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This Week's Feature
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Laches in ERISA Litigation
By Lewis R. Mills
Thompson Coburn LLP, St. Louis, Missouri
Substantially all of the federal Courts of Appeals have held that they should look to analogous state statutes of limitations when determining the timeliness of an action brought under §502(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. §1132(a). Nevertheless, under Holmberg v. Armbrecht, 327 U.S. 392 (1946), the equitable doctrine of laches may provide a defense to such an action even if the analogous state statute of limitations has not run.
[FULL STORY]
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DRI News
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Upcoming DRI Elections
Four new Director Elected Nationally seats on the DRI Board of Directors, plus the office of Second Vice President, will be filled at the 2009 Annual Meeting in Chicago, October 7-11. To be considered for either position, a DRI member must first file a Declaration of Candidacy form. For more information, please contact Nancy Parz at DRI headquarters: nparz@dri.org or 312.698.6224. Declarations are due by July 1, 2009.
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Thomas Bodkin Honored
Congratulations to R. Thomas Bodkin, a partner with Bamberger, Foreman, Oswald and Hahn, LLP of Evansville, Indiana, who received the James Bethel Gresham Award for his dedication to the legal practice and for his community service. The award was presented at the Evansville Bar Association's Law Day dinner on April 24. A DRI member since 1980, Mr. Bodkin is also a member of the Association of Defense Trial Attorneys and the International Association of Defense Counsel, and is a fellow in both the American College of Trial Lawyers and the Litigation Counsel of America. He is a past president of the Defense Trial Counsel of Indiana.
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Expo Deadline Is May 8 — Register Now for the 2009 Diversity for Success Seminar and Expo
As a tribute to its commitment to diversity, DRI is inviting corporations who share this commitment to participate in its Diversity Expo and interview potential minority and women attorneys and their law firms at the seminar. The Diversity Expo will take place on Friday, June 12, 2009, following a day of programming specifically designed for minority attorneys, in-house counsel, women attorneys, diversity consultants and law firm leaders.
[FULL STORY]
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National Foundation for Judicial Excellence
Established in 2004, the National Foundation for Judicial Excellence (NFJE) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to supporting an independent, well-informed judiciary in order to preserve excellence and fairness in the civil justice system.
[FULL STORY]
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Defending Damages Claims in Business Tort Cases
This new Defense Library Series publication tackles the difficult task of dealing with damages claims in cases in which business torts are alleged. The authors are experienced business litigators, who are also active members of the DRI Commercial Litigation Committee. The articles included in this publication address the following topics: Lost profits in business torts; Calculating damages for misappropriation of trade secrets; Potential impact of poaching (analysis of availability of punitive damages in corporate raiding cases); Damages in copyright and trademark actions; Corporate damages under Title VII and other civil rights statutes that apply to employment; Liquidated damages versus penalties; Damages for tortious interference; Prejudgment interest; The application of enhanced fines under the Alternative Fines Act for antitrust defendants. To pre-order your copy today, click here.
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And The Defense Wins!
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DRI members Josh Powers and Heidi Hoffecker of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC in Chattanooga won a defense verdict in a wrongful birth case they tried to a jury in Selmer, McNairy County, Tennessee. Their clients were two family practice physicians in Selmer, an underserved rural medical community. The plaintiffs were the unmarried parents of a child born with spina bifida, who is now almost seven years old. The plaintiffs claimed that the doctors were negligent in failing to diagnose the spina bifida on a screening ultrasound at 20 weeks and a limited ultrasound at 22 weeks' gestation, and that they were thereby deprived of the opportunity to terminate the pregnancy.
[FULL STORY]
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DRI members Stephanie Scharf and Sarah Marmor of the women-owned firm Schoeman Updike Kaufman & Scharf in Chicago, Illinois, obtained a defense verdict after six days of trial in an age discrimination case in federal court in Chicago. The plaintiff, a pharmaceutical sales representative who had been terminated by Reliant Pharmaceuticals after a physician complained about her inappropriate marketing techniques, sued Reliant and its successor, GlaxoSmithKline, alleging that the stated basis for her termination was pretextual and that she was actually a victim of age discrimination.
[FULL STORY]
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DRI members Patrick Gregory and Amir Nassihi of Shook, Hardy & Bacon LLP’s San Francisco appellate team recently obtained a Ninth Circuit victory for Ford Motor Company. Ford won a defense verdict in this Arizona district court wrongful death action where the plaintiffs alleged that Ford’s failure to install back-up alarms on its semi-trucks made the trucks defective. That alleged defect, according to the plaintiffs, caused decedent Paul Beville to be fatally injured, when a Ford semi-truck reversed into him. The plaintiffs challenged this verdict on appeal.
