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Illinois Tool Works, the maker of the leading windshield water-repellant Rain-X, sued it’s competitor Rust-Oleum Corp. over its commercial for a competing product, RainBella. The jury agreed with Illinois Tool Works that Rust-Oleum’s claims were false and misleading. They awarded Illinois Tool Works $392,406 of Rust-Oleum’s profits and $925,617 for corrective advertising bringing the award to a total of more than $1.3 million. The district court reduced the corrective-advertising award.
Stay-at-home orders across the United States have resulted in fewer auto accidents and fewer auto insurance claims than expected. National insurers Allstate, American Family, Esurance, and Encompass are returning some of the money they’ve saved from lower claims to their policyholders. Read more on how insurance companies are handling the payouts.
The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in Comcast Corp. v. National Association of African American-Owned Media that the plaintiff bears the burden of showing that race was the “but-for” cause of the alleged injury in §1981 cases. Entertainment Studios Network (ESN), an African-American owned television-network operator, approached Comcast Corporation about carrying its channels. Comcast declined to carry the channels due to lack of programming demand, bandwidth constrictions, and a preference for programming not offered by ESN.
In contrast to a recent North Carolina case, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals' decision in Lorine Mitchell v. State Farm Fire; Casualty Company finds ‘Actual Cash Value’ does not include depreciation of labor. Mitchell, whose home was damaged in a 2017 storm, made a claim under her State Farm policy. State Farm paid the ‘Actual Cash Value’ of the repairs minus depreciation of both material and labor. Michell claims labor should not have been depreciated. The term ‘Actual Cash Value’ was not defined in the policy, which the court determined made it ambiguous.
A trade secret misappropriation lawsuit against Uber has been given the green light to move forward by the San Francisco Superior Court. Plaintiff Kevin Halpern claims he shared information about his startup idea Celluride Wireless Inc. with former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick in 2006, four years before Uber’s app launched. Halpern did not file his lawsuit until 2015.
When a group of individuals and entities hired a financial services company to assist them in selling a group of oil and gas leases, the financial services company put in place formal bidding procedures and deadlines. Before bidders were allowed access to information about the leases, they signed a confidentiality agreement which included a no-obligation clause.
As organizations throughout the U..S. move employees to remote working additional hazards arise including legal challenges. Baker McKenzie has provided a useful checklist of challenges and strategies to guide your company as you increase telecommuting opportunities.
In answering a certified question from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Supreme Court of Mississippi interpreted the plain meaning of a contract between Chickasaw School District and Sullivan Enterprises, Inc. to apply a subrogation waiver to both work and non-work property. The question pertained to a contract between the school district and the contractor for window restoration work on Houlka Attendance Center in May 2015. Two months later a fire broke out during construction and destroyed the school.
A North Carolina policyholder filed suit against his homeowner’s insurance company after they calculated the Actual Cash Value (ACV) of his home’s repair by depreciating both property and labor costs. While the base policy neglected to define ACV, a separate roof coverage addendum stated the ACV would be determined by deducting depreciation from the cost to repair or replace the damaged roof.
When it comes to losing the ability to claim white collar exemptions apply to specific jobs employers’ application (or lack thereof) of their policies matter more than the policy itself. In a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals case, Escribano v. Travis County, Texas, 947 F.3d 265, 274 (5th Cir.
Eastern Concrete operates rock quarries in New Jersey. Its parent company, U.S. Concrete, has its principal place of business in Texas, where two of Eastern Concrete’s officers reside. U.S. Concrete procured a commercial umbrella insurance policy with Great American Insurance Company through a Texas broker. The policy insured Eastern Concrete as well as other subsidiaries. In the summer of 2017, Eastern Concrete accidentally pumped rock fines into Spruce Run Creek and caused physical damage to the stream.
When YouTuber Kian Andrew Habib posted four videos he’d taken of the late artist Prince in concert, the Prince estate filed a lawsuit. Habib claimed he had the right to post the videos because the vantage point from which he shot the film constituted a transformative nature and that the videos were noncommercial because he didn’t seek to make money from them. The U.S. District Court disagreed. YouTube users and other digital content creators should pay attention to this case before assuming they understand copyright law.
American Kidney Fund, Inc., was served subpoenas as a third-party to a lawsuit in Maryland. As often happens, AKF bore the brunt of the costs of complying with those subpoenas. AKF then requested reimbursement for attorneys’ fees incurred in responding to those subpoenas. The Court determined that Rule 45(d)(2)(B)(ii) only protects a non-party when attorney fees result from the party’s compliance to a compelling court order. Since AKF complied without a compelling court order, the cost-shifting option was not available.
Cannabis business owners in the 33 states that permit some medical cannabis use and the 11 states and District of Columbia that have legalized the sale and recreational use of cannabis face unique challenges. One of those includes banking and insurance. Banks, financial services companies, and insurance companies shy away from doing business with the industry due to criminal and civil liability concerns because cannabis is still outlawed by US federal law.
In January 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor published the Final Rule which limits when employers, specifically a franchiser and its franchisees, can be considered to jointly employ workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Final Rule goes into effect on March 16, 2020. It revises an Obama era policy that could have left franchisor corporations legally liable for unpaid overtime or minimum wages by their franchisees. The Final Rule uses a four-factor test to determine which entity has direct or indirect control of the employee.
As New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Wisconsin, Oregon, and Washington all consider implementing rules like California’s AB-5 to make it more challenging to classify workers as independent contractors, Tennessee moves in the opposite direction. A new law that went into effect on January 1, 2020, calls for the implementation of the classic 20-factor test. These factors offer employers flexibility within the law to structure business arrangements in a way that best meets the business’s and its employees’ needs.
Finding a reputable legal advisor is a top need for business owners and consumers. In today’s world, consumers rely on word-of-mouth and online ratings more than ever. When they need to retain the services of a law firm in a specific field or geographic location, Martindale-Hubbell has been the trusted name in attorney ratings for more than 100 years.
When Universal Truckload sent Dalton Logistics, a shipping broker, an Indication of Interest Letter, Dalton halted its plans to shut down the company. Over the next year, Dalton burned its assets to keep the company afloat as Universal Truckload made verbal assurances of a coming deal. As Dalton’s resources dwindled, Universal Truckload increased Dalton’s credit limit and provided their trucks for Dalton’s use on credit.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals covers a lot of ground in this case between Communications Vertex Aerospace, LLC (L-3), its former Deputy General Counsel Courtney Paine Snider, and outside counsel Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, LLP and Charles A. Edwards.