Randy Quaid Loses Bid To Undo $3.5M Calif. Property Ruling

By Lauren Berg

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife cannot overturn a $3.5 million judgment awarded to a California couple who bought a Santa Barbara property that once belonged to the Quaids, an appeals court ruled Tuesday, finding substantial evidence supporting claims that the Quaids' false ownership assertions damaged the property's marketability.

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SocGen Beats DC Landlord's Suit Over Failed $29M Loan

By Sydney Price

A Washington, D.C., federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by a property owner that claimed Société Générale Financial Corp. wrongfully backed out of a planned $29 million loan to refinance a Washington building, ruling that the parties' signed term sheet was only a preliminary negotiating document and not a binding promise to lend.

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BofA Must Face Consumer Suit Over Autopay Double Charges

By Katryna Perera

An Illinois federal judge has ruled that Bank of America NA cannot avoid facing a majority of the claims in a lawsuit accusing the bank of not adjusting automatic payments on credit cards when customers manually pay off their statement balance in the middle of a billing cycle, finding a consumer established standing and showed evidence of a deceptive practice.

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Baldoni's Studio Owes NYT $170K For Failed Defamation Suit

By Lauren Berg

"It Ends With Us" director and star Justin Baldoni's production company must pay The New York Times more than $170,000 after it defeated the studio's defamation claims, a New York state judge has ruled, saying the newspaper is entitled to recoup its legal fees.

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Texas Judge Calls Late Bid To Disqualify Atty 'Dilatory Tactic'

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday denied a request to disqualify an attorney representing the former chief executive of a real estate company related to the late mogul Gene Phillips, saying the attempt to knock out the attorney came way too late in the game.

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Judge Mulls Pausing Medicaid Work Rule For 'Frail' Recipients

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge said Tuesday he anticipates deciding by the end of the week whether the Trump administration will have to pause part of a new rule states must follow in determining whether medically frail Medicaid recipients are exempt from new work or school requirements.

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11th Circ. Weighs Waiver In $12.2M Solar Farm Coverage Case

By Kelcey Caulder

An Eleventh Circuit panel grappled Tuesday with whether Zurich American Insurance Co. should be freed from a $12.2 million verdict finding it shortchanged a Georgia solar farm's storm damage claim, with one judge seeming to side with the farm's argument that a waiver of a flood deductible was possible.

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Minn. Schools' Hail Damage May Be Covered, 8th Circ. Says

By Hope Patti

The Eighth Circuit revived a Minnesota school district's suit seeking coverage for hail damage to the roofs of two schools, finding that the damage may fall outside a cosmetic damage exclusion if it weakened the roofs' ability to withstand the elements to the same extent as before the storm.

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Insurance Co. Beats Kosovo Citizens' Disability Benefits Suit

By Patrick Hoff

A New York Life Insurance Co. unit defeated a lawsuit alleging it breached Pennsylvania law when it denied disability benefits to 17 Kosovo citizens who supported the U.S. military in Afghanistan, with a federal judge ruling the claims are preempted by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act.

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HR Giant Rippling Stole Startup's AI Trade Secrets, Suit Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

Human resources services provider Rippling stole confidential information about Runlayer's artificial intelligence platform technology to develop its own competing product, the startup claims in litigation filed Tuesday in New York federal court.

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Penske Accused Of Scheming To Buy Golden Globes

By Matthew Perlman

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association sued Penske Media Corp. in California federal court Tuesday, accusing the company and owner Jay Penske of orchestrating a scheme to fraudulently acquire the Golden Globe Awards as part of a bid to dominate the market.

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Texas Panel Says Sysco Can't Arbitrate Driver Injury Claim

By Mike Curley

A Texas appeals court on Tuesday found that Sysco USA I Inc. cannot compel arbitration in a delivery driver's injury suit, as the driver is exempt from the Federal Arbitration Act as a transportation worker.

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LG Can't Arbitrate Stockholder Suit, Chancery Says

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court has refused to send fiduciary duty claims against LG, its U.S. subsidiary and several executives to arbitration, ruling that an investor's derivative lawsuit over the governance of advertising technology company Alphonso must remain in the Delaware court.

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Nielsen Says 2nd Circ. Ruling Makes Courts Price Regulators

By Matthew Perlman

Nielsen has asked the Second Circuit to reconsider a ruling upholding an injunction in a case from Cumulus accusing it of tying sales of its national radio ratings data to its local offerings, telling the appeals court the ruling turns judges into price regulators.

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Trader In BigLaw Deal-Tipping Scheme To Plead Guilty

By Chris Villani

A Florida resident is set to plead guilty to his alleged role in a sweeping scheme to trade on insider information about impending acquisitions that was stolen from major law firms, according to a court filing Tuesday.

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Simpson Thacher Stock Work Hurt 2 Companies, Jury Told

By Madison Arnold

The chief financial officer for an insurance company told a Florida jury Tuesday that a stock drop for Patriot National Inc. — which is suing Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP for malpractice for allegedly putting together a shoddy securities offering — dramatically affected his own business as well.

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AT&T Whistleblower Told To Cut Facts From Ethics Case Filing

By Sue Reisinger

Former AT&T in-house counsel and whistleblower Theodore Marcus has been asked to delete part of his response to professional misconduct charges pending against him in Washington, D.C., because the filing allegedly contains privileged information.

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1st Circ. Asked To Save Mayer Brown $21M Fee Bid In RI Suit

By Linda Chiem

The American Trucking Associations told the First Circuit that its attorneys at Mayer Brown LLP reasonably justified their request for $21 million in fees and costs after securing "substantial" wins in long-running litigation over Rhode Island's truck tolling program, disputing a district court's determination that the trucking trade group wasn't actually a "prevailing party."

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Winston Taylor Seeks Sanction Against Ex-Client Hunter Biden

By Rae Ann Varona

Winston Taylor urged a D.C. state court on Monday to sanction its former client Hunter Biden in its legal bills collection suit, saying the former president's son destroyed Signal communications that would have proved he understood that he owes the law firm more than $50,000.

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Court Is In Session Whenever A Judge Says It Is, 6th Circ. Told

By Susan Smiley

Court is wherever and whenever a judge says it is, counsel for a Detroit judge told a Sixth Circuit panel Tuesday, arguing that subjecting a student to a mock arrest and trial because she fell asleep during a field trip was within his jurisdiction.

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Senate Confirms Jay Clayton As National Intelligence Chief

By Madeline Lyskawa

The U.S. Senate voted Tuesday to confirm Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence, two weeks after Clayton, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, refused to answer who he thought won the 2020 election during his confirmation hearing.

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Queens Defenders Head Gets 3.5 Years For Looting The Nonprofit

By Pete Brush

A Brooklyn federal judge on Tuesday sentenced the former director of the Queens Defenders to more than 3.5 years in prison after the longtime attorney admitted to a course of embezzlement that destroyed the group dedicated to legal services for the poor.

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