Rakoff Frees Big Banks From Investors' Tricolor Fraud Suit

By Jon Hill

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in the Southern District of New York on Wednesday threw out an investor suit accusing JPMorgan, Barclays and Fifth Third of facilitating a sprawling alleged fraud by Tricolor Holdings, the bankrupt subprime auto lender.

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British Airways Owes £5.8M Tax Over Hotel Stays, HMRC Says

By Josh White

Britain's tax authority urged a London tribunal Wednesday to rule that British Airways is liable for around £5.8 million ($7.8 million) in tax over hotel rooms provided to cabin crew on back-to-back flights.

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Spirit Gets Initial OK To Pay Exec Bonuses Amid Wind-Down

By Alex Wittenberg

A New York bankruptcy judge on Wednesday said he was likely to approve Spirit Airlines' request to pay three executives up to roughly $1.9 million in potential bonuses as Spirit works to sell its remaining assets and shutter the business.

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States Say Trump's DEI Rule For Contractors Is Unclear, Illegal

By Ben Adlin

Attorneys general from 19 states and Washington, D.C., on Wednesday sued numerous federal officials and agencies in an attempt to block the Trump administration's March 26 executive order prohibiting government contractors — including states — from engaging in "racially discriminatory" activity around diversity, equity and inclusion.

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Jury Ups Philanthropist, Ex-Pitcher Crash Verdict To $198M

By Cara Salvatore

A California jury added $22 million in punitive damages Wednesday to a $176 million verdict against a philanthropist and a former MLB pitcher found responsible for a car crash that killed two children.

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FCA, Drivers Spar Over Pacifica Battery Fires, Recall Fix

By Melanie Dorsey

Multidistrict litigation plaintiffs alleging certain Chrysler Pacifica plug-in hybrid minivans are prone to battery fires faced pointed questions alongside FCA US LLC on Wednesday from a Michigan federal judge over whether the automaker knew about the alleged defect before selling the vehicles and whether a later recall cured the warranty claims at the center of the case.

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Transit Co. Can't Dodge $1.8M Pension Fund Bill

By Grace Elletson

A now-defunct transit company can't toss claims that it owes a Teamsters-affiliated pension fund $1.8 million in reallocation payments after the fund saw a mass withdrawal, a New York federal judge ruled, stating it's too early in the case to determine whether its insolvency blocks the bill.

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Container Cos. Sued For Alleged Price-Fixing Scheme

By Matthew Perlman

Shipping container buyers filed a proposed class action over an alleged conspiracy among the world's largest container manufacturers to limit production and raise prices during the COVID-19 pandemic, on the heels of a criminal indictment last month.

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Royal Caribbean Says Stay Bars Voyeur Suits' Consolidation

By David Minsky

Royal Caribbean urged a Florida federal judge to reject a recommendation to combine 11 lawsuits alleging a former crew member planted hidden cameras in passengers' staterooms, arguing that a stay in a similar proposed class action bars consolidation until the Eleventh Circuit rules on whether claims can be arbitrated. 

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Shipowner Must Answer Maritime Surveillance Co.'s $4M Case

By Joyce Hanson

A New York federal judge has ordered a shipowner to reply to a maritime surveillance technology company's emergency motion to enforce approximately $4 million in arbitral awards against the owner, noting that it has not yet filed a response to the enforcement petition.

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Brief

No Arbitration In Yacht Broker Fee Case, 11th Circ. Affirms

By Matthew Perlman

An Eleventh Circuit panel affirmed a lower court ruling Wednesday, refusing a yacht listing service's bid to force arbitration in a case over an alleged conspiracy to inflate the fees brokers collect for the sale of preowned yachts.

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DOT Scrubs Disparate Impact From Discrimination Regs

By Linda Chiem

The U.S. Department of Transportation on Wednesday eliminated disparate impact from its regulations governing discrimination, as part of the Trump administration's sweeping rejection of the theory of liability premised on seemingly neutral policies having discriminatory effects.

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Brief

Bistate Agency, NJ Comptroller Agree To Settle Subpoena Rift

By George Woolston

The Delaware River Port Authority and the New Jersey Office of the State Comptroller have reached a deal to resolve the bistate agency's suit claiming that the independent watchdog unlawfully attempted to force it to comply with two investigative subpoenas.

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Fla. Driver Ruling Shows Renewed Focus On Privacy Standing

A Florida federal court's recent dismissal of a class action alleging that private driving records had been improperly used in violation of the Driver's Privacy Protection Act suggests that companies defending against privacy class actions in Florida may reconsider Article III challenges at the dismissal stage, say attorneys at Sidley.

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What Prop 65 Listings For Welding Fumes, Drugs Mean For Cos.

With California poised to add welding chemicals and three medications to its list of known carcinogens under Proposition 65, businesses must assess risks from nontraditional pharmaceutical dispensing, occupational and environmental exposures to welding operations, and downstream exposures from the manufacture of both types of substances, says Gregory Berlin at Alston & Bird.

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Susman Godfrey Beats, Seward & Kissel Matches Milbank Pay

By Tracey Read

At least four more firms have joined the associate pay raise bandwagon, with Seward & Kissel LLP matching the salary scale recently set by Milbank LLP, and Susman Godfrey LLP exceeding it.

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Judicial Noms Say Biden Won, But Critics Fault Their Caveats

By Courtney Bublé

Three district court nominees on Wednesday said President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, a departure from other judicial nominees in the second Trump administration, but court watchers on the left took issue with how they couched those statements.

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Camp Mystic Fights Sanctions Over 'Burn In Hell' Atty Remark

By Lynn LaRowe

Camp Mystic and parents of a girl killed in flooding there last summer faced off Wednesday over whether the camp should be sanctioned because its attorney said a plaintiff's lawyer would "burn in hell" and for other alleged misconduct in litigation over flooding deaths at the Texas camp.

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Ga. Federal Judge Faces 2nd Set Of Impeachment Articles

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia congressman has filed articles of impeachment against a federal judge who was reprimanded for having sex with a police officer in her Atlanta chambers within earshot of staff, the second lawmaker this week to do so. 

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Unions Rally As 5 Shops Approach Contract Deadline

By Andrea Keckley

Legal service providers across New York City gathered in City Hall Park on Wednesday afternoon as five unions represented by the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys approach their deadlines for a new contract at the end of the month.

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'Anti-ICE Vigilantes': DOJ Says Law Clerks Aided Noncitzens

By Lauren Berg

Two state court clerks in Utah are facing criminal charges after federal prosecutors say they acted as "self-appointed anti-ICE vigilantes" by helping noncitizens leave the courthouse by a back door to evade arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the newly unsealed case.

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Morgan & Morgan Atty Again Blocked From Harvard Suit

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts judge rebuffed a Morgan & Morgan PA attorney's second attempt to appear in a lawsuit over the theft of body parts from a Harvard Medical School morgue, saying he would not reconsider his earlier decision to bar the attorney over an incident in a separate court involving fake AI-generated case citations.

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