WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 12 partially granted and partially denied a law firm's requests for information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) pertaining to the EPA's communication related to its classification of glyphosate as noncarcinogenic. The judge held that although the EPA's...

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - A federal judge in New York on Feb. 13 stayed a lawsuit accusing a captive reinsurer and home health employers of a scheme to cheat home health aides out of lost wages and benefits pending the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a case concerning the issue of standing under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (Ynes M. Gonzalez de Fuente, et al. v. Preferred Home Care of New York LLC, et al.,...

CINCINNATI - The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 12 stayed the production of some opioid prescribing data by pharmacy chain defendants in the opioid multidistrict litigation and invited the opioid MDL court to respond to the pharmacies' motion for a writ of mandamus against the production of dispensing information for an October trial (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation [In Re: CVS Pharmacy...

NEW YORK - A federal magistrate judge in New York in Feb. 12 refused to disqualify attorneys and a law firm representing an insurer that is accusing a compounding pharmacy and its pharmacists of submitting claims for medically unnecessary medications, finding that there is not enough evidence to show that the attorneys and firm participated in the claims verification process (State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co...

BOSTON - A federal judge on Feb. 13 awarded a Massachusetts restaurant summary judgment in a trip-and-fall case involving a revolving door after finding that an expert for the plaintiff provided no admissible evidence that the door malfunctioned (Marjorie Joan Donahoe v. Maggiano's Holding Corporation, No. 1:18-cv-10230, D. Mass., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25153).

PASADENA, Calif. - The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 11 affirmed a lower federal court's dismissal of California unfair competition law (UCL) and negligence claims against manufacturers of the antidepressant drug Lexapro, finding that "the drug's packaging contained clear warning labels about a heightened risk of suicidality for adolescents" (Stephanie Patton, et al. v. Forest Laboratories...

SOUTH BEND, Ind. - A homeowners insurer did not act in bad faith in denying coverage for the replacement of electrical wiring and a kitchen floor in the insured's home incurred after a tree fell on the home during a storm because the homeowner failed to show that the insurer's denial involved any conscious wrongdoing, an Indiana federal judge said Feb. 12 (Daniel Grizzle v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Co.,...

BUTTE, Mont. - The U.S. Department of Justice announced Feb. 13 that the federal government and Atlantic Richfield Co. have reached an agreement wherein the company will spend $150 million to remediate a portion of a Montana Superfund site by removing contaminated sediment and expanding treatment of contaminated stormwater before it flows into nearby creeks (United States v. Atlantic Richfield Co., et al., No. CV 89-039...

SANTA ANA, Calif. - The third-party administrators for a self-insured employee benefit plan in a Feb. 13 answer in a California federal case deny trucking companies' allegations that they negligently failed to obtain reinsurance coverage for the plans and assert affirmative defenses (A&I Transport, Inc., et al. v. KG Administrative Services, Inc., et al., No. 19-1992, C.D. Calif.).

ANNISTON, Ala. - An Alabama federal judge on Feb. 12 denied a disability claimant's motion for judgment after determining that the claimant's short-term disability (STD) benefits were properly terminated when the claimant was removed from his employer's payroll and was no longer an employee of the company (Jeffrey Washburn v. AT&T Umbrella Benefit Plan #1, et al., No. 18-647, N.D. Ala., 2020 U.S. Dist...

NEW YORK - A federal magistrate judge in New York in Feb. 12 refused to disqualify attorneys and a law firm representing an insurer that is accusing a compounding pharmacy and its pharmacists of submitting claims for medically unnecessary medications, finding that there is not enough evidence to show that the attorneys and firm participated in the claims verification process (State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co...

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - A medical marijuana company and two of its senior executives issued several misrepresentations in reporting documents with Canadian securities regulators overstating the company's financial and business condition in violation of federal securities laws, a shareholder says in a Feb. 12 complaint filed in New York federal court (Monica Acerra v. Trulieve Cannabis Corp., et al., 20-775, E.D. N.Y.).

