In two recent cases, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts has rejected attempts to throw out consumer protection lawsuits for failure to follow the strict mandates of the Chapter 93A demand letter requirement. Massachusetts’ Consumer Protection...
Business Litigation Blog
District Court Finds No Jurisdiction Over Claims Against Foreign Corporate Owner and Operator of Ship in Boston Harbor Accident
The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts recently dismissed claims against two foreign corporations which owned and operated a ship which damaged a pier in Boston Harbor in 2017, in American Home Assurance Company v. M/V One Helsinki f/k/a...
Use of Pre-Existing List of Numbers Does Not Qualify as Automatic Telephone Dialing System in Violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act
Relying on the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina has found that Bank of America, N.A.’s system used to place alleged debt collection calls does not qualify as...
First Circuit Court Of Appeals Upholds Fraud Convictions, Finding No Actual Or Implied Juror Bias
In U.S. v. Kuljko, the defendant, a “convicted fraudster who hornswoggled dozens of victims out of millions of dollars,” requested that the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit vacate the jury’s guilty verdict, in part due to the trial court’s failure to dismiss a...
COVID-19 Emergency Paid Sick Leave
Governor Baker recently signed legislation requiring employers to provide COVID-19 emergency paid sick leave to eligible employees who are unable to work for COVID-19-related reasons. Eligible employees will be entitled to up to 40 hours of paid leave, with a weekly...
District Court Holds That Plaintiff Failed to Prove She Experienced a Hostile Work Environment
In a recent Memorandum and Order issued by the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, the Court ruled on a summary judgment claim brought by the defendant in the case of Gunter v. Shapley & Stern, Inc. The defendant, a furniture and carpet...
Statute of Frauds No Bar to Claim for Breach of Oral Contract to Transfer Delivery Agreement
The United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts recently held that a promissory estoppel claim for assignment of a contract was not barred by the Statute of Frauds. The Court held that, where the complaint did not allege that the parties had any...
Business Litigation Section Holds That Director In Professional Corporation Owes Fiduciary Duty To Fellow Shareholders
In a fascinating decision, the Business Litigation Section of the Superior Court of Massachusetts recently held that a terminated doctor/shareholder could bring a breach of fiduciary duty action against the controlling director. The default rule in Massachusetts is...
Do Former Corporate Officers Hold the Attorney-Client Privilege Jointly with the Corporation?
Until late 2017, the question of whether a former officer of a Massachusetts corporation has access to attorney-client privileged communications made while that officer was employed at the corporation, had not been directly addressed by Massachusetts courts. Recently,...
Fiduciary Litigation Pilot Project Provides Streamlined and Specialized Venue for Probate Litigation
One of the first questions that any attorney and potential litigant must consider when deciding whether to file a lawsuit is where to bring the case. Since November 2017, potential probate litigants in three Massachusetts counties have a new venue to consider, the...
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