Third Circuit Judge Thomas Ambro, Jr., yesterday "urge[d] Congress or the Supreme Court to revisit what Judge Becker called ‘an unjust and increasingly tangled ERISA regime.’" Eichorn v. AT&T Corp., No. 95-5461 (3d Cir. May 31, 2007) (quoting DiFelice v. Aetna U.S. Healthcare, 346 F.3d 442, 453 (3d Cir. 2003) (Becker, J., concurring)).
Lerach Leaving Lerach
The Los Angeles Times reports today that Bill Lerach will leave Lerach Coughlin, the law firm he established three years ago after splitting off from Milberg Weiss. The news follows a WSJ story, by Nathan Koppel and Laurie Cohen, that Milberg Weiss partner David Bershad has opened plea negotiations with prosecutors. A grand jury
Insurer Needn’t Disclose Test Results, Fifth Circuit Decides
Say you apply for life insurance. The insurer tests your blood and urine and finds that you have too much of two chemicals — alkaline phosphatase and creatinine. The first puts you at higher risk for several diseases, but the second reflects poor kidney function. The insurer discloses to you the alkaline phosphatase but not
Citizen Kane Returns
Orson Welles wrote, produced, and starred in
Citizen Kane (1941).
The daughter of Orson Welles sued Turner Entertainment to establish her ownership of the copyright in Citizen Kane and her right to distribute home video versions of the epic and for an accounting. The district court granted summary judgment against her. The Ninth Circuit upheld
Mootness by “Happenstance” = Vacatur
When "happenstance" — rather than the parties’ actions — moots a case during an appeal, should the appeals court vacate the district court’s opinion? Yes, the Ninth Circuit held today. The court distinguished between mootness that occurs as a result of settlement, on the one hand, and mootness that happens by, well, happenstance, on the
Can You Say Terminal Disclaimer?
Terminal disclaimer, in patent law lingo, means a statement that disclaims some of a patent’s duration. The disclaimer has the effect of making the patent coterminous, time-wise, with an earlier patent — one that covers substantially the same invention. It serves to avoid the sin of double-patenting the invention.
Got that? Great.
One other
“Floating” Forum Selection Clause Invalid, Sixth Circuit Rules
Today, the Sixth Circuit resolved a federal/state conflict over enforceability of a "floating" forum selection clause as the basis for personal jurisdiction over an out-of-state defendant. Such a clause "floats" when the choice of forum varies according to the location of any possible assignee of the clause-containing contract.
The Sixth Circuit and the Supreme Court
No Back Pay for Old Discrimination, Supreme Court Holds
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination in employment decisions, including decisions to underpay women. It also specifies a 180-day statute of limitations.
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court applied the limitations (or "charging") period to restrict the "back pay" that victims of unlawful employment bias may recover. Title VI, the 5-4
I Played for Vince Lombardi
Bob Murphey, a tobacco-chewing lawyer and volunteer fire chief in Nacogdoches, Texas, told stories, many on himself. Blawgletter remembers hearing him on the radio, telling tales as if a group of coffee-drinkers and idlers sat with him around a table at a drug store fountain. One story we recall:
People don’t know this, but I
The Last Full Measure of Devotion
The only surviving image of Abraham Lincoln
at Gettysburg.
Tomorrow, on Memorial Day, we honor the men and women who died in military service to the United States. We pay them our respects by remembering them, their families, and their searing sacrifice.
Abraham Lincoln commemorated the Union dead on November 19, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.