In IT service contracts, it is common to find non-liability clauses protecting companies that provide software and professional IT system implementation or integration services. Issue In Dispute Is such a contractual non-liability clause valid under Quebec civil law where a fundamental obligation is breached? In 6362222 Canada inc. v. Prelco inc ...
Many commercial contracts limit claims between parties, particularly for consequential losses, to instances of gross negligence. Many statutes circumscribe claims against government authorities to the same circumstances. The Police Act, for example, prohibits claims against the police except where the police have been “guilty of dishonesty, gross negligence or malicious or wilful misconduct” ...
Institutional Shareholder Services ("ISS") recently announced its updated voting policies for the 2014 proxy season. The policies will become effective for shareholder meetings held on or after February 1, 2014. We have summarized below four policy updates relating to corporate governance matters that may be of particular interest to US corporations. Simplified Pay-for-Performance Executive Evaluation ISS revised its policy relating to executive pay-for-performance evaluations ...
Is Wi-Fi sickness a disability? The California Court of Appeal just said it is in Brown v. Los Angeles Unified School District (2d Dist., Div. Eight), Case No. B294240. In a case that tests the limits of California’s liberal pleading standard, the appellate court green-lighted a claim of a woman who asserted a disability of “electromagnetic hypersensitivity,” or, as the concurring justice put it, “Wi-Fi sickness ...
A loud warning has been sounded to those inclined to follow practice rather than the strict letter of the law in divorce matters in Uganda. In Nagidde v Mwasa (Civil Appeal No, 168 of 2019), the trial judge granted a divorce without holding a hearing or receiving evidence from the parties, stating that the marriage had irretrievably broken down on account of irreconcilable differences ...
If parents cannot agree whether their children should be vaccinated, they can make an application under Section 8 of the Children Act 1989 to ask a judge to determine the issue. In M v H (Private Law Vaccination) [2020], the mother objected to the parties' two children aged six-years-old and four-years-old being given routine childhood vaccines in accordance with the NHS vaccination schedule ...
Over the course of 2012, on at least three occasions the Federal Circuit has found anticipation in a situation in which previously the invention would have merely been viewed as obvious:(1) where the prior art merely proposes the steps of the method, without knowledge of whether those method steps will achieve any result, much less the result claimed in the therapeutic method; (2) where the prior art discloses a broader range without providing a “pattern of preference” for a later-claimed narrow
Player power, loyalty and respect of contracts has increasingly made media headlines, demonstrated predominantly this summer with Luis Suarez of Liverpool FC and Manchester United's Wayne Rooney. As widely reported, Arsenal FC made an infamous bid of £40,000,001.00 to Liverpool for the transfer of the registration of Suarez to Arsenal ...
John Grimes Partnership Ltd v Gubbins [2013] EWCA Civ 37 involved a dispute about a property development. Mr Gubbins engaged the John Grimes Partnership Ltd to design a road over land on which he intended to develop residential properties. An express term of the contract between the parties was that the works would be completed by March 2007. However, in February 2008 there was still work to be done so Mr Gubbins engaged an alternative engineer to complete the work ...
The enactment of the UAE’s first standalone arbitration law (Federal Law No. 6 of 2018; the Arbitration Law) introduced some important changes to arbitration in the UAE, such as recognising the enforceability of interim awards and significantly streamlining the enforcement of arbitral awards. However, the requirements for establishing a valid arbitration agreement (i.e ...
May 24, 2023 By: Peter McGaw When Potentially Responsible Parties (PRPs) settle CERCLA cases, they want finality. They don't expect to be asked to pay a second time for a claim they have already resolved by settlement. However, a concurring opinion in a recent Ninth Circuit decision casts doubt on the ability of a PRP to achieve finality through settlement. The Ninth Circuit’s decision in GP Vincent II v Beard was issued on May 17, 2023 ...
Last week, a trial court in Buffalo ruled that a group of personal injury plaintiffs’ strict liability claims against a who’s-who of social media companies, arising out of the tragic 2022 Tops Friendly Markets mass shooting, could proceed to discovery, rejecting the argument that Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act barred such claims from the get-go. Patterson, Diona Et Al v. Meta Platforms, Et Al, 0805896/2023 (NYSCEF Doc No. 409) ...
On September 18, 2019, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved Assembly Bill 5 (AB 5) to limit the classification of workers as independent contractors in the state. The new law, effective January 1, 2020, will increase payroll tax responsibilities for California companies that must reclassify workers as employees ...
The Court of Justice of the European Union delivers judgments regarding the concept of “communication to the public” faster than legal scholars can read and dissect them. While we are eagerly awaiting the Court’s analysis of different types of hyperlinking, it has taken less than two months to follow Advocate General Hogan’s opinion regarding the emailing of evidence containing copyrighted works to a court in legal proceedings ...
The Federal Circuit recently resolved two issues of first impression as to how patent reexamination proceedings affect related patent infringement litigation. These two cases, Marine Polymer1 and Bettcher Industries,2 are likely to have a significant impact on both litigation and reexamination-proceeding practices, as well as the strategic interplay between them ...
Interruption of Statute of Limitations It was interesting for the author hereof to read the article by Denis Mirgorodskiy “Application of the Civil Code in Promissory Note and Bill of Exchange Disputes” (Yuridicheskaya Praktika, #37, September 16, 2003). The author hereof appreciates Mr ...
In May 2021, the UK Government commissioned an independent, fan-led review of football governance in England following three “crisis events”. The report has thus far received a varied reception. Some have welcomed its recommendations, and believe that they will bring about much needed reform of the current model of football governance ...
In Kabab-Ji SAL v Kout Food Group, the UK Supreme Court recently considered the question of which system of law the English courts must apply to decide whether there is an enforceable arbitration agreement. This case illustrates the different approaches taken in determining questions of applicable law and the consequences this can have for both annulment and enforcement proceedings in different countries ...
On 7 July 2021 we hosted the second event in our webinar series on International Arbitration, Regional Perspectives and focused on arbitration in Asia ...
On 10 March 2021, we held the first webinar in our series on regional perspectives in international arbitration ...
In a major change for arbitration in Dubai, the DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre has been abolished. On 14 September 2021, Decree No. 34 of 2021 (Decree No. 34) was issued by Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoom, Ruler of Dubai. It not only dissolves the Dubai International Financial Centre Arbitration Institution (DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre), but also the Emirates Maritime Arbitration Centre (EMAC) ...
There are often many reasons cited as to why international arbitration should be the preferred method of dispute resolution for parties: it can be quicker, cheaper, the process is private, the award is final and the parties have more autonomy over the process. Whilst some of these factors are debatable (especially in highly complex commercial cases), the fact that parties to an arbitration can have more autonomy than in traditional court litigation is usually less controversial ...
Traditionally financial institutions have preferred litigation over international arbitration. The reasons are many, but they are mainly related to the fact that arbitrators generally lack the power to render summary judgments, to grant interim measures, and that there is no precedent in international arbitration. However, international arbitration has gain ground in the last few years, due to the fact that arbitral institutions have addressed the main criticisms to the system ...
Afridi & Angell was recently successful in obtaining interim orders from the Dubai Courts attaching bank guarantees pending commencement of arbitration proceedings. The first matter involved two guarantees issued as performance bonds in two separate construction contracts, both which contained an arbitration clause under the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC) Rules ...
