Litigation

Supreme Court declines bright-line rule for securities disclosure

Posted on March 24, 2011
On Tuesday, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to dismiss a complaint alleging securities fraud based on a company's failure to disclose reports that its cold remedy product caused consumers to lose their sense of smell. In Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. v....

Homeowner may pursue negligence claim for construction defect, Oregon Supreme Court holds

Posted on March 15, 2011
Last week the Oregon Supreme Court held that a homeowner seeking to recover against a builder for damages caused by construction defects may sue for common law negligence, absent a contractual provision that forecloses such a claim. In Abraham v....

Ninth Circuit holds that pharmaceutical sales reps aren't entitled to overtime pay

Posted on March 14, 2011
Last month, in Christopher v. SmithKline, the Ninth Circuit held that pharmaceutical sales representatives are exempt from the Fair Labor Standard Act's overtime requirements. Two pharmaceutical sales representatives filed a lawsuit challenging defendant's practice of requiring overtime work without paying...

Ninth Circuit reins in trademark infringement liability for keyword bidding

Posted on March 11, 2011
The Ninth Circuit this week cast doubt on whether an advertiser that uses the name of a competitor's product in keyword advertising is liable for trademark infringement. In Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced Systems Concept, Inc., the Ninth Circuit vacated...

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Ater Wynne scores trial victory for NAACP

Posted on March 11, 2011
Ater Wynne's Seattle trial lawyers, Steve Kennedy and Rob Roy Smith, today prevailed in a lawsuit filed against the NAACP, following a week-long bench trial in King County Superior Court. At issue was whether the national office of the NAACP...

Shareholder status can exist without corporate formalities, Oregon Court of Appeals holds

Posted on March 08, 2011
Last week the Oregon Court of Appeals held that an individual can be deemed a shareholder of a corporation even though the corporation neither formally recorded her status in its records nor issued stock certificates. In Yeoman v. Public Safety...

Securities fraud claim under Oregon law requires proof of reliance

Posted on March 02, 2011
Last week the Oregon Court of Appeals held that a plaintiff making a claim under the state's securities fraud statute must prove reliance as an element of the claim. In State of Oregon v. Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., the...

Refusal to testify at debtor exam shouldn't be punished as contempt, Oregon Court of Appeals holds

Posted on February 16, 2011
A witness at a debtor examination was improperly held in contempt for invoking her privilege against self-incrimination, according to a case decided today by the Oregon Court of Appeals. In Redwine v. Starboard, LLC, plaintiff obtained a judgment against Starboard...

Ninth Circuit to review en banc grocery antitrust case

Posted on February 12, 2011
The Ninth Circuit this week agreed to review en banc a case in which a Mutual Strike Assistance Agreement entered into by four supermarket chains was held to be a violation of antitrust law. In an opinion issued last year,...

Designating agent for service of process doesn't support personal jurisdiction, Ninth Circuit holds

Posted on February 11, 2011
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held last week that designating an in-state agent for service of process does not, by itself, subject a company to general personal jurisdiction in the state. In King v. American Family Mutual Insurance, defendant...

US Supreme Court: Fiance of an individual who engaged in protected conduct can sue for retaliation

Posted on January 31, 2011
In Thompson v. North American Stainless, the US Supreme Court last week held that the fiancé of an individual who filed an EEOC complaint could bring a claim for retaliation under Title VII. In this case, the plaintiff was terminated...

Tailoring court filings to the on-line reader

Posted on January 27, 2011
As more courts require electronic filing, the possibility arises that judges will read pleadings and briefs from a screen rather than on paper. This ?post on the CEBblog discusses the challenge of making briefs lively and readable in an electronic...

Ninth Circuit, joining other courts, finds that state law failure-to-warn claims are not preempted by FDA regulations

Posted on January 27, 2011
In Gaeta v. Perrigo Pharmaceuticals Co.,the Ninth Circuit this week joined its sister circuits in holding that the Supreme Court case Wyeth v. Levine, 129 S. Ct. 1187 (2009), which established that failure-to-warn cases against brand name drug manufacturers are...

Copyright law won't bar resale of promotional CDs

Posted on January 17, 2011
In UMG Recordings, Inc. v. Augusto, the Ninth Circuit earlier this month held that a music company can't prevent resale of CDs it distributed for free, even though the CDs bore labels saying they were distributed for promotional purposes and...

