Recently in Contract Law Category

If you’re in the business of making Catholic-branded gifts, it seems like you wouldn’t want to irk the Vatican. But Magi XXI decided that it wasn’t getting a fair shake in a sublicensing deal with Vatican Publishing, so it actually sued the Holy See.

The Vatican, however, doesn’t answer to just any higher power; it litigates in its own courts, governed by its own laws.

Customers may think of Priceline.com with warm and fuzzy feelings thanks to travel discounts and former spokesman William Shatner, but the site doesn't have a fiduciary duty to disclose its discount-dealing profits to consumers.

Plaintiffs Lee Johnson and Joey Marie Kelly initiated a putative class action against Priceline for breach of fiduciary duty and contract arising from Priceline's alleged failure to disclose to its "Name Your Own Price" customers that a successful bid for a hotel room will generally exceed the amount Priceline pays the hotel vendor. Priceline retains the difference as profit.

MES, Inc claims that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers unfairly terminated three of its construction/renovation contracts in retaliation for MES’s criticism of the Corps’ mismanagement of construction projects. After an administrative challenge, MES brought a Bivens action in federal court.

The district court dismissed their claim, finding that it was precluded by the Contract Disputes Act (CDA).

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals, in a matter of first impression, affirmed that decision. The ruling brings the Second Circuit in line with the Seventh and Ninth Circuits, as well as the district courts that have considered the issue.

Does federal common law or state law provide the meaning of "arbitration" within the Federal Arbitration Act?

According to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Congress intended national uniformity regarding the interpretation of the term "arbitration," and therefore federal common law controls.

Luxury buildings are never just apartments. They’re homes, or condominiums, or exclusive living opportunities.

But, depending on how courts interpret an insurance contract, a chichi residential building like 40 Mercer can be an “apartment.”

If you’re the beneficiary of New York City rent control laws, you’ll be delighted to hear that the Supreme Court declined to review a Second Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the decades-old policy this week.

If you’re a landlord, the denied cert is bad news.

Until yesterday, we would have guessed that an ERISA claim stemming from autoerotic death would be a matter of first impression for any federal court.

We would have been wrong.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals kicked an ERISA claim stemming from a self-electrocution incident back to an insurer for further review this week in a summary order. The court noted that, while the insurer's interpretation of the policy’s “intentionally self-inflicted injury” provision had been accepted by other federal courts in autoerotic asphyxiation cases, the insurer in the present case had not properly explained its reasons for denying the plaintiff’s claim.

Our spidey-sense tells us that we haven’t seen the last of the Stan Lee lawsuits.

Stan Lee Media Inc., (SLMI) lost a challenge in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals this week to intervene in a seven-year-old settlement between Stan Lee (the man) and Marvel over rights to some of Lee’s most famous characters.

Richard Levitt received quite the valentine from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals today.

Instead of chocolates, flowers, or greeting cards, the Second Circuit announced that Levitt is entitled to over $200,000 in unpaid legal fees from his former client, David F. Brooks, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Sweet.

If you a purchase a $200 sweater for $100, you have incurred a $100 charge on your credit card bill; it doesn’t matter what the sweater originally cost.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals says that same reasoning applies to a catastrophic care insurance policy: “Incurred” refers to the amount spent, not the value received.