Minnesota Litigator Hiatus and Make-Over

The Minnesota Litigator will have no new posts for a few days but will come back online transformed but always found at www.minnesota-litigator.com

This transformation and upgrade comes around the site's first anniversary, give or take a few weeks.  Looking forward to an even better year to come and then some!

Thanks!

8th Circuit Bounces Appeal: Failure to Show "No Just Reason for Delay..."

Common scenario: one has a lawsuit against multiple defendants, one of whom is the "deep pocket" or most likely source of recovery.  That defendant moves for judgment as a matter of law and wins (on a summary judgment motion, for example).  Plaintiffs, defendants, and even the trial court might all agree that plaintiffs' case is effectively gutted and agree that an immediate appeal would expedite full and final resolution of the case.

Not so fast, the Eighth Circuit ruled today.  A "piece-meal" appeal is the exception and not the rule.  Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(b) provides for it, but the trial court must do more than simply intone the magic words, "There being no just reason for delay...," in certifying a partial judgment as final for purposes of appeal.

More, and the Eighth Circuit's short opinion after the break.

Affidavit of Expert Review Fatal to Med Mal Case (Yet Again)

Over the past year, Minnesota Litigator readers have been barraged with news of appellate decisions from the Minnesota Court of Appeals in which plaintiffs lose professional malpractice claims for failure to meet the requirements for affidavits of expert review (see here and here, for example).  Now see here.

One cannot do an "end around" the statutory deadline requirement by suing the medical care provider directly, after having sued the medical care facility and having blown past the deadline in that case.

MinnLawyer Blog "Tweeting" the Republican National Convention "RNC 8" Motion Day

Similar to "tweets" from the Proposition 8 Trial in California, MinnLawyer blog has sent a reporter to all-day motion hearings in Ramsey County.

The "cameras in the courtroom" debate is on-going, of course, and, in the mean time such "tweets" maybe be "as good as it gets" in terms of widespread public access to "real-time" court proceedings...

Home Valu Involuntary Bankruptcy: Fairly Rare Event, but Perhaps on the Rise?

The Star Tribune reports today that Home Valu, founded by former Minnesota U.S. Senator Rudy Boschwitz, has been put into involuntary bankruptcy.  Such proceedings are relatively rare, as pointed out in the article by bankruptcy veteran George Singer of Linquist and Vennum.  The creditors bringing the proceeding are represented by Dave Runck, of Fafinski, Mark & Johnson, P.A.

LeMond v. Trek Settles

Covered here and here previously, the battle of the bikes settled today.  The Star Tribune article did not set out all of the terms of the settlement, which are likely confidential but part of the settlement was a $100,000 contribution to 1in6.org, a charity that LeMond apparently favors.

The case was hotly litigated for nearly two years.  (The "contribution" to litigation counsel likely dwarfed that paid to the charity...)

Plaintiffs' Salvage Operation Fails...

Minnesota Litigator reported a serious defeat for plaintiffs' class action lawyers in the Mooney v. Allianz case late last year.

Plaintiffs' counsel sought to salvage some benefit from this long battle by seeking injunctive relief which, if awarded, would have given them attorneys' fees.  (The jury had found that defendant Allianz “use[d] a misrepresentation or deceptive practice in the course of selling its two-tiered annuities” and “intend[ed] that others would rely on the misrepresentation or deceptive practice,” but that none of the class members were “harmed as a direct result of the misrepresentation or deceptive practice.”)  Plaintiffs had two theories, both of which the Court (U.S. District Court Judge Ann Montgomery (D. Minn.)) rejected.

More after the break...