Food producers can breathe a sigh of relief, at least temporarily, thanks to efforts by the California Chamber of Commerce resulting in a preliminary injunction barring the State of California and all private plaintiffs from filing any new Proposition 65 lawsuits targeting acrylamide in food and beverage products. On March 31, 2021, Chief United States District Judge for the Eastern District of California, Kimberly J ...
In Facebook v. Duguid, (Case No. 19-511) on April 1, 2021, the United States Supreme Court unanimously confirmed that equipment without the capacity to randomly or sequentially store or produce numbers is not an autodialer for TCPA purposes. The Facebook ruling focuses on text messages, which many institutions are using as a primary method of customer contact, but it is also a victory for those using predictive dialers and preview dialers without random and sequential source codes ...
No one can escape the basic rules of contracting, even the federal government. If the contract is clear and unambiguous, then the four corners of the agreement set the rules for the project and the parties – and there’s not much room for interpretation. The government was recently reminded of this cold, hard truth after it refused to grant a contractor an equitable adjustment of the contract price for purchasing wetland mitigation credits. In Kiewit Infrastructure W. Co. v ...
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, in BGT Holdings LLC v. United States, recently held that the government does not have the discretion to deny a contractor’s request for equitable adjustment (REA) under Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 52.245-1 (Government Property) where the conditions specified in that clause are present and the contractor is able to show financial loss ...
In a December 2020 opinion, the United States Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (the “Board”) reviewed and reversed a Federal Highway Administration (“FHWA”) Contracting Officer’s (“CO”) decision to terminate for default Eagle Peak Rock & Paving, Inc.’s thirty-six million dollar contract (the “Contract”) for work on a project in Yellowstone National Park (the “Project”) ...
In our last issue of the newsletter, we told you of a decision of the United States Circuit Court for the Sixth Circuit, in which the Sixth Circuit considered the issue of whether a party waived its arbitration right through its pre-litigation conduct. In Borror Property Management, LLC v ...
The grounds for appealing an arbitration award are limited. Even when the tribunal admits that it has made a mistake that is not always enough. So, when is an admitted error serious enough to permit an appeal? This was the question before the court in Doglemor Trade Ltd and others v Caledor Consulting Ltd and another [2020] EWHC 3342 (Comm). The Facts Mr Khabarov (majority owner of Caledor) was granted an option to purchase 30% of the share capital of Doglemor ...
Phasing is one of the key factors to consider and get right in planning for large scale, strategic development. A well-phased scheme divides the site into distinct parcels of land allowing reserved matters to be submitted and conditions discharged in relation to each parcel, individually, as it comes to be developed. It also allows planning obligations in section 106 Agreements to be apportioned between parcels and (in some cases) to be attached and limited to particular parcels ...
At the end of 2020, Congress enacted the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021, partially in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic crisis. While funding the federal government and preventing a government shutdown, the CAA also included several amendments to the bankruptcy code providing much-needed rent relief for commercial tenants. The bankruptcy code generally requires a debtor in bankruptcy to timely pay its rental obligations during the bankruptcy case ...
This article forms part of our ‘New How: Perspectives’ campaign: ‘The logistics industry is booming, but can our infrastructure keep up?’. Here Choisanne Man, a real estate partner in Shoosmiths’ London office, speaks with David Proctor, Managing Director, Group Investment at Segro, to discuss the state of the logistics sector including the challenges it poses for our towns and cities. 1 ...
The DIFC Court of First Instance has, for the first time in its history, issued a judgement allowing the examination of witnesses resident in the UAE pursuant to two requests for judicial assistance (Letters Rogatory) from the District Court of the State of Minnesota, USA (the US Court). The judgement, issued by Justice Robert French, clarifies the scope of Rules 30.65, 30.66 and 30.67 of the Rules of the DIFC Courts (the RDC) ...
Understanding the Employer's Entitlement to Liquidated Damages When there is Sectional Completion - ǼLEX Legal .avada-select-parent .select-arrow{background-color:#ffffff}.select-arrow{background-color:#ffffff} It is common for parties in commercial construction projects to include sectional completion provisions in their contracts where they have agreed to complete works in sections or phases ...
As competition for project siting increases, so do the challenges of development due diligence. This webinar will address significant issues and questions surrounding real estate contracts, title insurance, and environmental assessment and permitting common in solar PV project development. Bradley’s renewable energy attorneys will share advice and experience managing key development challenges and environmental compliance concerns presented by solar PV project development ...
(Antelope Valley Groundwater Cases, JCCP No. 4408 (3/16/21))[1] After twenty-two years, the protracted proceedings in the Antelope Valley groundwater adjudication resulted in a settlement and court-approved "physical solution." A physical solution equitably allocates available water under California's laws governing water rights. The physical solution in Antelope Valley limited pumping to balance the overdrafted aquifer with the available native safe yield ...
A delay is “concurrent” is a delay to the critical path of the project caused by multiple events not exclusively controlled by one party. If you are impacted by a delay to the critical path that was not within your control but are responsible for another overlapping delay to the critical path, the delays are concurrent, and you may not be able to recover damages for the former delay ...
It has been said that, sooner or later, everything old is new again. In the wake of the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) sweeping the globe in 2020, a heretofore largely overlooked and even less understood nineteenth century legal term has come to the forefront of American jurisprudence: force majeure ...
The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is one that attracts its fair share of attention, not all of it good, and too much of it from organizations named with that part of the alphabet — SEC and DOJ — that can strike fear in the heart of a business person. And Texas is often the center of the investigators’ focus ...
On 14 March 2021, the law of 5 March 2021 on certain rules for the implementation of Regulation (EU) No 2019/1150 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 June 2019 on promoting fairness and transparency for business users of online intermediation services (the “P2B Regulation”) (hereinafter the “Law”) entered into force ...
Competition & Antitrust Resolution No. 237/2021 of the Secretariat of Commerce: New prices information regime for companies (SIPRE) By Agustín Waisman and Mercedes Pando Through Resolution No ...
The Court of Protection and Serious Injury Teams at Shoosmiths held a joint seminar ‘From Litigation to Deputyship’ on 11 March 2021. A recording of the webinar can be found below. The day comprised sessions on the litigation process, how to maximise settlement then looked in detail at the Case Manager’s role before moving on to sessions around how the deputyship team support clients and key areas of consideration when acting as a professional deputy ...
On 10 March 2021, we held the first webinar in our series on regional perspectives in international arbitration ...
The legal and practical issues that arise when executing documents electronically with a focus on practical points to consider and pitfalls to avoid. This is quite a hot topic at the moment with businesses having to continue to operate during lockdown ...
Courts nationwide have struggled for years with the question of when a subjective opinion is false under the False Claims Act. The Supreme Court’s decision to deny review of two cases involving health-care providers that had allegedly submitted false claims for payment based on subjective clinical judgment still leaves us without a uniform, national answer, says Nicholas A. Danella. The U.S ...
In one of the latest and most high-profile decisions from across the country relating to commercial tenants’ rent obligations during the COVID-19 pandemic, the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York rejected an attempt by The Gap, Inc. (“Gap”) to excuse payment of such obligations due to the pandemic and related government restrictions ...
Deciding what happens to employees in a TUPE transfer where there is more than one transferee is never straightforward. However, developments in this area continue to add complexity to the situation, adding cost and uncertainty to employers. Recent developments In the recent case of McTear Contracts Ltd v Bennett & ors the EAT looked at a situation where there were two transferees in the context of a service provision change ...
