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Litigation

Northwest Business Litigation Blog

Resource for in-house counsel, business executives, human resource managers and others who monitor litigation and legal issues affecting Northwest USA businesses.
By Ater Wynne LLP

Post Frequency: 2.4/day

Last Entry: March 24, 2011 at 15:41:58

House unanimously passes ADA amendments

Posted on September 20, 2008
Following the Senate's passage of S. 3406 - the Senate version of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008 - the US House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill without change on September 18. President Bush is expected to sign the...

Ninth Circuit fine tunes the pleading standard for securities fraud

Posted on September 19, 2008
Last week, the Ninth Circuit, in South Ferry LP v. Killinger, limited the use of the "core operations inference" to meet the heightened pleading standard of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act in alleging securities fraud by a corporation's management...

Oregon Supreme Court opens gate to scientific expert testimony

Posted on September 18, 2008
This week the Oregon Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and allowed the admission of a medical expert's testimony on the causation of an alleged injury. In Marcum v. Adventist Health System/West, plaintiff had received an injection of contrast...

Senate passes amendments to Americans with Disabilities Act

Posted on September 13, 2008
On September 12, the U.S. Senate passed S. 3406, the Senate version of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008. The bill is intended to overturn a number of U.S. Supreme Court cases that narrowed the scope of protection afforded by...

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Oregon Court of Appeals reduces punitive damages in employment case

Posted on September 12, 2008
This week the Oregon Court of Appeals struck down a jury award of punitive damages 30 times the amount of compensatory damages, in a case where the harm to plaintiff was economic and not physical. In Hamlin v. Hampton Lumber...

Washington L&I issues new regulation on pay for travel time

Posted on September 10, 2008
In response to the Washington Supreme Court's decision in Stevens v. Brink?s Home Security, which defined the parameters for paid travel time in Washington, the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) committed to updating its administrative policy to address the...

Online video-sharing service not liable for users' copyright infringement

Posted on September 01, 2008
In an opinion issued last week, a federal district court in California dismissed a lawsuit against Veoh Networks, Inc., a self-described "Internet Television Network," which provides software and a website enabling the sharing of user-submitted video content over the Internet...

eBay seller can't be sued in buyer's home state, Ninth Circuit holds

Posted on August 22, 2008
A non-resident seller of a single item in an eBay auction can't be sued for breach of contract in the buyer's home state, according to a case decided this week by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In Boschetto v....

Denial of petition to compel arbitration in Oregon must be appealed within 30 days

Posted on August 14, 2008
The Oregon Court of Appeals held yesterday in Snider v. Production Chemical Manufacturing, Inc., that an order denying a petition to compel arbitration must be appealed within 30 days of the order. In that case, the party seeking to arbitrate...

California Supreme Court rejects use of most non-competition agreements

Posted on August 12, 2008
Last week, in Edwards v. Arthur Andersen, a unanimous California Supreme Court held that the state legislature has restricted the ability of employers to prevent employees from working for a competitor. As a result of the ruling, noncompetition agreements that...

Washington Department of Labor & Industries to issue policy on 'drive-time' wages

Posted on August 06, 2008
On August 8, 2008, the Washington Department of Labor & Industries will issue a draft policy addressing the uncertainy created by the 2007 Washington State Supreme Court decision in Stevens v. Brink's Home Security regarding travel time in company vehicles...

Corporate Directors Are Not Employees After All

Posted on August 04, 2008
Almost exactly a year after we reported the Court of Appeals? decision that payments to corporate directors are "wages" for the purpose of unemployment taxation, the Oregon Supreme Court reversed that decision. The Supreme Court held "that the legislature did...

New business radio show features Ernie Bootsma of Ater Wynne

Posted on August 01, 2008
August 1, 2008 - Ernie Bootsma, chair of Ater Wynne's Emerging Business Group, will be the featured guest today on the innaugural show of StartUp Portland, a new business radio program for entrepreneurs, private investors and "those interested in getting...

Will the Employee Free Choice Act undermine free choice?

Posted on July 31, 2008
Last year we reported on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), the proposed pro-union legislation that would abolish secret ballot elections in favor of union card checks by employees. Although the bill failed in the Senate, it remains a priority...

