of beverage cans from Ardagh Metal Packaging USA Corp., according to a disclosure filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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NJ Justices Won't Review Beasley Allen's DQ From Talc Cases

By George Woolston

The New Jersey Supreme Court has declined to review a lower court's order booting the Beasley Allen Law Firm from multicounty litigation in the Garden State over Johnson & Johnson's talcum powder, according to an order made public Friday.

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Maryland, Ship Owner Reach Deal On Baltimore Bridge Wreck

By Linda Chiem

Maryland has reached a settlement in principle with the owner and manager of the container ship that slammed into Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and triggered its March 2024 collapse, ending the state's claims that their negligence and mismanagement left six people dead and destroyed a vital transportation corridor.

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Uber Had 'Non-Delegable Duty,' Judge Finds In Assault MDL

By Rae Ann Varona

Uber is a "common carrier" and thus it owed a "non-delegable duty" to safely transport a woman who alleged that a driver on its platform sexually assaulted her, a California federal judge ruled Friday, rejecting the ride-hailing company's contention that it doesn't carry passengers but merely connects them to others who independently provide transportation.

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DC Circ. Scraps Foley's Atty Fee Win In 13-Year IRS Saga

By Emily Sawicki

A D.C. Circuit panel on Friday vacated a district court ruling giving Foley & Lardner LLP first dibs on nearly $800,000 in fees for representing a conservative nonprofit in a 13-year-old suit against the Internal Revenue Service, giving Bopp Law Firm a chance to argue for a larger cut of the pie.

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Oil Co. Says Chevron Can't Stall $24M Suit For Arbitration

By Tom Lotshaw

A Venezuelan oil services provider has asked a Texas federal judge to deny Chevron Corp.'s push to pause a $24 million payment dispute suit for arbitration, characterizing the energy giant's arguments as "nonsense" based on mischaracterizations.

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Colo. Oil Co. Accuses Landfill Firms Of Easement Violations

By Ganesh Setty

An oil and gas company has accused two landfill operators of breaching their agreement allowing it exclusive use of part of their property for well operations, telling a Colorado state court it could lose tens of millions of dollars.

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Roundup

Pa. Top Court Snapshot: Juvenile Sentences, Cleanup Costs

By Matthew Santoni

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will weigh the constitutionality of a "de facto" life sentence for a juvenile offender and consider the impact of a rescinded contract on its arbitration provision when it convenes for its spring session.

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Tax Deal Coverage Row Must Precede Tort Claims, Judge Says

By Chart Riggall

A Georgia federal judge won't allow a conservation easement entity to litigate tort claims against its insurance broker while arbitrating a dispute with its insurer over coverage for an IRS settlement, ruling that those claims could only be sorted out after an initial coverage determination.

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Uber Must Give FTC, States Contact Info On 30M Subscribers

By Dorothy Atkins

A California federal magistrate judge Friday ruled in favor of the Federal Trade Commission and states on multiple discovery disputes in their litigation alleging Uber dupes consumers into its paid subscription service, requiring Uber to hand over contact data on roughly 30 million Uber subscribers.

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CleanChoice Accused Of Gouging Illinois Electric Customers

By Tom Lotshaw

A Chicago man hit CleanChoice Energy Inc. with a proposed class action accusing the company of fleecing tens of thousands of Illinois electricity customers out of millions of dollars in total through deceptive rate promises and exorbitant charges.

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Oracle Says Laid-Off Worker Threatening To Sell Trade Secrets

By Lauren Berg

Oracle Corp. says one of its recently laid off sales employees has been trying to extort "an unreasonable and outsized fee" by threatening to sell the software firm's trade secrets to the "highest-bidder," asking a North Carolina federal court to prevent the former employee from exposing any sensitive business information.

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Huntington National Bank Says Freight Firms Owe $12M

By P.J. D'Annunzio

The Huntington National Bank on Friday sued Florida-based logistics brokerage company AGX Freight Carriers LLC and its related entities in Pennsylvania federal court, alleging they failed to pay back $12 million worth of loans and saying the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic led to the default.

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Pittsburgh Mill Sued Over $726K In Unpaid Shipping Fees

By Corey Rothauser

A Pennsylvania-based freight broker that handled deliveries over the years for a Pittsburgh-area mill says it's now being stiffed over more than $726,000 in unpaid invoices after having delivered hundreds of loads for the client.

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Gambling Tech Co. Seeks To Add Rival In NJ Defamation Case

By George Woolston

A gambling technology company asked a New Jersey state court to add a rival company as a defendant in its defamation suit against investigative firm Black Cube and law firm Calcagni & Kanefsky LLP, accusing the rival of orchestrating a smear campaign in an effort to eliminate competition.