BROOKLYN, N.Y. - A federal judge in New York on Feb. 13 stayed a lawsuit accusing a captive reinsurer and home health employers of a scheme to cheat home health aides out of lost wages and benefits pending the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in a case concerning the issue of standing under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (Ynes M. Gonzalez de Fuente, et al. v. Preferred Home Care of New York LLC, et al.,...

BOSTON - A federal judge on Feb. 13 awarded a Massachusetts restaurant summary judgment in a trip-and-fall case involving a revolving door after finding that an expert for the plaintiff provided no admissible evidence that the door malfunctioned (Marjorie Joan Donahoe v. Maggiano's Holding Corporation, No. 1:18-cv-10230, D. Mass., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 25153).

INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana trial court erred in holding that an insurer does not owe a duty of good faith and fair dealing to an insured who is not the policyholder because the insured has sufficiently shown that such a duty exists under the three-prong test established by the Indiana Supreme Court in Webb v. Jarvis, an Indiana Court of Appeals panel ruled Feb. 12 (Monika Schmidt v. Allstate Property and Casualty Insurance...

NEW YORK - A Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel in a Feb. 12 one-page order denied a plan administrator's petition for panel rehearing or rehearing en banc of a finding that the Employee Retirement Income Security Act allows for the reformation of a plan and recalculation of benefits as relief in a lawsuit where a retirement plan's terms were found to violate ERISA (Timothy D. Laurent, et al. v. PricewaterhouseCoopers...

CHICAGO - In-home care franchisees breached their franchise agreements, a federal judge in Illinois held Feb. 11, rejecting the franchisees' fraudulent inducement defense and entering a permanent injunction preventing them from operating their business (BrightStar Franchising LLC v. Northern Nevada Care, Inc., et al., No. 17-9213, N.D. Ill., 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 23209).

LOS ANGELES - The California Supreme Court on Feb. 13 ruled that time spent waiting for and undergoing exit searches is compensable under California Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order No. 7, answering a question certified by the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals (Amanda Frlekin, et al. v. Apple, Inc., No. S243805, Calif. Sup., 2020 Cal LEXIS 547).

NEW YORK - The journal Environmental Health on Feb. 12 published an article in which a researcher determined that the strongest evidence shows that glyphosate, the active ingredient in the herbicide Roundup, causes cancer in mice. The researcher said the regulatory authorities that reviewed the data and reached a different conclusion "appear to have relied on analyses conducted by" Monsanto rather than an analysis...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Feb. 12 partially granted and partially denied a law firm's requests for information from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) pertaining to the EPA's communication related to its classification of glyphosate as noncarcinogenic. The judge held that although the EPA's...

SILVER SPRING, Md. - The Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 13 said it has asked Eisai Co. Ltd. to voluntarily withdraw the company's Belviq and Belviq XR prescription weight loss drug from the U.S. market because the company's safety clinical trial showed an increased occurrence of cancer, including pancreatic, colorectal and lung cancer.

PASADENA, Calif. - The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 11 affirmed a lower federal court's dismissal of California unfair competition law (UCL) and negligence claims against manufacturers of the antidepressant drug Lexapro, finding that "the drug's packaging contained clear warning labels about a heightened risk of suicidality for adolescents" (Stephanie Patton, et al. v. Forest Laboratories...

CINCINNATI - The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Feb. 12 stayed the production of some opioid prescribing data by pharmacy chain defendants in the opioid multidistrict litigation and invited the opioid MDL court to respond to the pharmacies' motion for a writ of mandamus against the production of dispensing information for an October trial (In Re: National Prescription Opiate Litigation [In Re: CVS Pharmacy...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A U.S. Court of Federal Claims judge on Feb. 13 granted Amazon Web Services Inc.'s motion to preliminarily enjoin the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) and Microsoft Corp. from proceeding with any activities related to the multibillion-dollar Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract, which was recently awarded to Microsoft, pending resolution of Amazon's lawsuit alleging that its...

WACO, Texas - ParkerVision Inc. on Feb. 11 raised allegations that Intel Corp. infringed eight patents relating to radio frequency (RF) transceiver chips that provide cellular connectivity to iPhones and other devices (ParkerVision Inc. v. Intel Corporation, No. 20-108, W.D. Texas).