February 16

Legal History

By Karen Conti

Karen Conti is owner of ContiLaw LLC. She is a regular legal commentator on the local Fox affiliate, CNN and truTV. She appears every Sunday from 8 to 9 p.m. on WGN-AM 720 to discuss current legal events and to answer listeners’ questions.

Posted February 16, 2017 2:36 PM

1937DuPont Corp. patented nylon, developed by employee Wallace H Carothers. Nylon was intended to be a synthetic replacement for silk and was used as a silk substitute in many different products after silk became scarce during World War II.1987The trial of John Demjanjuk, accused of being “Ivan the Terrible,” began in Israel. Demjanjuk was a retired Ukrainian-American auto worker. After being identified by Holocaust survivors, he was deported to Israel to stand trial for war crimes committed while he was a …

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Courts split on overtime ‘gap time’ claims

There’s a 1-1 tie in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal on the validity of “overtime gap time claims” under the Fair Labor Standards Act.
By Steven P. Garmisa
Court mulls over timing for stock option damages

Gautam Shah persuaded a California jury that Skillz Inc. falsely claimed it had cause to terminate his employment in 2018 and then used this pretext to block him from exercising stock options worth more than $11.5 million when the company went public in 2020.
By Steven P. Garmisa
Further analysis ordered in case involving cash-out merger

In a case involving a cash-out merger that was governed by Delaware’s “entire fairness” standard, the Illinois Appellate Court instructed a trial judge to consider the equitable remedy of “rescissory damages” as an alternative to compensatory damages.
By Steven P. Garmisa
Does Constitution come into play in Oregon homelessness appeal?

Homelessness in many U.S. cities has become a major issue. In an Oregon city, the municipality addressed the issue by an ordinance that fined the homeless for using blankets, pillows or cardboard boxes for protection while sleeping within city limits. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last week in the matter.
By Daniel A. Cotter
Defendants attack assignment as champertous

When one of the plaintiffs in an antitrust case against turkey processors assigned its claim to a third party, the defendants argued the transfer was invalid as “champertous” under Illinois law. But U.S. District Judge Virginia M. Kendall of the Northern District decided “federal common law” should provide the answer.
By Steven P. Garmisa
Another judge rejects 7th Circuit case on standing

Seven weeks after a district judge in New York rejected the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal’s approach to standing for breach-of-contract claims under Article III of the U.S. Constitution, a judge in the District of Columbia added his thoughts on why Dinerstein v. Google, 73 F.4th 502 (7th Cir. 2023), is wrong.
By Steven P. Garmisa
Developments in med-mal law may signal change to health care

There is a great deal of attention paid to medical malpractice litigation and rightfully so because those cases are likely the most complex civil tort litigation with some of the highest stakes in terms of injury, emotion and damages.
By Patrick Eckler
Judge rejects ‘specific patient rule’ in case over false claims, kickbacks

Two of Allergan’s former sales representatives accused the pharmaceutical manufacturer of violating the False Claims Act and Anti-Kickback Statute by using a “speaker program” to give physicians illegal payments for prescribing two of its medications — Linzess and Viberzi — but the company insisted the complaint was defective because it didn’t “identify a specific patient to whom a doctor allegedly prescribed Linzess or Viberzi in exchange for a kickback.”
By Steven P. Garmisa