The United States Supreme Court yesterday significantly limited the federal government’s ability to bring an action for civil penalties more than five years after the alleged misconduct occurred. In Gabelli v. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Court held that the five-year limitations period governing most enforcement actions begins to run when the underlying violation occurred – not when the government discovered the violation ...
In an opinion issued last week, Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., 559 U.S. __ (2010), the Supreme Court held that foreign plaintiffs cannot use the U.S. Securities laws to sue foreign issuers based on foreign stock purchases: a ruling that sounds the death knell for these so-called “foreign cubed” cases. Rejecting decades of lower-court case law on the extraterritorial reach of the U.S ...
Last month, the Supreme Court decided TC Heartland LLC v. Kraft Foods Group Brands LLC, which narrowed the definition of where a corporate defendant "resides" for the purpose of suing it for patent infringement. In doing so, it overturned the 1994 holding of the Federal Circuit of what constitutes proper venue in patent infringement cases. Federal law allows a Plaintiff to bring a patent infringement suit against a defendant in any district where one of two conditions are met ...
On July 17, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada in Hydro-Québec v. Syndicat des employé-e-s de techniques professionnelles et de bureau d'Hydro-Québec, 2008 SCC 43 clarified that there are limits to the employer’s duty to accommodate ...
On June 27, 2008, the Supreme Court of Canada (“SCC”) released its decision in Keays v. Honda Canada Inc. and overturned the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal and narrowed the scope of Wallace damages for the “bad faith” manner of dismissal. This decision arises from a decision of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice which awarded $500,000 in punitive damages to a dismissed employee in addition to 24 months salary in lieu of notice ...
The Supreme Court of Canada recently rendered a divided decision in which it concluded that an employer’s policy imposing mandatory random alcohol testing was not justified.1 This decision is of interest to employers in Quebec since it confirms arbitral case law on the subject. Background In 2006, Irving Pulp & Paper, Ltd. (“Irving” or the “employer”) unilaterally adopted a policy on the consumption of alcohol and other drugs (the “policy”) ...
On April 19, 2024, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its decision in Société des casinos du Québec inc. v. Association des cadres de la Société des casinos du Québec, marking the end of an almost 15 year-long debate on the freedom of association of managers and their exclusion under the Labour Code ...
In March, due to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) the Ministry of Health established that an employee required to quarantine at home in accordance with Ministry of Health guidelines would automatically receive a sick leave certificate which could present to the employer and receive sick pay for the quarantine period ...
On June 21, 2018, the United States Supreme Court, in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc., held that a state can now require companies not physically present in that state to collect tax on internet sales made to its residents. The explosive growth of e-commerce combined with the states’ eroding tax base convinced the Supreme Court to turn back a half century of jurisprudence ...
In a unanimous opinion issued this week, Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. v. Siracusano, 563 U.S. __ (2011), the Supreme Court declined to adopt a proposed bright-line rule for materiality and reaffirmed the Basic “total mix” test. Specifically, the Court rejected Matrixx’s argument that adverse incident reports are never material unless they are statistically significant - overturning several lower court decisions to the contrary, including one written by then-Judge Alito ...
In a unanimous opinion issued yesterday in Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton Co., 563 U.S. __ (2011), a securities class fraud action, the Supreme Court held that class certification had been improperly denied by the Fifth Circuit based on the absence of “loss causation.” The Court’s holding rejected Fifth Circuit case law dating back to 2007, which had required securities fraud plaintiffs to prove loss causation in order to obtain certification of a class ...
Supreme Court Ruling Sets the Foundation for GST on Secondment of Employees AUTHOR: Reena Asthana Khair Senior Partner and Head International Trade & Indirect Taxation Kochhar & Co. EMAIL: [email protected] Japanese Multinational companies often share their talent pool across borders and jurisdictions by secondment of Japanese nationals ...
The Supreme Court in CIGNA Corp. v. Amara held that plan terms cannot be reformed under Section 502(a)(1)(B) of ERISA based on a misleading summary plan description (SPD). Despite this narrow ruling, six justices further stated that reformation may be an appropriate equitable remedy under Section 502(a)(3) of ERISA. Background In 1998, CIGNA replaced its defined benefit plan with a cash balance plan ...