[FULL STORY]
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DRI members Steven E. Holden and Michael L. Carr of the Tulsa, Oklahoma office of Holden, Carr & Skeens recently obtained a defense verdict in a breach of contract and insurance bad faith case tried in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma. The plaintiff, AG Equipment, Inc. (a Broken Arrow company), alleged that AIG Life Insurance Company (through its claims handling unit, Medical Excess, Inc.) breached its contract and acted in bad faith by stopping payment on a claim made by AG Equipment in the amount of $467,775.89 once it learned from a whistleblower at the company, that the claim made was a fraud.
[FULL STORY]
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DRI members Dean T. Barnhard, Joseph G. Eaton, Kara M. Moorcroft, Scott T. Longman (not pictured) and Matthew S. Winings from Barnes & Thornburg LLP in Indianapolis, Indiana, and Ross W. Johnson from Faegre & Benson LLP in Des Moines successfully represented Dow AgroSciences and The Dow Chemical Company (collectively DAS) in a significant personal injury case pending in federal district court in Des Moines, Iowa. The court granted summary judgment for DAS just one week before the start of the trial.
[FULL STORY]
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Keep those defense wins coming! Send a short summary and recent photo of yourself to Barb Lowery by email (blowery@dri.org).
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Leader Spotlight
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This week’s DRI leader is John M. T. Chavis II, the marketing chair for DRI’s upcoming Diversity for Success Seminar in Chicago, June 11-12. Mr. Chavis is a partner in the Indianapolis, Indiana office of Frost Brown Todd LLC. His practice focuses on the firm's tort and insurance defense group with an emphasis on the defense of trucking companies. He has vast experience in government and regulatory matters and currently serves as insurance defense and general litigation counsel for the largest housing agency in Indiana.
[FULL STORY]
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Legislative Tracking
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Fueled by DRI’s Young Lawyers Committee, this week’s report highlights legislation from Hawaii and Michigan. The Young Lawyers Legislative Subcommittee is led by co-chairs Emily Turner Landry of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, PC in Memphis, Tennessee and Sean W. Shirley of Balch & Bingham LLP in Birmingham, Alabama, plus vice-chair Paul A. Wilhelm of Dykema Gossett PLLC in Detroit, Michigan. Special thanks to these leaders, along with all of the other state contributors.
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HAWAII (Contributors: Dawn T. Sugihara and Anne T. Horiuchi, Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel LLP)
COMMERCIAL LITIGATION
S.B. 301 relating to The Hawaii Registered Agents Act
• Adopts provisions of the Model Registered Agents Act, which streamlines business registration filings for registered agents who accept service of process on behalf of businesses in Hawaii, particularly commercial agents who are in the business of serving as agents. (HD1)
• 04/22/09: After the Senate reconsidered its disagreement to the House amendments, the bill passed Final Reading and was enrolled to the Governor.
S.B. 1005, relating to Publicity Rights
• Establishes property rights in the commercial use of a person’s name voice, signature, photograph, or likeness. (HD2)
• 04/24/09: The Conference Committee will reconvene on April 27.
[MORE]
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Quote of the Week
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Nice guys finish last, but we get to sleep in.
—Evan Davis
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DRI CLE Calendar
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Employment Law
April 30-May 1, 2009
JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes, Orlando, Florida
Electronic Discovery
May 7-8, 2009
Hilton New York, New York, New York
Culture Clash! Data Protection, Freedom of Information and Discovery — How to Protect Your Business in Transnational Disputes
May 13-14, 2009
Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski, Munich, Germany
Drug and Medical Device Litigation
May 14-15, 2009
Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, New York, New York
First Response — Extra-Record Discovery Request Post-Glenn (webcast)
May 20, 2009
Young Lawyers
June 4-5, 2009
Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, Nevada
Diversity for Success
June 11-12, 2009
Swissôtel, Chicago, Illinois
Insurance Bad Faith and Extra-Contractual Claims
June 18-19, 2009
Seaport Hotel, Boston, Massachusetts
DRI's National Workers' Compensation Review
August 17-18, 2009
Orlando World Center Marriott, Orlando, Florida
Nursing Home/ALF Litigation
September 10-11, 2009
The Westin Kierland, Scottsdale, Arizona
For all other seminars, webconferences and webcasts, click here.
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Unfair Insurance Practices: A Compendium of State Law
Trucking Policyholder's Duty to Preserve Coverage
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