Commercial Law

A jury in the Southern District of Texas awarded over $92 million in damages to the United States in a case against mortgage lenders who fraudulently granted and underwrote loans insured by the Federal Housing Authority and then reaped massive payouts when those loans went into default.

According to the recently released U.S. Equipment Finance Market Study 2016-2017, conducted for the Equipment Leasing and Finance Association, 78% of respondents used at least one form of financing when acquiring equipment in FY 2015. This is up from 72% of respondents from the previous Foundation market study released in 2012, and represents an increase in the overall propensity to finance.

Greater Clarity Needed

The new HVCRE rules require banks to assign a 150% risk weight to any HVCRE exposure (up from the 100% risk weight assigned under general risk-based capital rules) and cover all acquisition, development or construction (ADC) loans unless an exception applies.

One of the main causes of the "death spiral" of malls in the United States has been the bankruptcies, and subsequent liquidations, of many retailers that were once household names -- and often a mall's anchor tenants.

A New York court has found that a landlord did not commit fraud when it failed to disclose to its prospective tenant that a long-term municipal improvement construction project was about to commence near the leased premises.

Who's going where; Who's doing what.

On Nov. 17, 2016, JPMorgan APAC, a Hong Kong subsidiary of JP Mor¬gan Chase & Co., agreed to pay $72 million for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

In the past year, New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals, issued two decisions addressing both the scope of a defendant's duty to warn in negligence and products liability actions, and the scope of tort liability in actions predicated upon third-party conduct.