Business Law

Telephone Communications Privacy Act claims may be within the coverage for personal injury claims arising from the “publication, in any manner, of material that violates a person’s right of privacy” if consistent with the insured’s reasonable expectations. Yahoo v. National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA (2022) 14 Cal.5th 58. Read more

Effective January 1, 2023, most California employers will now need to comply with expanded rules for disclosing pay range information to job applicants and employees and new recordkeeping and reporting requirements.  Senate Bill 1162 (“SB 1162”) was signed into law in September 2022, with the aim of improving pay equity, and carries with it some potentially stringent penalties for employers who fail to comply.  Read more

In In re Project Restore, LLC, 2022 Bankr. LEXIS 2868, 2022 WL 6233552 (Bankr. M.D. Tenn. 2022) (“Project Restore”), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Tennessee (the “Bankruptcy Court”) rejected the debtor’s claims that the involuntary petition against it had to be submitted to arbitration because a clause in each of its contracts with the petitioning creditors mandated arbitration of disputes and that in any case the Bankruptcy Court should abstain from hearing the petition in deference to the federal policy of encouraging arbitration. Read more

In Carmel Financing, LLC v. Schoenmann (In re Mayacamas Holdings LLC), 2022 WL 3599561 (N.D. Cal. Aug. 23, 2022), the district court affirmed the bankruptcy court’s ruling that the chapter 7 trustee prevailed in avoiding the interest of the holder of a first deed of trust in an insurance payout for catastrophic fire damage  to California improved real property. Read more

In Ultra Petroleum Corp. v. Ad Hoc Committee of OpCo Unsecured Creditors (In re Ultra Petroleum Corp.), 51 F. 4th 138 (5th Cir. Oct. 14, 2022), the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that: Read more

The California Court of Appeal recently held that a patron of a Massage Envy franchise in San Rafael had not entered into a contract with franchisor Massage Envy (“MEF”) when assent to the contractual agreement was hidden in the franchisee’s General Consent electronic document.  Doe v. Massage Envy Franchising, No. A161688, 2022 Cal. App. LEXIS 1066 (Ct. App. Dec. 29, 2022) Read more

Medical malpractice plaintiffs lack standing to seek declaratory relief challenging MICRA’s constitutionality. Read more

In a matter of first impression, a California appellate court held that a party was entitled to a jury trial for a claim based on a board member’s alleged breach of fiduciary duty. Read more

In April 2022, the Supreme Court submitted to Congress proposed revisions to the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure (“FRBP”) and other federal rules.  Because Congress did not reject or defer the proposed amendments, the proposed revisions went into effect on December 1, 2022. Read more

In Fin. of Am. LLC v Mrtg, Windown LLC (In re Ditech Holdings Corp.), ___ F.4th ___, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 172793, 2022 WL 4448867 (S.D.N.Y. 2022) (“Ditech”), the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (the “District Court”) overruled the decision of the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York (the “Bankruptcy Court”) that a creditor’s claim for postpetition performance on a later-rejected prepetition executory contract generates only a general unsecured claim rather than an administrative expense claim.  Read more