The Ninth Circuit held today that a bankruptcy court, before confirming a plan of reorganization, must take account of a creditor’s pending litigation that may result in a post-confirmation recovery of damages from the debtor.  The 2-1 decision suggests that the bankruptcy court must at least estimate the value of the creditor’s claim to determine…

Today, the Fifth Circuit reversed an order remanding a class action case, which arose out of Hurricane Katrina, to Orleans Parish, Louisiana, because the plaintiff failed to show the Louisiana citizenship of two-thirds of class members under the Class Action Fairness Act.  The plaintiff alleged that an infirmary and hospital in New Orleans caused injury…

An Archway Cookies truck rear-ended a slow-moving and malfunctioning Greyhound bus as its driver tried to make the next off-ramp.  Greyhound sued Archway for bus damages.  The district court, after a bench trial, assessed 85 percent of fault to Archway and 15 percent to Greyhound.  Archway complained on appeal that the district court should have…

Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit affirmed summary judgment in cases arising out of the November 18, 1999, collapse of the "bonfire stack" that Texas A&M students traditionally built the week before the football game against the University of Texas.  The plaintiffs — estates of Aggies who died, students who suffered injuries, and relatives — alleged that…

The Federal Circuit today granted Vonage’s emergency motion to stay a potentially ruinous injunction that followed its loss at trial on claims that it infringed Verizon patents on voice over internet protocol (VoIP) technology.  The injunction barred Vonage from signing up new customers for its VoIP telephone service.  But the court also expedited briefing and…

The Ninth Circuit today ordered rehearing en banc of a case against United Parcel Service under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Bates v. United Parcel Service, Inc., No. 04-17295 (Apr. 24, 2007).

The three-judge panel last year affirmed findings and conclusions, following a bench trial, that UPS violated the ADA by requiring drivers to…

The Second Circuit today upheld an Albany district court’s decision to slash the hourly rates of big city lawyers who succeeded in blocking an election that violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  The court clarified Second Circuit law on awards under fee-shifting statutes by, among other things, authorizing district courts to apply a "forum…

Ever hear of epanalepsis?  Neither has Blawgletter — at least until the revelation, this Monday, that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s testimony last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee "increased" the President’s "confidence in his ability to do the job." 

The epanaleptic phenomenon sprang to mind because Blawgletter didn’t rightly know what "the king is dead…