A long-running antitrust class action produced a peace pact in 1999 for $164 million. A claims administrator mailed checks to many class members but couldn't find others. The district court ordered a cy pres remedy — payment of the remaining funds to an air quality monitoring project.
The sum of $4,638,283 remained on account for
What can we expect from Second Circuit Judge Sonia Sotomayor if she clears the Senate confirmation gauntlet and ascends to the U.S. Supreme Court?
By "we", Blawgletter means you and me — mostly lawyers who handle commercial cases but with a smattering of the clients who love them. Plus the occasional judge.
We won't find
Kimberly Kralowec at The UCL Practitioner reports (and reports) on a key California Supreme Court decision from Monday. The Court ruled that the Golden State hadn't gutted a consumer protection law when voters passed Proposition 64 five years ago, in 2004. In re Tobacco II Cases, No. 147345 (Cal. May 18, 2009).
The defendants, several tobacco
Talk about strange.
In 2003, Judith Hatfield, a New Jerseyan, filed a class action against Halifax PLC and HBOS PLC. She said they cheated her out of money from the sale of the Halifax Building Society. Ms. Hatfield belonged to HBS and alleged that she and others ought to have gotten, but did not get, at
In the world of mutual funds, "market timing" allows a mutual fund trader to exploit lags in the updating of a fund's "net asset value". Fund X, for instance, computes its NAV at 4:00 p.m. Eastern, when the major securities markets close in New York. The price of the fund's shares will reflect that NAV for at
The New York Court of Appeals today upheld denial of a demand by an "absent class member" for access to class counsel's work product. Wyly v. Milberg Weiss Bershad & Schulman LLP, No. 62 (N.Y. May 7, 2009).
Sam Wyly, who owned almost a million shares of Computer Associates stock, filed suit in New York Supreme
One of Avaya's IP Telephones.
Today the Third Circuit sent part of a securities fraud case against Avaya Inc. back to the district court.
The "central theory is that investors and analysts viewed the key to Avaya’s success to be its ability to increase sales revenues without cutting prices." The panel held that
Gene Snyder U.S. Courthouse and Customhouse in Louisville. Construction ended in 1932 . . . a Depression year.
The Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation has summoned lawyers handling 35 different MDL matters to Louisville, Kentucky on May 27 and May 28. Several of them look mammoth.
Blawgletter cannot recall a session with so many cases
The Ninth Circuit today upheld a $49 million settlement of antitrust claims against West Publishing for its rough tactics in marketing bar exam prep courses.
The panel rejected objectors' point that the district court should have judged the pact by looking at treble damages instead of single damages. "It is our impression that courts generally determine fairness
