Bringing a lawsuit is often a relatively simple procedure. You identify the defendant and properly serve process on the person or organization (or, possibly both) who you believe to be responsible for the event that damaged...more
Governmental Immunity - Under Texas law, school districts are generally immune from suit and liability unless the legislature expressly waives governmental immunity. Generally, absent an express legislative waiver, such as...more
The Supreme Court of North Carolina recently held in Meinck vs. City of Gastonia that a city’s lease to a non-profit arts group in connection with a downtown revitalization project was a “governmental function”, which...more
North Carolina’s State Board of Dental Examiners has urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) “radical departure” from decades of established precedent that offers state actors immunity...more
You've no doubt heard about the University of Maryland's withdrawal from the Atlantic Coast Conference and the University's unwillingness to pay the $50 million withdrawal fee required by the Constitution of the ACC. ...more
Patents/Preliminary Injunction: Preliminary Injunction Ordered Based on Appellate Claim Construction Aria Diagnostics, Inc. v. Sequenom, Inc. - Addressing a preliminary injunction filed by a defendant in a...more
Overview: The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that Sonora police officers were entitled to qualified immunity from claims alleging unlawful arrest and use of excessive force on an “out-of-control” juvenile. ...more
The United States Supreme Court’s recent decision in FTC v. Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc., No. 11-1160, 568 U.S. __ (2013), makes clear that a state’s authorization to act in a manner with potentially anticompetitive...more
Last week a unanimous Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated opinion in FTC v. Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc., addressing the "State action" exemption from application of the federal antitrust laws for the first time...more
The U.S. Supreme Court on February 19th scaled back the "state action immunity" doctrine, siding with the Federal Trade Commission on an issue that had divided the lower courts and holding that a county Hospital Authority's...more
On February 19, 2013, the Supreme Court unanimously held that the effective acquisition of Palmyra Medical Center (“Palmyra”) by Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc. (“PPHS") in Southwestern Georgia was not immune from antitrust...more
On February 19, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision, found that a merger of two Georgia hospitals was not immune from federal antitrust laws under the "state-action" exemption, reversing a decision of the...more
On Tuesday, the United States Supreme Court reined in the state action immunity doctrine, which exempts municipalities from scrutiny under the federal antitrust laws when they act pursuant to a “clearly articulated state...more
Holding in Phoebe Putney case narrowly construes state-action exemption to antitrust laws. On February 19, in Federal Trade Commission v. Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously reversed a...more
On February 19, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that state-action immunity does not protect a state-created hospital authority from antitrust scrutiny over a proposed hospital merger where the anticompetitive...more
In a unanimous decision issued on February 19, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the state-action doctrine did not immunize Phoebe Putney Health System’s acquisition of Palmyra Park Hospital in Albany, Georgia.1 The...more
The Supreme Court decision in FTC v. Phoebe Putney Health System, Inc., makes clear that state action immunity from federal antitrust laws is disfavored, and local governmental, quasi-public and private entities can only...more
On February 19, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that a local hospital authority’s acquisition of a hospital in Georgia was not immunized from the antitrust laws under the state action doctrine. In doing so, the...more
Last fall, the Illinois Appellate Court issued opinions on two different cases involving the tort immunity of school districts. In both cases, the court declined to find the schools liable....more