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Broncos' Owners Buy Into MLB's Rockies As Minority Partners

By David Steele

The principal owners of Major League Baseball's Colorado Rockies have sold a minority share of the franchise to the Penner Sports Group, the majority owners of the NFL's Denver Broncos, in a deal announced Friday.

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Chancery Tosses Orchid Suit Over Investor Jurisdiction

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court on Friday dismissed a declaratory judgment suit brought by Orchid Global Inc. against a minority stockholder, finding the court lacks personal jurisdiction over the California-based investor despite the company's reliance on its forum selection bylaws.

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Texas REIT Discloses $53M RealPage Settlement With Renters

By Isaac Monterose

A Texas-based real estate investment trust has reached a $53 million class action settlement for multidistrict litigation in Tenneseee federal court that accused the REIT and multiple landlords of using property management software company RealPage Inc.'s revenue management software for rent price-fixing.

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OpenAI 'Persistently Evaded' Antitrust Suit Discovery, X Says

By Rae Ann Varona

X Corp. has urged a Texas federal court to make OpenAI hand over several sets of documents for its suit accusing its artificial intelligence rival of entering an anticompetitive integration deal with Apple, saying its attempts to get the documents have been futile, despite depositions set to begin this month.

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4th Circ. Backs $4.5M Award In US Embassy Renovation Fight

By Caroline Simson

The Fourth Circuit Friday enforced a nearly $4.5 million arbitral award issued to a Danish subcontractor enlisted on a renovation project for the U.S. Embassy building in Copenhagen, saying the award did not violate U.S. public policy by failing to apply U.S. contracting rules.

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Texas Justices Say Telecom Contracts Must Follow The Law

By Nadia Dreid

When the Texas Legislature changes the laws that govern how much public utilities can charge telecommunications companies to attach things to their poles, contracts that are already in effect have to fall in line, the state supreme court declared Friday in resolving a decades' long dispute involving San Antonio.

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Steps To Maintain War Insurance Amid Middle East Conflict

To ensure they are adequately protected from war-related risk, companies affected by the escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf should consider how their war insurance coverage interacts with financing structures, lease obligations and commercial risk allocation, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

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DLA Piper Defeats Fired Associate's Claims Of Pregnancy Bias

By Pete Brush

A federal jury in Manhattan declined to award damages Monday to a former associate who says DLA Piper unlawfully fired her after she announced she was pregnant, absolving the BigLaw firm hours after tense closing arguments.

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Q&A

Former Pardon Atty Says Trump's Clemency Grants Hurt DOJ

By Phillip Bantz

Former U.S. Department of Justice pardon attorney Liz Oyer spoke recently with Law360 about how the pardon process has changed, the impact the shift might have on the DOJ and how the system could be reformed.

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DOJ Urges DC Circ. To Revive Trump EOs Targeting Firms

By Alison Knezevich

The D.C. Circuit should individually review each section of President Donald Trump's executive orders targeting four law firms, allowing certain portions to stand if others are blocked, the U.S. Department of Justice argued in a new filing urging the court to revive the measures.

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Analysis

The Justices Had Their Say On Immunity. Is A DC Jury Next?

By Chris Villani

The limits of presidential immunity are once again set to be tested after a D.C. federal judge ruled President Donald Trump must face civil claims over the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, clearing the way for trial and potentially another high-stakes appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Meta Pulls Some Attys' Social Media Addiction Ads

By Rachel Rippetoe

After losing a bellwether trial last month in one of a slew of cases from plaintiffs who claim to have been harmed by social media, Meta has begun removing ads from attorneys seeking clients with similar claims.

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Brief

EEOC To Produce Law Firm DEI Letter Records By May 15

By Kelcey Caulder

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission told a federal court Monday that it would give two law professors documents related to 20 letters the agency sent to law firms over their purported diversity, equity and inclusion practices by May 15.

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Morgan & Morgan Sued Over Firing Amid Nevada Expansion

By Emily Sawicki

Personal injury titan Morgan & Morgan is facing allegations from a former firm attorney in California state court alleging the Golden State lawyer was pressured to file suits in neighboring Nevada despite having an inactive law license and no experience practicing there, and was then harassed and wrongfully fired over the filings.

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Atty Says Ogletree Can't Litigate Against Her In 2 Similar Cases

By Adrian Cruz

A Georgia attorney said Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart PC should be disqualified from serving as defense counsel in a discrimination suit she's working on while simultaneously litigating against her on behalf of her ex-employer in a similar matter.

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NJ Man Who Sought To DQ US Atty Leadership To Plead Guilty

By Gina Kim

A criminal defendant who joined a pending bid to disqualify assistant U.S. attorneys overseeing the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey and escalated a constitutional challenge to its leadership structure told a federal judge Saturday he plans to plead guilty in his drug case. 

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court's docket this past week featured a mix of high-stakes settlements, fast-moving deal litigation, governance disputes and a notable post-trial ruling involving fraud-tainted loans.

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