The Supreme Court on Feb. 19 declined to take up the first legal challenge to the Bush administration's once-secret National Security Agency program of warrantless wiretapping.
An Appellate Division, Fourth Department, panel unanimously ruled Feb. 1 that a gay couple's marriage in Canada should be recognized in New York. The ruling, the first appellate decision in the state to recognize a same-sex marriage from another jurisdiction, overturned a Monroe County judge's decision that Monroe Community College did not have to extend health benefits to an employee's lesbian partner.
A Philadelphia judge overturned a $3 million jury award, explaining that a woman who sued Wyeth, claiming her breast cancer was caused by the company's hormone replacement drug, did not show sufficient evidence that her doctor would not have prescribed the drug if warnings were better.
A recent decision from an appellate court in California offers footing for plaintiff attorneys to argue for an expanded definition of 'merchantability.' Such a development, which the Uniform Commercial Code neither compels nor suggests, marks a departure from settled law and presents a significant risk of higher warranty costs for manufacturers and higher prices for consumers.
In 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court will likely decide a key question that has driven FDA pre-emption debates over the past decade: whether ' as plaintiffs' counsel maintain ' warning labels for FDA-approved drugs and medical devices provide only 'minimum standards,' or whether ' as the FDA insists ' they provide a balanced judgment of the FDA, setting both a floor and a ceiling on safety warnings.
A majority of courts consider the <i>contra proferentem</i> doctrine to be a pillar of insurance law. The doctrine requires ambiguous terms in an insurance policy to be construed against the insurer and in favor of coverage for the insured. A prominent rationale behind the doctrine is that insurance policies are usually standard-form contracts drafted entirely by insurers.
Like poorly-behaved school children, new technologies and intellectual property (IP) are increasingly disrupting the M&A establishment. Cybersecurity has become the latest disruptive newcomer to the M&A party.
Active reading comprises many daily tasks lawyers engage in, including highlighting, annotating, note taking, comparing and searching texts. It demands more than flipping or turning pages.
In an effort to minimize the release of toxic gasses from cables in the event of fire, the 2002 version of the National Electric Code ("NEC"), promulgated by the National Fire Protection Association, sets forth new guidelines requiring that abandoned cables must be removed from buildings unless they are located in metal raceways or tagged "For Future Use." While the NEC is not, in itself, binding law, most jurisdictions in the United States adopt the NEC by reference in their state or local building and fire codes. Thus, noncompliance with the recent NEC guidelines will likely mean that a building is in violation of a building or fire code. If so, the building owner may also be in breach of agreements with tenants and lenders and may be jeopardizing its fire insurance coverage. Even in jurisdictions where the 2002 NEC has not been adopted, it may be argued that the guidelines represent the standard of reasonable care and could result in tort liability for the landlord if toxic gasses from abandoned cables are emitted in a fire. With these potential liabilities in mind, this article discusses: 1) how to address the abandoned wires and cables currently located within the risers, ceilings and other areas of properties, and 2) additional considerations in the placement and removal of telecommunications cables going forward.
Parties in large non-consumer transactions with no connection whatsoever to New York often choose its law to govern their transactions, and New York statutes permit them to do so. What most people do not know is that the New York Uniform Commercial Code is outdated.
