Analysis

High Court's Cisco Ruling Is A Win For Multinational Cos.

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision Tuesday clearing Cisco in an Alien Tort Statute suit alleging it helped the Chinese government violate international law is a win for companies that do business in regions with possible human rights issues, experts tell Law360.

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Justices Say Cisco Can't Be Sued Under Alien Tort Statute

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that the Ninth Circuit was wrong to reinstate an Alien Tort Statute suit alleging that Cisco helped the Chinese government's allegedly unlawful crackdown on the Falun Gong religious movement, saying federal courts lack authority to create causes of action for alleged violations of international law.

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Venezuela Found Liable For $148M In Botched Charter Deal

By Caroline Simson

Venezuela has been hit with a lawsuit in Washington, D.C., federal court by shipowners that won some $148 million in arbitral awards after the country refused to return oil tankers that had been chartered by a subsidiary of the state-owned PDVSA.

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Navistar, Truck Buyers Face Off In Trial Over Delayed Order

By Susan Smiley

Tuesday's opening statements in a trial over two companies' claims that truck manufacturer Navistar's delay of a bulk order cost them millions saw each side's counsel give a Michigan federal jury a meticulous description of the delivery contract in question — and their vastly different interpretations of it.

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Fla. Judge Won't Toss Suit Over $300M Guyana Fuel Deal

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida judge on Tuesday denied Jones Walker LLP's request to exit a lawsuit accusing the firm and one of its partners of using confidential information from a client to create an entity to compete with the client for a $300 million fuel agreement with the government of Guyana.

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Texas Judge Tosses Buzbee Firm's Jay-Z Conspiracy Suits

By Spencer Brewer

A Texas state court has handed a win to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and a Mississippi law firm, which sought dismissal of claims that they conspired with Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter to retaliate against Houston personal injury firm The Buzbee Law Firm and two of its former clients.

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KKR Unit Unveils Univ. Of Tennessee Mixed-Use Project

By Isaac Monterose

Private equity firm Arctos Partners LP, a KKR unit, and its partners are working with the University of Tennessee, Knoxville on a mixed-use development that will include a private club, homes, a 24-story hotel and an entertainment area spanning 100,000 square feet, the companies announced Tuesday.

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Colo. Justices Uphold Antero's $215M Fraud Win

By Benjamin Morse

A doctrine limiting tort claims over contract losses did not bar a fraud claim tied to a fracking wastewater treatment project, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday, affirming a more than $215 million judgment for Antero.

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FDIC Is Sole Owner Of SVB's $73M Fraud Coverage Claim

By Hope Patti

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as receiver for Silicon Valley Bank after its collapse in 2023, is the sole owner of the bank's claim for coverage of a $73 million fraudulent scheme and is entitled to recover proceeds for losses the bank suffered, a North Carolina federal court ruled.

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Insurer Waited Too Long To Void Policies Over Alleged Fraud

By Hope Patti

An insurer's bid to revoke policies issued to a defunct employee leasing agency due to misrepresentations in its insurance applications is time-barred under New York law, a federal court ruled, finding that the insurer discovered the alleged fraud more than two years before filing suit.

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Conn. Justices Won't Hear Insurer's IVF Fraud Coverage Case

By Brian Steele

The Connecticut Supreme Court has turned away an insurance company's appeal of a decision that said it can't rely on two policy exclusions to deny professional liability coverage to a fertility doctor accused of fathering two children by secretly impregnating patients with his own sperm.

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NJ Transit Says Electronics Co. Must Cover Patent Suit Defense

By George Woolston

New Jersey Transit alleged in federal court that a railway electronics company must fund the transit agency's  defense against patent infringement claims in an underlying suit, claiming that the company provided the infringing systems and that its agreement with the company requires it to cover the defense.

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Feds Say Consultant Shouldn't Get FARA Verdict Erased

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. government told a Florida federal court there was "abundant" evidence to convict a political consultant of knowingly failing to register as a foreign agent as she helped draft a $50 million contract involving a former congressman and Venezuela's state-owned oil enterprise.

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Stock Bought Too Late For Breakup Fee Suit, Judge Says

By Katryna Perera

A New York federal judge has dismissed an investor suit claiming that the top brass of the sponsor of a blank check company unfairly claimed a $29 million settlement despite missing a deadline to merge with another company, finding that the investor purchased shares after the breakup fee of the failed merger was disclosed.

