Symantec Corp. is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging the company waited six years to inform customers that hackers had infiltrated its network and stole source code for various versions of its antivirus software.
17 May 2013Phyllis Skupien
The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, says a data breach that occurred in 2006 put customers’ computers and personally identifiable information at risk for intrusion by hackers.
(Westlaw users: Click here for more stories from Westlaw Journal Software Law.)
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Finding the case long on conclusory allegations but short on supporting evidence, an Illinois federal judge has dismissed a product liability lawsuit against Vanity Fair Brands by a woman who said wearing Vassarette bras caused her to develop breast cancer.
15 May 2013Ronald V. Baker
U.S. District Judge Sharon J. Coleman of the Northern District of Illinois said that while she empathizes with Sheila Rose’s “quest to find a reason for her unfortunate medical situation,” the suit fails to state a viable claim for relief.
(Westlaw users: Click here for more stories from Westlaw Journal Products Liability.) (more…)
A couple facing more than $1 million in medical expenses stemming from a car crash may proceed with claims that an agent negligently misled them about the status of their underinsured-motorist coverage, a divided Montana Supreme Court has ruled.
15 May 2013Ken Bradley
An agent’s insistence that she routinely discussed customers’ coverage choices with them, absent a specific recollection of having done so here, raised a genuine issue as to the discrepancy in the parties’ understanding of the policy, a 4-2 majority determined in a May 2 opinion.
(Westlaw users: Click here for more stories from Westlaw Journal Insurance Coverage.) (more…)
The “fee-shifting” provision of federal civil rights law does not apply to retaliation claims in “mixed motive” suits, where an employer has shown that it had legitimate reasons for its allegedly discriminatory action against an employee, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled.
15 May 2013Tricia Gorman
The fee-shifting provision, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g)(2)(B)(i), of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 says an employer may have to pay litigation costs if the court finds both discriminatory and nondiscriminatory reasons — a mixed motive — for an action against an employee.
(Westlaw users: Click her for more stories from Westlaw Journal Employment.) (more…)
The Department of Justice must reveal more information from two memos the agency provided to federal prosecutors interpreting the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision regarding GPS surveillance, the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing in Manhattan federal court.
14 May 2013Melissa Sachs
The legal memos discuss privacy concerns of immense public interest, such as whether law enforcement must obtain a warrant for global positioning system tracking and how the new case law applies to other location-tracking techniques, including drone surveillance, the advocacy group says.
(Westlaw users: Click here for more stories from Westlaw Journal Computer & Internet.)
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A landlord claims in a lawsuit that the United States owes more than $831,000 because the General Services Administration improperly deducted the money from rent payments to recoup an overpayment of real estate taxes.
13 May 2013Catherine Tomasko
Palafox Street Associates says its lease for a Pensacola, Fla.,-based federal courthouse does not allow the government to make offsets from rent payments.
(Westlaw users: Click here for more stories from Westlaw Journal Government Contract.)
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General Electric Co. is suing Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. for contribution under the Superfund law for costs related to dredging PCBs from the Hudson River in upstate New York.
13 May 2013Rita Ann Cicero
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York, was filed under Section 113 of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, 42 U.S.C. § 9601.
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Dissident investors of Plains Exploration & Production Co. have failed to persuade a Delaware judge to stop a stockholder vote on joining a $9 billion three-way merger with precious minerals miner Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold and oil driller McMoRan Exploration Co.
10 May 2013Frank Reynolds
Vice Chancellor John Noble on May 9 denied the shareholders’ motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the vote until the Plains directors shopped for a better price than the $50-a-share Freeport offer and disclosed more information about the sale process.
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A Mississippi physician found to have caused a hospital patient’s death by failing to remove her infected catheter has won reversal of a $1 million judgment in state Supreme Court.
10 May 2013Tricia Gorman
Dr. Charles H. Laney suffered prejudice during closing arguments when the plaintiff’s counsel spoke about the destruction of the jury system in a “communist Nazi country” and asked jurors to determine the value of the patient’s life through the eyes of her children, a panel of six justices held. Three justices did not participate in the decision.
(Westlaw users: Click here for more stories from Westlaw Journal Medical Malpractice.) (more…)
A Mississippi woman who claimed she developed oral cancer from using smokeless tobacco for 45 years has failed to convince a federal court that she relied on any misrepresentations allegedly made by a product manufacturer or industry group.
10 May 2013Phyllis Skupien
In granting summary judgment in favor of American Snuff Co. and the Smokeless Tobacco Council, Senior U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson of the Northern District of Mississippi focused on the plaintiff’s testimony, in which she failed to recall seeing any advertising for smokeless tobacco.
(Westlaw users: Click here for more stories from Westlaw Journal Tobacco Industry.)
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