U.S. Supreme Court Finds General Discovery Rule Inapplicable to the SOL for FDCPA Violations
1/16/20
By: Nicole L. Graham In Klemm v. Rotkiske, No. 18-328, 589 U.S. ____ (2019), the United State Supreme Court unanimously agreed there is no blanket discovery rule that, as a matter of statutory interpretation, applies to all cases arising under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (“FDCPA”). The majority held that the plain text of…
5/22/19
By: Erin Lamb In Farmland Mutual Insurance v. Sechrist, the Third Circuit upheld a district court’s decision rejecting the claims of employees involved in a serious accident while driving a vehicle for Clouse Trucking that they were entitled to $1,000,000 in underinsured (UIM) benefits instead of the $35,000 paid to them by Farmland Mutual Insurance…
5/15/19
By: John H. Goselin II Beginning in August 2016, the ERISA Plaintiffs’ Bar launched a concerted attack on more than 20 major universities across the country filing class action lawsuits for alleged violations of ERISA fiduciary duties under ERISA Section 404 and alleged participation in ERISA prohibited transactions under Section 406. Each side has won…
12/12/18
By: Jake Loken & Bill Buechner In a case citing The Rolling Stones, Henry Thoreau, and Abraham Lincoln, and listing the ingredients needed to make lemonade, the Third Circuit rejected an elderly woman’s disability discrimination claim under the Fair Housing Act. In Vorchheimer v. Philadelphian Owners Association, 903 F.3d 100 (3d Cir. 2018), Carol Vorchheimer,…
Discrimination Suit Over Service Dog Revived By Third Circuit
8/23/18
By: Barry Brownstein The Third Circuit has revived a lawsuit by the parents of an epileptic girl who claim a Pennsylvania school discriminated against her by barring her service dog. In 2014, Traci and Joseph Berardelli sued the Allied Services Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine, which operates a school with a specialized program for dyslexic students,…
Coffee, Water, Less Than 20 Minutes
6/19/18
SCOTUS KICKS THE CAN ON SHORT BREAKS COMPENSATION By: John McAvoy On June 11, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to entertain the appeal of a Pennsylvania employer that could have resolved the emerging split of authority between the federal appellate courts and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) as to the compensability of employees’…
9th Circuit Holds Inadmissible Evidence May Support Class Cert
5/17/18
By: Ted Peters Courts around the country are split over whether admissible evidence is needed to support a class certification. The Fifth Circuit requires it, and the Seventh and Third Circuits appear to be of the same opinion. In contrast, the Eighth Circuit has indicated that inadmissible evidence can be considered. On May 3, 2018,…
3/2/18
By: Erin E. Lamb Citizens from outside Pennsylvania can now sue Pennsylvania businesses for transactions that occurred outside the commonwealth, under the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices Consumer Protection Law (UTPCPL). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in a unanimous ruling, affirmed such to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in the class action suit…
Another Super Bowl in New Jersey? Unlikely!
12/19/17
By: Joshua G. Ferguson A Third Circuit panel issued an opinion last week in an NFL fan’s class action alleging the National Football League violated New Jersey’s consumer fraud law by failing to make enough 2014 Super Bowl tickets available for sale, finding that the economic factors presented created a plausible theory that the league’s conduct…
What Does Your Video Watching Behavior Say About You?
12/18/17
By: Jonathan Romvary A federal court recently determined that the sharing of an individual’s device identification number and the videos watched does not violate federal privacy laws. In Eichenberger v. ESPN, Inc. , 2017 BL 427074, 9th Cir., No. 15-35449 (Nov. 29, 2017), the Ninth Circuit held that an individual’s Roku Inc. device serial number…