The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has upheld the grant of service awards totaling nearly one-million dollars to eight lead plaintiffs in a class action against Visa, Inc. and Mastercard, Inc., while at the same time stating its view that such...
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Recognition of Money Judgment Against a Foreign Sovereign
In Villoldo v. Republic of Cuba, the Plaintiffs, two brothers, sought enforcement via the U.S. District Court in Colorado (“District Court”) under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (“FSIA”) of a multi-billion-dollar money judgment previously awarded by a Florida...
Is an inheritance considered in a divorce in Massachusetts?
Unlike many states, Massachusetts has not defined assets that would be considered “non-marital” or “separate” property. Therefore, there are several considerations that you need to discuss with your attorney when considering inherited assets: Contribution and source...
Credit Union Not Liable for Fraudulent Transactions Authorized by Account Holder
The United States District Court for the District of New Jersey has held that a credit union is not liable for transactions that were fraudulently initiated but then authorized by the account holder. The Court found that while the transactions may have been...
Massachusetts Zoning Act Empowers Abutters
Adopted in 1975, the Massachusetts Zoning Act (“Zoning Act”) provides a set of statewide standards that govern municipalities’ promulgation and enforcement of zoning regulations. Yet for homeowners looking to renovate, the Zoning Act can make it easier than one would...
HSBC Bank prevails: Massachusetts Federal Court tosses tort claims stemming from wire fraud transfer
Cases in which companies are hacked or otherwise duped into making wire transfers are on the rise. To recover their losses, companies have increasingly resorted to litigation against the banks that receive the allegedly improperly wired funds. Their efforts have...
U.S. District Court Denies Discovery Finding ICSID Tribunal Not Foreign or International Tribunal Under Section 1782
Following the United States Supreme Court decision in ZF Auto. US, Inc. v. Luxshare, Ltd. (“ZF Auto”), where the Supreme Court found that 28 U.S.C. § 1782 (“§ 1782”) did not apply to private international tribunals, the question has remained whether certain...
Employer Cannot Reform or Rescind Employment Contract in Which Employee Mistakenly Entitled to Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars Monthly
The importance of careful contract review and communication with counsel were recently highlighted in the case of Dahua Technology USA Inc. v. Feng Zhang, in which the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts denied an employer’s attempt to...
How do Courts Treat Unallocated Support in a Modification Action?
In Duval v. Duval (September 23, 2022), the Massachusetts Appeals Court vacated the Probate and Family Court’s decision in a modification action to consider Father’s unallocated support obligation as alimony only and remanded. The parties had entered into a separation...
Penalties for Violation of the BSA Reporting Requirements: On a Per-Form or Per-Account Basis?
The purpose of the Bank Secrecy Act (“BSA”) is, among other things, to require “certain reports or records where they have a high degree of usefulness in criminal, tax, or regulatory investigations or proceedings or in the conduct of intelligence or...
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