Pleadings

Five-Day Extension For Mailing Applies To Deadline To File Timely Cost Bill

In Nevis Homes LLC v. CW Roofing Inc., 2013 DJDAR 6187(2013) the California Court of Appeal for the Second Appellate District decided a procedural issue pertaining filing a memorandum of costs. The court clarified the rules...more

Judicial Notice Doctrine Bolstered by Court of Appeal Decision

A recent California decision should make it easier for insurers to attack allegations at the pleading stage in state court actions. ...more

ITC Section 337 Update - May 1, 2013

Congress Holds Hearings On Section 337 Litigation – On April 16, 2013, the House Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet, held a hearing on “Abusive Patent Litigation: The...more

Domestic Violence Issue

We have received several calls lately from folks who have been charged with Domestic Violence. The problem is that these individuals already entered guilty pleas in their case, thinking that it was “no big deal.”...more

United States of America v. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev

Tsarnaev Criminal Complaint: Use of Weapon of Mass Destruction...

Criminal complaint filed on April 22, 2013, against accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Charges include use of a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death....more

Weekly Law Resume - April 19, 2013: It’s All In the Complaint: Triggering Equitable Indemnity Rights Against Public Entities

Centex Homes, et al. v. The Superior Court of San Diego County Court of Appeal, Fourth District (March 25, 2013) Government Code section 901 provides that a cause of action for equitable indemnity or partial...more

Southern District Rejects Evidence from "Confidential Witnesses" as Basis for Securities Class Action

A securities class action lawsuit against Canadian Solar, Inc. (CSI) was recently dismissed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York for failing to adequately plead the required elements of a federal...more

Flawed Confidential Witness Allegations: A Crucial Issue in Securities Class Action Litigation

The recurring and pervasive problem of flawed confidential witness (“CW”) allegations tops my list of the key issues in securities class action litigation.* I don’t mean just notorious situations such as those recently at...more

Say Hello To My Imaginary Friend! Judge Posner, Seventh Circuit Issue Stern Warning To Plaintiffs’ Firms For Again Citing Bogus...

Plaintiffs’ counsel beware: to avoid Rule 11 sanctions you might actually have to talk to “confidential witnesses” yourself and corroborate their statements before citing them in a securities fraud complaint....more

Weekly Law Resume - March 28, 2013: Civil Procedure – Summary Judgment – Judicial Estoppel

Diane Marie Minish v. Hanuman Fellowship et al. - Court of Appeal, Sixth District (February 25, 2013) - The doctrine of judicial estoppel precludes a party from obtaining an advantage by asserting one position, and...more

The Ninth Circuit’s “Nuanced” Approach to FAA Preemption Leads to Greater Uncertainty and Invites Artful Pleading

Announcing a “nuanced” approach to Federal Aviation Act of 1958 preemption, the Ninth Circuit has further narrowed the scope of federal preemption in the aviation field. In this client alert, we summarize the new framework...more

Spring Fashion Season: The Time is Ripe for Rip-Offs and the Industry Still Awaits a Remedy

It’s March, and in Charleston thoughts turn to longer days, spring break and, relatively recently, fashion. The tents go up in Marion Square mid-month for fashion fans to enjoy a week of shows featuring new designs and...more

Business Law Newsletter - March 2013

In This Issue: - Business Torts in Virginia - Virginia Non-Competition Law After Home Paramount - 2013 Mileage Rates Alert - Excerpt from 2013 Mileage Rates Alert: The Internal Revenue Service has...more

Eleventh Circuit Allows Consideration of Extrinsic Evidence

In its recent decision in American Safety Indemnity Co. v. T.H. Taylor, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 5072 (11th Cir. March 14, 2013), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, applying Alabama law, had occasion to...more

Second Circuit Rules That Putative Auction Rate Securities Class Action Complaints Failed to Adequately Plead Antitrust Conspiracy

In Mayor and City Council of Baltimore v. Citigroup, Inc., No. 10-0722-cv(L) and 10-0867-cv(CON), 2013 WL 791397 (2d Cir. Mar. 5, 2013), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of two...more

Second Circuit Reverses Dismissal of Section 11 and 12(a)(2) Claims, Holding that Plaintiff's Allegations Were Sufficient to Plead...

In New Jersey Carpenters Health Fund v. Royal Bank of Scotland Group, PLC, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 4317 (2d Cir. Mar. 1, 2013), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the dismissal of a claim for...more

Second Circuit Rejects FLSA Gap Time Claims and Explores FLSA Pleading Requirements

In Lundy v. Catholic Health System of Long Island, Inc., 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 4316 (2d Cir. Mar. 1, 2013), the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently held for the first time that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not...more

"Supreme Court Holds Securities Fraud Plaintiffs Are Not Required to Prove Materiality of Allegedly False Statements to Certify a...

Today, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States held in Amgen Inc. v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds that a securities fraud plaintiff alleging fraud on the market need not establish the...more

North Carolina Securities Act Claims Take Shape In The Business Court

There is little case law under the North Carolina Securities Act. But last week, in NNN Durham Office Portfolio 1, LLC v. Highwoods Realty Limited Partnership, 2013 NCBC 12, Judge Gale took several steps into that uncharted...more

Ninth Circuit Holds Employees Are Not Required To Allege a Request for “Suitable Seats” For Their Claims to Proceed

Last week in Green v. Bank of America Corp., No. 11.56365 (9th Cir. Feb. 13, 2012), the Ninth Circuit held that “suitable seats” lawsuits cannot be dismissed at the pleading stage based on an employee’s failure to allege that...more

Fourth Circuit Refuses to Pierce the Corporate Veil in Oil Spill Case

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has refused to enforce a judgment against an entity with ties to the judgment debtor, finding that the judgment creditor had not adequately pled an alter ego claim....more

Texas Looks to “Rejuvenate the Courthouse” With New Rules for Expedited Trial, Permissive Interlocutory Appeal and New “Loser...

Introduction - In 2011, the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 274, directing the Texas Supreme Court to promulgate new rules reducing the expense and delay of litigation. House Bill 274 calls for early “dismissal of...more

Freedman v. Adams, et al., C.A. No. 4199 (Del. Jan. 14, 2013)

In this en banc opinion, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Chancery’s decision in Freedman v. Adams, et al., C.A. No. 4199-VCN (Del. Ch. Mar. 30, 2012), denying the plaintiff’s motion for an award of attorney’s...more

Pfizer’s Motion to Dismiss Successful in Class Action Over Its Probiotic Advertising

It is no surprise to anyone defending against false advertising claims that Rules 8 and 9(b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are powerful tools to force plaintiffs to articulate with specificity their theory of why...more

January 2013: Securities Litigation Update

Viability of Core Operations Doctrine Still Unsettled in Second Circuit: Securities fraud plaintiffs continue to attempt to plead scienter by invoking the “core operations” doctrine, which imputes to key company officers and...more