On Friday, January 17, 2014, the Texas Supreme Court issued its opinion in Ewing Construction Company v. Amerisure Insurance Company - holding that “a general contractor who agrees to perform its construction work in a good and workmanlike manner, without more, . . . does not ‘assume liability’ for damages arising out of its defective work so as to trigger the Contractual Liability Exclusion ...
The dispute resolution terms of engineering contracts can cause problems. An example is the recent case of Tubular Holdings (Pty) Ltd v DBT Technologies (Pty) Ltd, an unreported decision of South Gautend High Court. DBT Technologies - a subcontractor to Eskom in the Kusile Project 0 further contracted to Tubular Holdings in a deal worth some R 1.3 billion. Contract FIDIC's clause 20 governs the dispute resolution procedure. Clause 20 ...
Effective January 1, 2014, the International Chamber of Commerce (“ICC”) replaced its Amicable Dispute Resolution rules with new Mediation Rules. The new ICC Mediation Rules (the “Rules”) set clear parameters for mediating disputes, while also providing for additional flexible procedures that allow the parties to resolve their disputes privately and confidentially ...
A New York appellate court affirmed in Syracuse Univ. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., CA 13-01056, (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. Dec. 27, 2013), that an insurer must pay the costs incurred by its policyholder to comply with subpoenas issued to the policyholder as part of a criminal investigation, even where formal charges are not filed ...
Last December 23, the Supreme Court of Canada partially overturned the decision of the Quebec Court of Appeal in the case of Cinar Corporation v. Robinson1 and reinstated most of the conclusions of the Quebec Superior Court. BACKGROUND In the 1980s, Claude Robinson (“Robinson”) developed a project for a television series entitled “The Adventures of Robinson Curiosity” (“Robinson Curiosity”). He partnered with Pathonic to whom he had presented his project ...
In Ass’n For Molecular Pathology v. Myriad Genetics, Inc., the Supreme Court held that "a naturally occurring DNA segment is a product of nature and not patent eligible merely because it has been isolated, but that cDNA is patent eligible because it is not naturally occurring." 133 S. Ct. 1207 (2013). Further, fragments that are "indistinguishable from natural DNA" are not statutory subject matter. Id., 2119 ...
On January 2, the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced its first civil enforcement action of 2014 — a consummated merger challenge and settlement resulting from Heraeus Electro-Nite’s (Heraeus’s) $42 million acquisition of Midwest Instrument Company Inc. (Minco). The enforcement action is the latest DOJ challenge to a merger not required to be reported to the US antitrust agencies under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act ...
A recently unsealed decision from the United States District Court for the District of Maryland demonstrates that insurers cannot hide behind the attorney-client privilege and work-product doctrine to shield claim files from discovery. The court made clear that involving counsel in claim handling does not operate to make either doctrine automatically apply. Charter Oak Fire Ins. Co. v. Am. Capital Ltd., No. 8:09-cv-100 (D. Md. Nov. 6, 2013) ...
On 22 November 2011, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) rendered two very important rulings in the Medeva (C-322/10) and Georgetown (C-422/10) cases. Those rulings however raised new issues that national patent courts quickly referred back to the Court. Yesterday, the CJEU decided on three Medeva follow-up cases. The new rulings brought more clarity about the conditions under which an SPC may be granted ...
A Pennsylvania appellate court in Indalex, Inc. v. National Union Fire Ins. Co., No. 612 WDA 2012 (Dec. 3, 2013), found that a general liability insurer must defend a window and door manufacturer against claims alleging that defects in the manufacturer’s windows and doors caused damage to property and bodily injuries ...
Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") recently announced its updated voting policies for the 2014 proxy season. The policies will become effective for shareholder meetings held on or after February 1, 2014. We have summarized below four policy updates relating to corporate governance matters that may be of particular interest to US corporations. Simplified Pay-for-Performance Executive Evaluation ISS revised its policy relating to executive pay-for-performance evaluations ...
In 2010, the New York State Bar Association’s (NYSBA) Task Force on New York Law in International Matters (Task Force) recommended the creation of a permanent center for international dispute resolution in New York.1 And on June 17, 2013, the New York International Arbitration Center (NYIAC), a non-profit providing world-class arbitration facilities and educational programs about international arbitration, opened its doors ...
On December 2, 2013 the US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in BG Group v. Argentina, addressing for the first time the applicable rules when a US court reviews an international arbitral award made under a bilateral investment treaty. This case has earned the attention of the international arbitration community, given its potential impact on future arbitral practice in the United States and abroad ...
Background Following a recent YouGov survey's finding that 85 per cent of SMEs in the UK have been affected by late payments over the past two years, Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that the UK government is to launch a consultation this year to examine ways of reducing this problem, and find solutions to ensure payments are made more timeously to SMEs by larger companies ...
In a recent First-tier Tribunal Tax Chamber case it was held that HMRC regulations which require the electronic filing of VAT returns were discriminatory. The full decision (which runs to some 154 pages) can be found here.The electronic filing of VAT returns was made compulsory for all businesses with a turnover of over £100,000, and any newly registered business, with effect from 1 April 2010 and for all businesses with effect from 1 April 2012 ...
Whether you call it a “shutdown” or a “slowdown,” the lack of a fully-funded federal government is impacting more than the 800,000 federal workers furloughed since October 1.1 According to economic consulting firm, IHS Global Insight, the federal budget debacle will cost $1.6 billion per week in lost gross domestic product ...
Cadbury has lost a five-year legal battle with Swiss rival Nestlé. This week the Court of Appeal overturned a previous decision of the High Court that gave Cadbury an exclusive right to the famous purple colour it uses for its chocolate wrappers. Cadbury began marketing Dairy Milk in a pale mauve colour in 1905 but it wasn’t until 1920 that its full range of Dairy Milk became purple ...
John Grimes Partnership Ltd v Gubbins [2013] EWCA Civ 37 involved a dispute about a property development. Mr Gubbins engaged the John Grimes Partnership Ltd to design a road over land on which he intended to develop residential properties. An express term of the contract between the parties was that the works would be completed by March 2007. However, in February 2008 there was still work to be done so Mr Gubbins engaged an alternative engineer to complete the work ...
Player power, loyalty and respect of contracts has increasingly made media headlines, demonstrated predominantly this summer with Luis Suarez of Liverpool FC and Manchester United's Wayne Rooney. As widely reported, Arsenal FC made an infamous bid of £40,000,001.00 to Liverpool for the transfer of the registration of Suarez to Arsenal ...
A Q&A guide to dispute resolution law in the United Arab Emirates.The country-specific Q&A gives a structured overview of the key practical issues concerning dispute resolution in this jurisdiction, including court procedures; fees and funding; interim remedies (including attachment orders); disclosure; expert evidence; appeals; class actions; enforcement; cross-border issues; the use of ADR; and any reform proposals. Main dispute resolution methods1 ...
Gareth Bale has been in the news last week for transferring to Real Madrid in a record £85m deal. Less well known is that at the beginning of August he successfully registered as a UK trade mark a logo based on his signature goal celebration. His Eleven of Hearts logo is registered against several classes of goods including precious metals, jewellery, clothing, footwear and even parasols and walking sticks ...
