New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.

Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.
Commercial Litigation and Arbitration

Complex Lit Blog

SLUSA v. Securities Act of 1933 — Is Concurrent State Jurisdiction History?

Does SLUSA mandate exclusive federal jurisdiction over class actions brought solely under the Securities Act of 1933 (i.e., which assert no state law claims), or does the Securities Act’s provision for concurrent and unremovable state court jurisdiction control? There is a split among the district courts that have considered this issue. On Monday of this week, J ...
Does SLUSA mandate exclusive federal jurisdiction over class actions brought solely under the Securities Act of 1933 (i.e., which assert no state law claims), or does the Securities Act’s provision for concurrent and unremovable state court jurisdiction control? There is…
Continue Reading

Jury Instructions

The Third Circuit recently completed Model Civil Jury Instructions, which are excellent and useful outside the Third Circuit as well as in. These pattern instructions are posted on the Third Circuit website at http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/modeljuryinstructions.htm. The instructions were drafted by a committee constituted by Third Circuit Chief Judge Anthony Scirica ...
The Third Circuit recently completed Model Civil Jury Instructions, which are excellent and useful outside the Third Circuit as well as in. These pattern instructions are posted on the Third Circuit website at http://www.ca3.uscourts.gov/modeljuryinstructions.htm. The instructions were drafted by a…
Continue Reading

Lotus Notes — An Electronic Discovery Nightmare in New Jersey

According to the opinion in Amersham Biosciences Corp. v. PerkinElmer, Inc., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6841 (D.N.J. Jan. 31, 2007), Lotus Notes has a feature that can keep you awake at night: "[I]n the Lotus Notes application, unlike Microsoft Outlook and other email platforms, even though mails had been moved and segregated into separately labeled subfolders, and said ...
According to the opinion in Amersham Biosciences Corp. v. PerkinElmer, Inc., 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 6841 (D.N.J. Jan. 31, 2007), Lotus Notes has a feature that can keep you awake at night: “[I]n the Lotus Notes application, unlike Microsoft Outlook…
Continue Reading

Summary Judgment — Rulemaking

Download associated file: Burbank Summary Judgment 2007 Memo.pdf  In connection with the mini-conference of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (discussed in the post of January 30, 2007), Professor Stephen B. Burbank, the David Berger Professor ...
Download associated file: Burbank Summary Judgment 2007 Memo.pdf  In connection with the mini-conference of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (discussed in the post of January 30, 2007), Professor Stephen B. Burbank, the David Berger…
Continue Reading

RICO — Res Judicata/Collateral Estoppel Bar

The plaintiff in Zhu v. St. Francis Health Center, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 2417 (10th Cir. Feb. 1, 2007) (unpublished), originally sued the defendants in state court for medical malpractice arising out of her five-year treatment relationship with a doctor on the hospital staff. After the state court dismissed all claims, she filed a RICO action against the same defend ...
The plaintiff in Zhu v. St. Francis Health Center, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 2417 (10th Cir. Feb. 1, 2007) (unpublished), originally sued the defendants in state court for medical malpractice arising out of her five-year treatment relationship with a doctor…
Continue Reading

Service by Waiver Letter — Statute of Limitations

If a plaintiff mails a request for waiver of service pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(m) before the statute of limitations expires, but the defendant executes the waiver after expiration, is the suit time barred? In other words, does the execution relate back to the time of plaintiff's mailing or otherwise revive the claims? In what it perceived to be a case of first im ...
If a plaintiff mails a request for waiver of service pursuant to Fed.R.Civ.P. 4(m) before the statute of limitations expires, but the defendant executes the waiver after expiration, is the suit time barred? In other words, does the execution relate…
Continue Reading

Summary Judgment Practice — New York State Court

Timing is everything. The plaintiff in Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP v. IBuyDigital.com, Inc., 2007 NY Slip Op 50149U; 2007 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 191 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Co. Jan. 11, 2007), moved for summary judgment on an account stated claim for unpaid legal bills but its moving papers did not contain detailed enough affidavits as to its regular practice of mailing out bill ...
Timing is everything. The plaintiff in Morgan, Lewis & Bockius LLP v. IBuyDigital.com, Inc., 2007 NY Slip Op 50149U; 2007 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 191 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Co. Jan. 11, 2007), moved for summary judgment on an account stated claim…
Continue Reading

Sanctions — Exit Exigent Circumstances

Professor Georgene Vairo of Loyola L.A. is fond of dividing the Circuits, for Rule 11 purposes, into hawks and doves. She identifies as the leading hawk Circuit the Seventh. In Malec Holdings II Ltd. v. English, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 2349 (7th Cir. Jan. 24, 2007), the Court lived up to its billing. The plaintiff in Malec commenced a frivolous §1983 action to r ...
Professor Georgene Vairo of Loyola L.A. is fond of dividing the Circuits, for Rule 11 purposes, into hawks and doves. She identifies as the leading hawk Circuit the Seventh. In Malec Holdings II Ltd. v. English, 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS…
Continue Reading

