In a motion filed this week – described as “no easy motion” but “the right motion” that “has to be made” – a plaintiff’s lawyer in the GM ignition switch multidistrict litigation asked Judge Furman to remove the plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel and reconsider the bellwether trial schedule in the wake of GM’s victory in the first bellwether … Continue Reading
In an opinion today the GM ignition switch MDL (prior coverage here), Judge Furman rejected the plaintiffs’ attempt to force GM and its lawyers at King & Spalding to produce, under the “crime-fraud” exception to attorney-client privilege, documents relating to King & Spalding’s advice on earlier ignition switch cases that were settled confidentially. GM had … Continue Reading
In a decision yesterday, Judge Furman declined to certify an interlocutory appeal on the question of whether an individual employee can force his former employer to waive privilege so the employee can assert an advice-of-counsel defense. Judge Furman had previously found that the employer cannot be forced to waive the privilege, and noted that an … Continue Reading
In a class action filed Monday, the city of Perry, Iowa alleges that “flushable” wipes are not flushable, and in reality are harmful to local sewer systems: In order to maintain “wet strength,” and despite the Defendants’ claims otherwise, flushable wipes do not degrade after flushing. Rather, once in the sewer system, they ultimately wrap around structures within … Continue Reading
In a decision last week in the government’s FIRREA action against Wells Fargo (previous coverage here), Judge Furman ruled that, at least in civil cases, an individual cannot force his former employer to waive privilege so the employee can assert an advice-of-counsel defense. Judge Furman found that allowing a forced waiver in these circumstances would make the privilege “intolerably uncertain”:… Continue Reading
The SDNY Blog is relaunching as a publication of Steptoe & Johnson LLP. We expect to post several times a week on decisions and other developments in the Southern District of New York. You can find us right here at www.sdnyblog.com, or follow us on Twitter or Facebook. Here’s a quick summary of what’s been happening in the Southern … Continue Reading
In an opinion today, Judge Furman ruled that a male student, who was suspended from Columbia University for sexual assault, did not allege facts sufficient to go forward with his gender discrimination suit against the school. The plaintiff alleged that the school’s disciplinary process was unfair and came to the wrong conclusion, but Judge Furman … Continue Reading
In an opinion today, Judge Furman upheld GM’s decision to withhold, on privilege and work product grounds, interview notes underlying a publicly-released report prepared by GM’s attorneys at Jenner & Block regarding GM’s recall of around 800,000 vehicles that may have had defective ignition switches. The plaintiffs argued (among other things) that the interviews were … Continue Reading
In an opinion today, Judge Furman dismissed a class action brought by a company called Meltech, which owns the rights to certain pictures of an adult movie actor known professionally as Melissa Midwest, against against Match.com and various affiliated dating websites. Meltech alleged that Match and the other websites used photos of Ms. Midwest without authorization to make … Continue Reading
In a decision issued yesterday, Judge Furman dismissed a lawsuit alleging that director James Cameron infringed the copyrights of artist William Roger Dean in Cameron’s blockbuster movie Avatar. The artist, whose work has graced the covers of many major rock albums, claimed that many of the movie’s fantastical settings are copied from 14 works he produced … Continue Reading
In an opinion today, Judge Furman sent back to state court a multi-district litigation comprised of 19 cases in which various states accused Standard & Poor’s (and, in one instance, Moody’s) of falsely representing that their bond ratings were independent and objective. He found that, despite the efficiencies of a federally-managed MDL proceeding, there was … Continue Reading
In an opinion yesterday, Judge Furman dismissed a suit brought by 13 West Bank residents who alleged that Israeli settlers victimized them in various ways, including by stoning and vandalism. The plaintiffs did not sue the perpetrators, but instead sued five U.S. groups that allegedly provided financial support to the settlements. Judge Furman found that … Continue Reading
In an opinion today, Judge Furman dismissed, on First Amendment grounds, a suit accusing Baidu, a Chinese “search engine akin to Google,” of blocking pro-democracy search results:… Continue Reading
In an opinion issued yesterday, Judge Furman allowed the majority of securities fraud claims against a state-owned sovereign wealth fund in Kazakhstan to proceed, denying the fund’s motion to dismiss on sovereign immunity and other grounds. The plaintiffs purchased notes in a Kazakh bank majority owned by the fund. The notes were sold only over the … Continue Reading
The 119-page pinion, published this morning, states in the introduction: This mountain of evidence and argument confirms that planning for, and responding to, emergencies and disasters is a Herculean task, and that, in many — perhaps most — respects, the City has done an outstanding job. But it also reveals that while the City’s emergency … Continue Reading
In an opinion today, Judge Furman largely denied Wells Fargo’s motion to dismiss a government lawsuit relating to its underwriting of government-insured mortgage loans. Judge Furman joined Judges Rakoff and Kaplan in holding that the Financial Institutional Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act (“FIRREA”), which allows the government to pursue civil charges against those who commit … Continue Reading
Thomson Reuters today moved to dismiss a whistleblower complaint from a former employee who claimed that he was fired for complaining internally, and to the FBI, that the company’s selective release of certain survey data constituted insider trading. The motion argues that the Dodd-Frank whistleblower protections apply only to those who raise complaints with the SEC, … Continue Reading