Oregon Court of Appeals: Personal impact of economic hard times won't trump default judgment

Posted on January 15, 2011
The fallout from the economic meltdown won't excuse a failure to respond to a complaint, according to the Oregon Court of Appeals in a case decided Wednesday. In Saldivar v. Roberts, plaintiff filed a lawsuit claiming fraud, misrepresentation, conversion, and...

Oregon Supreme Court tosses single-digit ratio for punitive damages in employment case

Posted on January 08, 2011
On Thursday, a divided Oregon Supreme Court affirmed a jury award of punitive damages of $175,000 in a case in which compensatory damages were only $6,000. In Hamlin v. Hampton Lumber Mills, Inc., plaintiff was a former employee of defendant...

Oregon Court of Appeals limits comparative fault defense in medical malpractice cases

Posted on December 24, 2010
This month, the Oregon Court of Appeals addressed the comparative fault defense in the context of medical malpractice cases in Son v. Ashland Community Healthcare Services. Sara Burns died while under the medical care of Ashland Community Healthcare Services ("ACHS")...

IRS delays non-discrimination requirements for insured health plans

Posted on December 23, 2010
One of the many changes resulting from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is that non-discrimination rules applicable to self-insured health plans for many years are to be extended to insured arrangements effective for plan years beginning after September...

Health care reform ruled unconstitutional in part

Posted on December 13, 2010
A federal district court judge in Virginia has ruled that one of the centerpieces of the health care reform law enacted earlier this year is unconstitutional. Judge Henry Hudson, in Virginia v. Sebelius, found illegal the part of the law...

U.S. Supreme Court to review Wal-Mart class action

Posted on December 06, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to review whether a huge employment discrimination class action can proceed against Wal-Mart. The review follows rulings by judges in the Northern District of California and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals certifying the...

Significant changes to FRCP 26 will protect communications between counsel and testifying expert witnesses

Posted on November 22, 2010
Proposed amendments to Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will have a profound impact on the way attorneys and expert witnesses work with each other to prepare for expert testimony at trial. The rule changes, which will...

ISO and ESPP reporting deadline nears

Posted on November 21, 2010
We previously reported that for transactions in 2010 or later, the IRS requires employers to file information returns regarding their employees' exercise of Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) or purchases made under an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP)...

Employers should continue planning for Health Care Reform

Posted on November 19, 2010
The Health Care Reform Acts adopted earlier this year remain in the news as several members of Congress have announced they intend to seek repeal some or all of the new laws. However, even if the new Congress manages to...

Oregon Supreme Court limits State's power to share in punitive damages verdict

Posted on November 12, 2010
The Oregon Supreme Court today curtailed Oregon's "split recovery" law, in a case in which Ater Wynne successfully represented the plaintiff Since 1987, Oregon has had a "split recovery" statute that requires part of any punitive damage award to be...

Ninth Circuit: Employee holding a web site for ransom violated Anti-Cybersquatting Act

Posted on November 05, 2010
The Ninth Circuit ruled last week in DSPT International, Inc. v. Nahum that a defendant who lawfully owns and uses a domain name may violate the federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACCPA), 12 USC sec. 1125(d)(1)(A), by later holding the...

IRS delays reporting health care costs and releases new W-2 for 2011

Posted on October 28, 2010
The IRS recently released a draft version of the 2011 form W-2, used to report compensation paid to employees. The draft form includes instructions for reporting the cost of health care coverage provided to employees (Box 12, using code DD)....

Stolen medical records yield no claim against health care provider

Posted on October 08, 2010
Individuals whose electronic patient records were stolen from the car of an employee of Providence Health System were left with no remedy in a decision Wednesday by the Oregon Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs in Paul v. Providence Health System-Oregon...

Healthcare reform without the hype: What it means for your business

Posted on September 21, 2010
Join us on October 7, at Ater Wynne's Seattle office, for a seminar on the new healthcare reform law. John Walch, chair of the firm's Employee Benefits Group, will talk about how the new law impacts employers. See details here.

Oregon Supreme Court splits on defining "roof"

Posted on September 16, 2010
Is a plastic tarp a roof? It can be, according to the Oregon Supreme Court, which today remanded for trial a dispute between a homeowner and an insurer. In Dewsnup v. Farmers Insurance Co., the plaintiff undertook to repair the...

Ninth Circuit holds that software license may limit right to re-sell

Posted on September 14, 2010
Last week the 9th Circuit held that, if a software manufacturer licenses rather than sells its software, and if a licensee sells the software outside the restrictions of the license, copyright law prevents the sale of the software by the...

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