Case Updates

Summary: A district court in Illinois has held that although the interest rate in a commercial note was tied to the original lender’s internal index, an assignee of that note acquired the failed lender’s power to set the index. [Knezovic vs. Urban Partnership Bank, 2018 Westlaw 3022680 (N.D. Ill.).] Read more

Summary: A district court in New Jersey has held that the transfer of title to real property to a tax sale certificate holder constituted an avoidable preferential transfer, and the Supreme Court's holding in BFP was distinguishable because it dealt with fraudulent transfers, rather than preferences. [In re Hackler, 2018 Westlaw 1440326 (D. N.J.).] Read more

The Fifth Circuit has held that when a bankruptcy estate is subject to mass tort claims, the estate has an equitable interest in the insurance proceeds, thus precluding extrajudicial settlements by the tort victims. [In re OGA Charters, LLC, 2018 Westlaw 4057525 (5th Cir.).] Read more

Harrison (Buzz) Frahn, Michael R. Morey, Wyatt A. Honse Simpson Thatcher & Bartlett LLP On March 28, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California partially granted and denied cross-motions for summary judgment in In re: NCAA Grant-in-Aid Cap Antitrust Litigation, No. 4:14-md-02541-CW, 2018 WL 1524005 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 28, 2018) (the “Grant-in-Aid Litigation”).The Grant-in-Aid Litigation is a multidistrict class action antitrust suit brought by current and former Division I student-athletes against the NCAA and eleven of its member conferences for… Read more

The Tenth Circuit Bankruptcy Appellate Panel has held that although a deed of trust had been recorded while the debtor had no record title to the property in question, a hypothetical purchaser of the debtor's property would have been on inquiry notice of the deed of trust, due to the debtor's quitclaim executed in favor of her family trust. [In re Cates, 2018 Westlaw 4042816 (10th Cir. BAP).] Read more

On August 23, 2018, the California Court of Appeal, First District, affirmed the Superior Court of San Francisco City and County’s holding that the State Bar of California was not required to disclose individual-level data for applicants to the State Bar in response to several California Public Records Act (“CPRA”) requests seeking such data. Sander v. Superior Court, 237 Cal. Rptr. 3d 276 (Cal. Ct. App. 2018) (hereafter, the “Appellate Opinion”). Read more

On November 6, 2018, Judge Lucy H. Koh of the Northern District of California granted the FTC’s motion for partial summary judgment in its ongoing litigation against Qualcomm. Read more

Amanda Meleski was injured when Albert Hotlen ran a red light and collided with her vehicle. At the time of the accident, Hotlen had a $100,000 policy limit through Allstate Insurance. Hotlen then died and, as authorized by the Probate Code, Meleski filed a probate action against Holten’s estate for the policy limits of $100,000, serving her complaint on Allstate. Allstate rejected Meleski’s C.C.P. 998 offer to compromise of $99,999. At trial, Meleski recovered $180,613.86, and sought costs, including expert fees, of $66,017.08 under C.C.P. 998. The Court denied Meleski’s requests for costs, holding that Plaintiff’s recovery was limited to the $100,000 policy limit. Plaintiff appealed. Read more

In the capacitor private class action litigation, U.S. District Judge James Donato agreed to certify a class of plaintiffs led by four distribution companies that purchased capacitors from mostly Asia-based electronics companies. Read more

Iowa Public Employees’ Ret. System v. Merrill Lynch, et al., Case No. 17-cv-6221, 2018 WL 4636993 *1-*3 (S.D.N.Y. Sept. 27, 2018) (“Iowa Public Employees’”) is a class action brought by plaintiff investors who paid borrowing fees in connection with securities lending services financial firms who are the leading providers of securities lending services (the “Prime Broker Defendants”) as part of stock loan transactions. Read more