James H. Wilson III sued Hearos, LLC in Georgia state court, alleging he suffered permanent hearing loss at a shooting range because of Hearos’s faulty earplugs. Wilson v. Hearos, LLC, No. 23-12550 (11th Cir. Feb. 18, 2025). A non-party, Protective Industrial Products, Inc. (PIP), removed that suit to federal court, where it was dismissed as…
Category: Civil Procedure
Rule 9(b) Particularity Requirements in False Claims Act Cases May Be Satisfied by External Audit Findings
Section 3729(a)(1)(B) of the False Claims Act requires a plaintiff to allege with particularity the actual submission of a claim to the U.S. government. The Eleventh Circuit has now held that this requirement can be satisfied by alleging that the defendant’s external audit showed that at least some false claims were submitted, even where the…
In Toxic Tort Cases, Expert Evidence on General Causation Must Establish a Threshold Harmful Exposure Level
In a pair of toxic tort cases arising from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the Eleventh Circuit held that general causation expert evidence must establish a minimum level of exposure at which crude oil, its dispersants, or their associated chemicals are hazardous to human beings. In re Deepwater Horizon BELO Cases, 2024 WL 4522690 (11th…
Georgia’s Vouchment Statute Does Not Bind the Voucher
Doug Burchfield, a General Mills employee, was severely injured after a loaded railcar unexpectedly rolled down a railway sidetrack leading from a CSX line to a General Mills plant. Burchfield sued CSX and the company that owned the railcar, alleging that CSX negligently delivered the car to General Mills with a faulty handbrake, which caused…
“And All Means All”: Stipulation of Voluntary Dismissal Requires All Parties’ Signatures
To be effective, a stipulation of dismissal pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 41 must be signed by all parties who have appeared in an action, even if there are multiple defendants and fewer than all of them are being dismissed. City of Jacksonville v. Jacksonville Hospitality Holdings, L.P., 2023 WL 5944193 (11th Cir. Sept….
Rule 41(a) May Only Dismiss an Entire Action, Not a Single Count
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 41(a) outlines the procedure for voluntary dismissals of “an action” at the parties’ request. The Eleventh Circuit, in an opinion written by Judge Britt Grant, has again emphasized that “[a]ny attempt to use this rule to dismiss a single claim, or anything less than the entire action will be invalid.”…
Plaintiff Has Standing to Assert Agency-Based TILA Claim Against Home-Improvement Financing Company
A plaintiff had Article III standing to bring a Truth in Lending Act (“TILA”) claim against a home improvement financer, based on a theory that a heating and air conditioning contractor company acted as agent for the financer. Walters v. Fast AC, Ltd. Liab. Co., 60 F.4th 642 (11th Cir. 2023) Gary Walters, a 70-year-old…
CFPB’s “Egregious” Conduct Provides Roadmap for How Not to Defend a 30(b)(6) Deposition
The deposition of a party’s corporate representative under Rule 30(b)(6) often presents a tension between inquiry into the party’s knowledge of facts—which is fair game—and inquiry into the party’s legal positions—which can delve into protected attorney work-product. Lawyers representing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) in a case about an allegedly fraudulent debt-collection scheme provided…
Novel Data-Breach Claim Survives Motion to Dismiss Employee Class Action
The Eleventh Circuit revived a putative data-breach class action in Ramirez v. Paradies Shops, LLC, No. 22-12853, _ F.4th _ (11th Cir. June 5, 2023), which a district court had dismissed for failure to state a claim under Georgia law. The opinion reflects a trend of expanding privacy protection and has already been cited in…
Prior-Precedent Rule Dictates Result in Condemnation Action
In Sabal Trail Transmission, LLC v. 18.27 Acres of Land, 59 F.4th 1158 (11th Cir. 2023), the court applied its prior-precedent rule and held that state rather than federal law provides the measure of compensation to be paid to a landowner upon a private party’s exercise of federal eminent-domain power under the federal Natural Gas…