New York’s statute of frauds (General Obligations Law § 5-701) requires a signature: a. Every agreement, promise or undertaking is void, unless it or some note or memorandum thereof be in writing, and subscribed by the party to be charged therewith, or by his lawful agent, if such agreement, promise or undertaking: 1. By its terms is ...

Because it determined the that District Court had improperly granted summary judgment sua sponte for the defendant, the Federal Circuit reversed on the merits in Eon-Net, LP v. Flagstar Bancorp, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 22832 (Fed. Cir. Sept. 27, 2007). That left the Court of Appeals with the Rule 11 sanctions that the District Court had imposed on the pl ...

On September 18, 2007, the Third Circuit affirmed the defense verdict in the multibillion-dollar lawsuit brought by Kirk Kerkorian against DaimlerChrysler alleging that the merger between Chrysler and Daimler-Benz was falsely billed a ‛merger of equals“ but was really a takeover by Daimler of the U.S. automaker. Tracinda Corp. v. DaimlerChrysler AG, 200 ...

Two interesting holdings from Burlington No. & S.F. Rwy. v. Grant, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 22680 (10th Cir. Sept. 24, 2007): 1. Daubert: Unexplained Exclusion of Expert Testimony. The district court had excluded the plaintiff’s expert testimony but failed to make any supporting findings. The plaintiff sought reversal on t ...

The parties in Automobile Mechanics Local 701 Welfare & Pension Funds v. Vanguard Car Rental USA, Inc., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 22217 (7th Cir. Sept. 18, 2007), filed cross-motions for summary judgment. Rather than addressing those motions, the district court dismissed the suit sua sponte, because it concluded that the dispute had to be arbitrated. Both ...

As noted in our post of July 18, 2007, there is a split in the decisions as to whether, in a diversity case in federal court, state or federal law governs punishment for spoliation (specifically, spoliation as a procedural dereliction; obviously, state law governs to the extent that state law recognizes an independent cause of action sounding in tort for spoliation) ...

The litany of misbehavior for which § 1927 sanctions were imposed in Cambridge Toxicology Group Inc. v. Exnicios, 495 F.3d 169 (5th Cir. 2007) was impressive: (1) [Plaintiff’s counsel] was denied leave to amend four times; (2) to avoid the effect of these earlier denials, [plaintiff’s counsel] filed a second case in an attempt to add ...

The Third Circuit held in Winer Family Trust v. Queen, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 22620 (3d Cir. Sept. 24, 2007), that the group pleading doctrine did not survive enactment of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. (The group pleading doctrine is a judicial presumption that statements in group-published documents such as annual reports and press re ...

Most opinions published over the past six months have rejected attempts to remove based on Grable & Sons Metal Prods., Inc. v. Darue Eng’g & Mfg., 545 U.S. 308 (2005), but there are some colorful exceptions. Adventure Outdoors, Inc. v. Bloomberg, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 69631 (S.D. Ga. Sept. 20, 2007), is a defamation action filed in Georgia state cou ...

The plaintiff in Kraus Indus. v. Moore, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 68869 (W.D. Pa. Sept. 18, 2007), filed a state court action for defamation, disparagement, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. After the defendants removed the action, the plaintiff filed an Amended Complaint, one count of which sought sanctions for the defendants’ alleged violatio ...