Equitable Doctrine of Laches May, But Presumptively Does Not, Bar a Copyright Infringement Action Filed within the Statute of Limitations — Circuit Split From Peter Letterese & Assocs., Inc. v. World Institute of Scientology Enters., 533 F.3d 1287 (11th Cir. 2008): In answering the question of whether the defense of laches may be inter ...

From Judge Milton Shadur’s opinion for the Ninth Circuit in Guidiville Band of Pomo Indians v. NGV Gaming, Ltd., 531 F.3d 767; 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 13474 (9th Cir. 2008): This appeal presents the single, seemingly straightforward question whether the word "is" really means "is," at least as that word is employed in 25 U.S.C. § 81. At ...

From Gwynn v. Walker, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 14488 (11th Cir. July 7, 2008), addressing inherent power sanctions, which require a finding of bad faith: Sanctions are "especially appropriate where counsel takes frivolous legal positions supported by scandalous accusations." ...

The defendant in Grange Mut. Cas. Co. v. Mack, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 18467 (6th Cir. Aug 26, 2008), joined the conspiracy to defraud the plaintiff insurers after the plaintiffs suffered the harm for which they was suing. The district court dismissed on the ground that there was no causal connection between the defendant’s acts and the plaintiffs’ injuries ...

A new article posted today analyzes the proposed amendments to Fed.R.Civ.P. 26(a)(2) and 26(a)(4) that would make the following changes in expert discovery: 1. Communications between counsel and retained experts would generally be protected from disclosure or discovery. 2. Draft expert reports would no longer be discoverable. ...

Download associated file: FJC Summary Judgment Study.pdf  In connection with the proposed amendments to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56, the Federal Judicial Center, at the request of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules, undertook to study whether the proposed ...

From SEC v. Lyttle, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 17048 (7th Cir. Aug. 7, 2008): The defendants argue that because scienter is a state of mind, summary judgment can almost never be granted in favor of a plaintiff who has the burden of proving scienter, as the SEC did. For it is always possible, they say, that a reasonable jury would credit a defe ...

From Cyntegra, Inc. v. Idexx Laboratories, Inc., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 97417 (C.D. Cal. Sept. 21, 2007): Defendant asserts that Plaintiffs failure to preserve business documents constituted spoliation and make sanctions appropriate. Although the documents were stored on NetNation's outsourced servers, they were deleted due to Plaintiff ...

One of the convicted defendants in U.S. v. Poulsen, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61141 (N.D. Ohio. Aug. 1, 2008), sought judicial permission to interview jurors to assess whether they were influenced by media coverage or discussed the case among themselves prior to the start of deliberations. The Court denied the motion: Courts seldom permit l ...

From White v. Graceland College Ctr. for Prof’l Dev. & Lifelong Learning, Inc., 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 63088 (D. Kan. Aug. 7, 2008): The party who withholds discovery materials must provide sufficient information, usually in the form of a privilege log, to enable the other party to evaluate the applicability of the privilege or protectio ...