A dryer seller failed to establish that DuPont was responsible for manufacturing, or controlling the manufacture, of the defective dryer component at issue. In an action brought against the seller/alleged manufacturer of a plastic product, by a household appliances seller whose electric dryers had to be recalled due to fires caused by the faulty plastic component, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit affirmed a lower court’s grant of summary jud...
Gensler: “any financial instrument—crypto too—meeting the SEC v. Howey ‘investment contract’ definition may be a security.” SEC Chair Gary Gensler discussed cryptocurrencies at the Piper Sandler Globa...
The DOL considers an employee’s pay status during leave to have no legal significance under Section 4316(b)(1)(B). Police officers on military leave were entitled to the same holiday pay and accrued benefits that a city gave to employees on paid administrative leave, since they were similarly situated, ruled the Eleventh Circuit. Here, the City of Hoover, Alabama, violated Section 4316(b)(1)(B) by not providing the officers the same benefits on military leave that it afforded similar employees…
The Third Circuit’s order throws the SEC on its heels right as it declares battle against major crypto powers. Amid crypto industry turmoil, the Third Circuit ordered the SEC to report within a week whether it has decided to deny a Coinbase request for the SEC to engage in rulemaking on crypto assets. The SEC must also explain why the court should not order the SEC to provide periodic reports relating to Coinbase’s rulemaking petition (In re: Coinbase, Inc. , June 6, 2023, Krause, C.).…
The Department of Justice today announced indictments against two Russian men accused of a 2011 hack of the Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange and the operation of a separate cryptocurrency exchange that laundered the proceeds of ransomware operators and cyber thieves. A 2019 indictment unsealed by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleges that Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner in 2011 hacked into cryptocurrency wallets at Mt. Gox, the world’s largest…
The final rule is the same as the 2014 IPPS final rule that was vacated in litigation. In response to the Supreme Court ruling in Azar v. Allina Health Services , CMS proposed a new rule that Medicare Part C (also known as Medicare Advantage) days be included in the Medicare or supplemental security income (SSI) fraction of the Medicare disproportionate share hospital (DSH) patient percentage for cost reporting periods that include discharges before October 1, 2013. Nearly three years later,…
A consumer sued Chase Bank under the FCRA, alleging that the bank did not conduct a reasonable investigation into unauthorized charges on a credit card that had been fraudulently established in the consumer’s name by an employee at her small business. In connection with a consumer’s claim under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) that a bank did not conduct a “reasonable investigation” into the consumer’s dispute involving a bank-issued credit card fraudulently opened up in her name by an…
Based on contributions and collaboration, the district court properly concluded an engineer was the co-inventor of patents for an expandable garden hose. In a dispute over patents for an expandable garden hose, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has affirmed the decision by the federal district court in New Jersey declaring a nonparty engineer as co-inventor. The Federal Circuit held that the engineer significantly contributed to the conception of the patent and the…
Anadarko’s challenges on appeal mostly went to potential disposition on the merits rather than issues of predominance and individualized questions of injury, especially where the class certification below pertained only to the question of antitrust liability, not injury. The federal district court for Wyoming applied correct legal standards and did not abuse its discretion when it certified a liability issue class in the antitrust litigation between Colorado landowners and Anadarko in…
The fact that an expert conducted basic product testing that was unable to recreate the candle explosion was an issue of the weight of the expert’s testimony. In a products liability action against Walmart, Inc., the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Tennessee denied Walmart’s motion to exclude expert testimony. The court held that although the product testing the expert based his opinions on may have been basic, it met the industry standards for such testing and was therefore…
“Title VII does not offer boorish employers a free pass to discriminate against their employees specifically on account of gender just because they have tolerated pervasive but indiscriminate profanity as well.” Addressing for the first time the specific issue of music-as-harassment—and guided by its own precedent and as well as that of its sister circuits—the Ninth Circuit recognized “‘sexually graphic, violently misogynistic music’ as one form of harassment that can pollute a workplace and…
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), "[n]o covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual on the basis of disability in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of e...
By Meredith “Merry” Campbell, Joy C. Einstein, Alexander I. Castelli and Drew T. Ricci of Shulman Rogers On May 9, 2023, the U.S. Department of Labor ("DOL") secured a $22 million dollar award against a Pennsylvania employer in co...
The broker-dealer member’s having violated FINRA’s cease-and-desist order did not help its case. The District of Columbia’s District Court denied a FINRA broker-dealer member’s emergency motion for preliminary injunction and tempo...
The attorney worked with a public-company chairman to remove restrictive legends and sell stock while violating disclosure requirements. An attorney settled SEC charges of violating the ’33 and ’34 Acts by helping a public-company...
The Delaware state House voted 33-5 yesterday to pass a bill to create the Delaware Personal Data Privacy Act. The bill seeks to give consumers the right to confirm what information is being collected about them on the Internet, h...
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has adopted Guidelines 03/2021 on the application of Article 65(1)(a) of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) to clarify the application of the dispute resolution...
The ingredient list on the back label did not, at the pleading stage, negate the consumer’s plausibly pleaded reliance on allegedly misleading statements on the front label. A consumer asserting consumer statutory and common law f...
In long-running litigation, two disabled individuals and their parent caregivers argued that South Carolina’s implementation of its Medicaid program violated federal law. In the latest decision in long-running litigation over Sout...
The Acting Comptroller of the Currency discussed this week the importance of public trust in banks and highlighted the steps the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency are taking to promote and safeguard trust. In remarks made ...
The CFPB has extended the comment period for its RFI on data brokers. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has announced that it is extending the comment period of its March 2023 Request for Information (RFI) regarding data br...
The band claimed she purloined the song Levitating, but it could not meaningfully allege access. A South Florida reggae band’s lawsuit against pop superstar Dua Lipa and her songwriters and record label would have to be dismissed ...
However, IBM’s breach of contract claim against the PartnerWorld program partner was dismissed as preempted by Copyright Act. IBM Corporation has pleaded all elements of its claim that software developer Micro Focus (US), Inc., in...
The court imposed a rule of reason analysis to the Sherman Act claim, and found a plausibly pleaded relevant market and injury to competition. Consumer Steven Floyd’s class-action suit against Amazon.com, Inc., and Apple Inc. (“Am...
The party seeking the deposition failed to satisfy the heightened criteria for deposing opposing counsel. In a lawsuit filed by an industrial and construction equipment dealer against a mining and construction equipment supplier, ...
The magistrate’s report determined that complete diversity was lacking and that the parties failed to meet the “heavy burden” to establish fraudulent joinder. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida accepted a...
Consumers can return the bench to any Marshalls or T.J. Maxx store for a full refund or contact the firm for instructions on how to participate in the recall and dispose of the bench from home. The TJX Companies Inc., of Framingha...