In addition to finding that the “Google Network” was too diffuse to comprise a RICO enterprise, the Court in Vulcan Golf, LLC v. Google Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 60608 (N.D. Ill. July 31, 2008), noted that, whatever validity a hub-and-spoke configuration may have as a form of conspiracy, it does not amount to a RICO enterprise: As . ...

The case law is fairly uniform that printouts from government websites are self-authenticating under Fed.R.Evid. 902. See the article entitled Internet and Email Evidence 2008 on the Recent Articles page (http://www.josephny_live.com/articles/viewarticle.php?58). That doesn’t mean anything goes. There are still some hoops to be jumped. From Owens v. ...

From Goodbys Creek, LLC v. Arch Ins. Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 79660 (M.D.Fla. Sept. 15, 2008): Neither party disputes Goodbys' failure to specify a desired format for the documents.... Because of such failure, Arch chose, of its own accord, to produce the requested documents "via TIFF images" rather than in their native format.... Pla ...

The plaintiff in Nucor Corp., v. Bell, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86328 (D.S.C. Jan. 11, 2008), sued its former employee and his new employer for trade secret misappropriation. On the pending motion for sanctions, the plaintiff claimed that the defendants had spoliated evidence by wiping the hard drive of a laptop and disposing of a USB drive. The plaintiff mov ...

From Kelley v. City of Albuquerque, 542 F.3d 802 (10th Cir. 2008): [Unitherm.] The City contends that Ms. Kelley failed to establish a prima facie case of retaliation because the evidence is insufficient to show a causal connection between Ms. Kelley's participation in the EEOC proceedings and her termination. The City r ...

In Groeneveld Transport Efficiency v. Eisses, , 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 22005 (6th Cir. Oct. 20, 2008) (unpublished), a dispute between an employee and employer, the employee had sued first in Ontario. The employer then sued here. The District Court abstained in deference to the Canadian action, under the doctrine of international abstention, defined in the S ...

From Securites and Exchange Commission v. Ficken, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 21830 (1st Cir. Oct. 20, 2008): Although it is unusual to grant summary judgment on scienter, summary judgment on this issue is sometimes appropriate. "Even in cases where elusive concepts such as motive or intent are at issue, summary judgment may be appropriate if t ...

The pro se plaintiff in Rugroden v. State Bank of Park Rapids, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84920 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 1, 2008), sued, among others, a Minnesota town over which the federal court in San Jose had no personal jurisdiction: "Although Rule 11 applies to pro se plaintiffs, the court must take into account a plaintiff's pro se statu ...

The defendant in Weyerhaeuser v. Petro-Hunt LLC, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84329 (W.D. La. Sept. 29, 2008), an environmental action, denied any legal obligation to remediate yet did so in the face of an imminent state environmental audit and this pending federal litigation: The Court finds evidence that the circumstances of Petro-Hunt's remed ...

From Mancia v. Mayflower Textile Servs. Co., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 83740 (D. Md. Oct. 15, 2008) (Grimm, M.J.): One of the most important, but apparently least understood or followed, of the discovery rules is Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(g), enacted in 1983. The rule requires that every discovery disclosure, request, response or objection must be ...