Texas Tank Explosion Leads To $1.6B Wrongful Death Verdict

By Rae Ann Varona

A Texas jury has awarded more than $1.6 billion in damages to family members of two workers who died after a fatal explosion threw them off a tank at a hazardous chemicals facility owned by Upton Assets LLC, which the jury unanimously found fully liable for the deaths.

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Tesla Settles With Parents Of Fla. Teen Who Died In Car Crash

By David Minsky

The parents of a teenager who died in a fiery Tesla vehicle crash have resolved their claims against the automaker shortly before a trial was to begin on Monday, according to an order issued in Florida state court. 

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Jury Finds Uber Driver Committed Battery During NC Ride

By Hayley Fowler

A federal jury in Charlotte, North Carolina, found Monday an Uber driver committed battery against a passenger who accused him of grabbing her leg in 2019, and it awarded her $5,000 in damages, capping off a four-day bellwether trial against the ride-hailing giant.

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Frontier Owes $5M In TSA Security Fees, 10th Circ. Says

By Hailey Konnath

A split Tenth Circuit panel on Monday refused to undo a Transportation and Security Administration determination that Frontier Airlines owes the agency nearly $5.4 million in unpaid security fees, agreeing with TSA that Frontier still owes fees on passengers who eventually canceled their flights.

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Insurer Rips Hyundai's Early Exit Bid In Theft Bellwether Trial

By Linda Chiem

State Automobile Mutual Insurance Co. has told a California federal judge that a jury must hear all its claims in a bellwether trial next month as it seeks to hold Hyundai Motor America liable for allegedly selling theft-prone vehicles that heightened the risk of insurance claims.

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Brief

SpaceX, Calif. Agency Strike Sealed Deal To End Launch Suit

By Elaine Briseño

SpaceX and the California Coastal Commission have said they reached an agreement that would settle a lawsuit that accused board members of trying to stifle the company's effort to launch more rockets from a military base in Santa Barbara County.

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Frontier Sues American Over Planes Clipping Wings In Boston

By Carolyn Muyskens

Frontier Airlines has brought a lawsuit against American Airlines in Massachusetts federal court over a plane collision on the tarmac at Boston's Logan International Airport, alleging the incident caused more than half a million dollars of damage to a Frontier aircraft. 

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American Airlines Asks Court To Keep EEOC Out Of Systems

By Spencer Brewer

American Airlines asked a Texas federal judge to issue an order blocking the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from accessing its software in a discrimination suit, saying that the company has updated its software since the relevant time period.

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11th Circ. Revives RV Defect Claims, Clarifies Fla. Lemon Law

By Jonathan Capriel

Florida's Lemon Law does not require drivers to prove a specific number of repair attempts or days in the shop to seek a refund for an allegedly faulty vehicle, the Eleventh Circuit ruled in a published opinion, requiring recreational vehicle manufacturer Forest River Inc. to face a buyer's lawsuit.

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Uber Flouted Prop 22 With Lack Of Appeals Process, Suit Says

By Max Kutner

Uber failed to provide drivers with a process for challenging deactivations under California's Proposition 22, which provided certain benefits for app-based drivers and exempted them from an independent contractor classification law, a ride-hailing driver advocacy group alleged Monday in state court.

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Fed. Circ. Ends Anti-Suit Injunction Appeal In BMW Case

By Ryan Davis

The Federal Circuit on Monday granted BMW's motion to dismiss Onesta IP's appeal of an anti-suit injunction barring the company's lawsuit against BMW in Germany on U.S. patents, a ruling the automaker's counsel called "a complete and unambiguous victory."

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W.Va. Trucking Co.'s Facility Counts As A 'Mine,' DC Circ. Says

By Jared Foretek

A split D.C. Circuit panel ruled that a trucking company's West Virginia facility counted as a "mine" under the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act because it's within a mile of a coal plant owned by one of the trucking company's clients and is used to support the client's operations.

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Delivery Drivers Seek Collective Notice Over Wage Deductions

By MJ Koo

Delivery drivers who say a freight company's deductions left them with no pay and sometimes owing money, asked an Illinois federal judge Monday to authorize notice to a nationwide collective of their right to join a federal wage suit.

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Calif. Truck Regs Now Require Multiple Compliance Strategies

California's various vehicle and truck emissions programs now move on different legal tracks, impose different obligations and create different business risks on different timelines — so companies that treat them as one package subject to a federal Clean Air Act waiver risk missing deadlines and mispricing contracts, says Thierry Montoya at FBT Gibbons.

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Black McDermott Atty Says White Men Favored For Partner

By Lauren Berg

A Black female McDermott Will & Schulte attorney accused the firm of gender, race and pregnancy discrimination in a lawsuit lodged in California state court, saying she has been consistently bypassed for promotion by less-experienced white attorneys and was yanked off casework after taking medical leave following a life-threatening illness during pregnancy.

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'Kind Of Lawyering We Don't Like': Judge Rips Quinn Emanuel

By Bonnie Eslinger

Guardant Health Inc. urged a California federal judge on Monday to make Quinn Emanuel pay nearly $1.3 million on top of $3 million in sanctions already imposed over misrepresentations lawyers made representing its rival Natera Inc., prompting the judge to criticize Quinn Emanuel lawyers for making distinctions so fine they veer into misrepresentation.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Fish & Richardson's Nitika Gupta Fiorella

By Dani Kass

Fish & Richardson PC principal Nitika Gupta Fiorella is "a no-stone-unturned, always super prepared" lawyer who "epitomizes professionalism and respect," according to Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP partner Cora Holt.

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Fox Lawyer In Dominion Case Confirmed To Texas Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 47-46 Monday evening to confirm Andrew Davis, a partner at Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP who defended Fox News in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case, to serve on the bench in the Western District of Texas.

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Justices Won't Consider IP Theft Allegations Against Akin

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a former Cornell University graduate student's petition trying to revive his malpractice suit against Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP stemming from patent litigation against Illumina Inc. over DNA sequencing intellectual property.

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DC Ethics Office Says Ex-Interim US Atty Can't Remove Case

By Emily Sawicki

Washington, D.C., ethics officials have asked a federal court to send U.S. Department of Justice official Ed Martin's ethics case back to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, arguing the D.C. federal court lacks jurisdiction over a disciplinary matter, which is neither a civil action nor a criminal prosecution.

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Ex-Newman Clerks, Judges Back High Court Suspension Fight

By Adam Lidgett

A group of former clerks for Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, as well as former federal judges, have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the challenge to her suspension imposed by her colleagues.

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Insurer Intentionally Avoiding $200M Loan Claim, Court Told

By Hope Patti

A litigation funding firm has accused its insurer of wrongfully refusing to pay out its policy's guaranteed $200 million in coverage for an unpaid loan, saying the insurer buried it in duplicative and burdensome information requests to avoid paying a valid claim.

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Judge Says Ill. Justices Can't Fire Him Over MAGA Op-Ed

By Jack Karp

Illinois Supreme Court justices have no authority to remove a state judge from the bench for alleged misconduct, so their effort to dismiss a retired state trial judge's claims that his removal for penning a political opinion column violated his constitutional rights should be rejected, the retired jurist has said.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week delivered another mix of procedural rulings, fiduciary duty disputes and deal litigation, highlighting both the court's gatekeeping role and its continued focus on stockholder rights and transactional fairness.

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