Federal Jurisdiction — Grable & ‛Arising Under“

The Supreme Court held in Grable & Sons Metal Prods., Inc. v. Darue Engr’g & Mfg., 545 U.S. 1 (2005), that federal question jurisdiction may exist over a state law claim that entails an important, embedded federal issue. Since that decision, the lower courts have been grappling with its ramifications. Two district court opinions from last week are illustrativ ...
The Supreme Court held in Grable & Sons Metal Prods., Inc. v. Darue Engr’g & Mfg., 545 U.S. 1 (2005), that federal question jurisdiction may exist over a state law claim that entails an important, embedded federal issue. Since that…
Continue Reading

Securities Litigation Update

Last week was not a good one for securities plaintiffs in New York. On Tuesday, the Second Circuit affirmed dismissal of a securities fraud class action alleging both 10b-5 and Section 14(a) claims, in an unreported decision last week, in Leykin v. AT&T Corp., 2007 U.S. App. LEXIS 2378 (2d Cir. Jan. 30, 2007) (also affirming dismissal of state law claims pursuant t ...
Last week was not a good one for securities plaintiffs in New York. On Tuesday, the Second Circuit affirmed dismissal of a securities fraud class action alleging both 10b-5 and Section 14(a) claims, in an unreported decision last week, in…
Continue Reading
Previous508509510511512513514Next

Recent Posts

Rule 37 Sanctions Properly Denied for Failure to Produce Documents That Were Already in the Requester’s Possession And Were Not Relevant to The Principal Issue in the Lawsuit — Experts/Daubert: Exclusion Appropriate Where Opinion Was Predicated on Erroneous Assumptions of Law

Supreme Court: Obtaining a Preliminary Injunction Does Not Render the Plaintiff a “Prevailing Party” Entitled to Attorney’s Fees — Must Win “Enduring Relief” On The Merits From A Judicial Order — Extraneous Events, Like Legislation, That Preserve The Outcome And Moot The Lawsuit Do Not Turn The Plaintiff into A Prevailing Party (Note, However, That A Defendant Need Not Obtain A Favorable Judgment On The Merits In Order To Be A “Prevailing Party”)

Supreme Court: When A Plaintiff Amends The Complaint To Delete The Federal-Law Claims That Enabled Removal To Federal Court, Leaving Only State-Law Claims, The Federal Court Loses Supplemental Jurisdiction, And The Case Must Be Remanded To State Court

Supreme Court: A Rule 41(a) Voluntary Dismissal Without Prejudice = A Final Proceeding Within Rule 60(b) — Advisory Committee Notes Are “A Reliable Source Of Insight Into The Meaning Of A Rule” — Prior to Dismissal or Entry of Judgment, A District Court May Always Rehear and Reconsider Prior Rulings

Rule 37(c)(1) Sanctions — Exclusion of Untimely Expert Report — Burden Is On Noncompliant Party to Prove Harmlessness — Court Need Not Hold Hearing If Noncompliant Party Fails to Argue Harmlessness, Even When Exclusion Is Tantamount to Dismissal

RICO: (1) Continuity: 4th Circuit Factors — (2) 4th Circuit Reserves RICO Liability for Unlawful Activities That Pose A Special Threat to Social Well-Being — (3) For Purposes of Determining Closed-Ended Continuity, Even Time-Barred Conduct Considered — (4) No Open-Ended Continuity If Racketeering Activity Has Built-In Ending Point — (5) Unlike General Federal Conspiracy, RICO Conspiracy Doesn’t Require Each Defendant to Perform an Overt Act in Furtherance of the Conspiracy

Whether Party Waived Arbitration by Litigating Is a Question for the Court, Not the Arbitrator

RICO: (1) Assignability of RICO Claims Uncertain — (2) Declining to Decide Whether Indirect-Purchaser Rule Applies to RICO (Given the Directness Requirement, How Much Does It Matter?) — (3) Two Types of Directness of Injury in Proximate Cause Analysis — (4) Proximate Cause As a Court Not Jury Issue in the First Instance

(1) RICO Pattern: Open-Ended Continuity — The Vendetta Exception — Jury Could Reasonably Infer That Scheme Directed at One Person, With Goal of Destroying His Current and Future Business Prospects, Presented A Threat of Continued Racketeering Activity Extending Indefinitely into the Future — Lawsuit’s “Fortuitous Interruption” of Scheme ≠ Lack of Threat of Continuing Racketeering Activity — Acts of Concealment Used to Perpetuate Violations — Multiple Schemes Not Required — Jury Could Judge Defendant’s Credibility in Assessing Threat of Continuing Criminal Activity — (2) RICO Conspiracy — Two Methods of Proof: Agreement to Overall Objective Or to Commit Predicate Acts — Agreement Can Be Inferred from Conduct — Conspirator Needn’t Know All Details, Have Contact with Other Conspirators Or Participate in Every Stage

Experts: “Normally, Courts Are Loath to Outright Dismiss An Expert” (Good Quote) — Experts Are Unhelpful If They Misstate the Law [Note Premise That Testimony on Law Not Precluded Outright] — Rule 37 Sanctions Unwarranted for Unjustifiable Failure to Produce Relevant Document Already in Requester’s Possession

Archives
New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.
New York Attorneys JHA handles range the gamut of complex financial and commercial litigation and arbitration, including securities, RICO, corporate and contract disputes, credit default swaps, derivatives, and class, mass, and derivative actions. The firm also represents law firms in major disputes.

New York Office

© 2025 Joseph Hage Aaronson LLC  
Disclaimer | Attorney Advertising Notice | Legal Notice