Case Summaries

Legal Malpractice

[02/04] Elam v. Menzies
In plaintiff's suit claiming negligence in a heart operation that defendant-doctor performed, summary judgment for doctor on the ground that Kentucky's one year statute of limitations for medical malpractice suits had run is reversed and remanded as there is a factual dispute as to whether plaintiff knew or should have known he had a claim after the conversation with a second doctor, and thus, this issue should be referred to the jury.

[01/14] Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Comp. Ass'n v. Dep't of Admin. Hearings
In a consolidated medical malpractice action, involving the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan established by the legislature, the decision by the Second District is quashed and remanded where, in order to satisfy the notice requirement of section 766.316, Florida Statutes, both participating physicians and hospitals with participating physicians on staff must provide obstetrical patients with notice of their participating in the plan.

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Remedies

[02/05] Sharabianlou v. Karp
In plaintiff's action seeking rescission of a commercial real estate transaction and tort damages, the portion of the trial court's judgment awarding damages to the original property owners is reversed as the trial court's award goes well beyond the types of damages permitted.

[02/05] SEB S.A. v. Montgomery Ward & Co., Inc.
In a patent infringement action by a French company that specializes in home-cooking appliances against a Hong Kong corporation, involving a patent which claims a deep fryer with an inexpensive plastic outer shell or skirt, judgment of the district court is affirmed where: 1) there is no manifest of injustice in honoring a jury's finding of infringement under the doctrine of equivalents; 2) there is no prejudice to defendant in the district court's conclusion at the preliminary injunction stage that prosecution history estoppel did not apply; 3) the district court did not err in admitting plaintiff's expert testimony; 4) the jury's finding of inducement is justified, and the damage award, even if it was based on inducement alone, stands; 5) district court did not abuse its discretion in denying defendant's motion for JMOL on discovery misconduct grounds; 6) district court did not abuse its discretion in declining to grant a new trial to defendant based on the summation of plaintiff's counsel; and 7) there is no detectable error in district court's decision to set aside its original awards of enhanced damages and attorney's fees.

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Contracts

[02/08] Ward v. Dixie Nat'l Life Ins. Co.
In a class action lawsuit against multiple insurance companies alleging that defendants violated a contractual promise under insurance policies to pay policyholders the "actual charges" of cancer treatments, judgment in favor of the plaintiffs is affirmed where: 1) under the three-step retroactivity analysis, the presumption against retroactivity operates to bar the application of the South Carolina statute to the claims in this case; and 2) defendants' remaining arguments are meritless.

[12/11] Metro Allied Ins. Agency, Inc. v. Lin
In plaintiff's action against an insurance company for negligence and a violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) for failure to procure a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, the judgment of the court of appeals in favor of the plaintiff is reversed and remanded is the causation standard for a claimed failure to procure insurance under a negligence theory and under the DTPA requires proof of the availability of some insurance that would have covered the plaintiff's damages.

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Oil & Gas

[01/26] PNGTS Shipper's Group v. FERC
In a petition for review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's order certifying petitioner-shipper's capacity, the petition is dismissed for lack of jurisdiction where, because the shippers could not show an actual or imminent injury as a result of the challenged orders, they were not aggrieved pursuant to section 19(b) of the Natural Gas Act.

[01/22] American Gas Ass'n. v. FERC
In a petition for review of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's revisions to its financial forms and reporting rules for interstate natural gas pipelines, the petition is granted where a dissenting commissioner raised an alternative possible approach but the Commission failed to address it.

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Civil Procedure

[02/08] DG v. DeVaughn
In a class action against the Oklahoma Department of Human Services claiming that the department's agency-wide foster care policies and practices exposed all class members to an impermissible risk of harm, the district court's order certifying a class is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs presented more than conclusory statements that defendants' agency-wide monitoring policies and practices, or lack thereof, created a risk of harm shared by the entire class; 2) due to the common risk of harm and the common underlying legal theory for asserting that risk, the district court acted within its discretion to find that typicality was satisfied; and 3) the injunction sought by plaintiffs applied to the proposed class as a whole without requiring differentiation between class members.

