Judge Caproni

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In an opinion filed on Friday, Judge Caproni denied the National Football League’s renewed attempt to compel arbitration in an employment discrimination action brought by a putative class of current and former NFL coaches (the “Coaches”). Initially filed in 2022, the lawsuit alleged systemic racial discrimination in the hiring, retention and termination of NFL coaches and executives.

Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, the NFL moved to compel arbitration, which was granted as to certain claims and denied as to others. On appeal, the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s refusal to compel arbitration claims against the Giants, Broncos and Texans, while declining to rule on jurisdictional grounds on the claims that had been compelled to arbitration. The Second Circuit explained that “the NFL failed to provide a neutral forum that could even be called an ‘arbitration’ and that [plaintiff] could not effectively vindicate his statutory rights in the forum that the NFL provided, given the designation of the NFL Commissioner as the default arbitrator and the lack of express arbitral procedures.”

In light of the Second Circuit’s ruling, the Coaches moved for reconsideration of the district court’s earlier order compelling arbitration of the remaining claims. “[T]o conform to controlling law,” Judge Caproni granted the Coaches’ motion and denied the NFL’s motion to compel arbitration in full. 

Continue Reading Judge Caproni Denies NFL’s Motion To Compel Arbitration Against Coaches on Reconsideration

Last Thursday, Judge Caproni rejected a proposed joint scheduling order that provided for a party’s brief to be due on a Monday, citing her policy to set deadlines for the end of the week to avoid making associates work over the weekend.  Specifically, Judge Caproni said:

The Court recognizes that Defendants requested that their reply

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In an opinion Friday, Judge Caproni refused to enforce a disputed settlement of a trademark case that had been pending before her. The case was dismissed when the parties reported they had settled. The alleged settlement was not reflected in any court order.  And when apparent settlement fell apart, the plaintiff asked Judge Caproni to re-open the case so as to enforce the settlement. But Judge Caproni found that the request effectively asked her to assert supplemental jurisdiction over a breach of contract claim:
Continue Reading Judge Caproni: Jurisdiction Over Case Doesn’t Mean Jurisdiction to Enforce Disputed Settlement

In an opinion Friday, Judge Cronan dismissed with prejudice a suit brought by Sparks Steak House against its insurance company seeking to recover for business interruption losses arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. The policy covered, as is common in property insurance policies, “direct physical loss of or damage to property” at the premises, and Sparks argued that its inability to use the premises as a steakhouse fell within that language. Judge Cronan disagreed, using illustrations of how the policy language would be used in everyday experience:
Continue Reading Judge Cronan: Sparks Steak House’s Business Interruption Insurance Policy Not Triggered by COVID-19 Because the Pandemic Did Not Cause “Direct Physical Loss” of Property

In an opinion last week, Judge Caproni ruled unlawful a memorandum issued by the Department of Interior that interpreted a provision of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (“MBTA”) that prohibits killing “by any means whatever . . . at any time or in any manner, any migratory bird” to exclude incidental, unintentional killing.

The opinion begins:
Continue Reading Judge Caproni: Agency Cannot Rewrite Statutory Prohibition on Killing Migratory Birds to Carve Out Unintentional Killings

Last week, seven major publishers filed a lawsuit claiming that a new captioning service offered by audiobook company Audible, Inc. violates copyright law.  The “Audible Captions” feature transcribes the narration from the audiobook and displays the text on-screen, so that listeners-slash-readers can follow along in real time.  Although previous Audible offerings have allowed users to…

Judge Caproni recently held in the context of a SEC enforcement action that communications with an outside compliance firm were not privileged.  The communications at issue contained advice from a compliance consulting firm which, though staffed by attorneys, provided advice pursuant to a consulting agreement that specifically disclaimed the attorney-client relationship.
Continue Reading Judge Caproni: Compliance Communications Prepared Outside of Attorney-Client Relationship Are Not Privileged

In an opinion yesterday, Judge Caproni warned Christopher Bandas, an attorney who serially files class action objections, about his apparent practice of attempting to use local counsel as a shield against sanctions, though she ultimately declined to sanction Mr. Bandas:

Bandas’ failure to provide any legitimate support for [the class objection] would be enough to

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