Business Law

In Lorenzen v. Taggart (In re Taggart), 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 40787 (9th Cir., Dec. 30, 2020), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a petition for rehearing of its decision in In re Taggart, 980 F.3d 1340 (9th Cir. 2020) (“Taggart 4”), on remand from the decision of the United States Supreme Court in Taggart v. Lorenzen, 139 S. Ct. 1795 (2019) (“Taggart 3”), which reversed Lorenzen v. Taggart (In re Taggart), 888 F.3d 438 (9th Cir. 2018) (“Taggart 2”). Read more

The following published decisions may be of interest to attorneys practicing insurance law. Read more

In Avery v. Leya Techs., LLC (In re Protoype Eng’g & Mfg.), 2020 Bankr. LEXIS 1775 (Bankr. C.D. Cal. 2020) (“Prototype”) (unpublished), the bankruptcy court ruled that a substantive consolidation claim against a non-debtor entity was a “real property claim” within the meaning of California’s lis pendens statute, Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §§ 405.1-405.61. Read more

The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the Ninth Circuit remanded in part and reversed in part the decision of the bankruptcy court for the Northern District of California that entered a pre-filing order upon a finding that a chapter 7 debtor was a vexatious litigant. Read more

Dr. Willie Goffney is a surgical oncologist who has provided services to Medicare patients since 1991. In 2005, Dr. Goffney stopped receiving reimbursement payments for his Medicare claims, Read more

The California Medical Association (CMA) is a nonprofit, professional organization that advocates on behalf of its physician members, including Aetna in-network physicians. CMA sued Aetna under the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) (Bus. & Prof. Code, § 17200), seeking to enjoin it from inhibiting in-network physicians from referring their patients to out-of-network providers. The CMA alleged that Aetna’s policy unlawfully interfered with its members’ ability to exercise independent medical judgment and violated various California statutes. Read more

The California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA) was enacted to address increasing concerns about the collection and sale of Californian residents’ personal information as online activities grew more frequent and more detailed.[ii] The CCPA provides data collection rights for California residents as well as regulations for certain businesses that sell personal information. However, the consequences under CCPA for third party analytic cookies was left open to interpretation. Read more

The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit recently ruled that a triangular arrangement which allowed for set off of money the debtor owed to a company’s affiliate against what the parent company owed to the debtor was not allowed under section 553 because the necessary mutuality was not present, despite the fact that such arrangement was enforceable as a set off under state law Read more

In In re Kramer, ___ B.R. ___, 2021 Bankr. LEXIS 358 (Bankr. N.D. Ok.. February 16, 2021) (“Kramer”), relying on a systemic application of Oklahoma contract law and the relevant statute, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma (the “Court”) denied the Chapter 7 trustee’s motion to sell the debtor’s interest in a handful of LLCs over the objection of the debtor and the other members because the trustee’s sale violated various terms of the governing operating agreements. Read more

The U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho affirmed the decision of the bankruptcy court for the District of Idaho finding that a successful creditor in a non-dischargeability proceeding was entitled to an award of attorneys’ fees in prosecuting the action. Read more