Waiver or breach of arbitration agreement must be resolved by court, Ninth Circuit holds

Posted on July 25, 2008
Once parties have entered into an arbitration agreement, the courts have a limited role in adjudicating a subsequent dispute. While a court may generally decide whether a valid agreement to arbitrate exists, most other issues must be resolved by the....

Rest and meal break class actions just got tougher in California

Posted on July 23, 2008
While wage and hour class actions continue to be popular, a California court just issued an opinion likely to put at least a slight damper on rest and meal break class actions. In Brinker Restaurant Corporation v. Hohnbaum (Cal. Ct....

Federal minimum wage increases July 24, 2008

Posted on July 23, 2008
This is a reminder that, effective July 24, 2008, the federal minimum wage will increase from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour. This is the second of three increases scheduled under the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The next increase...

IRS requires reporting for stock options

Posted on July 21, 2008
The Internal Revenue Code for some time has required corporations to provide written statements to employees regarding transfers of stock pursuant to an exercised option or under an Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP). Effective for 2007, Congress amended the Code...

Oregon Court of Appeals applies doctrine of ratification to enforce contract

Posted on July 15, 2008
Last week, in Lemley v. Lemley, the Oregon Court of Appeals held that a settlement agreement to transfer an interest in real property is enforceable even though the agreement was executed by an attorney who lacked written authority to enter...

U.S. Supreme Court limits tribal court jurisdicition

Posted on June 26, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday issued an important 5-4 decision addressing the scope of tribal court jurisdiction. At issue in Plains Commerce Bank v. Long Family Land and Title Co. was whether a tribal court could exercise jurisdiction over a...

US Supreme Court addresses conflicts of interest in ERISA plans

Posted on June 23, 2008
ERISA provides that an individual denied benefits under an employer benefit plan may challenge the denial in federal court. Last week, the US Supreme Court addressed the standards for review when the entity that administers the plan -- usually an...

Employers face additional burden in defending age claims

Posted on June 19, 2008
Today the U.S. Supreme Court made it harder for employers to defend themselves against a claim of age discrimination in Meacham v. Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. Knolls, a government contractor that contracted with the Navy and Department of Energy, was...

Oregon Court of Appeals: Party who claims no contract existed can't recover attorney fees

Posted on June 17, 2008
Contracts often provide for an award of attorney fees to one of the parties in the event of litigation relating to the contract. Under Oregon statutory law, a prevailing party in such a lawsuit is entitled to recover its attorney...

No "class of one" constitutional protection for government employees

Posted on June 16, 2008
On June 9, in a case involving a former State of Oregon employee, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that "class of one" equal protection under the 14th Amendment does not protect state government employees against firings for arbitrary reasons. Chief...

U.S. Supreme Court gives expansive reading to civil RICO liability

Posted on June 15, 2008
In Bridge v. Phoenix Bond & Indemnity Co., the United States Supreme Court last week held that a plaintiff bringing a civil RICO claim predicated on mail fraud may recover for injury from the mail fraud, even if plaintiff did...

U.S. Supreme Court extends patent exhaustion to method patents

Posted on June 12, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday addressed the scope of the patent exhaustion doctrine, holding that it applies to method patents. It has long been recognized that the holder of a patent in an apparatus cannot claim patent rights in...

Deferred compensation plans must comply with new law by year end

Posted on June 11, 2008
By the end of this year, the IRS requires every "deferred compensation plan" to comply with Internal Revenue Code Section 409A. What is a deferred compensation plan? The definition covers a number of employment arrangements, such as severance agreements, stock...

$79.5 million punitive damage award against Philip Morris returns to the U.S. Supreme Court

Posted on June 09, 2008
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review for the third time the $79.5 million in punitive damages that a Multnomah County jury awarded in a tobacco products liability case. The court today accepted review in Williams v. Philip Morris...

Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act signed into law

Posted on June 03, 2008
On May 21, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Genetic Information Non-Discrimination Act ("GINA"). GINA prohibits employers from discharging, refusing to hire, or otherwise discriminating against employees on the basis of genetic information. It also applies to employment agencies...

Falling book prices doom antitrust lawsuit against Amazon and Borders

Posted on May 29, 2008
A customer can't sue two retailers for illegal collusion unless he can show that he suffered actual damages, according an opinion issued this week by the Ninth Circuit. In Gerlinger v. Amazon.com, Inc., plaintiff challenged an agreement under which the...

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