Shoosmiths won increased provision for an adult child from her father's estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, achieving all of the costs benefits of the Defendant’s failure to beat the Claimant’s Part 36 offer. Recorder Williamson QC heard the trial remotely over two days on 21 and 22 January 2021 in the Peterborough County Court. He handed down judgment on 2 February 2021 ...
Welcome to the tenth issue of the 2021 edition of Unprecedented. The big news from the past two weeks was the Center for Disease Control’s announcement of new guidance allowing fully vaccinated individuals to go unmasked in nearly all circumstances. The announcement was unexpected and sent governments and businesses scrambling to respond. Some governments, like my home state of Pennsylvania, reacted the same day to conforming their own requirements to the new CDC guidance ...
Trimble Inc. v. PerDiemCo LLC, Appeal No. 2019-2164 (Fed. Cir. May 12, 2021) In this week’s Case of the Week, the Federal Circuit revisited its decision in Red Wing Shoe Co. v. Hockerson-Halberstadt, Inc., 148 F.3d 1355 (Fed. Cir. 1998), often cited for the proposition that a patentee does not subject itself to personal jurisdiction in a forum merely by sending correspondence asserting patent infringement by a resident of the forum ...
For those of us in the dispute resolution world in construction, one cultural trait that is seen with nearly all contractors is a strong sense to do the job right. Most businesses are small, and closely held. And most contractors carry significant pride in their work product and in keeping their clients happy. That character extends not only to work in progress, but also to resolution of issues related to the work after it is complete ...
The Court of Appeal has unanimously held that a tenant’s statutory declarations given to landlords were valid even though they did not specify the precise term commencement date of the leases to be contracted out. Landlords will be relieved that the Court of Appeal did not adopt an overly legalistic and commercially impractical interpretation of the contracting-out requirements ...
Stepmother's Day exists, although it is probably not widely celebrated. Most people are probably not aware that there is a Stepmother’s Day, which falls this year on 16 May 2021. It is marked one week after International Mother’s Day, which differs from our British version. Many families are unlikely to celebrate Stepmother’s Day and there may be good reason for that ...
The International Council on Mining & Metals published new standards for tailings management, aiming to assist mining companies to improve their performance and to comply with safety and environmental requirements ...
For Mental Health Awareness Week, Caroline Watson, head of Shoosmiths Family Law team, offers practical advice on looking after your emotional wellbeing if you’re going through a divorce or a separation. When someone close to you dies, it’s generally accepted that there are five stages of grief: shock, denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. Some psychiatrists say that the emotional stages of a relationship breakdown are the same ...
Factual background The taxpayer, Dr Leung, was a medical doctor employed by the Hospital Authority (“HA”). Part of the conditions of his employment was that he was required to be ‘on call’ on certain days including Sundays and public holidays. When ‘on call’, he was obligated, among other things, to be within the physical proximity of the hospital, to be ready to render medical services if the need arose, and to abstain from drinking alcohol ...
South Africans’ recent celebration of Freedom Day signalled 27 years of democracy. Through democracy, our Constitution further brought us rights and obligations to guide our rainbow nation, including freedom of expression and environmental rights to protect our environment, health and well-being while focusing on the sustainability of our environment. Although clothing serves a function and a need, for many, luxury clothing is the gold standard of self-expression and success ...
Cap Export, LLC v. Zinus, Inc., Appeal No. 2020-2087 (Fed. Cir. May 5, 2021) The Federal Circuit issued a single precedential patent case this week. The district court set aside a judgement and injunction originally in favor of Zinus and against Cap Export, pursuant to Rule 60(b)(3), in light of apparently fraudulent testimony offered by a critical witness. In a rare decision addressing Rule 60, the Federal Circuit affirmed ...
Dispute ResolutionThreshold to Commence Winding Up Proceedings RaisedBy the Federal Government Gazette Notification No. 4159 dated 22 March 2021, the amount of indebtedness required to commence winding up proceedings under section 466(1)(a) has been fixed at RM50,000.00 with effect from 1 April 2021.This means that a creditor may only commence winding-up proceedings against a debtor company where the debtor company has failed to satisfy a debt owed to the creditor exceeding RM50,000 ...
By means of Resolution No. 375 , dated May 3, 2021, the Ministry of the Environment has instructed a new information request for producers of priority products, in the context of Law No. 20,920 on Waste Management, Extended Producer Responsibility and Recycling Promotion ( "EPR Law") ...
For some years, contractors and subcontractors have been using an effective tactic in adjudication. That is to pick off discrete elements of a large time or money claim and to obtain a series of favourable declarations in adjudications on those elements. The declarations can then be used as a bargaining tool to leverage a settlement of the full claim. Or they can be converted into payment orders by way of a further adjudication ...
The Department of Justice (DOJ) suffered an unusual defeat when its motion for late intervention in a False Claims Act (FCA)[1] qui tam case, United States ex rel. Odom v. Southeast Eye Specialists, PLLC,[2] was rebuffed by the Middle District of Tennessee, rejecting the magistrate judge’s recommendations ...
General about enterprise penalty In relation to the previous section on enterprise penalty as enshrined in section 48a of the 1902 Penal Code, discussion were had as to whether there was a requirement of Fault-based liability in the provision. In the preparatory work on section 27 of the new Penal Code, this was discussed in depth, after which it in Ot.prp. no. 27, 90 (2003-2004) s. 242 was clearly stated that the new provision should not have such a requirement ...
The Ohio COVID-19 Indoor Air Quality Assistance Program allows eligible private employers to receive reimbursement for eligible inspections, assessments, maintenance, and/or improvements to indoor heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems to help control the spread of COVID-19. Employers are not eligible for this program if any other federal funding has been supplied for the same purposes ...
The recent anti-suit injunction decision in Axis v Absa Group demonstrates the importance of considering the practical effect of jurisdiction clauses when a suite of contracts or (re)insurance policies are entered into ...
As the UK makes progress towards a ‘Green Industrial Revolution’, Shepherd and Wedderburn is committed, through our Green Recovery Strategy and enhanced Sustainability Policy, to working with clients operating in a wide variety of sectors to contribute to a green recovery from the recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic ...
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. v. International Trade Commission, Appeal No. 2020-1785 (Fed. Cir. Apr. 29, 2021) The Federal Circuit’s only precedential patent decision this week comes on appeal from the International Trade Commission, where an Administrative Law Judge found infringement of multiple patents and the Commission issued a limited exclusion order related to sample preparation ...
Key Points The California Court of Appeal has issued the first published opinion interpreting California Senate Bill 35's (SB 35) new laws that streamline the approval of much-needed housing projects. Under SB 35, qualifying housing projects are eligible for ministerial review, which can reduce entitlement processing times by months if not years. In Ruegg & Ellsworth v. City of Berkeley (Cal. Ct. App., April 20, 2021, No ...
In our second quarterly case law update for 2021, we take a look at some of the key cases published since the start of the year and consider the lessons we can learn from them. Disability discrimination In Elliot v Dorset County Council, the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) has recently allowed an appeal against an Employment Tribunal’s finding that a claimant was not disabled ...
