In the absence of facts supporting piercing the corporate veil or rendering affiliated companies alter egos, the actions of a subsidiary alone cannot subject a foreign parent company to personal jurisdiction in Florida, the Eleventh Circuit recently confirmed. The court’s decision in Knepfle v. J-Tech Corp., 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 25781 (11th Cir. Sept. 14,…
Author: Stacey Mohr
Arbitration Agreement’s Delegation Clause Must Be Enforced Even If Arbitration of Underlying Claims Prohibited by Statute
In Attix v. Carrington Mortgage Services, LLC, 35 F.4th 1284 (11th Cir. May 26, 2022), the Eleventh Circuit reversed a district court’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration and enforced the parties’ agreement to delegate to the arbitrator questions of arbitrability, including whether arbitration itself was precluded by the Dodd-Frank Act. The decision not…
Paradise Found: Consumer Not Damaged by Purchasing (and Consuming) Gin Containing Prohibited “Grains of Paradise”
The Eleventh Circuit again had the opportunity to interpret the scope of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), this time applying the Act’s safe-harbor provision for actions otherwise permitted by law. In Marrache v. Bacardi U.S.A., Inc., 17 F.4th 1084 (11th Cir. Nov. 8, 2021), the court affirmed dismissal of a putative…
Interlocutory Appeal Properly Taken from Declaratory Judgment on Insurer’s Duty to Defend; Ambiguous Exclusion Construed in Favor of Coverage
When a liability insurer seeks a declaratory judgment on whether it has a duty to defend and indemnify an insured, and the district court enters an order finding a duty to defend but putting off a decision on the duty to indemnify, is that nonfinal order subject to interlocutory appeal? In James River Insurance Co….
Equipment Distributor Can’t Defeat Summary Judgment on Claims that Competitor Conspired with Manufacturer to Terminate Business with Distributor
The Eleventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment for a defendant facing claims under the Sherman Antitrust Act, concluding that the plaintiff’s evidence was “at least ‘as equally consistent with permissible competition as it is with an illegal conspiracy.’” The court’s decision in American Contractors Supply, LLC v. HD Supply Construction Supply, Ltd., 2021 WL 822194 (11th…
Plaintiff in Sexual-Orientation Discrimination Case Files En Banc Petition, Highlighted by Newly Created Circuit Split
A high-profile Seventh Circuit decision and a circuit split may increase the likelihood of the Eleventh Circuit granting rehearing en banc in Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital, a decision we covered here last month. A divided panel in Evans held that—unlike discrimination based on gender non-conformity—discrimination based on sexual orientation is not prohibited by Title…
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…
Statutory Non-Waiver Provision Does Not Prevent Severance of Unlawful Terms and Arbitration Enforcement
Where an arbitration provision includes substantive limitations on the relief otherwise available to a party under a federal statute, there are three possible judicial responses: sever the offending provisions and enforce the agreement; enforce the agreement and leave any invalidity questions to the arbitrator, as in PacifiCare Health Systems, Inc. v. Book, 538 U.S. 401…