Law, Strategy, and Risk in Commercial Disputes
DeBeers, the diamond behemoth, limited supply of and fixed prices on sparklies for years and years and in all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. But it sold to only a small group of outfits, none of which dared sue the font of their mercantile wealth.
That didn't stop indirect purchasers from bringing cases…
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has suspended its 20-minute time limit on oral argument for In re Oil Spill by the Oil Rig "Deepwater Horizon" in the Gulf of Mexico, on April 20, 2010, MDL No. 2179. The order says:
In light of the exceptionally large number of briefs filed in this docket,
…
Back in April, Blawgletter read the Court's decision in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int'l Corp., No. 08-1198 (U.S. Apr. 27, 2010), to mean that arbitrators "will have no choice but to deny almost all class certification requests."
The Stolt-Nielsen majority held, 5-3, that an arbitration panel exceeds its authority under the federal Arbitration Act…
Here you go — the list. Plus the update.
Blawgletter got it right a couple days ago.
See y'all in the Gem State — which we've never had the honor to visit ere now — a month hence.
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court twice took a narrow view of liability under federal law for fraudulent conduct.
In one case, the Court held that section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 doesn't apply to overseas purchases and sales of securities. That the fraud started in or affected the U.S. didn't defeat the…
The unconscionable arbitration clause in your job contract says you agree that only the arbitrator may decide the question of unconscionability.
Can a court still declare the unconscionable clause unconscionable, now that you learned your employer may have discriminated against you and people like you on grounds of race?
Or must the court send you to Do Your…
The case didn't involve British Petroleum . . . but you kind of feel it really did involve BP. It should concern the "beyond petroleum" company. At least.
The Supreme Court of Florida held last week that commercial fisherpeople stated statutory and common law claims against a company that spilled phosphates into Tampa Bay six…
Per the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation's website, their honors (all seven of them) will next convene at the James A. McClure Federal Building and United States Courthouse in Boise, Idaho.
The Panel hasn't yet issued its Hearing Session Order for next month. But Blawgletter expects the list will include the great many…
Here you go:
May 2010 Hearing Session |
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Motions to Centralize — New MDLs (.pdfs) |
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MDL No. 2171 — IN RE: Capital One Bank Credit Card Interest Rate Litigation |
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MDL No. 2169 — IN RE: General Mills, Inc., YoPlus Yogurt Products Marketing and Sales Practices Litigation |
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MDL No. 2168 — IN RE: NebuAd |
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May auditors who help a company's officers disguise their cooking of its books avoid liability to the company (now insolvent) by imputing the officers' knowledge of the fraud to the company?
By saying the officers' fraud conferred at least a "peppercorn" of benefit to the company?
The Third Circuit this week held that its previous yes responses must give way to…