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Case Summaries

Contracts

[11/19] McDonald v. Sun Oil Co.
In a suit arising out of the sale of a property containing a disused mercury mine, alleging negligence, contribution, breach of contract and fraud as a result of an alleged oral warranty that certain rock at the mine was free of mercury, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) the state statute of repose did not render the negligence claim time-barred, because provisions of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act amending state statute of limitations rules also applied to statutes of repose; 2) the contribution claim could not be brought without remedial action having been initiated by a state environmental agency; 3) the parol evidence rule was properly applied to find that the parties had reduced their entire agreement to writing and that no binding oral warranty existed; and 4) plaintiffs did not produce evidence of the alleged falsity of statements made by defendant.

[11/18] Dealer Computer Svcs., Inc. v. Dub Herring Ford
Following an arbitration decision granting award to defendant-dealerships and finding arbitration provisions found in various contracts between defendant-dealerships and plaintiff-computer software and hardware vendor did not preclude class arbitration, district court judgment in favor of defendant-dealerships is vacated and remanded with instructions to dismiss where the district court lacked jurisdiction to consider plaintiff's motion to vacate the arbitration award because the matter was not ripe for judicial review.

[11/17] Native Am. Distrib. v. Seneca-Cayuga Tobacco Co.
In an breach of contract action between a distributor and an enterprise of a tribe, dismissal of plaintiffs' claims is affirmed where: 1) the tribal enterprise has not waived its immunity; 2) the enterprise was not equitably estopped from asserting its immunity due to the misrepresentations of its managers; 3) the district court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction; and 4) the plaintiffs failed to allege a viable civil conspiracy claim against the individual defendants in their individual capacities.

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Injury & Tort Law

[11/21] McGhee v. Pottawattamie County, Iowa
In suits by two men convicted for murder and released over twenty years later, alleging constitutional violations by the original prosecutors and defamation by the current prosecutor, orders of the district court are affirmed in part and reversed in part where: 1) defendant-current prosecutor was entitled to sovereign immunity on the defamation claim; and 2) with respect to defendants-original prosecutors, the district court erred in failing to conduct an analysis of the scope of their employment for sovereign immunity purposes distinct from the court's analysis of whether they were entitled to absolute immunity.

[11/21] Dale v. Poston
In a federal prisoner's suit alleging Eighth Amendment violations by prison employees who allegedly failed to protect him from an attack by another inmate, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where there was no evidence that any of the defendants were aware of facts from which they could draw an inference of substantial harm.

[11/19] Bregin v. Liquidebt Sys., Inc
In a suit alleging retaliatory discharge and tortious interference with employment, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed where: 1) plaintiff did not identify any illegal acts which he was asked to commit, for which a retaliation claim could be brought; 2) state law did not provide a whistleblower exception to the employment-at-will doctrine; and 3) plaintiff did not make out a claim for tortious interference.

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Landlord Tenant

[11/14] Feemster v. BSA Ltd. P'ship
In an action alleging that defendant-landlord unlawfully refused to accept Section 8 vouchers as payment for rent, summary judgment for tenants in part is affirmed, and for landlord in part is reversed, where: 1) federal housing law prevented landlord from unilaterally declaring that the units in question were no longer being offered for rental housing, but instead required that landlord meet the requirements of local law for making such a determination; and 2) the uncontested fact that landlord refused payment via voucher, while insisting it would accept cash, made out a facial violation of the District of Columbia Human Rights Act.

[11/12] Hoopes v. Dolan
In a suit by plaintiff-commercial tenant against his landlord for exclusive parking rights under his lease, a judgment for defendants despite a jury verdict in favor of plaintiff is affirmed where: 1) the trial court erred in disregarding the jury's verdict when fashioning equitable relief founded on the same evidence and the same operative facts as the verdict; 2) however, the defense of equitable estoppel was a matter within the exclusive province of the trial judge and it raised legal and factual issues undecided by the jury; and 3) while the trial court should have considered the equitable defense first, the order of trial was within the court's discretion and did not divest the judge of his duty to determine applicability of equitable estoppel.

[10/29] Gombiner v. Swartz
In a case involving a claim for breach of a residential lease of a home owned by defendant-landlord, jury verdict with net recovery to defendant of $453,000 is reversed and remanded for retrial where the trial court erroneously found Los Angeles's Rent Stabilization Ordinance did not apply to the dispute.

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Trade Secrets

[09/19] Niemi v. NHK Springs Co., Ltd.
In a suit for misappropriation of trade secret, breach of contract, and promissory estoppel involving a method of manufacturing stabilizer bars for automobiles, summary judgment for defendant-corporation and dismissal ruling in favor of its parent company are affirmed in part as to the dismissal ruling based on a lack of personal jurisdiction, but reversed in part where there was sufficient evidence to create genuine issues of material fact on trade secret and promissory estoppel claims.

[09/09] Asset Marketing v. Gagnon
In a software copyright and trade secret case, summary judgment for defendant on the grounds of an implied license to retain, use and modify the software was affirmed where: 1) defendant requested creation of the software programs; 2) plaintiff created the programs for defendant and delivered them to defendant by installing them on defendants' computers and storing source code for the programs on defendant's premises; and 3) defendant manifested an intent that plaintiff would maintain and modify the programs.

[08/19] In Re Cygnus Telecomm. Tech., LLC, Patent Litig.
In a patent dispute over computerized callback systems designed to lower the cost of overseas telephone calls, summary judgment of invalidity and dismissal of trade secret appropriation claims are affirmed where: 1) plaintiff was not collaterally estopped from appealing the invalidity finding despite not having named all defendants in its appeal; 2) plaintiffs produced no evidence disputing a statement by the inventor regarding the date on which he had reduced the invention to practice; 3) sales of a device that embodied the patent claims subjected the patent to invalidation despite that device's not being ready for sale on a commercial scale; and 4) the statute of limitations barred plaintiff's claim for misappropriation of trade secrets.

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