Case Summaries

Commercial Law

[02/05] Sharabianlou v. Karp
In plaintiff's action seeking rescission of a commercial real estate transaction and tort damages, the portion of the trial court's judgment awarding damages to the original property owners is reversed as the trial court's award goes well beyond the types of damages permitted.

[12/11] Metro Allied Ins. Agency, Inc. v. Lin
In plaintiff's action against an insurance company for negligence and a violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) for failure to procure a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, the judgment of the court of appeals in favor of the plaintiff is reversed and remanded is the causation standard for a claimed failure to procure insurance under a negligence theory and under the DTPA requires proof of the availability of some insurance that would have covered the plaintiff's damages.

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Contracts

[02/08] Ward v. Dixie Nat'l Life Ins. Co.
In a class action lawsuit against multiple insurance companies alleging that defendants violated a contractual promise under insurance policies to pay policyholders the "actual charges" of cancer treatments, judgment in favor of the plaintiffs is affirmed where: 1) under the three-step retroactivity analysis, the presumption against retroactivity operates to bar the application of the South Carolina statute to the claims in this case; and 2) defendants' remaining arguments are meritless.

[12/11] Metro Allied Ins. Agency, Inc. v. Lin
In plaintiff's action against an insurance company for negligence and a violation of the Deceptive Trade Practices Act (DTPA) for failure to procure a commercial general liability (CGL) policy, the judgment of the court of appeals in favor of the plaintiff is reversed and remanded is the causation standard for a claimed failure to procure insurance under a negligence theory and under the DTPA requires proof of the availability of some insurance that would have covered the plaintiff's damages.

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Copyright

[01/29] Latin American Music Co. v. American Soc'y of Composers Authors & Publishers
In parties' dispute over the rights to a song, jury verdict in favor of the defendants is affirmed where: 1) district court did not err in instructing the jury with respect to a 1982 contract; 2) district court did not err in refusing to give a missing witness instruction; and 3) plaintiff's remaining claims are rejected.

[01/27] Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Found., Inc. v. Buchel
In a dispute between an artist and a museum over the implementation and installation of a football-field sized artwork, judgment of the district court in favor of the museum is affirmed in part, vacated in part and remanded where: 1) the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA) applies to unfinished works, and as such, genuine issues of material fact forecloses summary judgment on one of the artist's VARA claims - that the museum violated his right of artistic integrity by modifying the installation; and 2) the artist asserted a viable claim under the Copyright Act that the museum violated his exclusive right to display his work publicly.

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Family Law

[02/08] DG v. DeVaughn
In a class action against the Oklahoma Department of Human Services claiming that the department's agency-wide foster care policies and practices exposed all class members to an impermissible risk of harm, the district court's order certifying a class is affirmed where: 1) plaintiffs presented more than conclusory statements that defendants' agency-wide monitoring policies and practices, or lack thereof, created a risk of harm shared by the entire class; 2) due to the common risk of harm and the common underlying legal theory for asserting that risk, the district court acted within its discretion to find that typicality was satisfied; and 3) the injunction sought by plaintiffs applied to the proposed class as a whole without requiring differentiation between class members.

[01/14] Arthur v. Arthur
In a dissolution of marriage action, judgment of the trial court permitting the wife to relocate after twenty months is vacated where, the petition for relocation should have been denied as a best interests determination in petitions for relocation must be made at the time of the final hearing and must be supported by competent, substantial evidence.

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Trademark

[01/05] Great Clips, Inc. v. Hair Cuttery of Greater Boston, LLC
In a trademark dispute between companies in the hair care industry involving a settlement agreement entered into nineteen years ago in which their predecessors stipulated to the withdrawal of the parties' respective claims and to not object further to the registration of the others' trademark, district court's grant of plaintiff's request for declaratory judgment is affirmed as, notwithstanding possible arguments on each side about potential confusion between their respective phrases, "Great Cuts" and "Great Clips", no evidence is offered that the parties sought only to allow each to register its mark but to reserve for future litigation the practical consequences of registration.

[12/23] In Re Sones
Decision of the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, denying petitioner's registration application for the mark "One Nation Under God" for charity bracelets, is vacated and remanded as a picture is not a mandatory requirement for a website-based specimen of use, and the test for an acceptable website-based specimen, just as any other specimen, is simply that it must in some way evince that the mark is "associated" with the goods and services as an indicator of source.

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