California Appeals Court Upholds Partner's Half Share of Pension Earned Before Marriage
A state appeals court held that a law shielding East Bay utility pensions from assignment does not block a partner's claim under a cohabitation agreement.
Practice area · Contracts
Delaware Supreme Court Rules Former Employee Waited Too Long to Claim 1988 Lam Research Shares
Affirming Chancery, the court held a former employee's claims to 2,375 bonus shares accrued by 2014, when Lam paid dividends to other holders, and expired by 2017.
Texas Supreme Court Lets Urban Air Affiliates Force Arbitration of Child's Injury Suit
Companies and individuals named as "protected parties" in a release a mother signed at a Beaumont trampoline park may enforce its arbitration clause, the court held.
Florida Appeals Court Denies Fees to Hurricane Ian Homeowners Who Sued During Appraisal
The Sixth District held that Citizens' timely payment of an appraisal award was not a confession of judgment because the homeowners' lawsuit did not bring about the recovery.
First Department Says Access-Law Amendment Does Not Disturb Neighbor's Fee Award
A unanimous panel affirmed a $41,196.70 fee award against Panasia Estate, holding that fees under RPAPL 881 do not depend on which side prevails.
N.Y. Appeals Court Upholds $1.17 Million Judgment Against Jide Zeitlin Over Loan Deal
A unanimous First Department panel held that the defendants had to turn over a $413,731.53 recovery without deducting legal fees and list a Dutchess County property.
N.Y. Appeals Court Says Landowner's Deal With Town Sank His Rail Trail Defenses
The Third Department held that a landowner who dropped his property claims against the town with prejudice lost both those claims and his defenses to a land trust's suit.
N.Y. Appeals Court Vacates $1.4 Million Waterworks Award in Chelsea Building Dispute
The First Department upheld the fixture supplier's contract and lien claims but ordered new damages proceedings, disregarding proof Waterworks first offered in reply.
N.Y. Appeals Court Upholds Foreign Bank's Win on Defaulted Loan of About $10 Million
The First Department unanimously held that RBL Bank Limited could sue in New York and that the borrower and its guarantor could not invoke a Banking Law defense.
Appeals Court Lets Estate Executors Pursue Malpractice Suit Against Falcon Rappaport
A unanimous First Department panel held that a formal agreement engaging the firm for a company that owned an estate's commercial property did not defeat the executors' claim to be the firm's clients.
N.Y. Appeals Court Keeps City's Ejectment Suits Against Two Health Occupants Alive
The First Department held that Heritage's agreement, including its 60-day no-cause termination clause, pointed to a license, not a lease, and that neither occupant had conclusively shown it was entitled to tenants' notice rights.
Calif. Appeals Court Lets Scottsdale Rescind Contractor's Policies After Base Fire
A state appeals court held that a contractor's false insurance applications let Scottsdale void its policies, leaving California's Military Department without coverage.
N.Y. Appeals Court Blocks RICO Claim, Upholds $425,000 Receiver Fee in Resort LLC Fight
The Second Department barred RICO and fraud claims and cut two tort counts from the suit of a co-owner of the company that owned the Hudson Valley Resort, but kept her partner's counterclaim open.
N.Y. Appeals Court Tosses Lawyer's Bid for Fees Spent Defending a Fee Award
The Second Department held that a promissory note lacking express language on fees on fees could not support Jonathan Davidoff's suit, and ordered the suit dismissed.
Second Department Says Keeping Notice of Pendency After Injunction Loss Signals Bad Faith
A New York appeals court affirmed cancellation of a would-be dealership buyer's notice of pendency after a judge found money damages would make the buyer whole.
Red-Lined Indemnity Clause Bars Owner's Lost-Rent Claim, N.Y. Appeals Court Rules
The Second Department held that a contract from which the parties struck 'any other economic loss' excludes lost rent, but reopened the owner's security and equipment claims.
Connecticut Appeals Court Revives Vexatious Litigation Claims Against Lawyer and Client
The court held a lawyer lacked probable cause to press a client's claimed interest in a family company after the state Supreme Court declined to review its rejection.
Florida Appeals Court Upholds Ruling That $50,000 Lease Payment Was Fraudulent Transfer
The Third District held that Florida's good-faith defense for recipients of a debtor's money applies only to actual-fraud claims, not constructive-fraud claims.
Florida Appeals Court Says Contractor Must Pay Fired Subcontractor's Retainage
The Fourth District upheld a $71,582.98 retainage award against GSD Contracting but struck $45,300 a Broward judge added for work the subcontractor never performed.
Florida Appeals Court Revives Condo Buyers' Suits Over $3.1 Million in Deposits
The Third District held res judicata could not bar buyers' bid to recover deposits above 15% after the developer resold their five units for more than the contract price.
Florida Appeals Court Rejects Outfront Media's Challenge to Miami Beach Kiosk Contract
The Third District held that Outfront lacked standing to attack a rival's kiosk deal because it claimed no special injury and no breach of its own contract rights.
California Appeals Court Rejects Trustee's Bid for Personal Legal Fees From Brother
Probate courts' equitable power to shift fees onto a bad-faith beneficiary protects the trust estate, not a trustee who pays to defend herself, the Fourth District held.
