Category: Damages

$765 Million Settlement Not Enough!

A recent article by Case Funding Inc., indicated that Judge Anita Body had questions about the adequacy of the $765 million settlement between the NFL and NFL players.  The settlement relates to mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBI) that NFL players have suffered or may suffer in the future as a result of their NFL careers. …

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Speculative damages lead to summary judgment

When it comes to damage calculations, the term “speculative” is effectively a death sentence.  In order to provide evidentiary value, a damage calculation must be to a reasonable degree of certainty.  In Carter v. Clements Walker PLLC, et al. (“CW”), the Court found that despite an expert opinion that Carter suffered $33 million in damages, …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2014/01/speculative-damages-lead-to-summary-judgment/

Ernst & Young gets settlement deal of the decade

E&Y just settled the Lehman Brothers class action against them for $99 million. It made little news. The 2008 Lehman Brothers bankruptcy was at least partially caused by accounting malfeasance. This article describes the bankruptcy examiner’s report on this wrongdoing. Arthur Andersen was entirely destroyed for a bad audit of Enron that was no worse …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/12/ernst-young-gets-settlement-deal-of-the-decade/

Disgorgement of Profits on Unpaid Benefits Granted in ERISA Long Term Disability Case

In Rochow v. Life Insurance Company of North America (“LINA”), the Appeals Court affirmed a disgorgement remedy of $3.8 million under ERISA in this long term disability case.  In a previous appeal, the Court had determined that LINA had acted in an arbitrary and capricious manner when it continuously denied Daniel Rochow benefits for his long …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/12/disgorgement-and-unpaid-benefits-granted-in-erisa-long-term-disability-case/

Get the Court’s Daubert Rationale on the Record

A recent ruling encourages any litigator sponsoring expert testimony to ensure that the Court memorializes its critique of the Court’s gatekeeping function of expert testimony. The ruling also reversed two inherently speculative damage claims claims that  are not that uncommon. In Smith v. Jenkins, F.3d (1st Cir. Oct. 15, 2013) (Nos. 11–2349, 11–2378, 11–2389), the Appellate Court …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/11/first-circuit-reverses-two-speculative-damage-types/

Nash bargaining solution in patent damages is not always a 50%/50% split

The Federal Circuit ruled in Uniloc USA, Inc. v. Microsoft Corp. that the widely used (but fatally flawed) 25 percent rule can no longer be part of reasonable royalty damages calculations. This article provides the details of this reasonable royalty damages decision. Since that time, plaintiffs have advanced the Nash Bargaining Solution, a theoretical mathematical …

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Bottega Veneta successfully trademarks it’s signature design element

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) has ruled in re: Bottega Veneta International S.a.r.l., no. 77219184 (TTAB Oct. 4, 2013) that protection is appropriate for Bottega Veneta’s signature “weave design, described as a: “configuration of slim, uniformly-sized strips of leather, ranging from 8 to 12 millimeters in width, interlaced to form a repeating plain or …

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Pay more attention to compensatory damages: Punitive damages remain limited to simple multipliers

In Nickerson v. Stonebridge Life Insurance Company (B234271, Aug. 29, 2013), the California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s reduction of the jury’s punitive damage award to ten times the tort damages. In reaching this decision, the Appellate Court extensively discussed the defendant’s conduct, and its application under federal and California punitive damage law. …

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Permanent link to this article: https://betweenthenumbers.net/2013/09/pay-more-attention-to-compensatory-damages-punitive-damages-remain-limited-to-simple-multipliers/

“Dirtiest Hotel in America” Loses Again

The owner of a Tennessee hotel named at the top of TripAdvisor’s 2011 list of America’s dirtiest hotels has lost its bid to sue the website for defamation.  A federal appeals court agreed with the 2012 ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips’ determination that users would not reasonably conclude that the resort was literally “America’s dirtiest …

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Will Shopping Center Be Held to Estimates In A Letter of Intent?

The California Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court’s decision to dismiss a tenant lawsuit against a shopping center landlord based on differences between the landlord’s estimates of certain charges outlined in a Letter of Intent (“LOI”) as part of lease negotiations versus the amounts charged by the landlord upon occupancy. Prior to entering …

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