[12/11] D.R. Horton-Texas, Ltd. v. Markel Int'l Ins. Co., Ltd.
In an action brought by a general contractor seeking a defense and coverage from the commercial general liability insurer for alleged construction defects, judgment of the court of appeals is affirmed in part and reversed in part and remanded where: 1) the duty to indemnify is not dependent on the duty to defend and an insurer may have a duty to indemnify its insured even if the duty to defend never arises; and 2) in determining coverage, a matter dependent on the facts and circumstances of the alleged injury-causing event, parties may introduce evidence during coverage litigation to establish or refute the duty to indemnify.

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International Trade

[02/05] Totes-Isotoner Corp. v. US
In plaintiff's claim that the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States unconstitutionally denies equal protection of the laws by imposing different rates of duty on seamed leather gloves "for men" and seamed leather gloves "for other persons", judgment of the United States Court of International Trade dismissing the claim is affirmed where: 1) the CIT's judgment concluding that it had jurisdiction under section 1581(i), that plaintiff has standing to bring its claims, and that plaintiff's equal protection claims are justiciable is affirmed; but 2) plaintiff has failed to state an equal protection claim due to its failure to plead facts sufficient to allege a claim of unconstitutional discrimination.

[02/01] Tr. in Bankr. of N. Am. Rubber Thread Co., Inc. v. US
In United States' challenge to the Court of International Trade's (CIT) jurisdiction to hear the Commerce's refusal to undertake a second changed circumstances review involving an antidumping duty order covering extruded rubber thread from Malaysia, judgment of the CIT is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and vacated in part where: 1) the CIT had jurisdiction over North American Rubber Thread's (NART) challenge but not the foreign industry's challenge; and 2) NART was judicially estopped from challenging an October 1, 1995 effective date, given its earlier argument to Commerce that a revocation date of October 1, 1995 was inappropriate.

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Evidence

[02/08] US v. Schneider
In a prosecution for impermissibly dispensing controlled drugs, an order excluding evidence of all but one of the eighteen deaths charged in one count of the indictment and the court's placement of a ten-day limitation on the government's time to present its case is vacated where the district court's ruling effectively dismissed separately charged conduct brought by the government against defendants, and thus impermissibly intruded upon the authority of the executive branch to design a criminal prosecution in the way it deemed most prudent.

[01/14] Johnson v. State of Florida
Defendant's request for postconviction relief is granted and the death sentences vacated and remanded where the newly disclosed evidence shows the following: 1) after defendant was arrested and counsel was appointed, the State intentionally created a situation likely to induce defendant to make incriminating statements to a jailhouse informant in violation of defendant's Sixth Amendment right to counsel; 2) although the prosecutor at defendant's first trial knew that his statements were impermissibly elicited and that his testimony was inadmissible, the prosecutor knowingly used false testimony and misleading argument to convince the court to admit the testimony; and 3) because defendant's testimony was admitted and later used by a different prosecutor at defendant's 1988 trial, and because the State has failed to show that this error did not contribute to the jury's advisory sentences of death, the death sentences are vacated and remanded under Giglio v. US.

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Dispute Resolution & Arbitration

[02/05] Omstead v. Dell, Inc.
In a proposed class action alleging that Dell designed, manufactured, and sold defective notebook computers, dismissal of the action for failure to prosecute is reversed where: 1) plaintiffs did not cause any unreasonable delay in the progression of their case; and 2) a choice-of-law provision is unenforceable, and a class action waiver pursuant to which Dell obtained an order compelling arbitration was unconscionable under California law because it satisfied the Discover Bank test, and California had a materially greater interest than Texas in applying its own law.

[02/03] Dotson v. Amgen, Inc.
In plaintiff's action for wrongful termination, trial court's denial of defendant's motion to compel arbitration on the ground that the provision concerning witness depositions was flawed is reversed as the language permitting the arbitrator to expand discovery upon a showing of need removes any taint of unconscionability from the agreement, and even if it's assumed to be unconscionable, the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to severe it.