Appeals Court Upholds $1.2 Million Verdict Against Church in Preschool Lease Fight
The First Department upheld a finding that a church landlord gave up its lease's jury waiver by raising it four months after the tenants filed their note of issue.
Washington Appeals Court Revives Malpractice Suit Against Firm Over Sanctions Dismissal
A client whose landlord suit was dismissed after the lawyers ignored discovery and a show-cause hearing need not have moved to vacate before suing them, the court held.
Third Circuit Says Pennsylvania Would Demand Clear Proof to Pierce Corporate Veil
An insurer owed $8.6 million by a company that lost its only client, Amazon, cannot collect from the family that owned the business, a federal appeals panel ruled.
Alabama High Court Rejects Coverage for Pharmacy's $4.75 Million Compounding Error
A pharmacy-services exclusion barred every claim from a 1,000-fold belladonna overdose, and the owner's failure to read the policy defeated a suit against the agent.
Sixth Circuit Upholds $25 Million Judgment Against Sen. Justice Over Coal-Bond Guaranty
A unanimous panel held that Sen. James C. Justice II's guaranty covers every premium his family's coal companies missed, not just $3.5 million owed when he signed.
Florida Appeals Court Halves $250,160 Fee Award Against Security First Insurance
The Fifth District held that two insureds failed to prove they needed a 2.0 contingency multiplier to hire a lawyer, cutting their fee award to the $125,080 lodestar.
New York Appeals Court Ends Iberdrola's Fraud Suit Against Oaktree
The First Department held that Iberdrola could not sue for fraud over work it was already obligated to perform under its construction contract.
Fifth Circuit Upholds Pioneer Win Over MIECO in $9 Million Winter Storm Uri Gas Case
A Fifth Circuit panel held a trial judge properly found Winter Storm Uri excused Pioneer's shortfalls in gas deliveries to MIECO in February 2021.
Florida Appeals Court Tosses $270,000 Fee Award in Sailfish Point Home Sale Fight
The Fourth District held that a purchase contract's fee clause did not let the couple who took over a buyer's contract collect legal fees from the buyer.
Florida Appeals Court Says Repo Firm Can't Force Arbitration Under Honda Lease
The Third DCA held that Resolvion, which never signed Juan Gonzalez's Honda lease, cannot use its arbitration clause against his tort claims over his car's seizure.
Florida Court Says Condo Owners Must Ask Board to Act Before Suing Over Spending
The Third District held that two unit owners' suit over the association's payments was derivative, so the presuit demand rules for such suits applied.
Fourth DCA Bars Punitive Claims Against Insurer, Employee in Perlmutter DNA Fight
On remand from the Florida Supreme Court, the panel again reversed leave to seek punitive damages against Federal Insurance Co. and William Douberley but affirmed as to Harold Peerenboom.
Car Dealer Waived Arbitration by Litigating Vehicle-Fire Suit, NY Appeals Court Rules
The Second Department held that Merlex Auto Group gave up its right to arbitrate a buyer's injury claim by litigating for about 18 months before seeking arbitration.
N.Y. Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Fraud-Aiding Claims Against PepsiCo
The Second Department said a shareholder's complaint did not show PepsiCo gave the affirmative help needed to plead it aided an alleged inflated-invoice scheme.
N.Y. Appeals Court Says Nonprofit Officers Owe No Fiduciary Duty to Members
The Second Department dismissed a broker's remaining claims against the Long Island Board of Realtors and three officials over a $5,000 fine and account suspension.
Fifth Circuit Denies Fees to Trial Winner, Ruling Joint-Venture Clause Required Adjudicated Breach
The appeals court held that a defense verdict is not a judicial finding that the plaintiff breached the contract.
D.C. Circuit Says Alstom Can Sue Over Buy America Waiver, Then Rules Against It
The appeals court held the domestic train maker had standing to challenge a federal waiver for the $3 billion Brightline West project but found the agency's decision was lawful.
D.C. Circuit Upholds Pentagon Blacklist of AI Maker Anthropic Over Safety Guardrails
Anthropic's refusal to allow 'all lawful uses' of its Claude AI for the military qualifies as a supply chain risk, the court held.
Fifth Circuit Applies Texas Law to Anadarko Indemnity Dispute With Alternative Env Solutions
The Fifth Circuit upheld the application of a Texas choice-of-law clause and most of a defense-and-indemnity ruling in Anadarko’s favor. It vacated the judgment to the extent it could require coverage for punitive or exemplary damages and remanded the treatment of fees from the underlying suit.
Ninth Circuit Revives San Bernardino Coverage Fight, Finds Aggregate Limit Ambiguous
Holding that the insurer's annual aggregate cap did not plainly apply to property damage, the panel reversed dismissal of the county's declaratory judgment claim and remanded for consideration of extrinsic evidence.
Supreme Court: NJ Transit Is Not an Arm of the State, Resolving Sovereign-Immunity Split
A unanimous ruling in Galette v. New Jersey Transit Corp. narrows the federal arm-of-the-state test to corporate form and formal liability for judgments, siding with New York over Pennsylvania and exposing quasi-public authorities with hundreds of millions in annual revenue to out-of-state suits.