The plaintiffs and Major League Baseball yesterday exchanged briefs in anticipation of a January 18 trial before Judge Scheindlin in a case alleging it is anticompetitive for Major League Baseball to divide the market for broadcasting games into various territories exclusive to the local teams, while allowing the broadcast of out-of-market games only as part of a allegedly overpriced all-or-nothing packages.  (A companion case relating to National Hockey League games was recently settled.) Continue Reading Parties File Pretrial Briefs in Antitrust Challenge to Baseball’s “Territorial” Broadcast Structure

Yesterday, Judge Abrams granted Quinn Emanuel’s motion for summary judgment and dismissed overtime claims brought by a purported class of contract attorneys.  The plaintiff, hired by a third-party staffing firm that provided contract attorneys for Quinn Emanuel’s document review projects, argued that he was entitled to overtime under the Fair Labor Standards Act and New York’s Labor Law.  Judge Abrams’ decision turned on whether the plaintiff was “engaged in the practice of law,” which would exempt him from the provisions of the FLSA and Labor Law as a professional employee.  According to Judge Abrams, even if legal tasks were routine or constrained by guidelines they still required some legal judgment and thus constituted the practice of law.  She noted:

The history of law, Oliver Wendell Holmes observed, “is the history of the moral development of the race.”  But many practicing lawyers – especially junior attorneys at large law firms – know that their jobs too often have less to do with the development of the human race or the law than with tasks that are necessarily repetitive in nature, modest in intellectual scope, and banal in character.  Particularly in a litigation in which a good deal of money is at stake, attorneys generally must review thousands if not millions of documents and analyze them for relevance and privilege using their legal judgment.  Many of those documents must then be reviewed and analyzed again (and often again) by others higher on the case team’s chain of command.  Not all of it is law at its grandest but all of it is the practice of law.  [Plaintiff] was engaged in that practice.

Our previous coverage of the case is here.

This week, Judge Sweet granted the motion for class certification as part of the ongoing multi-district litigation over Facebook’s alleged negligent misstatements or omissions surrounding its 2012 IPO.  Central to the litigation are calls made by Facebook’s treasurer to underwriter analysts to revise revenue projections downward, and the extent that this information spread through the investment community prior to the IPO.  Judge Sweet certified a class of all persons who purchased Facebook stock during or traceable to the IPO on May 17, 2012, with two subclasses for institutional and individual/retail investors.

Continue Reading MDL Investor Class Certified in Facebook IPO Actions

In an opinion yesterday, Judge Rakoff denied a summary judgment motion brought by two SEC defendants who traded on a tip that IBM was about to acquire a company called SPSS.  The tip passed from a lawyer working on the deal (Dallas) to his friend (Martin), then to Martin’s roommate (Conradt) and, ultimately, to the two defendants.

The SEC ‘s theory was that Martin and Dallas had an understanding that the information would not be used for trading, and that Martin breached that duty by telling his roommate Conradt in exchange for various miscellaneous benefits from Conradt, such as his taking the lead on dealing with issues at their apartment.  The defendants acted with the required knowledge, according to the SEC, because they consciously avoided learning anything about the source of the tip.

Continue Reading Judge Rakoff : “Conscious Avoidance” of Source of Stock Tip Can Result in Liability, Even After Newman Decision

The NFL filed its reply brief in the DeflateGate appeal yesterday.  As we previously reported, Tom Brady’s opposition brief focused on the fact that the NFL’s written policies for players state that first-time equipment violations will result in fines, which, he argued, would give no notice that a suspension was possible.  The NFL’s reply brief counters that Tom Brady has already conceded the policy is inapplicable:  Continue Reading NFL DeflateGate Reply: Policy of “Fines” for Equipment Violations Is Not Applicable to Footballs and Doesn’t Foreclose Suspensions

The U.S. Attorney’s Office filed this week an asset forfeiture action against a Tyrannosaurus bataar skull.  The skull, found in the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and dating from the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago, was sold at an auction in New York in 2007 for $276,000.  The complaint alleges that the skull is cultural property stolen from Mongolia and seeks to return it, as Mongolian law prohibits the removal of cultural artifacts and U.S. law prohibits their importation.  According to the complaint, the buyer has agreed to surrender the skull so that it can be repatriated to Mongolia.

The case is pending before Judge Oetken.

In a decision yesterday, Judge Crotty denied a motion by a former People magazine editor, who claims that she was fired based on her race and that People magazine was only interested “in printing [articles] concerning . . . ‘White middle-class suburbia,’” to compel discovery concerning what stories People chose to publish.  He found the requests were “burdensome and disproportionate”: Continue Reading Judge Crotty: People Magazine Editor Alleging Race Discrimination Cannot Get Discovery About What Stories People Chose to Publish

Judge Sweet denied last week the City of New York’s request to unseal 850,000 criminal court records for putative class members in a civil rights class action against the City.  The complaint, originally filed in 2010, alleges that the City of New York and the NYPD violated the class members’ civil rights by requiring officers to meet minimum quotas of summonses issued regardless of whether a crime had occurred or probable cause existed.  The records were sealed pursuant to a privilege codified in New York’s Penal Law.  The City argued that the records should be unsealed so that defendants could identify potential class members and then seek discovery from them in order to challenge class membership.

Continue Reading Judge Sweet Won’t Unseal 850,000 Criminal Court Records in Summons Quota Class Action Against NYPD

Last week, Judge Schofield granted U.S. Airways’ motion to reinstate their claim for $70 million in damages ($210 million when trebled under antitrust laws) as part of a third amended complaint in an antitrust action over online booking fees.  Sabre, a global distribution system operator used by travel agents to book flights on multiple airlines, argued that U.S. Airways had already waived the claims in its second amended complaint in an attempt to secure a bench trial and that reinstatement was improper and would prejudice Sabre.  Judge Schofield rejected these arguments, noting that U.S. Airways’ revocation of its waiver did not change the claims at issue (only the damages) and thus amendment was still proper under Rules 15 and 16.

Continue Reading Judge Schofield Allows U.S. Airways to Restore Damages Claim in Antitrust Case Despite Previous Waiver

Last week, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation transferred 25 actions pending in three districts to Judge Gardephe as part of a MDL concerning Treasury securities.  According to the Order, the actions all allege that “over 20 defendant banks conspired to manipulate Treasury securities auctions overseen by Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as well as the market for derivative financial products.”  The JPML chose to consolidate the actions in the SDNY as most of them were originally filed there, and nearly all of the defendant banks maintain their U.S. headquarters in New York.  Of the 25 actions, 23 had been filed in the SDNY, one in the Northern District of Illinois, and one in the District of the Virgin Islands.