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Professional Malpractice

[02/04] Elam v. Menzies
In plaintiff's suit claiming negligence in a heart operation that defendant-doctor performed, summary judgment for doctor on the ground that Kentucky's one year statute of limitations for medical malpractice suits had run is reversed and remanded as there is a factual dispute as to whether plaintiff knew or should have known he had a claim after the conversation with a second doctor, and thus, this issue should be referred to the jury.

[01/14] Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Comp. Ass'n v. Dep't of Admin. Hearings
In a consolidated medical malpractice action, involving the Florida Birth-Related Neurological Injury Compensation Plan established by the legislature, the decision by the Second District is quashed and remanded where, in order to satisfy the notice requirement of section 766.316, Florida Statutes, both participating physicians and hospitals with participating physicians on staff must provide obstetrical patients with notice of their participating in the plan.

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Commercial Law

[02/05] Sharabianlou v. Karp
In plaintiff's action seeking rescission of a commercial real estate transaction and tort damages, the portion of the trial court's judgment awarding damages to the original property owners is reversed as the trial court's award goes well beyond the types of damages permitted.

[12/11] Metro Allied Ins. Agency, Inc. v. Lin
In plaintiff's action against an insurance company for negligence and a violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) for failure to procure a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, the judgment of the court of appeals in favor of the plaintiff is reversed and remanded is the causation standard for a claimed failure to procure insurance under a negligence theory and under the DTPA requires proof of the availability of some insurance that would have covered the plaintiff's damages.

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Admiralty

[02/03] ProShipLine Inc. v. Aspen Infrastructures Ltd.
In an action to secure a maritime attachment, district court's order denying plaintiff's motion to compel defendant to post security in lieu of garnishment is affirmed where a district court lacks the legal capacity under the Admiralty Rules to order a party to post security in lieu of garnishment. However, the district court's order equitably vacating plaintiffs' Rule B writ and exonerating security posted for that writ is reversed where the district court abused its discretion by concluding that it was bound by res judicata to vacate the writ to conform with the Southern District of New York's decision to vacate the writ involved in a related action pending there.

[01/28] Aqua Log, Inc. v. Georgia
In two in rem admiralty actions seeking to salvage logs lying at the bottom of Georgia's rivers, the district court's denial of the state's motion to dismiss based on sovereign immunity is affirmed where that doctrine did not apply because the state did not have possession of the logs.

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Administrative Law

[02/08] Hall v. Liberty Life Ins. Co. of Boston
In plaintiff's suit seeking reinstatement of her long-term disability benefits, judgment of the district court is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) district court's judgment with respect to benefit plan's termination of plaintiff's benefits and its claim for partial reimbursement is affirmed; and 2) district court's imposition of an equitable lien on plaintiff's Social Security benefits and its denial of attorney fees to the benefits plan are vacated and remanded.

[02/05] Graffiti Protective Coatings, Inc. v. City of Pico Rivera
In plaintiff's petition for a writ of mandate seeking to invalidate a new contract between defendant-city and its competitor and to compel city to award the contract through competitive bidding, trial court's grant of defendant's anti-SLAPP motion is reversed and remanded as, even if plaintiff's claims involve a public issue, they are not based on any statement, writing, or conduct by the city in furtherance of its right of free speech or its right to petition the government for the redress of grievances. Rather, plaintiff's claims are based on state and municipal laws requiring the city to award certain contracts through competitive bidding, and thus, the claims are not subject to the anti-SLAPP statute.

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Injury & Tort Law

[12/11] Whirlpool Corp. v. Camacho
In a products liability action against Whirlpool Corporation, judgment of the court of appeals' that a design defect in an electric Whirlpool clothes dryer caused a fatal fire is reversed as the expert testimony of design defect is legally insufficient to support the verdict.

[12/11] Metro Allied Ins. Agency, Inc. v. Lin
In plaintiff's action against an insurance company for negligence and a violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) for failure to procure a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, the judgment of the court of appeals in favor of the plaintiff is reversed and remanded is the causation standard for a claimed failure to procure insurance under a negligence theory and under the DTPA requires proof of the availability of some insurance that would have covered the plaintiff's damages.

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