Solar Contractor, CBRE Unit Blamed In $1B LA Building Fire

By Gina Kim

Lineage Inc., which owns a massive cold-storage facility in Los Angeles that caught fire in June, has sued a commercial solar operator and a CBRE Group subsidiary in California state court, blaming the incident on their negligence in reenergizing a defective rooftop solar array before critical safety checks were completed. 

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Analysis

'Creative' Settlement Path For EPRs Shows Wording Risks

By Dani Kass

T-Mobile's use of a contingency payment to end patent litigation with Kaifi LLC highlights the difficulty of alleged infringers challenging patents through ex parte reexaminations, a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office proceeding where they have no control, attorneys say.

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Fed. Circ. Questions Medical Training Co.'s $100M Deal Theory

By Ivan Moreno

A medical training startup urged the Federal Circuit on Friday to revive claims accusing Galderma of a "classic catch-and-kill strategy" to derail what it says could have been a $100 million deal with Allergan, but a three-judge panel questioned whether that theory had been properly presented below.

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Volvo Averts EV Defect Suit Over Kansas Buyers' NJ Claims

By Emily Field

A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday dismissed a proposed class action brought by a Kansas married couple alleging that the rear auto brake and dashboard drive display features in certain Volvo electric vehicles are defective, finding there's no connection to the Garden State aside from the automaker's corporate headquarters.

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Bongino Disavows Inside Knowledge On Parler Ouster

By Cara Salvatore

Former deputy FBI director Dan Bongino testified Friday that he was not privy to decisions leading to social media company Parler's 2021 ouster of its CEO, but he was pressed over having seen a draft of the document revision that supposedly allowed the CEO's 40% interest to be confiscated.

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Austrian Device-Maker Exits Suit Over Medicare Fraud

By MJ Koo

A Colorado federal court Friday dropped an Austrian medical device-maker from a lawsuit brought by a podiatrist who alleged the company helped create a scheme to bill Medicare using improper codes, finding he failed to detail the alleged fraud sufficiently and defend several other claims.

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11th Circ. Backs $620K Award In Radiology Contract Fight

By Kelcey Caulder

The Eleventh Circuit upheld a $620,000 arbitration award in favor of an Indian teleradiology company against a radiology provider, finding the arbitrator did not exceed his authority by interpreting the parties' long-standing services agreement.

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Fed. Circ. Scrutinizes Presumptive Date In Turkish Rebar Row

By Jack McLoone

A Federal Circuit panel on Friday looked to clarify the effect of the U.S. Department of Commerce's presumption that invoice dates are generally the best option for determining dates of sale during duty investigations, with a Turkish company claiming the presumption cost it $20 million.

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Fuel Wholesaler Seeks Toss Of Station Operators' Suit

By Susan Smiley

A Pennsylvania-based fuel supplier asked a Michigan federal judge Friday to toss a case brought by a group of gas station operators in Wayne County, saying it has not violated their fuel supply agreement terms.

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Insurer May Be On The Hook For Debt Collector's Defense

By Hope Patti

Claims that a debt collector engaged in an illegal collection scheme aren't covered under its policy with a Nationwide unit, but the insurer may owe coverage if it is found to have acted in bad faith while defending the company, a Washington federal court ruled.

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Brief

Altria Signals Appeal Of Order Ending Reynolds' Royalty Tab

By George Woolston

Philip Morris's parent company plans to appeal a North Carolina federal judge's ruling finding a sublicensing agreement between R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. and Juul Labs Inc. relieves Reynolds of its obligation to pay ongoing royalties under a 2022 jury verdict, according to a notice filed Friday.

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TikTok Let Minors See Harmful Content, Texas Judge Finds

By Jonathan Capriel

Texas scored significant wins in its lawsuit accusing TikTok of exposing children to harmful content while misrepresenting the app's safety, with a state judge ruling that the social media company violated state law by misleading consumers about its content-moderation practices and the effectiveness of its "restricted mode" feature.

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'FBoy Island' Star-Turned-Va. Candidate Sues Over Kalshi Fine

By Hailey Konnath

A lawyer and former contestant on the reality series "FBoy Island" has sued Kalshi after he was banned for trading on prediction markets about his own political campaign, saying he's not advocating for political candidate trading, rather, he's highlighting the monetization of candidates on prediction markets.

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Colo. Investors Accuse Startup League, Owner Of Fraud

By Rachel Konieczny

A high school football league startup and its owner fraudulently induced a Colorado youth sports foundation and related companies to buy a $2.5 million Denver franchise by misrepresenting the league's size and corporate sponsors and reneged on a settlement agreement, according to a lawsuit in Colorado federal court.

