Episode 322 -- Checking in on Caremark Cases
On April 17, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a unanimous opinion, resolved a circuit split and established a plaintiff-friendly pleading standard for ERISA prohibited transaction claims in Cunningham v. Cornell University,...more
The US Supreme Court has issued a unanimous opinion that could lead to an increase in litigation for prohibited transaction claims under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, as amended (ERISA)....more
In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Cunningham v. Cornell University that plaintiffs can satisfy the requirements for pleading prohibited party-in interest transactions under ERISA section 406(a) without...more
In a unanimous decision reversing dismissal of prohibited transaction claims based on fees paid to defined contribution plan recordkeepers, the Supreme Court held that ERISA’s prohibited transaction exemptions are affirmative...more
Two companion cases from the Fourth District Court of Appeals — Wilson Energy and Bethel Oil & Gas — are currently on appeal at the Ohio Supreme Court. Both cases involve similar facts and require the resolution of the same...more
Last week, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in NVIDIA Corp. v. E. Ohman J:Or Fonder AB., Case No. 23-970, to address two fundamental questions about how federal securities fraud cases must be pled to survive...more
Welcome to Goodwin’s ERISA Litigation Update. Litigation involving ERISA-governed benefits plans has exploded in recent years. Lawyers in our award-winning ERISA Litigation practice have extensive experience litigating these...more
Walmart successfully ended eight years of protracted litigation under the False Claims Act (“FCA”) on June 4, 2021, when the Sixth Circuit affirmed dismissal of Medicare and Medicaid fraud allegations against the major...more
In its June 10, 2020, opinion in Nguyen v. Endologix, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit applied the plausibility standard to a plaintiff’s securities fraud claims and affirmed the district court’s dismissal,...more
The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit endorsed two controversial interpretations of the Stark Law’s “volume or value” standard, known as the correlation theory and the practice “loss” theory in U.S. ex rel. J. William...more
Employment law is full of burden-shifting, prima facie standards and evidentiary hurdles. Sometimes, even the courts apply the wrong standard at the wrong stage of a case. That appears to be what happened in the case of...more
As part of our ongoing discussion of the Polukoff False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam case (involving allegations that certain heart procedures performed by a cardiologist, and billed for by two hospital defendants, were not...more
On January 14, 2019, Intermountain Healthcare, Inc. and Intermountain Medical Center (Intermountain) filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court. Intermountain’s petition comes after the U.S. Court of...more
In Jackson v. Bank of America, N.A., 898 F.3d 1348, 1358 (11th Cir. 2018), the Eleventh Circuit reminded appellate lawyers that just because they can appeal a case does not necessarily mean they should....more
In the Ninth Circuit, defendants typically have two tools available to ask a court to consider in connection with a motion to dismiss information outside the four corners of a complaint. First, a defendant may file a request...more
On Aug. 13, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued an opinion in a securities fraud class action, Khoja v. Orexigen Therapeutics, No. 16-56069 2018 U.S. App. LEXIS 22371 (9th Cir. Aug. 13, 2018),...more
After having its complaint for patent infringement dismissed for failure to state a claim and being denied its request to file an amended complaint in the Middle District of Georgia, Disc Disease Solutions turned to the...more
Distribution Agreements Can Constitute Offers for Sale Under Section 102(b) - In The Medicines Company v. Hospira, Inc., Appeal Nos. 2014-1469, 2014-1504, the Federal Circuit held that a distribution agreement qualified as...more
In what may result in a fundamental transformation of pleadings challenges, the Second Circuit is set to address the propriety of a so-called Iqbal hearing – an apparent first of its kind....more
On June 16, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court in Universal Health Services, Inc. v. United States ex rel. Escobar1 (Escobar) unanimously upheld the implied certification theory of False Claims Act (FCA) liability and strengthened...more