Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
A final judgment in a commercial landlord-tenant dispute. Another juror contracts Covid-19, delaying trial proceedings for a second time. A group of Houston lawyers score big in Las Vegas. All that and more in this week's litigation roundup.
Famed ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s sued Conopco, a subsidiary of parent company Unilever, in Manhattan federal court Tuesday morning alleging a deal Unilever struck regarding sale of the company’s ice cream in the West Bank violates their 2000 merger agreement. The lawsuit, filed by AZA, presents a conflict between the prerogative of Ben & Jerry’s independent board to make decisions about its social missions and its parent company’s authority over finances and operations.
A juror gets Covid, delaying the punitive damages phase of a wrongful death trial that has already rendered a $375 million actual damages verdict. A denied PPP loan turns into litigation. Alleged gossip at a La Madeleine results in a pro se lawsuit. Elon Musk gets sued again. And more.
The verdict could balloon when the jurors, having found Charter grossly negligent in its hiring and supervision of the killer, begin deliberating punitive damages next Monday.
Three Texas legal aid providers located in North Texas, the Houston area and South Texas, are receiving $2.5 million from a Congress-founded nonprofit to assist in their efforts to represent low-income Texans impacted by Winter Storm Uri and other natural disasters. The money will go toward expanding resources and reimbursement for legal services already provided.
In a scalding order, U.S. District Judge Karen Gren Scholer said the pro football retirement plan violated federal regulations, abused its discretion and acted arbitrarily and capriciously in limiting pension benefits for former running back Michael Cloud.
In this week’s roundup, we have two new lawsuits, a venue change, a new SEC enforcement action, a ruling denying a request for a new trial, a revenge porn final judgment, a loss for Ken Paxton and a tentative dismissal of an investor lawsuit involving Tilman Fertitta.
T. John Ward, a pioneer of the ‘rocket docket,’ says he didn’t think his simple case-management plan – set strict deadlines and hold people to them – would beckon thousands of patent litigants to knock on his Marshall courtroom door.
President Joseph Biden has nominated U.S. Magistrate Dana Douglas of New Orleans to one of two open seats on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. An African American jurist who practiced energy litigation, products liability and intellectual property law during her 17 years in corporate law, Judge Douglas would be the first woman of color to serve on the Fifth Circuit.
Jim Cowles, who tried nearly 600 cases to a jury verdict, including a dozen trials while he was still in law school, died this past weekend, according to an announcement released Wednesday by Cowles Thompson, the firm he co-founded in 1978.
A federal judge in Austin has ruled that University of Texas School of Law professor Linda Mullenix and the university will go to trial over the educator’s claim that she has been discriminated against under the federal Equal Pay Act. An expert on class action litigation, Mullenix claims she was paid less than male professors who have less experience, fewer articles published and fewer professional honors.
A challenge to a high-profile patent that endangers a multibillion-dollar verdict. An SEC settlement worth hundreds-of-millions involving a Texas-based financial services giant. An Texas-based airline sued for a passenger’s wrongful arrest. All this and more in this week’s litigation roundup.
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