This WLF Litigation Division feature highlights decisions issued in response to WLF’s filings as well as our court and agency filings. In this edition, we list April 2021 filings and results.

Click on the PDF button above for the full report.

DECISIONS

  • The Florida Supreme Court agrees largely to replace the text of Florida’s summary judgment rule with that of Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56. (In re Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.510) *victory*
  • The Supreme Court unanimously rejects the Ninth Circuit’s attempt to give the FTC powers that Congress never granted it. (AMG Capital Management v. FTC) *victory*
  • The Seventh Circuit overturns a jury verdict in a case that unfairly imposed massive toxic-tort liability on lead-paint makers. (Burton v. Armstrong Containers Inc.) *victory*
  • The Ninth Circuit rejects class certification in a multi-district price-fixing case. (In re Packaged Tuna Antitrust Litigation) *victory*
  • The Second Circuit declines New York City’s invitation to move the task of addressing climate change into the courts. (City of New York v. Chevron) *victory*
  • The Supreme Court adheres to textualist principles of statutory construction in refusing to expand the scope of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. (Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid) *victory*
  • The Ninth Circuit declines to rehear en banc whether federal courts may adjudicate important separation-of-powers questions about federal agencies. (Axon v. FTC)
  • The Fifth Circuit affirms an FTC ruling that condemned as anticompetitive an agreement by two pharmaceutical companies to settle a patent-infringement suit. (Impax Laboratories v. FTC)

NEW FILINGS

  • WLF asks the Supreme Court to decide whether the Affordable Care Act authorizes disparate-impact liability. (CVS Pharmacy, Inc. v. Doe)
  • WLF urges the Seventh Circuit to adopt the Supreme Court’s Safeco test for willfulness in False Claims Act cases. (United States ex rel. Proctor v. Safeway)
  • WLF calls on the Fourth Appellate Division of the California Court of Appeal to publish a recent opinion in an important products liability case. (In re Letter Requesting Publication)
  • WLF asks the Department of Labor to let its previously promulgated independent-contractor rule take effect. (In re Independent Contractor Status Under the Fair Labor Standards Act)
  • WLF urges the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to bar a punitive-damages claim that was extinguished by the Massachusetts Attorney General in the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement. (Laramie v. Philip Morris USA)
  • WLF asks the Sixth Circuit to vacate an FDIC order tainted by an unconstitutionally appointed Administrative Law Judge. (Calcutt v. FDIC)
  • WLF urges the Department of Labor to provide much-needed guidance on joint-employer status. (In re Rescission of Joint-Employer Rule)
  • WLF asks the Supreme Court to review a Missouri punitive-damages award that is 11 times greater than the amount of compensatory damages. (Johnson & Johnson v. Ingham)