An appeals court ruled last month that a state law requiring most online retailers to collect sales taxes on purchases by New Yorkers is constitutional on its face, though the panel ordered the reinstatement of claims that the tax law may violate the Commerce and Due Process clauses as applied to Amazon.com and Overstock.com.
Customarily, franchise agreements delineate an owner's exclusive right to sell to a particular locality. But, as is the case when the Internet is involved, the ubiquitous tool's communications capabilities have blurred franchise-location boundaries through novel low-cost marketing opportunities for commercial enterprises. While Internet-based franchise encroachment is rampant, courts are reluctant to interfere with the contracts that gave rise to the franchise relationship.
Fresh off their November 2010 win for Vocal Duo of the Year at the Country Music Awards in Nashville, Sugarland faced a far different contest in a federal courtroom in Atlanta, GA, in a fight stemming from a 2005 split with the band's founder and former member, Kristen Hall. The trial, if held following more than two years of litigation, could easily have been billed as the anatomy of a band breakup. Though fact-specific to Sugarland, Hall's suit raises issues that are relevant to all-too-common litigations over intra-band disputes.
On Oct. 21, the Illinois Supreme Court issued its opinion in Wright Development Group, LLC v. Walsh, addressing for the first time the scope of Illinois' Citizen Participation Act (CPA), the state's Anti-SLAPP statute.
Analysis of recent rulings.
Recent rulings of interest to you and your practice.
National rulings of interest.
The Supreme Court has tried again to restrict application of the honest-services fraud statute (18 U.S.C. ' 1346), which has been zealously used by prosecutors to target a wide swath of allegedly unethical behavior by public officials and private employees alike.
In two recent decisions, the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas clarified the subjective standards regarding a creditor's entitlement to an allowed administrative expense under ' 503(b)(3) and (4) of the Bankruptcy Code.
Highlights of the latest insurance cases from around the country.
