Today, the Second Circuit affirmed a summary judgment against an insurer that indemnified a shipper for $500,000 worth of damage to a printing press. The damage occurred during the press’s seafaring journey from Holland to New York. The district court held that the contracts between the shipper, on the one hand, and the freight forwarder
An Inconvenient Truth Meets Futurama
Quote of the Day: Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (1874-1965).
The indomitable Prime Minister of Briton during WWII benefited from having an American mother. So we may forgive him for telling this truth about us:
You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.
Barry Barnett
New Barnett’s Notes Coming This Week
The May issue of Susman Godfrey’s award-winning newsletter arrives this week. It will include the usual Did You Know? and Hot Lunch features plus a cartoon as well as:
Will the Globe Warm to Climate Change Litigation? Susman Godfrey’s newest practice area.
Secrets of Evaluating Cases. Doing it the Susman Godfrey way.
Roundup.
Nacchio Insider Trading Verdict
The Verdict Form in United States v. Nacchio, No. 05-cr-00545 (D. Colo. Apr. 19, 2007), runs 12 pages. It includes 42 findings, each in the same format:
We, the jury, upon our oaths, unanimously find the defendant, JOSEPH P. NACCHIO, in count [number] of the indictment:
____ Guilty
____ Not Guilty
The jury indicated
Who Says Plaintiffs Can’t Win in Texas Supreme Court?
Yesterday, as it usually does on Fridays, the Texas Supreme Court issued its Weekly Orders — a whopping 12 opinions. The justices, by Blawgletter’s count:
- Ruled for the plaintiff in two of the 12 and for the defense in the other 10.
- Decided half without allowing oral argument.
- Wrote six opinions with no specific author.
Lessons from Fredo’s Senate Testimony
U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at last faced the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday. Blawgletter saw only snippets, but even the best bits looked bad. Media reports appear to agree with that assessment. See stories here (WSJ), here (NYT), here (LA Times), and here (Fox News).
Blawgletter draws a couple of lessons from Fredo’s testimonial performance:
Lies to Ground Zero Workers Not Sufficiently Shocking, Second Circuit Holds
Ground Zero on September 23, 2001.
The Second Circuit yesterday affirmed dismissal of claims that the federal government deliberately misrepresented the safety of working at Ground Zero without respiratory equipment. The five plaintiffs performed search and rescue operations after the 911 attacks. They alleged that exposure to asbestos and other hazardous substances injured them or
A Foolish Inconsistency? Circuit Split on Contract Formation
Earlier today, Blawgletter mentioned a Seventh Circuit decision that upheld summary enforcement of an oral settlement agreement. Later in the day, we learned of a First Circuit decision in which the court reversed a summary judgment that enforced a pre-litigation settlement agreement between a contractor and subcontractor. TLT Construction Corp. v. RI, Inc., No.
Seventh Circuit Upholds Summary Enforcement of Oral Settlement
The idea of an oral settlement agreement may seem strange to bidness trial lawyers. It does to Blawgletter, who lives in a state whose court rules ban enforcement of settlements unless the parties write out the terms or recite them on the record in court. Imagine finding that you resolved a billion dollar business case