In Purchasing Power, LLC v. Bluestem Brands, Inc., 2017 WL 1046103 (11th Cir. Mar. 20, 2017), the Eleventh Circuit reminded litigants and their counsel that it is critical to confirm the citizenship of all relevant corporate entities in determining the existence of diversity jurisdiction, but reversed the district judge’s order imposing “inherent power” sanctions on…
Month: March 2017
The First Amendment Rises to the Top: State Cannot Prohibit Dairy from Describing its Skim Milk as “Skim Milk.”
The Creamery is a dairy farm in rural Florida which sells all-natural dairy items, including skim milk produced in the usual way: cream rises and is skimmed off, and the result is skim milk. The Creamery does not replace the (fat soluble) Vitamin A lost in skimming. But Florida law prohibits the sale of milk…
The Second Time’s a Charm: Jury Deliberations Resume After Partial Delivery of Inconsistent Verdict
Wright Medical Technology, Inc., appealed from a $2,100,000 judgment entered against it following a jury trial, arguing that the jury had been improperly instructed as a matter of Utah law and also that the district judge should not have ordered the jury to continue deliberations after the deputy clerk began to read what turned out…
Discrimination Based on Gender Non-Conformity Is Prohibited by Title VII; Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation Is Not
In Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, 2017 WL 943925 (Mar. 10, 2017), the Eleventh Circuit considered an issue that has been the subject of much judicial and academic debate in recent years: How does Title VII’s prohibition on discrimination “because of . . . sex” apply to claims of LGBT discrimination? Perhaps unsurprisingly, the court was…
Unlawful and Non-Competitive Parallel Conduct is Still Insufficient to State a RICO Claim
The Eleventh Circuit relied on Twombly’s heightened pleading standard in affirming a dismissal for failure to state a RICO claim in Almanza v. United Airlines, 2017 WL 957191 (11th Cir. Mar. 13, 2017). The plaintiff Mexican nationals, representing a putative class, were charged a tourism tax by the defendant airlines as part of their airfare,…
CAFA’s Local-Controversy Provision Can’t Trump Federal-Question Jurisdiction
The Eleventh Circuit reinstated a federal RICO case but approved the denial of a motion to remand it to state court under the Class Action Fairness Act (CAFA) in Blevins v. Aksut, No. 16-11585, 2017 WL 782288 (11th Cir. Mar. 1, 2017). The court’s opinion confirms that CAFA’s local-controversy provision, 28 U.S.C. § 1332(d)(4), does not strip…
Securities Private Offering Exemption Applies in SEC Enforcement Action
The Eleventh Circuit rejected the SEC’s narrow construction of registration exemptions in SEC v. Levin, 2017 WL 711018 (Feb. 23, 2017), reversing a grant of summary judgment to the defendant but still affirming a jury verdict for securities fraud on multiple counts. The defendant, George Levin, invested his personal funds in a Ponzi scheme that…