DENVER – A Colorado Court of Appeals panel on Feb. 2 upheld summary judgment for a pair of subcontractors named as third-party defendants in a construction defects action, agreeing that the claims were time-barred (Shaw Construction LLC v. United Builder Services Inc., et al., No. 11CA2351, Colo. App.; 2012 Colo. App. LEXIS 172). LexisNexis® Mealey’s™ [...]

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – The Illinois Supreme Court on Feb. 2 unanimously affirmed a trial court’s dismissal of an environmental group’s claims that ExxonMobil Coal USA was in violation of the Surface Coal Mining Land Conservation and Reclamation Act (SCMLCRA) and Water Use Act of 1983 for site conditions at one of its mines because the [...]

CHICAGO – A certified class of former employees of Abbott Laboratories failed to prove that Abbott created a spin-off unit to avoid paying retirement benefits in violation of Section 510 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed Feb. 3 (Myla Nauman, et al. v. Abbott Laboratories, et [...]

NEW YORK – JPMorgan Chase Bank NA on Feb. 1 agreed to pay nearly $ 700 million to bankrupt Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. (LBHI) that JPMorgan had been previously paid for “purportedly secured claims against LBHI on the basis that, as ‘affiliates’ of JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., their claims were guaranteed by LBHI” under a [...]

BROOKLYN, NY – The Zyprexa multidistrict litigation judge on Jan. 12 approved a $ 4.5 million settlement between Eli Lilly and Co. and six third-party payers who had their Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act class action vacated and who couldn’t find any other health benefit providers to join their individual suits, the parties [...]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Because the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) does not specifically state whether claims brought pursuant to the act are eligible for arbitration, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires an arbitration agreement in a credit card agreement “to be enforced according to its terms,” a split U.S. Supreme Court ruled Jan. 10 (CompuCredit [...]

BOSTON – Shareholders and Deutsche Bank AG (DB) have agreed to resolve all outstanding disputes in a securities lawsuit alleging that DB wrongly invested more than $ 200 million in auction-rate securities, according to a Dec. 19 joint motion to dismiss filed by both parties in Massachusetts federal court (Akamai Technologies, et al. v. Deutsche [...]

NEW YORK – E*TRADE Financial Corp. has agreed to a $ 79 million settlement with investors to settle claims that it misrepresented the risk associated with its investment in subprime mortgage-backed securities in violation of federal securities laws, according to a Securities and Exchange Commission Form 8-K filed by E*TRADE on Dec. 21 (Larry Freudenberg [...]

LOS ANGELES – Countrywide Financial Corp. has agreed to pay $ 335 million to settle claims by the U.S. government that the lender and its subsidiaries engaged in discriminatory lending practices by steering African-American and Hispanic borrowers toward subprime mortgage loans with higher interest rates and fees, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Dec. 21 [...]

SAN FRANCISCO – Out-of-state employees who worked in California may proceed with claims under California’s labor code and unfair competition law (UCL) but not with claims seeking to apply those laws to work done outside the state, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held Dec. 13 (Donald Sullivan, Deanna Evich, Richard Burkow v. Oracle [...]

keep looking »