Jurisdiction under the federal securities laws, 15 USC §§ 77v and 78aa, does not extend to state law claims brought by a receiver to collect the proceeds of securities violations, under Judge Jerry Buchmeyer's decision in Warfield v. Arpe, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12177 (N.D. Tex. Feb. 22, 2007). ...

Is there any significance to the fact that the Supreme Court granted cert to review the Eighth Circuit decision, which affirmed dismissal on a traditional Central Bank analysis (Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., 443 F.3d 987 (8th Cir. 2006)), rather than the Ninth Circuit decision which adopted the SEC’s substantial-participation ...

For a thorough discussion of taxation and apportionment of costs, burden of proof, and apportionment among parties — including specific discussion of taxation of video depositions (and whether they need be used at trial), expedited deposition transcripts (and the circumstances in which the cost is taxable), and related deposition costs — see the opinion of Magis ...

Following up on posts of March 4 and March 7, who better than Jimmy Wales, the co-founder of Wikipedia, to put to rest the notion that Wikipedia is an authority worthy of reliance. In this week's issue of Time magazine, and online at http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1601491,00.html, Wales responds to the question, "How can I persuade my teachers to ...

Most decisions addressing the crime-fraud exception arise in the criminal context. The Ninth Circuit, in In re Napster, Inc. Copyright Litig., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 5836 (9th Cir. Mar. 14, 2007), addressed three issues in the civil context: (1) the standard of review, (2) the burden of proof on the party seeking to vitiate the privilege when it asks district cou ...

The factors considered by the District Court in determining whether to issue a stay pending appeal are the same as those considered by the Court of Appeals, under the Supreme Court’s decision in Hilton v. Braunskill, 481 U.S. 770, 777 (1987) — namely: ‛(1) whether the stay applicant has made a strong showing that he is likely to succeed on the merits; (2) whe ...

Does reporting a reserve figure waive privilege or work product protection for underlying documents? The defendant oil company in In re BP Prods. No. Am., 2006 Tex. App. LEXIS 9008 (Oct. 13, 2006) reported in an SEC filing that it had reserved $700 million to resolve claims for injury and death arising out of an explosion at a refinery. The reserve figure was comp ...

Download associated file: Enron 5th Cir Decision.pdf  The attached decision of the Fifth Circuit in Enron (Regents of the Univ. of Calif. v. Credit Suisse First Boston (USA), Inc., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 6396 (5th Cir. March 19, 2007)) largely exculpates financial instit ...

Download associated file: Morgan Stanley v Coleman.pdf  The $1.58 billion verdict and judgment entered against Morgan Stanley in Florida state court was reversed on March 21, with instructions to enter judgment for the defendant (no new trial). The 2 to 1 decision of ...

The Seventh Circuit left no doubt that the District Judge was correct to impose monetary sanctions in Kathrein v. Monar, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 5596 (7th Cir. March 6, 2007) (an opinion which begins: ‛For a fourth time [plaintiff]Michael Lee Kathrein asks us to get involved in matters arising from the juvenile antics he has inflicted upon his ex-wife's current h ...