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Academic Publishers Tell 2nd Circ. Antitrust Case Fell Short

By Matthew Perlman

Major publishers of academic journals urged the Second Circuit to reject an appeal from researchers accusing them of colluding to eliminate pay for peer reviewers and impose other restrictions, saying the case is based on ethical guidelines that do not reflect a conspiracy at all.

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Brief

TD Bank 'Cash-Like' Advance Loans Suit Voluntarily Dropped

By Katryna Perera

A proposed class action accusing TD Bank of violating its cardholder agreement by treating undisclosed transactions as "cash-like" and keeping policies about what counts as a cash advance hidden from consumers while charging fees and interest was voluntarily dropped by the plaintiff.

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Mass. Fund Says It Was Sidelined After Lining Up $300M

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts life sciences investment fund says SPRIM Global Investments strung it along on a pledge to bring it in as a co-general partner in a new joint fund, then backed out of the agreement and took control of the fund after the plaintiff lined up a $300 million investment, according to a lawsuit filed in Massachusetts state court.

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LA Judge Rejects Bid For $134K Default In Pot Co. Loan Suit

By Mike Curley

A California state judge has rejected a lender's bid for default judgment in a suit alleging that a cannabis oil extraction company's owner failed to pay back a $134,000 loan, saying the lender is asking for too much without sufficient evidence.

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Retiree Says Pot Entrepreneur Scammed Him Of $3M Savings

By Mike Curley

A California retiree and his relative are suing a cannabis entrepreneur and his businesses in Los Angeles court, alleging that the entrepreneur duped them into investing more than $3 million into a cannabis business, only to string them along and fail to live up to his promises of repayment.

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Lemonade Gets Final OK For $10.5M Data Breach Settlement

By Mike Curley

A New York federal judge has granted final approval to a $10.5 million settlement to end consolidated claims that Lemonade Inc. negligently exposed 190,000 people's driver's license numbers to cybercriminals.

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Attorneys Using AI May Have Ethical Duty To Redact Docs

The trajectory of legal ethics guidance in recent years strongly suggests that as redaction technology becomes more accessible, the failure to use it when uploading highly confidential materials into artificial intelligence tools will become increasingly difficult to defend as reasonable, say attorneys at Lewis Brisbois.

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Big Biz Coalition Backs Litigation Funding Disclosure Rule

By Ryan Boysen

Big U.S. businesses and insurers like Amazon, Anthropic, Chubb and Walmart asked the federal judiciary on Monday to tighten disclosure requirements for litigation finance, claiming the lack of guardrails allows funders to operate "in the shadows."

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Indiana Atty Hit With $10K Sanction Over False Citations

By Andrea Keckley

An Indiana federal judge on Friday adopted a magistrate judge's recommendation to sanction a local attorney $10,000 after finding that five briefs in a consumer credit case included citations to nonexistent cases.

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Jackson Lewis Removes Ex-Atty's Bias Suit To Federal Court

By Patrick Hoff

Jackson Lewis PC has moved a former associate's suit accusing the firm of refusing to accommodate her temporary work restrictions following her medical leave to California federal court, saying state court wasn't the right venue for dispute.

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Bove Rejects Recusal Bid Tied To DOJ Whistleblower Claims

By Courtney Bublé

U.S. Circuit Judge Emil Bove declined Monday to recuse himself in a Third Circuit immigration case, saying the attorneys for the petitioner are "recycling a failed pre-confirmation political smear" on him.

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State Farm Attorney Sanctioned $999.99 For AI Hallucinations

By Jonathan Capriel

An attorney for State Farm who filed several motions citing nonexistent cases and fabricated quotes generated by AI software must pay a $999.99 sanction, a Los Angeles judge ruled, an amount one cent below the threshold that would have triggered a mandatory notice to the State Bar of California under state law.

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Brief

Ex-Moses & Singer Partner Gets 10 Months For Tax Crimes

By Craig Clough

A Connecticut federal judge Monday sentenced a former Moses & Singer LLP partner to 10 months of imprisonment and ordered him to pay more than $3.1 million for failing to file personal income tax returns, the U.S. attorney's office announced.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week saw disputes over allegedly fabricated board approvals at a telecom infrastructure startup, insider trading and child safety at Roblox Corp. and ownership of artificial intelligence technology used in legal proceedings.

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