A case note by Datin Jeyanthini Kannaperan and Koo Yin Soon.The Legal BackdropIndefeasibility of title is the immunity obtained by a registered proprietor or interest holder in property. This concept is encoded in Section 340 of the National Land Code 1965 (“Section 340”) which sets out both how such immunity operates and the exceptions to the immunity ...
In a major win for sellers of services and intangibles, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled on Sept. 29, 2020, that a taxpayer is entitled to Ohio Commercial Activity Tax (CAT) refunds stemming from its sale of contracts to an out-of-state buyer ...
A Florida district court recently dismissed without prejudice a False Claims Act (FCA) qui tam action, finding the action precluded by the first-to-file bar. See United States ex rel. Cho v. H.I.G. Capital, LLC, No. 8:17-cv-983-T-33AEP, 2020 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 155373 (M.D. Fla. Aug. 26, 2020) ...
In Harris v. University Village Thousand Oaks, CCRC, LLC, plaintiffs, residents at Defendant’s continuing care retirement community who had previously signed binding arbitration agreements in their continuing care contracts, argued that under applicable California law, the arbitration agreements were invalid and they could therefore litigate their claims in a court of law. Defendant University Village sought to enforce the arbitration provisions of the continuing care contracts ...
As courts cautiously resume in-person hearings across the country, there is looming uncertainty about when—or if—civil jury trials will ever resume. For instance, B.C. and some regions in Ontario have announced that civil jury trials are suspended until at least 2021—and Ontario is considering whether to abolish them altogether ...
Law 58/2020 came into force on 1 September 2020 and it implements into Portuguese law: Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive (EU) 2015/849 on the prevention of the use of the financial system for money laundering or terrorist financing, commonly known as the 5th Anti-Money Laundering Directive; and Directive (EU) 2018/1673 of the European Parliament and the Council of 23 October 2018 on combating money laundering by cr
Law 58/2020 of 31 August implemented Directive (EU) 2018/843 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 and Directive (EU) 2018/1673 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23October 2018 into Portuguese law. The new law entered into force on 1 September 2020 and introduced considerable changes to the existing rules in order to implement new measures to prevent and combat money laundering and terrorist financing in the Portuguese legal system ...
Since 2017, the courts in Hong Kong have recognised various rights of same-sex couples, including the right to be granted a dependent visa, spousal benefits, and tax benefits. In 2020, two more cases went before the court seeking determination on issues relating to foreign same-sex marriage ...
Businesses that open their doors to customers, guests, and other visitors during the pandemic must be vigilant, not only to keep their premises safe to those who enter, but also to avoid lawsuits by individuals who claim they contracted COVID-19 on business premises ...
When a company is faced with defending itself against a large claim, it often requires the availability of insurance proceeds from not just the company’s primary insurer, but also from its excess insurance layers. In this scenario, however, excess insurers sometimes will refuse to step in after exhaustion of the underlying insurance layers, arguing that the exhaustion of those underlying layers was wrongful due to payments for uncovered claims ...
Black Lives Matter. The lives of Black men matter. The lives of Black women matter. The lives of Black children matter. And the lives of a group that gets less attention in the national conversation also matter—the lives of Black Queer people matter. (I recognize that some may view the term “Queer” as pejorative, but I use that term here intentionally, as many in the Queer Community do, to embrace all who fall within the LGBTQ+ Community) ...
Cases challenging the constitutionality of state pass-through entity (PTE) nonresident owner withholding or composite return statutes are extremely rare. However, a recent Alabama Circuit Court decision, Black Eagle Minerals, LLC v. Alabama Department of Revenue, Case No. CV-2018-900328.00 (Cir. Ct. Montgomery County, Ala., July 27, 2020), highlights why such challenges may be more common when PTE composite returns are mandatory ...
By: Joshua M. Robbins, Michael C. Flynn, and Robert S. Gillison The past decade has taught lenders much about regulatory enforcement risk. In the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis and collapse of the housing and related markets, the Department of Justice and other agencies aggressively stepped up investigations of lenders seen as complicit in the misconduct of borrowers and others ...
Under section 327 of the Companies (Winding Up and Miscellaneous Provisions) Ordinance (Cap. 32), the Court can exercise its discretion to wind up a foreign-incorporated company. A recent case reaffirms the three core requirements necessary to enable the court to exercise that discretion ...
In SC v OE1 & Anor, HCCT 48/2019 and OE1 & Anor v SC, HCCT 66/2019, the Court had to consider whether the arbitral Tribunal could make corrections to an arbitration award under Article 33(1)(a) of the Model Law (adopted in section 69 of the Arbitration Ordinance, Cap 609) because the award had failed to address two types of relief which had been claimed ...
In the recent case of Redland Precast Concrete Products (China) Ltd v Permasteelisa Hong Kong Ltd, HCCT 35/2018, the Court had to decide whether a contract existed between the Plaintiff and Defendant whereby the Defendant agreed to appoint the Plaintiff as its subcontractor for works to be carried out on a project ...
In the recent case of Atkins China Ltd v China State Construction Engineering (Hong Kong) Ltd, HCMP 1193 2020, the Plaintiff sought in its Originating Summons (i) a declaratory judgment that, as a matter of construction, a settlement agreement entered into between the parties had settled all claims and counterclaims arising under a Design Agreement; and (ii) a final injunction restraining the Defendant from taking further steps in the arbitration proceedings commenced in the name of the
A GAO report was intended to shed some light the use of captives as abusive tax shelters. Instead it only risks perpetuating misunderstandings, says Bradley’s Davis Smith ...
On August 3, 2020, the California Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision in Ixchel Pharma, LLC v. Biogen, Inc., clarifying the bounds of legitimate competition under California tort and antitrust law. The Court’s ruling generally came down in favor of encouraging competition, reducing claims for tortious interference with contract, and decreasing the risk of litigation arising from normal competitive activity ...
Presidential Decree no. 229/20 of 8 September 2020 has been published and its aim is to reassess the measures imposed by Presidential Decree no. 142/20, considering the evolution of the epidemiological situation. The new decree renews most of the measures already in force, although it also eases some restrictions ...
Coronavirus Digest no. 4 Patents and other intellectual property rights 1. Patents Moderna reveals that it may not hold the patent rights for the vaccine against Covid-19, because it was not the first to file the patents. This came after the US National Institute of Health claimed co-ownership of the rights to this vaccine. Read more here ...
On September 1, the California legislature sent to the Governor amendments to California’s Hazardous Waste Control Law. Once signed by the Governor, AB 2920 will allow retail hazardous waste to be shipped on a “consolidated manifest.” This simplified procedure has been available for specific types of hazardous waste such as used oil, but this is the first time it has applied a broad, general category such as “retail hazardous waste ...
The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has limited the use of “special remedies” by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB or Board) in a 3-0 decision issued on Sept. 4, 2020.[1] On April 4, 2019, the NLRB ordered the employer to remedy unfair labor practices committed during a union organizational drive.[2] As part of that decision, the Board refused to enforce a Gissel bargaining order that would have compelled the employer to recognize and bargain with the union ...