The Supreme Court will decide if historic holiday pay claims can be brought where there are gaps of three months or more between a series of underpayments. The outcome could have significant implications for employers across the UK ...
Today, the Supreme Court issued decisions in the COVID mandate cases that have had employers across the country on the edge of their seats. In aper curiam6-3 decision, the Court stayed the OSHA Emergency Temporary Standard that required all employers with 100 or more employees to require COVID vaccination or weekly testing ...
On Monday, June 11, 2012, the Supreme Court granted a writ of certiorari in Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds v. Amgen Inc., 660 F.3d 1170 (9th Cir. 2011) to clarify the standards for certifying a class in a securities fraud suit under the fraud-on-the-market theory. The Court’s decision to revisit class certification in securities fraud suits only a year after deciding Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton Co., 563 U.S ...
[!<CDATA[ This term the Supreme Court is set to resolve a circuit split over the extent of a federal district court’s power to order a person “who resides in or is found” in its district “to give testimony or statement or to produce a document or other thing for use in a proceeding in a foreign or international tribunal” pursuant to 28 U.S.C Section 1782(a) ...
In a much anticipated opinion, the Supreme Court on Monday held that class action waivers in arbitration agreements are enforceable. In a 5-4 decision written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, the Court stated that “Congress has instructed in the Arbitration Act that arbitration agreements providing for individualized proceedings must be enforced, and neither the Arbitration Act’s saving clause nor the NLRA suggests otherwise ...
In an opinion issued last week, Merck & Co. v. Reynolds, 559 U.S. __ (2010), the Supreme Court significantly curtailed the ability of defendants to assert the statute of limitations as a defense to a securities fraud claim under § 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The decision makes it less likely that courts will dismiss, on statute of limitations grounds, cases filed within five years of the alleged fraud ...
On May 26, 2011, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. Whitingin which petitioners had challenged a 2007 Arizona law imposing sanctions on businesses that hire unauthorized aliens. Petitioners claimed that the Arizona law, the Legal Arizona Workers Act, was expressly, or alternatively, impliedly preempted by the Federal Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) ...
A wave of settlements with municipal underwriting firms under the SEC’s Municipalities Continuing Disclosure Cooperation (MCDC) Initiative has brought renewed attention to continuing disclosure obligations in municipal offerings. But, it also raises questions about the initiative’s purportedly favorable settlement terms. On July 18, 2015, the SEC announced settlements with 36 municipal underwriters for willfully violating Section 17(a)(2) of the Securities Act ...
The No Surprises Act (Act), which became effective Jan. 1, 2022, is the latest health care law passed with the best of intent: to create consumer protection from unexpected out-of-network medical bills and to create a federal independent dispute resolution (IDR) process to resolve payment disputes between payers and out-of-network providers. Unfortunately, the Act, especially the U.S ...
A recent report in Fin24 entitled ‘MTN named SA and Africa’s strongest brand’ listed South Africa’s top 50 brands in terms of brand value. It was based on research done by the brand valuation company, BrandFinance. As the title suggests, MTN came out on top, followed by Sasol, Vodacom, Standard Bank, Absa, Nedbank, FNB, Mediclinic, Investec and Woolworths. Of the top 50 brands, 16 are in the food and beverages sector, 13 in financial services, and five in telecoms ...
Austrian law distinguishes between composition proceedings in accordance with the Composition Code (Ausgleichsordnung-AO) and bankruptcy proceedings in accordance with the Bankruptcy Code (Konkursordnung-KO). Bankruptcy proceedings have to be opened if the debtor is unable to pay. In particular, inability to pay must be assumed if the debtor suspends payments. Inability to pay does not require that creditors are actively seeking payment ...
BAG of Feb. 19, 2019 – 3 AZR 219/18 So-called "late marriage clauses" in surviving dependants' pension commitments may constitute an unjustified age discrimination and can therefore be ineffective, unless a specific cut-off date can be justified on the basis of a specific connecting factor particularly linked to the legal structure principles of company pension schemes. FACTS OF THE CASE A widow filed a complaint with regard to a widow's pension before the labor courts ...
