Many lower courts have given the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 a wide preemptive scope. In those courts, a black-hole-like SLUSA devours all cases that come within a light year of its omnivorous gullet. If a lawsuit said pretty much anything about buying or selling an interest in a company — BAM! Into
Fifth Circuit
Fourth Circuit Makes Bid to Let Agencies Ban Mandatory Arbitration
The Fourth Circuit ruled that Rent-a-Center (RAC) won't have to answer in court for leasing a trundle bed full of bedbugs to Christine and Antwan Seney.
The vermin had bitten the Seneys' son, for whom they'd gotten the trundle, and when RAC retrieved the rental its movers dragged the bed through the Seneys' home, spreading…
Forum-Choice Clause in Contract Trumps Local Interest in Cases, Supreme Court Holds
A contract dispute over building a child-development center at Fort Hood, in central Texas, today spawned a ruling that will bring joy to firms that put forum-choice clauses in their contracts in hopes of making lawsuits too costly to pursue.
The agreement between Atlantic Marine Construction Company and J-Crew Management, Inc., stated that all disputes between the…
Libel Suit Over Blog Post Belongs in California, Fifth Circuit Rules
Roger Chadderdon's firm, Cataphora, won a breach-of-contract case against a bunch of lawyers who had hired the firm to provide "litigation support".
The lawyers served on the Plaintiffs' Steering Committee in a massive case that the Judicial Panel on Multi-district Litigation sited in New Orleans. See In re Chinese-Manufactured Drywall Products Liabiity Litig.…
$44.4 Million Trade Secrets Verdict Stands in Fifth Circuit
A Houston jury awarded Wellogix $94.4 million for Accenture's misappropriation of trade secrets in software that helped oil and gas companies track and manage costs of drilling wells. The judge cut the award to what Wellogix asked for — $26.2 million in actual damages plus $18.2 million in punies. And today the Fifth Circuit affirmed.
The Saga of Dickie Scruggs
Blawgletter admires good writing, no matter whence it comes. But we like it better when a judge produces it.
Last week, Fifth Circuit Judge Jacques Wiener did a fine piece of work. It kind of sings. And it tells the on-going tale of Dickie Scruggs, the rich lawyer who flew too close to the sun.
Offshore Royalty Owners Win Reprieve
Oil and gas cases seem to supply more than their share of fights about the meaning of contract terms. Why? We suspect it has something to do with money.
Take Total E&P USA, Inc. v. Kerr-McGee Oil & Gas Corp., No. 11-30038 (5th Cir. Mar. 12, 2013). In that case, two of three lessees…
Estop in the Name of the Law!
Chevron and the Republic of Ecuador have beaten and bloodied each other for two decades now in what seems like just about every U.S. and Ecuadoran court that exists. The fight relates to claims in arbitration that Chevron predecessor Texaco polluted oil fields in Ecuador. Background here. And it has so far resulted in…
Lawyer-Firing, Judge-Vexing Defendant Regains Control of Assets
If you want to jam a stick in the spokes of the turning wheel we call litigation, how do you get the most bang for your buck?
Here's how: You hire a lawyer. But you don't pay him. And then you fire him. You retain a new one. Ignore her bills. Let her go. Repeat…
The Weirdness of Bankruptcy Law (Update)
People who handle cases in all kinds of civil courts, whether state, federal, or both, get an odd feeling when they wander into a special kind of civil court — the U.S. bankruptcy court. The oddness comes partly from the strange ways bankruptcy law handles disputes. Often, the merits of a claim seem to take a…