Judge Kazanjian, sitting in the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session, allowed a plaintiff board member’s motion for a preliminary injunction. Judge Kazanjian’s order reinstated the plaintiff to the board of directors and...more
Judge Krupp, sitting in the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session, awarded a defendant more than $240,000 in attorneys’ fees, expenses, and interest under G.L. c. 231, § 6F, the Massachusetts statute authorizing fee...more
Joe Alves filed a class-action complaint against BJ’s Wholesale Club, alleging that BJ’s uses computer code, called Session Replay Code (SRC), to secretly record consumer activity on BJ’s website. Alves claims that BJ’s...more
In Vicarious Surgical Inc. v. Beth Tragakis, Judge Salinger, sitting in the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session, dismissed a robotics company’s Chapter 93A claim for lack of any allegations that the robotics company was...more
Where a party prevails on a Chapter 93A claim, the party should submit a fee application that segregates the fees for the work necessary to prevail on the Chapter 93A claim. That’s the key takeaway from Commonwealth Insurance...more
Judge Ricciuti, sitting in the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session, rejected a shareholder’s claim that she could shed herself of the fiduciary duty she owed to a close corporation by renouncing her shares in the...more
In Archer, et al. v Grubhub, Inc., the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) ruled that § 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) applies to Grubhub delivery drivers. The plaintiffs, former delivery drivers for Grubhub,...more
12/15/2022
/ Arbitration ,
Delivery Drivers ,
Employment Litigation ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Gig Economy ,
GrubHub ,
MA Supreme Judicial Court ,
Misclassification ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Remand ,
Reversal ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wage and Hour
Under its recently issued Standing Order 1-22 (link here), the Massachusetts Superior Court increased the number of hearing types that it will “presumptively” conduct by videoconference. The standing order applies to...more
Judge Krupp, sitting in the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session, ruled that the statute of limitations barred the plaintiff’s tort, contract, and unfair and deceptive practices claims against Williams-Sonoma....more
In Lubin & Meyer v. John J. Manning, Judge Salinger, sitting in the Business Litigation Session, ruled that Lubin & Meyer’s claims for breach of fiduciary duty against its former associate, John Manning, survived summary...more
Adversaries often challenge each other’s privilege calls in the thick of litigation, and sometimes those challenges are elevated to a court’s in camera review. In Governo Law Firm LLC v. CMBG3 Law LLC, et al., Judge Salinger,...more
In Kirk Ramey v. Trustees of Boston University, et al., Judge Krupp, sitting in the Business Litigation Session, ruled that Ramey, a former BU research scientist, was entitled to a trial on his claim that defendants, BU and...more
In Verveine Corp., et al., v. Strathmore Insurance Company, et al., the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) held that claims for business losses made by three restaurants arising from COVID-19 dining restrictions were...more
After successfully appealing a judgement and obtaining a remand of its Chapter 93A claim to the Massachusetts BLS, the Governo Law Firm moved to admit expert testimony about a “reasonable royalty” measure of damages. Governo...more
5/16/2022
/ Appeals ,
Breach of Duty ,
Chapter 93A ,
Civil Conspiracy ,
Conversion ,
Damages ,
Duty of Loyalty ,
Expert Testimony ,
IP Litigation ,
Jury Trial ,
MA Supreme Judicial Court ,
Misappropriation ,
Royalties ,
Trade Secrets
Judge Krupp, sitting in the Massachusetts Business Litigation Session, granted Uber’s motion to compel documents containing the identities of drivers who shared information with the Attorney General about their work for Uber...more
In conjunction with the Massachusetts Bar Association, the current BLS judges prepared personalized responses to practice-related questions. Those questions and answers were then turned into a practice guide. The guide,...more
Judge Salinger dismissed a real estate developer’s counterclaims against a project manager, ruling that the counterclaim allegations did not “plausibly suggest that [project manager] [wa]s liable for the contractor’s...more
Judge Ricciuti ruled that the plaintiff, whose educational-travel trip was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, stated a viable Chapter 93A claim that the contractual remedy provided by the tour operator improperly...more
The judges sitting in the BLS during calendar year 2022 recently adopted and published guidance about their preferences and practices on court proceedings and filings. These preferences and practices include . . ....more
In Bertolino v. Fracassa, Judge Salinger ruled that the advice-of-counsel defense did not insulate Frederick McDonald, a defendant in the case, from liability under the Massachusetts Uniform Securities Act (MUSA), G.L. c....more
In January, the Social Law Library sponsored the Business Litigation Session 2021 Year in Review. The panel included Judge Kenneth Salinger, the BLS Administrative Justice, as well as Michael Tuteur and Andrew Yost, attorneys...more
2/15/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Bench Trial ,
Business Closures ,
Business Court Division ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Duty to Disclose ,
Employee Definition ,
Frustration of a Common Purpose ,
Jury Trial ,
Lyft ,
Public Schools ,
Securities Litigation ,
Shareholders ,
Time-Barred Claims ,
Uber
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) recently ruled that a limitation-of-liability provision provides no protection for defendants who willfully or knowingly engage in unfair or deceptive conduct in violation of G....more
Three new judges have joined the BLS rotation. Judge Peter Krupp replaced Judge Karen Green for the January-June rotation period of BLS1. In 2013, Governor Deval Patrick appointed Judge Krupp to the Superior Court. Before his...more
As reported here last summer, Judge Salinger denied lululemon’s motion to dismiss a summary process action brought by lululemon’s landlord, CWB Retail. Later in the litigation, CWB voluntarily dismissed the action with...more
Under Massachusetts procedure, a party has the right to compel an opponent to disclose its testifying expert’s opinions through interrogatories. But unlike federal procedure, a party under Massachusetts procedure must obtain...more