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Burgerville Investor Sues In Del. Over Board Control Dispute

By Jarek Rutz

A dispute over control of the board governing the Pacific Northwest restaurant chain Burgerville has landed in the Delaware Chancery Court, where an investor claims the company refused to honor its contractual right to remove two managers from the board and then allowed an improperly constituted board to continue exercising authority.

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Live Nation Discloses White House Involvement In DOJ Deal

By Bryan Koenig

Live Nation Entertainment Inc. confirmed that the road to its controversial settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice went all the way to the White House in a New York federal court filing that leaves many questions unanswered about a deal Democrats have cast as corrupt and failed to mollify state enforcers.

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11th Circ. Mulls DOT Order Scrapping Delta, Aeromexico JV

By Linda Chiem

The Eleventh Circuit on Tuesday questioned whether the U.S. Department of Transportation sufficiently analyzed the competitive effects of Delta Air Lines' joint venture with Aeromexico — or considered alternative conditions — before ordering the airlines to dismantle their nearly decade-long partnership.

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Camp Owner's Suit Over Seized Weapons In Afghanistan Axed

By Ganesh Setty

A Virginia federal court dismissed nearly all the claims the operator of a camp in Afghanistan raised against a defense contractor for allegedly abandoning a cache of illegal weapons the Taliban seized, allowing only the operator's negligence claim to proceed.

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Fla. Judge OKs Ch. 11 Sale Of Popeyes Restaurants For $16M

By David Minsky

A Florida bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved a Popeyes franchisee's Chapter 11 sale, allowing a roughly $16 million sale of nearly 100 restaurants to five purchasers who secured winning bids at an auction earlier this month.

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Arrow Says Grow-Light Buyer Skipped Payments On $2M Deal

By Jonathan Capriel

A company that provides lamps to cannabis grow facilities, Horticulture Lighting Group Corp., stiffed an electronics distributor out of more than $2 million in components, alleges a lawsuit filed in Colorado federal court.

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Clifford Chance Adds Ex-V&E Debt Finance Atty In Houston

By Matt Perez

Clifford Chance LLP announced on Monday the hiring of a former Vinson & Elkins LLP attorney as a finance and derivatives partner in its Houston office.

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Drawing A Line Between Settlement Pressure And Extortion

U.S. v. Luo, pending in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, may force courts to address anew when settlement negotiations become criminal extortion, particularly in the age of easily fabricated digital evidence, says attorney Denis Kiely.

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How 3 Courts Are Approaching AI Adoption

By Emily Sawicki

The rules surrounding artificial intelligence experimentation in courts run the gamut from court systems offering proprietary tools and training to unwritten policies that essentially amount to don't ask, don't tell.

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Analysis

With Data And AI, Whistleblowers Set Off An FCA Tidal Wave

By Phillip Bantz

Whistleblowers are increasingly using artificial intelligence to comb through public data in search of potential False Claims Act cases, unleashing a flood of new complaints that are shaking up white collar defense and government enforcement efforts while subjecting more companies to potentially false allegations, experts say.

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Conn. Justices Threaten Sanctions For AI Errors

By Andrea Keckley

The Connecticut Supreme Court has threatened to sanction GLG Law LLC and one of its attorneys for submitting documents in two cases "that misrepresented the law through the use of generative artificial intelligence," according to a Tuesday order that summoned them to appear in court next month.

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Atty DQ Over Inadvertent Doc Disclosure Overturned

By Y. Peter Kang

A California state appeals court has upended the disqualification of defense counsel in a sexual battery suit, saying documents undermining the case that were accidentally produced via a Dropbox link were not privileged.

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DOJ Nominee Questioned About Deleted Social Media Posts

By Courtney Bublé

A nominee for a top U.S. Department of Justice position, who is a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur, came under fire on Wednesday for past social media posts that he's now deleted.

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Booker, Cassidy Press DOJ On Trump Immunity Deal

By Courtney Bublé

Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., wrote to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche on Wednesday expressing "serious concerns" about the alleged immunity for President Donald Trump, his family and businesses in the controversial settlement he reached with the IRS.

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