When you think of sanctions, your mind probably goes to Rule 11 of the Rules of Civil Procedure. But what about Rule 37(b)(2)? It says that:
if a party . . . fails to obey an order to provide or permit discovery, . . . a judge of the court in which the action is
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Maybe you’ve wondered whether a claim for legal malpractice can be assigned. Maybe you haven’t. But yesterday, the North Carolina Court of Appeals answered that question. In Revolutionary Concepts, Inc. v. Clements Walker PLLC, the Court held that "malpractice claims are not assignable in North Carolina." Op. at 10.
Why not? A cascade of
You’ve undoubtedly prevailed in a federal case — either at summary judgment or after a trial — and you have probably struggled with what you are entitled to recover as costs under 28 U.S.C. §1920. And recently, your client, being the victor, most likely has asked about the recovery of its costs associated with
If you were thinking that an arbitration agreement needs to be signed in order to get an order compelling arbitration, your world may have been turned on its ear by the Order from the Business Court last week in Morton v. Ivey, McClellan, Gatton & Talcott, LLP, 2013 NCBC 23..
There’s certainly a fair
The Court of Appeals in February 2011 ordered Judge Jolly to dissolve Mitchell, Brewer, Richardson, Adams, Burge & Boughman, a law firm organized as a member-managed professional limited liability company. The dissolution was ordered per N.C. Gen. Stat. §57C-6-02, which authorizes judicial dissolution when the managers of the LLC are deadlocked "in the management
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If you are in NC state court and want to take the deposition of an out-of-state non-party, the Order last week in Out of the Box Developers, LLC v. Logicbit Corp. carries a few lessons.
Serving A Subpoena. You can’t serve a subpoena on a non-party through their counsel unless they are authorized to
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When I last wrote about SCI North Carolina Funeral Services, LLC v. McEwen Ellington Funeral Services, Inc., Judge Murphy had entered a TRO against the Defendants for trademark infringement over their use of the McEwen name in their funeral home business. The case seemed cut and dried then, and it looked like that the Defendants had no defense to the infringement claim.
Last week, Judge Murphy entered a preliminary injunction in the same case in 2013 NCBC 11, this time over the Defendants’ vigorous defense. The second time around was a much closer call.
The case involves the McEwen name, which is the middle name of Defendant Carl Ellington. When the Defendants sold the funeral homes that they had operated under the McEwen name to the Plaintiffs, they included in the sale the rights to all "trademarks, tradenames (including all trade names under which [they] did business." McEwen was the last name of Carl J. McEwen, the founder of McEwen Funeral Services, Inc.
Several years after their sale, the Defendants opened a new, competing funeral home under the McEwen name and this trademark infringement lawsuit ensued.
There is little case law under the North Carolina Securities Act. But last week, in NNN Durham Office Portfolio 1, LLC v. Highwoods Realty Limited Partnership, 2013 NCBC 12, Judge Gale took several steps into that uncharted territory.
TIC Interests Are Securities
The first issue addressed in NNN was whether the "TIC interests" purchased
The Order Wednesday of last week in Patriot Performance Materials, Inc. v. Powell, 2013 NCBC 10 was appropriately timed for the day before Valentine’s Day.
Powell, the Defendant, had a 50% interest in several businesses with Henderson, one of the Plaintiffs. He alleged in a third party complaint that Henderson, who shared the other 50% interest
The case of Blythe v. Bell is like the gift that keeps on giving. It generated two significant opinions last year, and this week a third and a fourth. The July 2012 opinion was a major e-discovery decision, and the December 2012 opinion addressed an important issue about the assignment of LLC interests.
Today’s post